Klaatu (Keanu Reeves), an extraterrestrial visitor to planet
Earth, becomes the herald of upheaval on a global scale. As the world's
governments and scientists race to understand what is happening and how
to stop it, Dr. Helen Benson (Jennifer Connelly) and her stepson come to
understand the chilling ramifications behind Klaatu's statement that he is a "friend to the Earth."
When a UFO lands in Washington, D.C., bearing a message for
Earth's leaders, all of humanity stands still. Klaatu (Michael Rennie)
has come on behalf of alien life who have been watching Cold War-era
nuclear proliferation on Earth. But it is Klaatu's soft-spoken robot
Gort that presents a more immediate threat to
onlookers. A single mother (Patricia Neal) and her son teach the world
about peace and tolerance in this moral fable, ousting the tanks and
soldiers that greet the alien's arrival.
