In the 2040s, a Martian research base, Tantalus Base outpost, is created. The eight person crew, who have been stationed there for six months, are only nineteen hours from the completion of their research mission. The spacecraft Aurora is inbound from Earth and will collect the team by lander from a prearranged site. Mars scientist Marko Petrović has found samples that may point to life on the planet. Without revealing his discovery, he devises a ruse for one last sojourn on the surface. Crewmate Richard Harrington drives Petrović in a solar powered rover to the spot where he had found the sample. After he obtains soil with the biological agent present, a fissure swallows Petrović.
The film is set in an alternate-reality Earth. In 1899, The Martians launched an unprovoked attack on the major nations of the world. In Leeds, England, a younger Eric Wells watches in horror as a Martian Tripod lays waste to his city and then kills his father and mother. But before it can kill him, the Martian Tripod suddenly keels forward and crashes into the ground. Over 140 million people were killed by the Martians, and many of the great cities of the world were destroyed until the Martians were killed off by Earth's bacteria, against which the Martians had no defence.
The story is set in an alternate reality America circa 1985 under the authoritarian control of President Fremont. It makes liberal references to the collected works of Philip K. Dick.
On January 5, 1900, four friends arrive for a dinner at the house of H. George Wells (Rod Taylor), an inventor. Their host is late and his housekeeper, Mrs. Watchet, has served dinner in his absence. Bedraggled and exhausted, George staggers in. He takes brief refreshment and begins to describe the strange experiences he has had since the last time the group met.
L'histoire débute en décembre 1921. Un mystérieux message est envoyé aux radios du monde entier, simplement trois mots : « Anta… Odeli… Uta… » que les spécialistes ne peuvent déchiffrer. Dans une station de Moscou, l'ingénieur Los et son collègue et voisin l'ingénieur Spiridonov reçoivent ce message. On apprend ensuite qu'ils élaborent en secret les plans d'un vaisseau spatial.
Years later, Frankenstein, now going by the alias of Dr. Stein, has become a successful physician in Carlsbruck, catering to the wealthy while also attending to the poor in a paupers' hospital. Dr. Hans Kleve, a junior member of the medical council, recognises him and blackmails him into allowing him to become his apprentice.
During 1964, in the months following World War III, the conflict has devastated the northern hemisphere, polluting the atmosphere with nuclear fallout, killing all life there. Air currents are slowly carrying the fallout south; the only areas still habitable are in the far reaches of the southern hemisphere.
Phineas T. Barnum (Burl Ives) and friends finance the first flight to the moon but find the task a little above them. They attempt to blast their rocket into orbit from a massive gun barrel built into the side of a Welsh mountain, but money troubles, spies and saboteurs ensure that the plan is doomed before it starts...
Frankenstein, a young student, is seen bidding his sweetheart and father goodbye, as he is leaving home to enter a college in order to study the sciences. Shortly after his arrival at college he becomes absorbed in the mysteries of life and death to the extent of forgetting practically everything else. His great ambition is to create a human being, and finally one night his dream is realized. He is convinced that he has found a way to create a most perfect human being that the world has ever seen. We see his experiment commence and the development of it in a vat of chemicals from a skeletal being. To Frankenstein's horror, instead of creating a marvel of physical beauty and grace, there is unfolded before his eyes and before the audience an awful, ghastly, abhorrent monster. As he realizes what he has done Frankenstein rushes from the room as the monster moves through the doors Frankenstein has placed before the vat. The misshapen monster peers at Frankenstein through the curtains of his bed. He falls fainting to the floor, where he is found by his servant, who revives him.
Years after the events of the last film Baron Wolf von Frankenstein (Basil Rathbone), son of Henry Frankenstein (creator of the Monster), relocates his wife Elsa (Josephine Hutchinson) and their young son Peter (Donnie Dunagan) to the family castle in the eponymous village. Wolf wants to redeem his father's reputation, but finds that such a feat will be harder than he thought after he encounters hostility from the villagers. Aside from his family, Wolf's only friend is the local policeman Inspector Krogh (Lionel Atwill) who bears an artificial arm, his real arm having been "ripped out by the roots" in an encounter with the Monster as a child.
Baron Victor Frankenstein is staying at a boarding house while a former fellow-scientist resides in a nearby insane asylum, slowly dying through lack of oxygen in the brain.
Au XXI siècle, le vaisseau spatial Ikarios, dont l'équipage est cosmopolite et multiculturel, mesure le vide intergalactique. Les ordinateurs interceptent soudain un étrange signal extraterrestre : c'est une pluie d'astéroïdes s'abattant sur l'Ikarios, ce qui prive ce dernier de toute communication avec la Terre.
The residents of the village of Frankenstein feel they are under a curse and blame all their troubles on Frankenstein's monster. Rumors circulate about Ygor who is still alive and supposedly trying to revive the monster. The villagers pressure the Mayor into allowing them to destroy Frankenstein's castle. Ygor (Béla Lugosi) attempts to put up some resistance, but the villagers rush the gates and begin to destroy the castle. Ygor, fleeing through the catacombs, finds the monster released from his sulfuric tomb by the explosions. The exposure to the sulfur weakened the monster but also preserved him. Unseen by the villagers, Ygor and the monster flee the castle to the surrounding countryside; there they encounter a powerful thunderstorm. The monster is struck by a bolt of lightning, but instead of being harmed by it, he seems to be rejuvenated. Ygor decides to find Ludwig, the second son of the original Frankenstein, to help the monster.