World Without End (1956)

The performances transcend the film's tropes, grounding it in characters that feel more complete than this subgenre often produces.

This is a coming of age storyline that you've seen in one form or another for decades. It takes a truly unique voice to make yet another one worth watching.

There is, somehow, an interesting story here, as well as some good acting. There are also some good scenes

Close shines in drama with strong language, adult themes.

The strength of this movie lies with the story. In the world of story-telling, I give this a ten easily. It fully captures the imagination of the viewer and has some really good points to explore and contemplate on. Space is always an interesting subject and if you add time-travel to it anything goes thus this movie. Who doesn't wonder about what things would be like hundreds of years from now? It is impossible to nail this premise down so we rely on any scenario to get us started. This story does that. These men manage to make it to Mars, map it and start back for home. From there, they encounter the unknown and because they survived it we have a story to be told. Another good thing about this movie is the ending which is left open for the viewer to imagine that anything is possible and it leaves you on that note. This movie also draws on the famous and most necessary theme of a "second chance" something every human being must have and craves. Hindsight sets this up nicely as we all discover what does not work and then we immediately want another opportunity to explore again. This is also known as "another bite of the apple" in our vernacular. Without that opportunity to begin again, our ending is guaranteed. The bible refers to it as "insight" and correctly states without it we will perish. Great movie to eat with while watching with a tasty drink and a snack to follow. If this movie was to be brought current and redone it would be on par with Star Trek or Star Wars as we start to explore the planet Earth all-over again especially after its near demise. Include the mutations of all life, survivor lessons and success stories too. The premise remains open-ended which gives it legs. Enjoy

Gene Roddenberry must have seen this episode and loved it. This is nothing more than a Star Trek episode, 10 years early. The special effects look like 1966, rather than 1956 which makes me more than a little disappointed in the original series of Star Trek. When I see and hear the same noise when automatic doors slide open, I wonder if the original series was as groundbreaking as I thought it was when I was a kid. Anyway, of you loves science fiction B films and the original series of Star Trek, check this one out. If not, take a pass. I watched it only because I had nothing better to do...

It is not surprising to see how much mankind's (and woman-kind's) knowledge has advanced over the last 60 years but when you watch this movie you will be struck by the blunders that the writers of this mediocre sci-fi movie made. Several examples include things that were known at the time by almost anyone who had taken a high school biology course: These include spiders on the earth of the future who were the size of dogs, which is impossible given the oxygen rate in the atmosphere and the level of planetary gravity on earth which limits the size of spiders all over the world. Another thing is when the space travelers encounter a spider they worry about it "stinging" them when in fact spiders only bite and none have stings. It is like this throughout the movie which makes you wonder who the technical advisers were and what they were smoking. StocktonRob

***SPOILERS*** Top of the line Allied Artists motion picture in both Technicolor and Wide Screen, reserved for the biggest blockbusters of major films studios back in the 1950's, has a quartet of US astronauts end up getting caught in a time warp. This cause their space craft accelerate beyond the speed of light that takes them form the year 1957 to 2508 in a matter of seconds on their maiden flight to Mars as the first men in outer space! Landing on this mysterious and forbidden planet the boys from space John Borden, Hugh Marlow, Dr. Galbarithe,Nelson Leigh, Herbert Ellis, Rod Taylor, & Hank Jaffe, Chris Dark, are at first in the dark to where they are. It's after being attacked by giant spiders as well as mutant and for the most part one eyed cave men that they get the picture, in escaping into an underground cave complex, that the place or planet their on is the good old earth itself!Taken in by the few humans still left on the planet the fly or space boys learn that a nuclear war had broken out in the 22th century and destroyed almost the entire human race. As for the surviving humans lead by the dilapidated and undernourished looking Timmak, Everett Glass, who've over the years had lost their nerve or willingness to fight the mutants and are now satisfied to live out their entire lives underground without as much as even seeing the light of day! It's when the astronauts get a look at the women in the cave who all look like their in their early 20's who just stepped out of a 1950's girlie magazine that they changed their minds about coming back to 20th century earth if that's at all possible. With all the shapely women flocking to the astronauts it's Mories, Booth Colman, one of the wimpy men in the cave , who for some reason all wear shower caps, who plans to discredit the time travelers to his leader Timmak. Mories does this by murdering one of of his fellow futuristic humans James, William Vadder, and then blaming his death on the innocent astronauts.Astronaut John Boden and his men have a tough time proving their innocence but it's young Deena, Lisa Montell, who saw Morise murder James who rats him out to her leader Timmak who was ready to thrown the time traveler out in the wild and at the mercy of the mutant cavemen. This has Morise now exposed as James' murderer run for his life outside the safety of the cave complex only to get caught and brutally beaten to death by the mutant one eye cave-men who were waiting for him outside! By then Borden & Co. finally convinced Timmak and the some 2,000 humans cave dwellers that he's in charge of to finally get their act together, by making and taking up arms, and fight off the mutants before they all end up becoming extinct! In that by them and their offspring's by not getting enough sunlight or vitamin "D" the cave complex populations birth rate has just about dropped to zero!Even though the flight crew were supposed to be future astronauts they wore 10 year old WWII style surplus US Army Air Force bomber and flight jackets not the air tight silvery and robot like astronaut outfits we became used to seeing in the many space flight, by both the US & USSR, over the years since the film was released. There's also Aussie actor Rod Taylor who some four years later would again travel into the future in the movie "The Time Machine" desperately trying to hide his very pronounced Australian accent, and sound American, but being totally unable to do it!