Jeanskynebu the audience applauded

Listonixio Fresh and Exciting

SpunkySelfTwitter It’s an especially fun movie from a director and cast who are clearly having a good time allowing themselves to let loose.

Hadrina The movie's neither hopeful in contrived ways, nor hopeless in different contrived ways. Somehow it manages to be wonderful

ffs1942 Haven't seen this movie in half a century, but would love to see it again. I was just at the National Atomic Testing Museum in Las Vegas. I learned of a Project Pluto in the late 50's, early 60's. Project Pluto behaved much like "The Lost Missile". This was aproposed cruise missile that would have flown at mach 3 at 1000 ft,dropping lots of nuclear weapons and destroying everything it passed over with its terrific sonic boom and the radiation from its atomic ramjet. After dropping its bombs, it could continue cruising over enemy territory indefinitely, irradiating and smashing everything. Fascinating! LOOK IT UP!

user_4574 The Lost Missile relies on stock footage (you see the same B-66 take off at least 3 times in the "maximum defense" montage) and EXTREMELY limited animation/rotoscoping, but if you can get past that, the story is surprisingly good right up until the "this is the MacGuffin that will save us, so we'll ship it without a proper military escort" plot device near the end (the same stupidity as seen in the War of the Worlds).Oddly, the science behind the story isn't all that flaky. By its nature, a starship is a de facto weapon of mass destruction. If it were knocked into an exceptionally low orbit (as happens in the first five minutes), whatever protects the ship from interstellar gas, dust, and radiation (assume it's a whopping STRONG magnetic field) would raise holy ned with the atmosphere as it plows through — the killer heat from the missile isn't simply the heat of reentry, it's a byproduct of the stardrive. We learn very little about The Lost Missile (mostly just the incredible destruction its unplanned ball-of-twine orbit would do). Lee Gordon (Producer) didn't even pay for a model of the missile; instead, Lester Wm. Berke (Director) used and reused and re-reused (etc., etc.) the same pitifully few drawings of the interloper (in order of frequency: one shot from the side passing left-to-right, one shot 30° off face-on, one shot from above — used in conjunction with the most destructive wake you will probably ever see done for $100 or less).Some striking features: the LACK of a monster — The Lost Missile is deadly beyond belief (unless it's stopped, it will kill everybody on Earth, but it wasn't intentional); the heavy-handed, but necessary actions of the Civil Defense wardens; the way the secretaries bypass military restrictions via the old girl's network; the relentless music that conveys the unstoppable nature of the threat; and the "happy" ending (SPOILER: we survive) that isn't happy — it shows the cold equations of human sacrifice.I would have LOVED to have seen Mystery Science Theater 3000's take on The Lost Missile.

vfrickey I remember watching "Lost Missile" (actually throwing a fit until my brother and several cousins at whose home I was an overnight guest agreed to watch it with me - I was, from time to time, the Eric Cartman of the 1960s - sorry, guys) and being somewhat embarrassed when the sustained wave of million-degree heat emerged as a plot device - even as a second-grader I knew that a mere missile just couldn't carry the energy around for that much heat or devastation over more than the duration and limited radius of a nuclear detonation. My inflicting that turkey on loving relatives was a self-punishing crime.The film's production values were very good. The acting isn't bad (apart from the Shatnerism of the actor who played a governor's aide that someone else here mentioned).But the idea of a missile Easy-Baking the surface of the Earth by means of the heat of its exhaust... no.How'd the people at "Mystery Science Theater 3000" miss "The Lost Missile," anyway? It's a great classic of unintentional comedy - watch it if you want something to drink beer to some weekend.

bdl7431 The Lost Missile was one of those movies I used to see on Saturday afternoon TV as a kid - it used to scare the heck out of me! SPOILER - For some reason, a missile that flies at 4000 miles an hour appears from outer space over the (then) Soviet Union - they fire an interceptor missile at it, which knocks it into the atmosphere. The missile leaves a million degree heat trail which vaporizes everything in its path. The movie is primarily concerned with knocking it down.The acting is somewhat melodramatic at points The story, typical for its time, has (for us nowadays) cheesy special effects - the missile looks like a drawing which to someone has added a flashing light bulb for a tail. The movie uses a lot of stock Defense footage - we see F-89 Scorpions, which carried a large number of unguided missiles in two wing tip pods, firing at the rocket, as well as F-86's, F-100's, F-94, B-52, B-36 - you name it! For anyone who is interested in vintage jet fighters and bombers, this is priceless! One interesting note - if you're so inclined, look up Project Pluto sometime. This was a USAF project to develop a nuclear powered cruise missile that would fly at Mach 3 at treetop level - slightly over 2100 mph. There were those who thought that the radiation from the engine would poison vast areas of real estate. VERY similar to the movie, which came out a year later.