The Archelon

Creator: Ray Harryhausen

Film: One Million Years B.C 1966

Archelon Video Clip

 

After Tumak gets banned from his tribe he wanders the desert for days and finally collapses of heat exhaustion at the shore of the sea. Lucky for him he has reached the domain of the Shell Tribe, Luana and the women of the Shell are bathing in the ocean when they spot Tumak and decide to help him. But out of the nowhere the Archelon appears behind the desert sand and attacks them. Luana uses her shell to signal for help as she tries to evade the attacks of the creature at one point the creature's limbs almost crushes Tumak but Luana finally gets him out of harms way. The tribe's men arrive and try to fight the creature. They use rocks and spears to try to scare the Archelon away but it's hard shell and rugged skin protects him from the attacks.

 

Luana in the mean time tends to Tumak and seems to care for him and appears to fall in love with the stranger, Finally the tribe lures the Archelon to the sea and after a couple of the minutes the creature swims back into the ocean.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

The Archelon Facts

 

• The Archelon model was the usual metal armature and latex, but it possessed a shell mad of fiberglass.

 

• The spears and stoned were real until they touched the Archelon, at a specific time Ray changed them with miniature copies (the stones were actually tiny bits of cork) suspended on wires and animated to bounce off the model. The real spears and stones had fallen behind the model on the rear projection screen.

Credit: An Animated Life

By Tony Dalton