When Worlds Collide (1951)

Today on Far Future Horizons we present George Pal's When Worlds Collide.


When Worlds Collide is a great movie classic based on the 1933 science fiction novel co-authored by Philip Wylie and Edwin Balmer; they both also co-authored the sequel After Worlds Collide (1934). It was first published as a six-part monthly serial (September 1932-February 1933) in Blue Book magazine.

Imagine a pair of rogue planets entering our solar system and one of them is on a direct collision course with the Earth. Our planet is first devastated, and then destroyed by "Bronson Alpha", a gas giant-sized rogue planet, orbited by "Bronson Beta", an earth-sized satellite. 

Fortunately, advance warning enables several groups of survivors to escape to Bronson Beta, whose orbit maps onto that of the destroyed Earth, and is torn away from its former primary by the gravitational impact of the Bronson Alpha/Earth collision. In the 1951 cinematic incarnation, Bronson Alpha was reimagined as a dwarf star and renamed "Bellus", while Bronson Beta was designated "Zyra."

My personal hope is that if this story is ever remade into a major motion picture that it will include elements of the 1934 sequel to the novel “After Worlds Collide”.

The two novels have recently been published by Bison Books in a single paperback edition and are available via Amazon Books along with the DVD of the motion picture.

When Worlds Collide (1951) 

When World Collide by crazedigitalmovies

Copyright Disclaimer Copyright Disclaimer Under Section 107 of the Copyright Act 1976, allowance is made for "fair use" for purposes such as criticism, comment, news reporting, teaching, scholarship, and research. Fair use is a use permitted by copyright statute that might otherwise be infringing. Non-profit, educational or personal use tips the balance in favor of fair use.