The Lost Missile (1958)

The Lost Missile is a 1958 science fiction film which was originally slated to be directed by William A. Berke, who also executive produced the film. The screenplay was co-written by John McPartland and the longtime science-fiction writer Jerome Bixby, and starred a young Robert Loggia. When William Berke suddenly died as filming was set to begin, his son Lester Wm. Berke (who had come up with the original story) took over the direction.

A low-budget film that relied heavily on stock footage of military forces and civil defense exercises, it carried a Cold War-era message of the importance of the work done by scientists and the military in protecting the nation from external threats.

The concept of the atomic-powered cruise missile doomsday weapon was similar to that of the U.S. Air Force's 1957's Project Pluto.

Synopsis

The appearance of an unknown "missile-like" object in nearby space leads a European nation (unnamed, but implied to be one of the countries behind the Iron Curtain) to fire a rocket at it. Though the rocket intercepts the unidentified object, the explosion only diverts the missile into an orbit around the Earth. Racing five miles above the earth, its passage causes widespread devastation of the land below.

Actors