The Cosmic Man is a 1959 independently made black-and-white science fiction film, directed by Herbert S. Greene and produced by Robert A. Terry.

The narrative concerns an extraterrestrial being who, just as the space age is beginning, comes to Earth bearing a message of interplanetary peace and understanding, only to clash with the military.

The United States Air Force (USAF) tracks an unidentified flying object (UFO) as it passes over the village of Oak Ridge, California at a speed of 180,000 mph (292,500 km/h).

The UFO, a white sphere, comes to rest in Stone Canyon outside of Oak Ridge, floating approximately 6 feet (1.8 metres) above the ground.

Both USAF Col. Matthews and Dr. Karl Sorenson, an astrophysist at the nearby Pacific Institute of Technology (PIT), are called to the scene.

Kathy Grant, a widow whose fighter pilot husband died in the Korean War, runs a tourist lodge near the canyon and also arrives.

Sorenson says that with greater power the sphere could create a sonic blast large enough to "wipe a city off the face of the earth."

The Cosmic Man appears with Ken in his arms, lays him gently on the ground and tells the assembled USAF personnel and scientists to stay well away from the sphere as he leaves.

[2][4] According to American science film historian Bill Warren, The Cosmic Man played on a double-bill with House on Haunted Hill (1959) "in Los Angeles at least.

"[1] A contemporary but undated newspaper advertisement for the Division Street Theatre in Portland, Oregon shows The Cosmic Man paired with Undersea Girl (1959).

[7] BoxOffice magazine reported mixed ratings from the publications it normally surveyed for information about films in its weekly "Review Digest" feature.

The review describes The Cosmic Man as "a science-fiction yarn with a minimum of spine chilling" and calls the film's story "imaginative but believable" and its cast "sincere.

On the other hand, Warren praises "the movies's only real virtue: the sight of this white sphere just hanging there (...) is oddly eerie.

Unlike the other reviewers, Hardy is favourable about the Cosmic Man restoring young Ken's ability to walk and says that "The film's optimistic ending has a certain naïve power.

The review calls it an "interesting low budget science-fiction film inspired by The Day the Earth Stood Still and the general fear of nuclear war in the 1950s."