Beyond the Time Barrier

In 1960, US Air Force test pilot Major William Ellison ( Robert Clarke ) was tasked with completing the first test flight on an ultra-modern X80 aircraft, which reaches speeds of 5,000 miles per hour and rises to a height of more than 100 miles above the surface of the Earth, reaching the level of suborbital space flight. The flight initially goes smoothly, and both Allison and his commander, Colonel Martin (Ken Knox), are pleased to note that the X80 reached a speed of 6,000 miles per hour. Climbing to a space height, Allison does not notice how the X80 aircraft overcomes the time barrier. Allison loses touch with the air base, but nevertheless returns and normally lands, surprisingly finding that the base is empty and in an abandoned state. Allison gets out of the plane and examines the empty, dilapidated buildings of the air base, after which she sees that the nearby city has also become dead, and next to it stands a strange luminous obelisk surrounded by mysterious futuristic structures.

Allison heads for the obelisk, unaware that he is being watched by people inside. Approaching the building, Allison gets hit by an invisible beam and loses consciousness. Soon he comes to his senses and discovers that he is placed in a glass pipe located in one of the rooms of the huge underground Citadel. Allison introduces herself and asks for his release and an explanation of where he is. Instead of an answer, the Captain (Boyd Morgan) sends him through the premises of the citadel to an elderly man whom he calls Suprim, the supreme ruler of the Citadel ( Vladimir Sokoloff ). Suprim introduces Ellison to his granddaughter, the young beauty Trirene ( Darlene Tompkins ) and explains that she is deaf and dumb, like all the people living here, except for him and the Captain. At the same time, Trirena developed extrasensory abilities, and she can read other people's thoughts. The captain begins interrogating Ellison, trying to find out his identity and purpose of the visit, suggesting that he is a spy of some hostile force. Not believing Ellison’s claims that he is a U.S. Air Force test pilot, the Captain throws him into a prison cell where a group of underdeveloped, aggressive, bald humanoid mutants are kept, one of which attacks Ellison, but the American pilot easily copes with it. The captain reports to Suprim that he believes Allison is an enemy spy, but Trirene makes it clear that Allison told them the truth. Suprim decides to free Ellison, and noting that Trirene showed interest in him, including as an attractive man, allows her to give him a tour of the Citadel. During the tour, Allison asks Triren to explain to him what is happening around. Trirena shows Allison several photographs of past life on Earth, as well as photographs of her relatives, making it clear that the Great Plague forced people to move underground. After studying photographs and newspaper clippings, Ellison asks Trihren to arrange a meeting with the scientist Karl Kruse, who is in the Citadel in the position of a prisoner, but at the same time runs a research laboratory. Trier in a high-speed elevator rises the spot with Ellison to a large laboratory where an American pilot meets Cruz (Stephen Beckassi) and his colleagues - Dr. Bourman (John van Drilin) ​​and a beautiful woman, Major Markova (Arianna Ulmer), who also arrived from another time . Cruz is very interested in Ellison’s words that his flight took place in 1960, but Ellison still can’t understand anything. When Markova notices that Trirene has a personal interest in Allison, an embarrassed girl runs out of the laboratory.

Cruz and Bourman warn Ellison that the Captain is ruthless, and having blocked the laboratory tracking equipment for a while, they explain to Ellison that the year 2024 is now on Earth. Further, Kruse tells that in 1971 the Earth was swept by a terrible epidemic brought from outer space. When asked by Ellison if a nuclear war was the cause of the epidemic, Bourman explains that there was no nuclear war. However, after numerous tests of nuclear weapons in various parts of the planet, the stratosphere was significantly damaged, which deprived the Earth of protection from cosmic radiation. As a result, harmful cosmic rays began to penetrate the surface of the planet, which gradually but inevitably began to turn people into deaf, sterile mutants. Bourman further says that by that time people had already created technologies that allowed them to make space flights, and by 1973 the entire healthy part of the population was evacuated to other planets, and those who were affected by the disease moved to the underground Citadel. Those who refused to move under the Earth were left on the surface of the planet, and after a while turned into mutants, whom Allison faced in a prison cell. Although those who live underground managed to suspend the effects of the disease, nevertheless, all of them, except Trirena, are sterile and doomed to extinction. Kruse explains that all three scientists, like Allison, at one time accidentally overcame the time barrier when conducting tests of interplanetary spacecraft, but this happened in the early 1970s. After Ellison’s story about what happened to him, scientists were very interested in the fact that his plane was in full working condition at the air base. The conversation is interrupted by the incoming Captain, who demands to inform him of what the scientists spoke with Ellison. Scientists evade the answer, and Markova notices that he should do well with Ellison, as, apparently, Trirena chose him for herself. The captain admits that all the people in the Citadel are ill, but asks Ellison not to cause unhappiness to Trihren, which is their only hope of procreation. Allison finds Trirena and confesses to her that he is not indifferent to her. Returning to his room, Allison encounters Markova, who tells him that he must return in due time to prevent the occurrence of the plague. Meanwhile, in the laboratory, scientists are deciding how to replicate the effect of overcoming the time barrier, which would allow Allison to return to his time. Kruse says there is a network of underground tunnels through which you can go from the Citadel to the air base, but only Suprim and Captain have access to the maps. Trirena quickly conveys the necessary information to Allison, but becomes desperate when she learns that he intends to fly away and leave her. Meanwhile, the Captain reports to Suprim that the scientists are preparing the escape of Ellison, and asks if he can be persuaded to stay with Trirene. The captain leads Ellison to Suprim, accusing him of planning to destroy them, but Suprim in turn begs the pilot to stay with Trirena. Meanwhile, Markov kills the guard and releases the mutants, hoping to use the mess to allow Allison to escape and prepare his flight.

When Ellison insists on taking Trirene with him, Markova says this is not possible. She states that she is going to fly with him and return to 1973, where her knowledge of the future will give her enormous power. Allison is shocked by Markova’s plans, and Kruse, hearing her words, kills her. Cruz and Bourman are heading with Ellison in search of the Trirenes. When they find the girl, Bourman suddenly hits Cruz, as a result of which he loses consciousness. Bourman explains that Kruse wanted to fly on a plane instead of Ellison, but Trirene makes Ellison understand that Bourman is deceiving him, and Ellison pounces on him. In the course of the brawl that began, Trirene dies from a stray bullet. Having dealt with Bourman, Ellison transfers the body of Trirene to Suprim and swears to him that he will return in due time and save them from there. Suprim hands Ellison the Trirenes ring as a sign of trust and guides him through the tunnel. Ellison gets on his plane, and, using the calculations of scientists, takes off and repeats in order to overcome the time barrier, returning to his air base in 1960. Colonel Martin and the officers at the base are surprised to see that Allison has turned into a deep old man, and listen to his story. After checking his information, they find out that Kruse, Bourman and Markova really exist, and are currently students in those areas that Allison named. After this, Martin invites government representatives who conclude that they need to make very important decisions regarding the common future of humanity.

Actor Robert Clark was one of the most sought-after sci-fi movie actors throughout the 1950s , playing in films such as Alien from Planet X (1951), Captives (1952), and The Incredibly Petrified World (1957) ), “ Amazing Beast ” (1957) and “The Disgusting Demon from the Sun ” (1959). In the last film, he was also a screenwriter, director and producer ^[3] . In 1959, Clark decided to act as a producer and lead actor in a science fiction film about time travel.

Clark invited Edgar G. Ulmer to the post of director, with whom he had experience working together on the film “An Alien from Planet X ”. By 1960, Ulmer had a small cult status thanks to the production of the horror film " Black Cat " (1934) and the film noir " Detour " (1944). However, for the most part, Ulmer's work remained underestimated and often deserved more recognition from critics. He made several category B genre films , including Alien from Planet X (1951), Daughter of Dr. Jekyll (1957), and Atlantis (1961) ^[2] . Simultaneously with this film and “in the same scenery, Ulmer made another cheap film about the invisible man“ A striking transparent man ”(1960), and as they said, both films were made together for a total period of two weeks” ^[2] . Ulmer Shirley’s wife as a script editor and their daughter Arianna, who played the role of Major Markova, participated in the film.

Since Clark received funding from Texas , his sponsors insisted that filming be carried out in this state ^[4] . Ulmer conducted the main shootings on the territory of the Fair Park entertainment and educational complex in Dallas , built in 1936 for the World Exhibition dedicated to the 100th anniversary of the state of Texas becoming independent from Mexico , using some of the futuristic objects that remained after the exhibition ^[2] . Clark also agreed with the US Air Force and the Texas National Air Guard to conduct surveys at the Carswell Air Force Base in Fort Worth and the then abandoned Air Force Base of the Marine Corps Eagle Mountain Lake ^[5] , as well as for shooting test fighter flights F-102 .

The film's artist Ernst Fegt designed a triangular motif to create the futuristic scenery of the Citadel, which were placed in one of the empty exhibition halls of Fair Park. “The buildings of the future are built of triangular-shaped blocks and holes, which may have been created under the influence of Buckminster Fuller 's geodesic domes ” ^[1] . Sheyb emphasizes that the scene in the dungeon with the mutants is stylized and expressionist in nature - the camera is full of energetic, sharp, sharp-angled lattice structures casting sharp shadows ... as if it was taken from Metropolis (1927) " ^[2] .

Grost points out that before the release of the science fiction television series Star Trek in 1966, “relatively few films showed the Earth of a separated future, or some other planet with an advanced civilization. All these films have become cultic to one degree or another, among them Aelita (1924) Yakov Protazanova , Metropolis (1927) Fritz Lang , Just Imagine (1930) David Butler, The Phantom Empire (1935) Otto Brower and B. Reeves Ison, “The Face of the Future ” (1936) by William Cameron Menzies, “ This Island of the Earth ” (1955) by Joseph Newman and “The Forgotten Planet ” (1956) by Fred Wilcox ” ^[1] . Sribh notes that “the theme of the pilot / astronaut who is transported into the future, where he is forced to protect surviving genetically clean people from hordes of mutants among the ruins of civilization, was a stable theme for science fiction films of the category In the previous decade such as“ Prisoners “(1952), A world without end “(1956) and later“ Travelers in time “(1964)” ^[2] . Grost emphasizes that this film has the most significant resemblance to the science-fiction film "A World Without End " (1956) by Edward Burns . “In particular, the action of both films takes place on Earth, where people are trying to overcome the consequences of a disaster (in“ World Without End ”is a nuclear war), in both films people from the 20th century are present as guests, and in both films futuristic buildings with unusual geometric architecture ” ^[1] .

Film critic Dennis Schwartz called the picture “a cheap film” with “cardboard scenery, a flat acting and a primitive story” ^[6] . Film critic Richard Sheyb called the film "mostly boilerplate" ^[2] . As the reasons that did not allow Ulmer to make the film artistically stronger, critics call the lack of adequate funding and too short a time for filming. So, Sheyb notes: “It is clear that Ulmer works within the framework of a too tight schedule, which does not allow him to fully demonstrate his visual taste, although a certain fantasy is noticeable” ^[2] . Hal Erickson notes that the film "makes serious efforts to succeed, but, in the end, is defeated due to the almost zero budget" ^[7] .

To the advantages of the film, Sheyb refers to the scenery. In particular, “with great ingenuity, Ulmer was able to use the same pyramidal structures and low ceilings several times, reorganizing them endlessly to achieve moderately impressive results on a painfully low budget. Otherwise, the effects look cheap - the only picture of the city of the future embedded in the frame looks static and unconvincing ” ^[2] .

Along with this, Schwartz notes that “Ulmer throws out enough ideas to interest (the viewer) this weak story and not pay attention to the wretched production base and all those ends of the story that never connect with each other” ^[6] . Summarizing, Schwartz also notes that it is rare that “a Hollywood director, when working on such a small budget, will be able to achieve the results that Ulmer achieves from his films in terms of quality and artistic approach” ^[6] .

• Beyond the Temporary Barrier on the IMDb Website  
• Beyond the Temporary Barrier on the Allmovie Website  
• Beyond the Timeline at Rotten Tomatoes
• Beyond the Time Bar on Turner Classic Movies
• Beyond YouTube’s Temporary Barrier