Kronos is the titular main antagonist of the 1957 black-and-white sci-fi movie, Kronos (also known as Kronos, Destroyer of the Universe). It is a gigantic, slow-moving extraterrestrial robot that came from outer space.
History[]
What appears to be a large saucer shaped meteorite crashes into the Pacific Ocean near Mexico, following an unexplained break-in and assault by a deranged man (in fact, possessed by an invisible alien force) at a secret U.S. research facility. The crashed meteorite soon reveals itself as an even greater menace, with grave implications for the survival of the human race.
At the site of the meteor, a gigantic machine, (nicknamed Kronos by newsmen) appears and makes landfall, where it proceeds to attack power plants in Mexico, draining them of their energy. In doing so, Kronos grows in size, becoming larger as it consumes more and more energy. Kronos is discovered to be an accumulator sent by an alien race that has exhausted its own natural resources. They have sent Kronos to drain the Earth's power and return it to their own dying planet. A scientist, under control of the unseen alien presence, suggests fighting Kronos by dropping an atomic bomb onto it using a B-47 bomber, which is done. Kronos only absorbs the bomb's power and grows to titanic size. It threatens to drain the world's cities and starve the Earth of power, but scientists devise a plan to reverse Kronos' polarity, which causes it to feed on itself. Kronos explodes and the Earth is saved.
Appearance and Characteristics[]
Kronos resembles a large rectangular building, composed of numerous block-like segments and supported by pillar-like legs that propel it. It can sense and will move towards sources of energy such as power plants or radioactive materials. Capable of transforming energy directly into matter, Kronos grows in size and mass as it absorbs energy, becoming truly enormous after absorbing the energy of an H-bomb. It can sense and will seek out various forms of energy, from electrical plants to radioactive material. Despite being invulnerable to normal methods of attack, it is not particularly well-defended, and a scientist is able to land on it using a helicopter towards the end of the film. Nonetheless, walking on its surface is dangerous as the structure is often in motion had has many moving components. As a machine built for a specific purpose, it has only limited intelligence. Kronos is also capable of spaceflight.
The alien presence accompanying Kronos, which was not well-explained by the film, acts as its ally in its quest to harvest the world's energy. This presence is capable of possessing human beings and appears to be independent of Kronos itself.