Thomas Jerome Newton is a humanoid alien who comes to Earth to get water for his dying planet. He starts a high technology company to get the billions of dollars he needs to build a return spacecraft, and meets Mary-Lou, a girl who falls in love with him. He does not count on the greed and ruthlessness of business here on Earth, however.

The Man Who Fell to Earth (1976)
  • Rating: (8,691 votes)
  • Tagline:You have to believe it to see it »
  • Runtime:139 minutes
  • Director: Nicolas Roeg
  • Country:UK
  • Actors:
    Thomas Jerome Newton
    David Bowie
    Nathan Bryce
    Rip Torn
    Mary-Lou
    Candy Clark
    Oliver Farnsworth
    Buck Henry
    Peters
    Bernie Casey
    Professor Canutti
    Jackson D. Kane
    Trevor
    Rick Riccardo
    Arthur
    Tony Mascia
    Elaine
    Linda Hutton
    Jill
    Hilary Holland
  • Genres:Sci-Fi, Drama
  • Producers:
    Michael Deeley
    producer  
    Si Litvinoff
    executive producer  
    John Peverall
    associate producer  
    Barry Spikings
    producer  
  • Plot: Thomas Jerome Newton is a humanoid alien who comes to Earth to get water for his dying planet. He starts a high technology company to get the billions of dollars he needs to build a return spacecraft, and meets Mary-Lou, a girl who falls in love with him. He does not count on the greed and ruthlessness of business here on Earth, however. Written by Gene Volovich <volovich@netcom.com>
The Man Who Fell to Earth
  • User's comment:Bowie's entire idea of himself? by Polaris_DiB

    I went into this film expecting something more like Walkabout, because that is all I had seen of Nicholas Roeg's work previously, and the thought of David Bowie being in it enticed me. Really, though, I had it backwards... It's David Bowie's creation with a little bit of Nicholas Roeg in it.

    The whole "human alien" thing is very much Bowie's schtick, and to a degree I found it hard not to imagine that this was Bowie's entire idea of himself. A sort of silent tragedy encompasses his character, expressed mostly in the scene with the eye-test where Bowie says very smally and pathetically "Oh... now I'll never get them out." Bowie sees himself as an alien that just can't escape being human.

    On a broader sense than this one artist's idea, however, this is a fascinating science fiction film because it points out a side of human nature not often developed very well in other science fiction films. Instead of dissecting the alien, which is what everyone always expects humans will do, the humans do everything in their power to make him more human. Where not actually working towards constructing this "other" as a human, they try to own him, via capitalism or politics or, yes, even love.

    It's interesting then the space they put him in, with all of the various rooms like different human-empathetic places. On one hand, it's a self-reflective look at the "set" of the movie, showing that we are designing this alien to look human, but secondly a lot of it is surreally natural, as if to imply that even nature is forced to be human at our hands.

    --PolarisDiB


  • Quotes: Waiter: I think perhaps Mr. Newton has had enough, don't you? Nathan Bryce: I think... perhaps... you're right. Thomas Jerome Newton: We'd have probably done the same to you, if you'd come 'round our place.
  • Also known as: El hombre que cayó a la tierra (Argentina - festival title), El hombre que cayó a la tierra (Spain - imdb display title), A Földre pottyant férfi (Hungary - imdb display title), Czlowiek który spadl na ziemie (Poland), Dünyaya düsen adam (Turkey - Turkish title), Der Mann, der vom Himmel fiel (West Germany), L'homme qui venait d'ailleurs (France), L'uomo che cadde sulla Terra (Italy), Manden som kom ned på Jorden (Denmark - imdb display title), Mannen utan ansikte (Sweden), Mies toisesta maailmasta (Finland - video title), Muukalaisen kasvot (Finland - TV title), O Homem Que Caiu na Terra (Brazil), O Homem Que Veio do Espaço (Portugal), O anthropos pou epese sti Gi (Greece - transliterated ISO-LATIN-1 title),

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