"I wanted audiences to sympathize with it, and you can't do that if it is totally alien. But to ensure that audiences knew it was alien, I added a hint of dinosaur and slowly the Ymir evolved."

The Ymir

Creator: Ray Harryhausen

Film: 20 Million Miles to Earth 1957

Article written by Marc Hartley (Delflord) for The Seventh Voyage.

The Ymir from the planet Venus has the torso of a human being and a reptilian-like appearance and tail. This creature has a metabolic rate that is changed by the Earths atmosphere. The more air it breathes, the more tissue it builds and the bigger it gets. The creature has no heart or lungs but has a network of small tubes throughout its entire body thus rendering the use of bullets against it useless. Its respiratory system includes a fibrous filtering element which blocks out all the poisonous vapours found on its home planet. Sulphur serves the Ymir as vitamins serve us humans. The creature is found to not be ferocious unless provoked.

In the village of Gerra, a young boy, Pepe, finds a canister washed up on the shore from a U.S space rocket (airship XY-21) that crashed in the sea off the coast of Sicily.

  Contained within the cylinder is a gelatinous egg.  Dr Leonardo (of zoology) is persuaded by Pepe to buy the egg from him. One night when the Dr’s granddaughter Marisa (a Dr of medicine) returns to their trailer she finds that the tiny Ymir had hatched from its egg. The creature stands around 12” high at this point and is placed by Dr. Leonardo into a cage on the back of his truck. Over night the animal has more than doubled in size.

 On their way to Rome the Dr and Marisa stop to fix a loose canvas, which covers the creatures cage to find that the Ymir is breaking free and he then escapes into the surrounding countryside.Meanwhile Colonel Calder (the last surviving astronaut from the U.S space rocket) and the authorities have learned from Pepe about his discovery of the canister and egg and of Dr. Leonardo’s purchase of the item from him. With haste they catch up with the Dr. and Marisa who tell them of the creatures escape.

     The Ymir in his wandering of the land approaches a remote farm whereby after scaring the animals with his roar he enters into a barn and finds bags of sulphur used by the farmer. The creature rips openone of the bags and begins to feed on its contents. The farmers’ dog then enters into the barn and a fierce fight ensues as the dog attacks the Ymir. The dog is killed and the farmer now enters having heard the dogs barking and cries of pain.

 Colonel Calder and his entourage, who inform him not to move but to back away from the Ymir, suddenly approach the farmer. The men try in vain to get the creature into a cage but to no avail. The farmer then skewers the creature in the back with a pitchfork only to have the animal kill him.

 The Ymir is then repeatedly shot but due to its physical make up the bullets have no effect and he crashes out of the barn through the opposite side.The creature now much bigger is found to be heading for the sulphur beds at the base of Mount Etna and helicopters and army personnel are sent to pursue it. Sulphur bags are dropped from the helicopters to lure the Ymir to a place whereby a net is dropped onto the creature which when wired up to an electricity supply it becomes electrically charged which in turn paralyses the animal.

 The Ymir is captured and taken to the elephant house in the zoo in Rome. The creature is kept unconscious and has a cable attached to his wrist that has 1,800 volts of electricity coursing through its body. It is discovered that any more voltage would kill it and any less would awaken him. Due to an accident in the lab the Ymir awakes and breaks free. He battles an elephant, which rages on from the zoo grounds out into the streets themselves. More of the army is called as people flee for their lives. The elephant is defeated and the creature momentarily disappears in the Tiber River. He finally emerges from the river when the army fire hand grenades into the water. He re emerges as he breaks through a bridge at Porte St Angelo. More shots are fired upon the Ymir where it then heads for the Coliseum. The creature finally reaches the coliseum and climbs up onto it. Again he momentarily disappears until he is spotted again and bazookas are fired at him. The Ymir meets his demise once he reaches the pinnacle of the coliseum and tanks fire at him and he falls to his death.   

The Ymir Facts

• There was only one version of the model used for the animation, Ray did create a second smaller version of the Ymir which was partially articulated for the long shots a third inflexible model was created for the scene where the professor picks up the creature after it hatches.

• In some early concept drawings of the Ymir, it appeared as a chubby version of the creature. That design was change in for the final version of the Ymir but in those drawings some scenes were used in actual film.

• The Elephant house where the Ymir is restrained was actually an almost bare sound stage in the Columbia Studios in which they constructed a huge table and a observation room.

• What is the definition for "Ymir"? here it is-->   Norse mythology the primeval giant slain by Odin and his brothers and from whose body they created the world: the sea from his blood; the earth from his flesh; the mountains from his bones; the sky from his skull.

   

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Ray Harryhausen

on the Ymir

"The initial design of the Ymir in 20 Million Miles to Earth followed my original idea of a giant Cyclops, with one eye, cloven hooves and two horns. However, when I built the first clay model, it looked totally wrong."

"For the hatching of the Ymir I made a special little Ymir model and placed him in a mould, then poured in a mixture of white gelatine which I left to solidify. During the stop-motion animation, I cut a little section of the gelatine and shot a frame, and then cut a little more and so on, producing and effort of something emerging from the substance."