[3][4] From Cape Shark in the Australian desert, the United Nations launches an atomic rocket on a crewed Moon mission, but one of the engines malfunctions.

Engineer Peter Leduq, a boastful ladies' man, bets that he can thaw frigid co-worker Katie Dandridge with a kiss within six days, unaware she can hear him over the intercom.

To make matters worse, scientists find that the cluster will pass the Moon, causing tidal effects which will flood coastal regions.

Due to the climate change wrought by the cluster, Cape Shark's air conditioning must remain at maximum power to keep the temperature low enough for the base's calculator to determine all the firing data.

Mary explains that they were waiting until the last minute to board the plane in hopes that he would join them, and so they heard the announcement of the asteroid disaster and headed back to Cape Shark.

[5] Some earlier films such as Mario Mattoli's comedy 1,000 chilometri al minuto feature scientists involved in space research, but that aspect had little relevance to the plot.

[6] Some earlier American science fiction films such as Invaders From Mars were only released in 1957 in Italy and received considerable financial success.

"[7] This was also corroborated by production assistant Armando Govoni who stated Black Sunday was "not Bava's first film, he had already directed a picture for Paolo Heusch.

[9] To film the large sphere surrounded by a halo in the skies over the city, Bava projected slides of world landmarks onto a opaque silk screen with a brute light behind it.

"[10] Rustichelli commented that "It was difficult to create a new sound for this particular genre; you must remember that this was very crude science fiction; it wasn't 2001 or a Star Wars.

[11] The Day the Sky Exploded was released on VHS and Betamax in the United States by Sinister Cinema and on DVD by Alpha Video.

[14] In Phil Hardy's book Science Fiction (1984), a review stated that "the picture's main asset is Bava's excellent cinematography; both acting and direction fail to transcend a poor script.