Parents guide

None. However, two characters discuss a previous encounter, i.e. a midnight swim in a river. This episode allegedly took place entirely off-camera and in the narrative's past. The recollections of this incident are highly ambiguous. No viewer can be absolutely sure that these two characters actually did more than talk about swimming in a river. This is entirely within the prescriptions of the Motion Picture Production Code, which was still in effect when this film was made and released.

The alien ship's officers and crew, and the leading man and lady while they are aboard the alien vessel and on the alien world, wear loose-fitting jump suits showing no flesh other than the face and hands. These are clearly intended to allow freedom of movement only. (In fact, they strongly resemble the unisex jump suits that Mao Tse-tung encouraged his people to wear after taking power in what he named the People's Republic of China.)

One woman wears a dress revealing her shoulders and minor cleavage. In the next scene she is wearing a shirt revealing cleavage. Other than that, the dresses come down either to the ankle or halfway below the knee and don't reveal cleavage. The men wear business suits that reveal no flesh beyond the face and hands. (The leading man does loosen his necktie in a brief scene. This happens during a hazardous passage that produces intense, indeed oppressive, heat that the ship's air-conditioning system cannot handle. But the setting is *not* intimate, nor intended to be.)

The "gore," such as it is, is limited to the following:

One character is left lying on a floor, bleeding from facial wounds and half buried in rubble.

Two Mutants (actually, one actor playing two parts in succession) threaten non-Mutant characters. These Mutants have oversized, exposed, and convoluted brains, apparent compound eyes, misshapen mouths, and claw-like pincers for hands and feet. One Mutant is instantly killed and buried under a pile of rubble when a meteoritic bomb strikes and partially levels the building he is in.

The other Mutant is bleeding, and another character says so. This second Mutant gives a character a serious abdominal wound, but the camera understates this. (The wounded man says that his wounds are fatal, but he might be speaking metaphorically or psychologically in that context.) To stop the attack, the leading man strikes the Mutant in his exposed brain with a blunt instrument four times. This causes the Mutant to lose consciousness but does not draw obvious blood or bodily fluids.

This same Mutant chases a woman across a ship's deck, briefly catches her and lifts her off the deck, but then loses his grip and falls, too weak to stand. He then disintegrates into thin air, leaving a thin deposit of apparent ash.

The hero and anti-hero get into a fight on the alien planet. The hero lands two blows, a left uppercut and a right cross, causing the anti-hero to fall unconscious. This character later wakes up, and the hero then threatens him with a rock to warn him not to resume battle. But the two men settle their differences non-violently when pressed by circumstance.

The leading man and lady witness two characters killed outright by directed-energy weapons fire. In addition, a house blows up (shown at a distance), and the leading man later protests the "mass murder" of the people inside it.

The anti-hero twice demonstrates the destructive capacity of the device he uses to communicate at long distances with the hero. These demonstrations produce obvious damage but no physical injury to any character.

The only other violent scenes are obvious allusions to war on an interplanetary scale, and depictions of bombardment and massive urban war damage to a futuristic city. This bombardment and damage continues, and indeed accelerates, during the action. In fact the bombardment rises to a climax as it causes a planet to transform into a star, with obviously fatal implications for anyone remaining alive on that planet. However, on screen, these scenes do not even rise to the level of depictions of artillery or aerial bombardment in typical war films of the period. (And by modern standards, these depictions seem tame.)

None spoken. The leading character comes close to swearing exactly once: "So help me..." He does not complete that phrase. That also is in accord with the Hays Code.

The alien anti-hero serves a formal dinner to the leading characters and several extras. The beverage served at this dinner might or might not be wine. This bears no mention in the dialog, and no one gets drunk at table. Nor does any character speak of imbibing beer, whiskey, or any other type of intoxicating liquor.

One supporting character briefly smokes a cigarette inside a house, that is actually a high-end dormitory/office building and not a family residence of any kind.

No children appear in this film; therefore no adult character drinks or smokes in front of a child.

Not a very frightening movie, nor intended to be. The Mutants may scare younger children, however, from their appearance alone. Any child having an inordinate fear of insects or similar arthropods should be cautioned in advance to watch out for these Mutants.