is killed. When they take off in a Stinson 108 single engine aircraft, Cal and Ruth watch as the research facility and all its inhabitants are incinerated. Their aircraft is then drawn up by a bright green beam into a flying saucer. Exeter explains that he and his men are from the planet Metaluna and are locked in a war with the Zagons. They defend against Zagon attacks with a planetary energy field, but are running out of uranium to keep it operational. They have enlisted humans in an effort to transmute lead into uranium, but time has now run out. Exeter takes both Earthers back to his world, sealing them in conditioning tubes to normalize the pressure differences between the planets. They land safely on Metaluna, but the planet is under bombardment by Zagon spaceships guiding flaming meteors as weapons against them. The defensive "ionization layer" is failing, and the battle is entering its final stage. Metaluna's leader, the Monitor, reveals that the Metalunans intend to flee to Earth. He insists that Meacham and Adams be subjected to a Thought Transference Chamber to subjugate their free will. He further indicates this will be the fate of the rest of humanity after Metalunan relocation. Exeter believes that this is immoral and misguided. Before the couple can be sent into the device, Exeter helps them escape. Exeter is badly injured by a mutant guard while he, Cal, and Ruth flee from Metaluna in the saucer. The planet's ionization layer becomes totally ineffective as they leave. Under the constant Zagon bombardment, Metaluna begins heating up and turns into a lifeless "radioactive sun". The mutant guard has also boarded the saucer and attacks Ruth, but dies as a result of the pressure barrier differences on the way back to Earth. As they enter the Earth's atmosphere, Exeter sends Cal and Ruth away in their Stinson aircraft, declining to join them. Exeter is dying and the ship's energy is nearly depleted. The saucer flies out over the ocean, rapidly accelerates until it is enclosed in a fireball, and crashes into the water where it explodes. Cast Jeff Morrow as Exeter Faith Domergue as Ruth Adams Rex Reason as Cal Meacham Lance Fuller as Brack Russell Johnson as Steve Carlson Douglas Spencer as The Monitor Robert Nichols as Joe Wilson Orangey as Neutron the cat Production Principal photography for This Island Earth took place from