'The Great Space War') is a 1959 Japanese science fiction film directed by Ishirō Honda, with special effects by Eiji Tsuburaya.

These incidents range from a railroad bridge levitated off the ground causing a train wreck in Japan; an ocean liner lifted out of the Panama Canal by a waterspout, destroying it; severe flooding in Venice, Italy; and the destruction of the J-SS3 space station.

Major Ichiro Katsumiya, Professor Adachi and Dr. Richardson open the conference and describe the disasters, adding that the survivors suffered from extreme frostbite.

These ideas were scrapped because they would have required several optical effects; it was decided that the aliens would use mind control on humans to do their dirty work.

Storyboards for an unused scene had the human astronauts spot a flying saucer go through a tunnel, leading them to the alien base.

These vehicles, which reassembled yellow pill bugs with antennas, did not make it into the final version, and instead the Natarl flying saucers appear during this sequence to attack.

Originally in one of the early drafts, the Panama Canal and Venice were to be destroyed in a fairly major effects scene, but it was decided to save money by using paintings.

Instead of the astronauts keeping their distance and avoiding direct contact with the aliens, Katsumiya takes a strike team inside the Natarl base and succeeds destroying it from within.

In an earlier draft of the script, the Natarl Mothership's anti-gravity beam was used to destroy the Eiffel Tower in Paris, the Kremlin in Moscow, and the Golden Gate Bridge.

When Apollo 11 landed on the Moon on July 20, 1969, ten years after this film was released, Eiji Tsuburaya watched the “Great Leap for Mankind” on live television.

Now, we can hold our heads before the public.” The beginning of the film shows see three flying saucers traveling though space while the credits roll across the screen.

These scenes were taken with the camera platform and the saucers attached to an overhead rail that move them both along at the same speed past the outer space backdrop.

To simulate buildings being torn and thrown up into the air, miniatures were mostly made of lightweight materials such as cardboard, wafer-thin paraffin, gypsum and Styrofoam which was pre-cut and assembled.

The soldiers falling upward was achieved with a camera moving over the actors, and then superimposing them over the miniature action via a traveling matte.

[3] New York Times film critic Howard Thompson gave Battle in Outer Space a mixed, but generally positive review, stating, "The plot is absurd and is performed in dead earnest... some of the artwork is downright nifty, especially in the middle portion, when an earth rocket soars to the moon to destroy the palpitating missile base... the Japanese have opened a most amusing and beguiling bag of technical tricks, as death-dealing saucers whiz through the stratosphere... and the lunar landscape is just as pretty as it can be.

"[4] Boxoffice magazine rated the film much more highly, hailing it a "science-fiction adventure drama on a grand scale... and spectacular special effects... can be exploited to attract the youngsters and mature action fans in huge numbers.

Like similar Japanese-made thrillers, 'Rodan', 'H-Man' and 'The Mysterians' (all produced by Toho), this can pay off boxoffice-wise if exhibitors stress the amazingly realistic trick photography of flying saucers, moon exploration and a full-scale attack on U.S. cities which results in skyscrapers being destroyed, etc..." and makes note of the film's "explosive action, of which there is plenty, particularly in the climactic battle..." Boxoffice also cited Shinichi Sekizawa's "imaginative screenplay.