It Came from Beneath the Sea Page #5

rolled down, hit this soft sand,

over she went.

The ignition's still turned on.

Hey, don't that beat it all?

Nobody ever noticed that.

Any reports since then of

whales or sea serpents?

Sea...

You mean she wasn't kidding?

She wasn't kidding.

LESLIE:
Pete.

What would you say made

those marks, Officer?

Why, the beach was covered with

those marks a couple days ago.

Commander Mathews to

Sheriff's Station. Over.

Sheriff's Station.

Go ahead, Commander. Over.

Relay this message to

the 12th Naval District.

Have them notify

Dr. John Carter.

You got that? Carter, that

he's wanted here at once.

This has top priority.

Over and out.

Where are they?

Oh, fishing.

Seems they can't get

enough fishing, them two.

How's their luck?

Not good at all.

Say, you mean to tell me the Navy sent

you down here in one of those jets

just so you could go fishing?

That's about it.

Hadn't you better

tell them I'm here?

Yeah. Yeah, sure.

Oh, by the way, where's that

imprint you were telling me about?

Down there behind those rocks.

Thanks.

Yeah, sure.

No, Pete.

JOHN:
Hey, folks!

It's John.

I'd better get my robe.

Hello, Leslie.

Hello, John.

Hi, John.

Howdy, ma'am.

Any sign of that whale?

Still kidding, huh, Commander?

This is no kidding.

Yeah, I know. Flying saucers?

No, Bill. Something that came from

the sea. And please be careful.

Look, Dr. Joyce, don't give me

that sea serpent business, huh?

Look, you just be careful

and keep a sharp lookout.

You understand?

Yeah.

(CHUCKLING) Sea serpent.

Saves a lot of argument.

Well, Doctor?

As Leslie probably told you,

it's the imprint of a giant

octopoda bidranchiata.

Did you get photographs?

Yes. I sent them to Admiral Norman.

I hope he can believe his eyes.

Something must have

convinced him

because he's setting up headquarters

in San Francisco right now.

Deputy tells me that fishing

is rather poor in these parts.

Haven't had a single bite

in the last 12 hours.

Every sign is positive.

It definitely has been here and

it probably hasn't gone away.

Maybe you can help me convince her

that she ought to beat it and

let the Navy take over this job.

Beat it? What does she say?

What's the difference

what she says?

Look, Pete, you don't see many

women in the seagoing Navy.

Are you kidding?

Oh, shore-side women, sure.

But there's a whole new breed

who feel they're just as smart

and just as courageous as men.

And they are.

They don't like to be overprotected,

they don't like to have their

initiative taken away from them.

A, you'd want me to miss the

opportunity to see this specimen,

one that may never come again.

B, you'd be making up

my mind for me.

And C, I not only don't

like being pushed around,

but you underestimate my

ability to help in a crisis.

My sympathies are

entirely on her side.

Didn't take me very long to

lose that argument, did it?

(SCREAMING)

Help! Help! Help! It's coming!

(SCREAMS)

NARRATOR:
News of that

incident on the Oregon coast

reached throughout the world.

By order of the Defense Department,

shipping took refuge in the harbors

and all beach areas were closed.

The coastal waters of

the Pacific were mined.

From Panama to the Arctic Circle,

the western coast of America made ready.

I've been asked what the Navy

is doing in this emergency.

Inasmuch as operational headquarters

have been set up

here in San Francisco,

we will use this area

as an example.

Offshore minefields, together with

radar and sonar warning devices

set up on Golden Gate Bridge

should be more than adequate

to keep the monster

out of the Bay Area.

A submarine net has been hung

from Golden Gate Bridge itself,

completely blocking the

only entrance from the sea.

Now, this is primarily

a warning device,

but it's also capable of taking a charge

of thousands of volts of electricity,

which we've been advised,

will repel any form of marine

life, if it doesn't kill it.

Now, is there anything

I haven't touched on?

You say that the monster could

attack us in coastal waters,

and that it's dangerous to human life.

What's being done to attack it?

Professor Joyce will tell you.

Our first problem, of course,

is to locate the monster again.

We're trying to do that now.

Operations to John Carter.

Have you seen anything yet?

Over.

Nothing. It's slow out here. Over.

Professor Carter, this is Lieutenant Adams.

Where are you? Over.

Patrolling coastal waters. Over.

What if you don't find anything? Over.

We'll find something.

We've baited the surface

out here with dead shark.

The beast is bound

to come up to eat.

We've got several hundred

planes watching for it in relay.

We'll find it, all right. Over.

ADAMS:
What'll you do when that

happens? Bomb it from the air? Over.

No, we've decided not to.

We have good reason to believe

that its destruction must be

complete and instantaneous.

We risk complete failure with a

near miss or if we merely wound it.

The monster has only one

vulnerable spot, one fatal target,

its brain.

We're going to try to take

advantage of that in a certain way.

Will you put Professor Joyce back on? Over.

Go ahead, John Carter. Over.

Leslie, take the newsmen down

to the San Francisco Navy Yard

and show them the weapon.

That's all for now. Stand by,

Operations. Over and out.

Looks like any other torpedo,

doesn't it? But it's not.

You see, this has no propeller.

It's jet-propelled.

The Navy doesn't quite know

what to make of it.

Perhaps you'll explain to the

boys where you got the idea.

I spent all day yesterday

at the Seamen's Institute

talking to retired whaling men.

This is the result.

A warhead patterned after a

harpoon is encased in the nose.

Instead of exploding on contact,

it's designed to penetrate

and remain fixed in the monster's flesh.

By means of spreading barbs.

And what's going to

destroy the thing?

The explosive is sufficient to do that.

The difference is that, in this case,

we set it off electronically

once we're certain

it's dead on its target.

Attention on deck!

Another thing, Captain. The men want

to know if they can go on liberty.

I know how bright Market

Street looks from here,

but we're standing by for orders.

Aye, aye, sir.

Nobody leaves the yard.

Carry on!

OFFICER:
Attention on deck!

I see they picked an atom sub

to go out and fight this thing.

Why is that, Commander?

Could be because of the new

electronic equipment or her speed.

Was she ordered back here

from Hawaii just for that?

That's right.

You think it's as bad

as that, do you?

I think we're lucky she's here.

Very lucky.

We have records of a monster like this one

that appeared in the 13th century.

It ravaged the coastal towns

of Denmark and Holland.

Of course, they didn't have

our modern weapons.

It was in those waters

for over 30 years.

Here's another piece of evidence.

A monster was disturbed by volcanic

eruptions on the floor of the ocean.

It happened in the same year

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