Krell

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The Great Machine, designed and built by the Krell, on Altair IV as seen in the movie Forbidden Planet. Its dimensions were that of a 20 mile cube.
The Great Machine, designed and built by the Krell, on Altair IV as seen in the movie Forbidden Planet. Its dimensions were that of a 20 mile cube.
For the U.S. company, see Krell Industries. For the Polish-German theologian, see Hans Krell.
"Krell" is one of the names of the first boss in the video game R-Type, it is also known as the Gladiator or Dobkeratops

The Krell were fictional natives of the planet Altair IV in the science fiction film Forbidden Planet. Two thousand centuries before the film is set, their race died out when they completed their project to gain freedom from "instrumentality" - that is, freedom from the use of tools and devices. A Great Machine would instead, read their thoughts and instantly make them into reality. Unfortunately, the 8,000 cubic mile (33,000 km³) machine they created for this purpose also gave physical form to all of their subconscious hatreds - unfamiliar emotions that had seemingly been eradicated from their society, monsters from the id, and killed them all in the space of a single night. The unstoppable machine committed genocide.

No image of what the Krell looked liked survived, but the human who studied them, Dr. Edward Morbius (Ph.D Philology), theorized on the basis of their doorways and other artifacts that they must have had triangular body-shapes and very large heads.

The Krell were highly intelligent and cultured and their culture long-lived, having even visited Earth long before Man became a tool-user. Unfortunately, eons of peaceful existence made them forget their baser selves, which ultimately destroyed a great civilization as it was about to achieve its apex.

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Reference: 1979 CINEFANTASTIQUE Magazine Double-Issue (Volume 8 - Number 2 & Volume 8 - Number 3) MAKING FORBIDDEN PLANET - By Frederick S. Clarke and Steve Rubin

The steps leading up to the Krell door ... were designed to be separated by a smooth ramp in the middle.

In the article the Forbidden Planet's film's cinematographer, George Folsey states:

"The Krell were originally frog-like in nature with two long legs and a big tail. They were never shown, but it was indicated in the original screenplay that the ramps between the steps were designed to accommodate their dragging tail."

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