CFT64 Cmdr John J Adams Traditional Cache

This series follows the Captains Flat Rd from Queanbeyan down to Captains flat. Each cache features a captain, real or fictitious. Keep an eye out for mystery clues.

Please note: while this is not a busy road, country traffic will not be anticipating your unexpected stops. Please take all care when pulling over and exiting/reentering your vehicle.

Cmdr John J Adams is the leader of an investigative expedition from the 1956 film "Forbidden Planet".

In the 23rd century, to discover the fate of an expedition sent 20 years earlier, starship C-57D reaches the distant planet Altair IV. Dr. Edward Morbius (Walter Pidgeon), one of the expedition's scientists, contacts the starship. He states no assistance is required, warning the Earth ship away, saying he cannot guarantee their safety. Commander John Adams (Leslie Nielsen) insists on landing.

On arrival, Adams, Lieutenant Jerry Farman (Jack Kelly), and Lieutenant "Doc" Ostrow (Warren Stevens) are met by Robby the Robot, who transports them to Morbius's home. There, Morbius says that an unknown "planetary force" killed nearly everyone and finally vaporized their starship, Bellerophon, as the survivors tried to lift it off. Only Morbius, his wife (who later died of natural causes), and their daughter Altaira (Anne Francis) were somehow immune. Morbius now fears the Earth men are in danger. Altaira, having only known her father, becomes attracted to several of the officers, and a love triangle forms between Adams, her, and Farman.

The next night, equipment aboard the starship is sabotaged by an invisible intruder. Adams and Ostrow confront Morbius the following morning. They learn he has been studying the Krell, a highly advanced native race that mysteriously died out suddenly 200,000 years before. In a Krell laboratory Morbius shows Adams and Ostrow a device he calls a "plastic educator", capable of measuring and enhancing intellectual capacity. When Morbius first used this machine, he barely survived but discovered his intellect had been permanently doubled, enabling him, along with information from a stored Krell library, to build Robby and the other "technological marvels" in his home. Morbius then takes them on a tour of a vast cube-shaped underground Krell machine complex, 20 miles (30 km) on a side, still functioning and powered by 9,200 thermonuclear reactors. Afterwards, Adams demands that the Krell's knowledge be turned over for Earth supervision. Morbius refuses, citing the potential danger that Krell technology poses if it were to fall into human hands prematurely.

In response to the sabotage, Adams orders a force field fence deployed around the starship. This proves useless when the intruder returns undetected, murdering Chief Engineer Quinn (Richard Anderson). The starship's crew later discover it is invisible, only becoming semi-visible as a large creature outlined within the fence's energized force field. Their energy weapons have no effect, and it kills Farman and two other crewmen. Morbius, who has fallen asleep in the Krell lab, is startled awake by screams from Altaira; at exactly the same instant, the roaring creature suddenly vanishes.

Later, while Adams confronts Morbius at his home, Ostrow sneaks away to use the Krell educator; as Morbius had warned, he is fatally injured. Ostrow explains to Adams that the Great Machine was built to materialize anything the Krell could imagine, projecting matter anywhere on the planet. With his dying breath, he also says the Krell forgot one thing: "Monsters from the Id". Adams asserts that Morbius' subconscious mind, enhanced by the "plastic educator", can utilize the Great Machine, recreating the Id monster that killed the original expedition and attacked the starship's crew. Morbius refuses to accept this conclusion.

After Altaira declares her love for Adams in defiance of her father's wishes, Robby detects the creature approaching. Morbius commands the robot to kill it, but Robby knows it is a manifestation of Morbius; his programming to never harm humans conflicts with Morbius' command, shutting Robby down. The creature melts through the indestructible Krell metal doors of the laboratory where Adams, Altaira, and Morbius have now taken refuge. Morbius finally accepts the truth: the creature is an extension of his own mind, "his evil self". He then confronts and disowns the creature as it enters but is fatally injured by the encounter. As Morbius dies, he has Adams initiate an irreversible chain reaction within the Great Machine. He then warns that Adams and Altaira must be 100 million miles away within 24 hours.

At a safe distance in deep space, Adams, Altaira, Robby, and the surviving crew witness the destruction of Altair IV on the starship's main viewplate. Adams comforts Altaira on the loss of her Father as a course for Earth is set.