Far Horizons: Tales of Sci-Fi, Fantasy and Horror. Issue #13 April 2015 | Page 63

Jay (B-movie regular John Agar) retreat to an underground bunker, working desperately to find a weapon
to defeat the invaders. Will they succeed? Or will the
Earth fall to the Invisible Invaders?
This being the Fifties, we know that won’t happen.
A weapon is developed by our heroes to defeat the
aliens, making the world safe for democracy, baseball
and apple pie.
While the story is straightforward and adequate for the
67 minute runtime, it does have a number of themes
in tension. The attitude towards nuclear weapons is
conflicted. They are responsible for the death of Noymann, Penner cites environmental contamination from
tests and accidents as a reason he is leaving the project
and their development prompts the alien invasion. The
military justifies their development by saying the Russians are working on them, so the United States has
to as well, a pragmatic/realist view of nuclear deterrence. While the aliens cite the development of nuclear weapons as one reason for invading, the fact that
they boast of wiping out the original inhabitants of the
Moon, shows that they are a genocidal menace. In this
case, the argument can be made that nuclear weapons
themselves are not the problem. Rather, the problem
is that they cannot be employed as a deterrent. An incomplete, but potentially threatening defence is more
destabilising than either no defence or one that is a
capable deterrent.
There is a mixed message regarding pacifism and
peace advocacy. Penner is approached by the aliens
because he has been an advocate for peace. Apparently, speaking out for peace and cooperation leaves
you open to manipulation by aliens, communists,
and whatever other inhuman monsters are menacing
America. However, it is the lack of peace - in the
sense that building nuclear weapons is indicative of a
lack of peace - that prompts the aliens to invade Earth
when they do. They have been observing Earth for
thousands of years; it is only when our technology is
approaching the point where we can take our warlike
ways into space that they finally see us as a threat.

that attitudes towards peace were complex. Peace was
desirable, particularly in the wake of the global devastation of the Second World War. Conversely, advocating peace and disarmament while the “other side”
prepared for war was seen as suicidal. It was also not
clear what could provoke the USSR and Communist
China. Would they launch an attack if they thought
the US was too weak and passive? Or would an arms
build-up lead to a pre-emptive assault?
The film also looks at the tension between the scientific and military communities (a standard note of tension in science fiction films of the time). While science
and the military are intertwined in many of the films of
the era, it is an uneasy partnership. From the military’s
initial lack of understanding of Penner’s reasons for
quitting the nuclear weapons program to Lamont shifting from proponent of a robust defence to snivelling
coward ready to surrender to the aliens, while Major
Jay maintains a no-nonsense “just build something to
kill the enemy” attitude, the alliance between science
and the military is not a comfortable one.
Finally, the film touches at the need for unity among
the nations of the world. While the story focuses on
the United States and the efforts of its American heroes, it is telling that the first clue to the alien’s weakness comes from a Russian scientist working in Moscow. It ultimately takes the efforts of the entire human
race to win the war, even though our heroes develop
the weapon that can destroy them. This is in contrast
to other, similarly themed movies of the time. For
example, in The War of the Worlds (1953), the Communist block nations are never mentioned. It is a small
moment, a tiny bit of dialogue, but it does reinforce
the theme that we all stand or fall together.
Invisible Invaders is fun, low-budget movie that has
some thematic complexity, although it is hampered by
the reliance on stock footage and lacklustre direction
and acting. Still, it is worth checking out, if for no
other reason than to see how the concerns of the Cold
War were reflected in contemporary pop culture.

With the spectre of a catastrophic nuclear war hanging over America in the Fifties, it is not surprising

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