The Day the Earth Stood Still is arguably director Robert Wise's first masterpiece in a career that had quite a few (The Sound of Music and West Side Story, to name a few). It tells the story of an alien named Klaatu and his eight-foot robot named Gort who lands on Earth and tells its inhabitants that they must live peacefully or be totally annihilated (Klaatu sums the issue up, saying: "Your choice is simple: join us and live in peace, or pursue your present course and face obliteration. We will be waiting for your answer.") The aliens fear that the people of Earth are not only threats to themselves but to the other species that inhabit the galaxy. The governments of the world must decide what to do.
Upon release, The Day the Earth Stood Still received critical acclaim. On movie review aggregator Rotten Tomatoes.com, it has a critics approval rating of 94% and an audience approval rating of 87%. Reads that sites critics consensus: "Socially minded yet entertaining, The Day the Earth Stood Still imparts its moral of peace and understanding without didacticism." Against a budget of merely $995,000, the film made $1.85 million in U.S. Theatrical Rentals. In 1995, it was selected by the United States Film Registry for preservation in its vaunted archives. The film was later remade in 2008 by Scott Derickson. It retained the same title but received very poor reviews (it has a critics rating of approximately 20% on Rotten Tomatoes) and made over $233 million at the box office against a budget of $80 million.
