Plot
Asteroid Flora, 6 million tons of rock, is on a direct collision course with the Earth. The only man capable of saving us is the gallant, perfectly coiffed, but retired commander Jack Rankin, who is summarily called back to active duty and sent to orbiting space station “Gamma 3” where a special mission is being coordinated to plant explosive charges on the asteroid’s surface to pulverize it before it impacts our planet.
Back on the station, Jack “gets reacquainted” with two old friends and wastes no time clashing with them over matters both professional and personal. The base is run by Vince Elliott, his former best friend, whom he accuses of being an ineffective leader. Then there’s Dr. Lisa Benson, with whom he had a stormy romantic relationship (and who’s now about to marry Elliott, of course).
Despite a string of unexpected complications, the asteroid operation is a success and the threat is averted. Unfortunately, the returning astronauts don’t realize they inadvertently came into contact with a mysterious extraterrestrial sludge and brought it back to the station with them.
This sludge feeds on energy, rapidly growing and mutating into huge, one-eyed, tentacled monsters which prove to be as bellicose as they are ugly.
Since each drop of the creature’s spilled blood produces a brand-new creature, “Gamma 3” quickly finds itself completely inundated by scores of disgusting monsters. Commander Rankin, we need you back!
These cells duplicate faster than anything known to man.
Critique
5Second-rate sci-fi – this bizarre Japan-US co-production is helmed by an esteemed director from the Land of the Rising Sun and features an embalmed cast dominated by the stone-faced Horton in the role of an upstanding, decisive leader accustomed to asserting his authority in the name of an exaggerated pragmatism (“We’ve gotta make it […] it’s as simple as that“).
Standing on its own, the core story might even be worthy of interest. A sparkling, throbbing, gelatinous entity that undergoes an aberrant process of cellular division when exposed to electrical energy isn’t necessarily a bad idea. Unfortunately, though, the execution leaves a lot to be desired, and an air of listlessness and neglect weighs over the entire film, and the final product lazily relies on the tritest stereotypes of the genre.
Looking at the plot, Fukasaku’s film consists of two distinct parts: The first half serves up various “Earth in peril” clichés. Then, following the introduction of the slimy alien, the second half of the film verges into bio-horror sci-fi territory. Too bad that Akira Watanabe and Yukio Manoda’s creatures – utterly ridiculous, tentacled mega-cucumbers – are a heaping dose of Japanese weirdness that’s not a good fit for the basically sensible and serious western conception of sci-fi on which the film is constructed.
A washout on the science front (flames blazing without oxygen, sounds echoing in a vacuum, randomly fluctuating gravity), “The Green Slime” has nevertheless earned plenty of admirers among fans of that style of pulp sci-fi born in the sixties, characterized by bright colors, “mod” Pop-art sets packed with miniature models, and two-dimensional characters focused on battling incredible monsters.
Despite all that, it’s still potentially entertaining, at least until the actors open their mouths.
More Info
Quotes
- GAMMA III INFESTED BY CREATURES ORIGIN UNKNOWN NOW ISOLATED BUT CANNOT GUARANTEE FUTURE SECURITY TOTAL QUARANTINE IMPOSED.
- These cells duplicate faster than anything known to man. Their growth rate is incredible. In fact, it's frightening.
- The blood cells of these creatures is like a seed. It can spawn new creatures from its own blood.
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