The Day The Earth Stood Still Easter Egg - Gort! the Robot

Clear the FireFox 3.0 address window and have auto-complete turned on. Type in about:Robots and hit ENTER. You will immediately view a message from the robot world "far, far away". Don't be frightened! They "come in peace" (because they say so). It does worry me a bit clicking the Try Again hyperlink twice. It warns you then just disappears! Perhaps a timer that melts your hard drive tomorrow night or rings your door bell at a predetermined time? Personally, it makes me a bit apprehensive.

BUT here comes the REAL cool related Easter Egg. As I say, have auto-complete turned on. Stop after typing about. You'll see the one remaining auto-complete --- Gort! Klaatu barda nikto! Notice the page name is also that phrase.

If you're old enough to be a pre-Trekkie (like me) THOSE are THE all-time famous sci-fi words! THE best sci-fi film EVER made. Sorry all you Trekkies - Captain Kirk and "beam me up, Scottie" are good but NOT as good as the B&@W 1951 movie "The Day The Earth Stood Still."

That is the phrase the seven foot tall wounded Martian named Klaatu tells your standard central casting heroine all sci-fi's must have (he was wounded by one of our stupid earthling soldiers who panicked - that made Gort! the eight foot tall robot mad - wouldn't you be mad? The phrase to tell Gort! It translates into "do NOT destroy Washington D.C. and the entire world, let's go home".

The army had been pissed as the flying saucer had been quietly parked in a "no standing" zone right in front of the White House for THREE WHOLE DAYS! Your average murder or mugging is OK and, in fact, encouraged in D.C. but NOT such utter disregard of parking regulations! Yes, Klaatu probably deserved the slug in the shoulder! Three days! Gee whiz! Putting the $12,000 parking ticket under the space craft's windshield wiper instantly vaporized the cop who gave it a try. Hmmm, there's a market for a car mod that does that.

The heroine utters those famous words and Gort! stops destroying D.C. and quietly carries his wounded master aboard their flying saucer and they sulk away off into space after having caused some minor damage to a few famous landmarks (knocks over the Washington monument, vaporizes every soldier who stupidly takes a shot at Gort! and so on).

Anyway, a Firefox Easter Egg that brings forth the most famous sci-fi phrase of all time (sorry, "beam me up" comes in second or third at best) has got to be pretty good if not great!

nanu! nanu! -- bonus question. What TV show?

User Rating:
9.4
  9.4/10 with 5 votes
Contributed By: w0tm on 07-20-2008
Reviewed By: MonicaIngram
Special Requirements: Firefox 3.0
Please correct this Egg if you see errors.

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