“Your choice is simple: join us and live in peace or pursue your present course and face obliteration. We shall be waiting for your answer. The decision rests with you.”
This is the ominous warning given to the people of the world by the first known visitor from another world. Important to realize is that he prefaces it in a way that lessen the ominous quality that is attached when taken out of context. Somewhat lessen it, at any rate. Here’s his story: his race has created a police force of pretty much omnipotent robots that have the power to destroy entire worlds who do not join with them in their universe of peaceful co-existence between all civilizations. He has arrived with his definitely menacing robot Gort to deliver an ultimatum: stop the madness or die.
“That’s the kind of man I would like to talk to.”
Klaatu’s experience with humans is not exactly what would call entirely satisfying. But Klaatu does find one earthling he considers worthy and expresses this admiration in his usual simple and gentle manner. Unfortunately for Klaatu, he is speaking of a man whom he has come to learn about by visiting him in the form of a gigantic statue of marble. The man is Abraham Lincoln and he’s nearly a century too late.
“I'm impatient with stupidity. My people have learned to live without it.”
Klaatu confesses that his civilization has not attained perfection, but surely they must be close. After all, what could be more perfect than a society not infested with stupid members? The world will likely never know.
“Gort! Klaatu barada nikto”
Without question, this is the most famous quote associated with the film. In fact, it is one of the most famous quotes in the entire canon of science fiction cinema, standing on a par with “Live long and prosper” and “May the force be with you.” Unlike those phrases, however, “Klaatu barada nikto” exists entirely within the sphere of its alien language. The meaning is never translated into English; it is merely passed along from Klaatu to another character as the only thing that can save mankind from the devastating power of the robot Gort should any harm befall him. And, indeed, when Klaatu is killed, the mysterious words do indeed preserve the future of the earth, for now.
