Plan 9 from Outer Space (1959)
“Can your heart stand the shocking facts about grave robbers from outer space?”
Streamed free from the Internet Archive · no signup, no cost — this film is in the public domain.
Synopsis
Alien visitors, terrified that humankind is about to invent a doomsday weapon capable of destroying the universe, roll out their ninth plan to make us listen: raising the dead. As reanimated corpses stalk a California cemetery, an airline pilot, his wife and the police are pulled into the scheme. Narrated by the self-proclaimed psychic Criswell, the film blends flying-saucer paranoia, graveyard horror and Cold War dread, climaxing aboard the alien saucer.
Cast
About the Director
Ed Wood — Edward D. Wood Jr. (1924–1978) was a tireless, perpetually broke independent who wrote, produced, directed and edited his films on next to nothing. Long mocked and later beloved, he has become the patron saint of earnest, gloriously inept moviemaking — and on 'Plan 9' he was the whole engine, casting friends and oddballs and chasing an epic far beyond his means.
Why It’s Free: The Public-Domain Story
The film is generally treated as public domain because its original copyright was never renewed within the window the 1909 Copyright Act required, so protection lapsed. Be aware, though, that ownership has actually been disputed — collector Wade Williams later asserted a copyright claim — and the film is often described as having drifted in and out of public-domain status over the years.
Behind the Scenes
Shot in black-and-white in November 1956 under the title "Grave Robbers from Outer Space," the film was funded largely by Baptists — executive producer J. Edward Reynolds and members of his Beverly Hills church, several of whom appear on screen. The backers objected to "Grave Robbers," which prompted the vaguer "Plan 9." Bela Lugosi had died before the shoot, so Wood spliced in a few minutes of silent footage he had filmed earlier and finished the part with a stand-in — a chiropractor taller than Lugosi who held a cape across his face to hide the mismatch.
Did You Know?
- The flying saucers were a Lindberg plastic model kit — not the hubcaps or paper plates of legend.
- The film was actually framed for widescreen; boom mics and stray crew only became visible when later TV transfers cropped it to full-frame, exaggerating its reputation.
- Criswell's opening line — "We are all interested in the future, for that is where you and I are going to spend the rest of our lives" — echoes narration from a 1939 World's Fair film.
- Bell Labs named an operating system "Plan 9" after the movie, and a "Seinfeld" episode hinges on catching a screening of it.
Reception & Legacy
Ignored on release, the film became infamous in 1980 when "The Golden Turkey Awards" crowned it the worst movie ever made and Ed Wood the worst director. It has since become the definitive "so-bad-it's-good" cult classic, its legend cemented by Tim Burton's acclaimed 1994 biopic 'Ed Wood,' which dramatizes the making of 'Plan 9' and won Martin Landau an Oscar as Lugosi.
Reefer Madness
The Last Woman on Earth
Teenagers from Outer Space
The Wasp Woman