...it's like TV Tropes, but LINKED DATA!

The Giant Claw

197 statements
37 feature instances
20 referencing feature instances

The Giant Claw	type	TVTItem
The Giant Claw	label	The Giant Claw
The Giant Claw	page	TheGiantClaw
The Giant Claw	comment	What monster, out of the innumerable B science-fiction/horror films from the '50s and '60s, can possibly hope to compete with Ro-Man — the man in a gorilla suit wearing a toy plastic space helmet — from Robot Monster?Four words: Giant. Antimatter. Space. Buzzard.note This decision is currently being appealed by attorneys representing the Giant Killer Bunny Rabbit union, who could not be reached for comment.Test-pilot/electronics engineer/physicist Mitchell "Mitch" Macafee (Jeff Morrow) is piloting a jet over Canada when he spots a UFO ("As big as a battleship!!"). His girlfriend on the ground Sally Caldwell (Mara Corday), however, sees nothing on the radar. Jets are scrambled to investigate his claim, but one goes missing. Mitch's commanding officer isn't pleased with him — and is even less so when another plane disappears in the same area.En route back to the United States, Mitch and Sally's plane is attacked. Screeching is heard. They crash-land on a farm but survive unscathed and are taken in by a redneck named Pierre. More screeching is heard. Mitch and Sal go outside and find Pierre lying on the ground in terror near his spooked livestock. He claims to have seen the mythical witch La Cargagne, an omen of his impending death.Finally arriving back in General Buskirk's office, Mitch is surprised to discover that his story about a battleship-sized UFO is no longer dismissed as pure fallacy. Another aircraft, this time carrying a bunch of investigators, was lost shortly after the pilot radioed a distress call that a bird the size of... wait for it... a battleship, was attacking the plane. Not to mention some googly-eyed pictures snapped by a high-altitude balloon's camera.Thus we finally get our first glimpses of the beast that would put the combined worst of the bestiaries from every Dungeons & Dragons Monster Manual to shame: a mighty battleship-sized phoenix from outer space, that flies faster than the speed of sound, that emanates a force-field of antimatter protecting it from all that the military can throw at it... as embodied by a puppet that looks like Buzz Buzzard's evil twin.It's time for women to gaze at the sky and pretend to scream in terror, for model cars and trains to be awkwardly plucked off papier-mâché sets, and for a scheme "so crazy, it just might work!" to be contrived to defeat the bird.This movie is simply priceless. It's got everything that a comedy movie disguised as a B science-fiction/horror movie from the 50s should have; a completely ridiculous monster, laughable dialogue delivered with total sincerity, copious use of mismatched stock footage, gobs and gobs of pseudo-scientific Techno Babble... you name it. All that's missing is the Fauxlosophic Narration. Although the actors' ruminations on their careers upon seeing the monster for the first time might've been entertaining.Because... perhaps most priceless of all is the fact that all scenes with the actors were filmed first — and then the scenes with the puppet were spliced in. None of the cast actually saw what they were supposed to be terrified of until they attended the film's premiere. Reportedly, Morrow, upon hearing the audience's reaction, left the theater early with a red face hidden beneath a turned-up collar, afraid that someone might recognize him, then went home and got drunk.By the way, it was released by Columbia Pictures — also responsible for Lawrence of Arabia and Jason and the Argonauts. This is the one that tends not to be mentioned in the studio-anniversary clip shows.It got an episode on a Mystery Science Theater 3000 fan series. James Rolfe, however, gives a fine insight on it.
The Giant Claw	fetched	2023-10-08T09:00:51Z
The Giant Claw	parsed	2023-10-08T09:00:51Z
The Giant Claw	processingComment	Dropped link to NighInvulnerable: Not a Feature - UNKNOWN
The Giant Claw	processingComment	Dropped link to TheBeastFromTwentyThousandFathoms: Not a Feature - ITEM
The Giant Claw	processingComment	Dropped link to TheWarOfTheWorlds1953: Not a Feature - ITEM
The Giant Claw	processingUnknown	NighInvulnerable
The Giant Claw	isPartOf	DBTropes
The Giant Claw / int_1235f055	type	Dirty Coward
The Giant Claw / int_1235f055	comment	Dirty Coward: Pierre gets a massive panic attack when he, Mitch and Sally finally find the buzzard's giant nest in the third act, refusing to shoot and running away from La Cargagne. The buzzard finds him and eats him
The Giant Claw / int_1235f055	featureApplicability	1.0
The Giant Claw / int_1235f055	featureConfidence	1.0
The Giant Claw	hasFeature	The Giant Claw / int_1235f055
The Giant Claw / int_28c1d543	type	Defrosting Ice Queen
The Giant Claw / int_28c1d543	comment	Defrosting Ice Queen: Sally Caldwell is quite the ice queen towards Mitch, at first. Then his "charm" finally wins her over.
The Giant Claw / int_28c1d543	featureApplicability	1.0
The Giant Claw / int_28c1d543	featureConfidence	1.0
The Giant Claw	hasFeature	The Giant Claw / int_28c1d543
The Giant Claw / int_35ca4848	type	Antimatter
The Giant Claw / int_35ca4848	comment	Antimatter: Well, Hollywood antimatter, anyway, which makes the gigantic space buzzard Nigh-Invulnerable and invisible to radar. It's also proof that the buzzard comes from space. When someone points out that a being completely made of antimatter would explode if it ever hit something, a Hand Wave is provided that it's just a being that has the natural capacity to somehow create an antimatter "barrier" that it can drop at will to manipulate (or attack) stuff.
The Giant Claw / int_35ca4848	featureApplicability	1.0
The Giant Claw / int_35ca4848	featureConfidence	1.0
The Giant Claw	hasFeature	The Giant Claw / int_35ca4848
The Giant Claw / int_3b63ecb6	type	Youth Is Wasted on the Dumb
The Giant Claw / int_3b63ecb6	comment	Youth Is Wasted on the Dumb: The final on-screen casualties of the alien vulture are a bunch of teens that, in defiance to government orders to not go out and night and do anything to attract the monster's attention, joyride down the same road and Mitch and Sally are driving after destroying the vulture's egg and mock them for having their headlights off.
The Giant Claw / int_3b63ecb6	featureApplicability	1.0
The Giant Claw / int_3b63ecb6	featureConfidence	1.0
The Giant Claw	hasFeature	The Giant Claw / int_3b63ecb6
The Giant Claw / int_434d893c	type	Funny Foreigner
The Giant Claw / int_434d893c	comment	Funny Foreigner: Pierre the French-Canadian immigrant that Mitch and Sally befriend.
The Giant Claw / int_434d893c	featureApplicability	1.0
The Giant Claw / int_434d893c	featureConfidence	1.0
The Giant Claw	hasFeature	The Giant Claw / int_434d893c
The Giant Claw / int_4856ac40	type	Stock Footage
The Giant Claw / int_4856ac40	comment	Stock Footage: One shot of a building losing its top in New York has been recycled from a building in Los Angeles being shot by a Martian War Machine. Several shots of collapsing buildings crushing hapless civilians beneath them were taken from two other 50s atomic horror movies, The Beast from 20,000 Fathoms and Earth vs. the Flying Saucers.
The Giant Claw / int_4856ac40	featureApplicability	1.0
The Giant Claw / int_4856ac40	featureConfidence	1.0
The Giant Claw	hasFeature	The Giant Claw / int_4856ac40
The Giant Claw / int_67677940	type	Giant Flyer
The Giant Claw / int_67677940	comment	Giant Flyer: A gigantic space buzzard is the Monster of the Week.
The Giant Claw / int_67677940	featureApplicability	1.0
The Giant Claw / int_67677940	featureConfidence	1.0
The Giant Claw	hasFeature	The Giant Claw / int_67677940
The Giant Claw / int_6b723294	type	Techno Babble
The Giant Claw / int_6b723294	comment	Techno Babble: The long explanation of how antimatter supposedly works, why it makes the giant bird Nigh-Invulnerable, and how the gadget that will be used to destroy it supposedly works.
The Giant Claw / int_6b723294	featureApplicability	1.0
The Giant Claw / int_6b723294	featureConfidence	1.0
The Giant Claw	hasFeature	The Giant Claw / int_6b723294
The Giant Claw / int_77b009ea	type	Phrase Catcher
The Giant Claw / int_77b009ea	comment	Phrase Catcher: The monster is compared to a battleship. Repeatedly. At least a few times jokingly it's actually called a battleship.
The Giant Claw / int_77b009ea	featureApplicability	1.0
The Giant Claw / int_77b009ea	featureConfidence	1.0
The Giant Claw	hasFeature	The Giant Claw / int_77b009ea
The Giant Claw / int_7ccd3698	type	Attack of the 50-Foot Whatever
The Giant Claw / int_7ccd3698	comment	Attack of the 50-Foot Whatever: Our monster for this tale is repeatedly compared in size to a battleship, and anything the U.S. government tosses at it is automatically playing David Versus Goliath... until the antimatter is dissipated, at least.
The Giant Claw / int_7ccd3698	featureApplicability	1.0
The Giant Claw / int_7ccd3698	featureConfidence	1.0
The Giant Claw	hasFeature	The Giant Claw / int_7ccd3698
The Giant Claw / int_8f9f71a8	type	Crazy Enough to Work
The Giant Claw / int_8f9f71a8	comment	Crazy Enough to Work: The device to disrupt the buzzard's antimatter field is purely in the realm of the theoretical and a Failure Montage ensues before Mitch finally gets the idea to do a Reverse Polarity modification... which still goes off in his face. The first thing he's told when he wakes up is some reassuring that it was a pretty long shot anyway, which he has to interrupt to say that he made it work.
The Giant Claw / int_8f9f71a8	featureApplicability	1.0
The Giant Claw / int_8f9f71a8	featureConfidence	1.0
The Giant Claw	hasFeature	The Giant Claw / int_8f9f71a8
The Giant Claw / int_95864e13	type	B-Movie
The Giant Claw / int_95864e13	comment	B-Movie: The acting is overblown, the lines are stilted and the monster is laughable. The worst part is that even the actors didn't know how bad the bird was going to look.
The Giant Claw / int_95864e13	featureApplicability	1.0
The Giant Claw / int_95864e13	featureConfidence	1.0
The Giant Claw	hasFeature	The Giant Claw / int_95864e13
The Giant Claw / int_970c790a	type	Big Bad
The Giant Claw / int_970c790a	comment	Big Bad: The antimatter bird terrorizing the skies.
The Giant Claw / int_970c790a	featureApplicability	1.0
The Giant Claw / int_970c790a	featureConfidence	1.0
The Giant Claw	hasFeature	The Giant Claw / int_970c790a
The Giant Claw / int_98a63dc6	type	Time Abyss
The Giant Claw / int_98a63dc6	comment	Time Abyss: If the movie poster is to be believed, the bird has existed since the year 17,000,000 B.C..
The Giant Claw / int_98a63dc6	featureApplicability	1.0
The Giant Claw / int_98a63dc6	featureConfidence	1.0
The Giant Claw	hasFeature	The Giant Claw / int_98a63dc6
The Giant Claw / int_9b0f37de	type	Contemplate Our Navels
The Giant Claw / int_9b0f37de	comment	Contemplate Our Navels: Sally gets two scenes of ruminating on tragic deaths, almost one right after the other.
The Giant Claw / int_9b0f37de	featureApplicability	1.0
The Giant Claw / int_9b0f37de	featureConfidence	1.0
The Giant Claw	hasFeature	The Giant Claw / int_9b0f37de
The Giant Claw / int_9d12bbc1	type	Foreshadowing
The Giant Claw / int_9d12bbc1	comment	Foreshadowing: Poor Pierre constantly compares the buzzard to La Cargagne, a supposed legend of a Giant Flyer that is a harbinger of doom for anybody who watches it, from the moment he does (because the thing landed near his home). Guess who's the only fella to get killed when the heroes go hunting for the buzzard's eggs?
The Giant Claw / int_9d12bbc1	featureApplicability	1.0
The Giant Claw / int_9d12bbc1	featureConfidence	1.0
The Giant Claw	hasFeature	The Giant Claw / int_9d12bbc1
The Giant Claw / int_a1605a7f	type	I Have Brothers
The Giant Claw / int_a1605a7f	comment	I Have Brothers: Sally's Hand Wave for why all of a sudden she can pick up a bolt-action high-caliber rifle and place a bullet right in the middle of a giant space buzzard egg? "I'm from Montana!"
The Giant Claw / int_a1605a7f	featureApplicability	1.0
The Giant Claw / int_a1605a7f	featureConfidence	1.0
The Giant Claw	hasFeature	The Giant Claw / int_a1605a7f
The Giant Claw / int_a2f6e439	type	The Living Dead
The Giant Claw / int_a2f6e439	comment	The Living Dead: When the plane explodes and flaming wreckage lands about a foot from the three actors' heads, they all react in a violently startle manner...including the supposedly dead pilot.
The Giant Claw / int_a2f6e439	featureApplicability	1.0
The Giant Claw / int_a2f6e439	featureConfidence	1.0
The Giant Claw	hasFeature	The Giant Claw / int_a2f6e439
The Giant Claw / int_ad54ff39	type	Hiroshima as a Unit of Measure
The Giant Claw / int_ad54ff39	comment	Hiroshima as a Unit of Measure: The titular creature is frequently stated to be the size of a battleship.
The Giant Claw / int_ad54ff39	featureApplicability	1.0
The Giant Claw / int_ad54ff39	featureConfidence	1.0
The Giant Claw	hasFeature	The Giant Claw / int_ad54ff39
The Giant Claw / int_ae3d6438	type	Deadpan Snarker
The Giant Claw / int_ae3d6438	comment	Deadpan Snarker: Sally drops a pretty good snarking line about how dumb the idea of "La Cargagne" (and thus Mitch's "bird as big as a battleship") is while they are flying back after crashing, to the point Mitch has to ask her to cut it off and some poor passenger has to tell them that he's trying to sleep.
The Giant Claw / int_ae3d6438	featureApplicability	1.0
The Giant Claw / int_ae3d6438	featureConfidence	1.0
The Giant Claw	hasFeature	The Giant Claw / int_ae3d6438
The Giant Claw / int_b3154762	type	Carload of Cool Kids
The Giant Claw / int_b3154762	comment	Carload of Cool Kids: A group of these driving past the protagonists, flouting the warnings to stay off the road at night (since the whole world has become aware of the eponymous monster by this point). Predictably, they're attacked.
The Giant Claw / int_b3154762	featureApplicability	1.0
The Giant Claw / int_b3154762	featureConfidence	1.0
The Giant Claw	hasFeature	The Giant Claw / int_b3154762
The Giant Claw / int_b352279a	type	Attack of the Killer Whatever
The Giant Claw / int_b352279a	comment	Attack of the Killer Whatever: Repeat after us: Giant. Antimatter. Space. Buzzard.
The Giant Claw / int_b352279a	featureApplicability	1.0
The Giant Claw / int_b352279a	featureConfidence	1.0
The Giant Claw	hasFeature	The Giant Claw / int_b352279a
The Giant Claw / int_b42e16fb	type	Feathered Fiend
The Giant Claw / int_b42e16fb	comment	Feathered Fiend: You bet! A buzzard as big as a battleship, eating anything unlucky enough to be in the air, or moving on the ground.
The Giant Claw / int_b42e16fb	featureApplicability	1.0
The Giant Claw / int_b42e16fb	featureConfidence	1.0
The Giant Claw	hasFeature	The Giant Claw / int_b42e16fb
The Giant Claw / int_beb932ca	type	Big Applesauce
The Giant Claw / int_beb932ca	comment	Big Applesauce: The climax takes place in New York.
The Giant Claw / int_beb932ca	featureApplicability	1.0
The Giant Claw / int_beb932ca	featureConfidence	1.0
The Giant Claw	hasFeature	The Giant Claw / int_beb932ca
The Giant Claw / int_c34a1799	type	Kaiju
The Giant Claw / int_c34a1799	comment	Kaiju: The bird.
The Giant Claw / int_c34a1799	featureApplicability	1.0
The Giant Claw / int_c34a1799	featureConfidence	1.0
The Giant Claw	hasFeature	The Giant Claw / int_c34a1799
The Giant Claw / int_cb87452d	type	Reverse Polarity
The Giant Claw / int_cb87452d	comment	Reverse Polarity: The machine meant to disrupt the antimatter forcefield is completely in the realm of the theorethical and works like an Epic Fail... until Mitch figures out that reversing the polarity works.
The Giant Claw / int_cb87452d	featureApplicability	1.0
The Giant Claw / int_cb87452d	featureConfidence	1.0
The Giant Claw	hasFeature	The Giant Claw / int_cb87452d
The Giant Claw / int_cf92fea8	type	Cassandra Truth
The Giant Claw / int_cf92fea8	comment	Cassandra Truth: Mitchell "Mitch" Macafee is not believed when he swears he saw "something as big as a battleship" fly past him in Alaska, and continues to not be believed until it's pretty clear that something is out there wrecking planes willy-nilly.
The Giant Claw / int_cf92fea8	featureApplicability	1.0
The Giant Claw / int_cf92fea8	featureConfidence	1.0
The Giant Claw	hasFeature	The Giant Claw / int_cf92fea8
The Giant Claw / int_d40e1a9f	type	Break Out the Museum Piece
The Giant Claw / int_d40e1a9f	comment	Break Out the Museum Piece: The climax involves the giant buzzard being faced off with the plane into which the anti-anti-matter weapon has been installed: an old B-25.
The Giant Claw / int_d40e1a9f	featureApplicability	1.0
The Giant Claw / int_d40e1a9f	featureConfidence	1.0
The Giant Claw	hasFeature	The Giant Claw / int_d40e1a9f
The Giant Claw / int_d525f857	type	Sci-Fi Writers Have No Sense of Scale
The Giant Claw / int_d525f857	comment	Sci-Fi Writers Have No Sense of Scale: Nor do they have any other measurement than "as big as a battleship", apparently.
The Giant Claw / int_d525f857	featureApplicability	1.0
The Giant Claw / int_d525f857	featureConfidence	1.0
The Giant Claw	hasFeature	The Giant Claw / int_d525f857
The Giant Claw / int_da1c8191	type	Writers Cannot Do Math
The Giant Claw / int_da1c8191	comment	Writers Cannot Do Math: Mitch discovers that the bird's attacks can be connected by a spiral pattern. No one mentions that any series of points can be connected by a spiral.
The Giant Claw / int_da1c8191	featureApplicability	1.0
The Giant Claw / int_da1c8191	featureConfidence	1.0
The Giant Claw	hasFeature	The Giant Claw / int_da1c8191
The Giant Claw / int_db165dcf	type	Doomed Hurt Guy
The Giant Claw / int_db165dcf	comment	Doomed Hurt Guy: The poor pilot Mitch saves from the wreckage.
The Giant Claw / int_db165dcf	featureApplicability	1.0
The Giant Claw / int_db165dcf	featureConfidence	1.0
The Giant Claw	hasFeature	The Giant Claw / int_db165dcf
The Giant Claw / int_dbbaed55	type	Monster Is a Mommy
The Giant Claw / int_dbbaed55	comment	Monster Is a Mommy: Sally eventually figures out the monster's attack pattern is meant to be to get food for its future young and they go in search of its nest, and they blow away the egg within with .378 Weatherby Magnum rifles.
The Giant Claw / int_dbbaed55	featureApplicability	1.0
The Giant Claw / int_dbbaed55	featureConfidence	1.0
The Giant Claw	hasFeature	The Giant Claw / int_dbbaed55
The Giant Claw / int_dc579c91	type	Contrived Coincidence
The Giant Claw / int_dc579c91	comment	Contrived Coincidence: Really, does that monster has a thing for Mitch or something?
The Giant Claw / int_dc579c91	featureApplicability	1.0
The Giant Claw / int_dc579c91	featureConfidence	1.0
The Giant Claw	hasFeature	The Giant Claw / int_dc579c91
The Giant Claw / int_dddbdc26	type	Monumental Damage
The Giant Claw / int_dddbdc26	comment	Monumental Damage: The bird arrives in New York City and attacks the United Nation headquarters, for whatever reason.
The Giant Claw / int_dddbdc26	featureApplicability	1.0
The Giant Claw / int_dddbdc26	featureConfidence	1.0
The Giant Claw	hasFeature	The Giant Claw / int_dddbdc26
The Giant Claw / int_f604f64b	type	Dude, She's Like in a Coma
The Giant Claw / int_f604f64b	comment	Dude, She's Like in a Coma: Mitch sneaks a full-blown kiss on Sally while she's asleep on a plane (after leaving the crash site and Pierre's home).
The Giant Claw / int_f604f64b	featureApplicability	1.0
The Giant Claw / int_f604f64b	featureConfidence	1.0
The Giant Claw	hasFeature	The Giant Claw / int_f604f64b
The Giant Claw / int_fc151e9d	type	Department of Redundancy Department
The Giant Claw / int_fc151e9d	comment	Department of Redundancy Department: "As big as a battleship." This is apparently the only really big thing the scriptwriters had ever seen in their entire lives
The Giant Claw / int_fc151e9d	featureApplicability	1.0
The Giant Claw / int_fc151e9d	featureConfidence	1.0
The Giant Claw	hasFeature	The Giant Claw / int_fc151e9d
The Giant Claw / int_name	type	ItemName
The Giant Claw / int_name	comment
The Giant Claw / int_name	featureApplicability	1.0
The Giant Claw / int_name	featureConfidence	1.0
The Giant Claw	hasFeature	The Giant Claw / int_name
The Giant Claw / int_name	itemName	The Giant Claw

The following is a list of statements referring to the current page from other pages.

The Giant Claw	hasFeature	Acting in the Dark / int_599518cd
The Giant Claw	hasFeature	Alien Works / int_599518cd
The Giant Claw	hasFeature	Antimatter / int_599518cd
The Giant Claw	hasFeature	Artistic License â€“ Ornithology / int_599518cd
The Giant Claw	hasFeature	Attack of the Killer Whatever / int_599518cd
The Giant Claw	hasFeature	Attack of the Monster Appendage / int_599518cd
The Giant Claw	hasFeature	B-Movie / int_599518cd
The Giant Claw	hasFeature	Carload of Cool Kids / int_599518cd
The Giant Claw	hasFeature	Doomed Hurt Guy / int_599518cd
The Giant Claw	hasFeature	Eerie Arctic Research Station / int_599518cd
The Giant Claw	hasFeature	Fantastic Comedy / int_599518cd
The Giant Claw	hasFeature	Feathered Fiend / int_599518cd
The Giant Claw	hasFeature	Giant Flyer / int_599518cd
The Giant Claw	hasFeature	Hiroshima as a Unit of Measure / int_599518cd
The Giant Claw	hasFeature	Horror Comedy / int_599518cd
The Giant Claw	hasFeature	Monumental View / int_599518cd
The Giant Claw	hasFeature	Quirky Work / int_599518cd
The Giant Claw	hasFeature	Sci-Fi Horror / int_599518cd
The Giant Claw	seeAlso	The Giant Claw
The Giant Claw	hasFeature	Vile Vulture / int_599518cd

Copyright of DBTropes.org wrapper 2009-2013 DFKI Knowledge Management. Imprint. - Thanks to Bakken&Baeck for hosting. Contact.
Copyright of data TVTropes.org contributors under Creative Commons Attribution-Share Alike 3.0 Unported License.