The Day the Sky Exploded

Lore & Background

The Day the Sky Exploded was developed in early 1958, though it is unknown whose idea it was to create a science fiction film. The credited director is Paolo Heusch, who had made his directorial debut with L'uomo facile earlier that same year. According to cast member Ivo Garrani, the film was 'completely directed by Bava.

Reader's Guide

The Day the Sky Exploded holds a significant place in film history as the first Italian science fiction film, preceding the works of Antonio Margheriti. Its production is notable for the extensive involvement of Mario Bava, who effectively directed much of the film according to cast and crew accounts, though Paolo Heusch is the credited director. Bava's innovative use of stock footage—nearly 60% of the film—and his homemade special effects, such as glass shots using magazine clips and multiple exposures with a Mitchell camera, demonstrate early resourcefulness in low-budget sci-fi. The film's score by Carlo Rustichelli, created with unconventional objects like a fire extinguisher and blender, reflects the crude, experimental nature of the genre at the time. Commercially, it grossed less than 150 million Italian lire domestically and received mixed reviews, with the Monthly Film Bulletin calling it 'the stock-shot film par excellence' and TV Guide rating it one out of four. Despite its modest reception, the film is recognized for its pioneering role in Italian science fiction and as a showcase for Bava's emerging talents.

Did You Know?

• The film is known as the first Italian science fiction film, predating the sci-fi films of Antonio Margheriti.
• Nearly 60% of the film consists of stock footage documenting dozens of unrelated events, according to Bava biographer Tim Lucas.
• Composer Carlo Rustichelli used a fire extinguisher, a blender, and a vacuum cleaner to create special sound effects for the score.

A Pioneering Place in Italian Cinema

The Day the Sky Exploded holds a singular distinction in European film history: it is recognized as the very first science fiction movie produced in Italy, arriving before the genre work of directors like Antonio Margheriti. Released in 1958 under the Italian title La morte viene dallo spazio and the English-language title Death Comes From Outer Space, the picture was an international co-production involving Italy and France, backed by Royal Film, Lux Film, and Lux Compagnie Cinématographique. Its creation came at a moment when Italian audiences were hungry for speculative storytelling. American titles such as Invaders From Mars had only reached Italian screens in 1957 and earned strong box-office returns, while earlier domestic efforts like Mario Mattoli's comedy 1,000 chilometri al minuto featured scientists but treated space research as a mere backdrop rather than a driving force. Development on the project kicked off in early 1958, though the exact origin of the idea to make a full science fiction feature remains unclear. The film thus opened a door that Italian cinema would walk through for decades to come.

A Story of Doom and Desperate Ingenuity

The narrative unfolds at Cape Shark, a remote station in the Australian desert, where the United Nations launches a crewed atomic rocket toward the Moon. When one engine fails, American pilot John MacLaren ejects in an escape capsule while the booster keeps flying and detonates inside the Delta asteroid cluster. The blast shatters the asteroids' stable orbits, fusing them into a single massive body on a collision course with Earth. Scientists warn the cluster will swing past the Moon, triggering tidal surges that will drown coastal cities. As the object nears, the planet convulses with tidal waves, firestorms, earthquakes, and riots. A lighter subplot follows boastful engineer Peter Leduq, who wagers he can win over the icy Katie Dandridge with a kiss within six days, unaware she overhears the bet. By the eleventh hour, MacLaren devises a last-ditch plan: load every missile on Earth with a nuclear warhead and fire them all at the cluster. A religiously motivated scientist, Dr. Randowsky, sabotages the base's air conditioning to stop the calculator from computing firing data, leading to a violent confrontation in which MacLaren's friend Herbert Weisser is fatally shot. The missiles are launched, obliterating the cluster and saving the world.

Bava's Invisible Directorship and Effects Wizardry

Though Paolo Heusch receives the directorial credit, the true creative force behind the camera was Mario Bava, who served as cameraman, special effects designer, and the person who manipulated newsreel footage to construct the film's narrative. Cast member Ivo Garrani later recalled that the picture was completely directed by Bava, and production assistant Armando Govoni confirmed that Bava had already helmed a project for Heusch before this one. Bava's effects work was remarkably resourceful. Biographer Tim Lucas noted that nearly sixty percent of the finished film consists of stock footage documenting dozens of unrelated events. For glass shots, Bava borrowed magazine clips: a Minaret from National Geographic stood in for Moscow, and a Mt. Hula telescope from Popular Science filled another frame. To create the image of a vast haloed sphere looming over a city, he projected slides of world landmarks onto an opaque silk screen lit by a brute light, then layered multiple exposures shot on his father's Mitchell camera with footage of backyard and homemade rocket models. Lucas described the resulting object as looking like a large sponge with chunks torn out.

Cast and a Score Built from Household Objects

The ensemble cast includes Swiss actor Paul Hubschmid, who portrays the lead John MacLaren and who had earlier appeared in The Beast from 20,000 Fathoms under the screen name Paul Christian. Other performers include Fiorella Mari as Mary MacLaren, Ivo Garrani as Herbert Weisser, Madeleine Fischer as Katie Dandridge, Dario Michaëlis as Peter Leduq, Sam Galter as Dr. Randowsky, and Jean-Jacques Delbo as Sergei Boetnikov. Giacomo Rossi-Stuart also appears, marking his first of several collaborations with Bava. The musical score was composed by Carlo Rustichelli, who reported directly to Bava during its development. Rustichelli combined acoustic instruments, electronic sounds, and non-musical devices to build the soundtrack. He described entering the recording studio with a fire extinguisher, a blender, and a vacuum cleaner to generate the special sound effects.