A heavy-set narrator sits at a desk on a dark stage before a cheap painted graveyard backdrop under a full moon, in black and white.

Original artwork, not a still

Criswell

Greetings, my friends. We are all interested in the future, for that is where you and I are going to spend the rest of our lives. And remember, my friends, future events such as these will affect you in the future.

— Plan 9 from Outer Space  ·  1957

Behind the line

What it means

Our interpretation.

The speech is a perfect piece of unintended comedy: a man in a ruffled shirt solemnly reassuring us that the future, where we shall all spend the rest of our lives, will happen in the future. Its circular logic made it the signature of Ed Wood's so-bad-it's-good cinema, and fans quote it as a sincere-sounding statement of the obvious. It also set the tone for a film widely called one of the worst ever made.

Context reviewed

In context

Spoilers for Plan 9 from Outer SpaceShow the scene

This is the opening narration of Ed Wood's Plan 9 from Outer Space, shot in 1957 and released in 1959. It is spoken straight to camera by the Amazing Criswell, a Los Angeles TV psychic then starring in a show called Criswell Predicts, and a Criswell Predicts title card appears at the start of the scene. He addresses viewers as 'my friends' and promises the audience shocking facts, including, as his introduction ends, grave robbers from outer space, which was the film's working title. The film then cuts to the aliens' plot to resurrect the dead.

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