Actually, there is a guard (displaying a hand-painted 'Air Security' on his helmet) wandering the hallway, but checks the rooms in the same lame way Kruger did. Doug finds out whatever he was looking for and drives away, right past the guard. Hey, don't blame the guard; his helmet says "air security". The "pavement security" guard was out sick. In this universe, I wouldn't be surprised to discover every nation has the formula for atomic weapons, given the security on this base.
Later, back in Kruger's office (THIS is the film that should've been named Office Space), Briggs, Col. Banks, and Kruger investigate the situation. We're halfway through this bore-fest and have yet to see any 'killers', much less anything to do with 'space'. Briggs is told that Doug is the only person not in the room who knew the safe's combination. Briggs also finds a little pile of pipe tobacco in front of Kruger's safe, which matches the kind from Doug's desk. Aha, so that's why Doug put the pipe in his mouth, for the only time in the entire movie. Briggs didn't have to visit Hercule Poirot's office for this investigation, thankfully.
He really didn't know where his finger had been.
A missing person report is broadcast to the local police as we see Doug driving toward the site of the jet crash, which also happens to be the spot on the ground that was glowing in the beginning of the movie. He places a folded note under a rock and is immediately confronted by Briggs, who asks him who the note is for. Doug slugs him and drives away. Eventually Briggs gets up and returns to his car, but leaves the folded note which had been lying right next to him. I guess he has to go get a search warrant for the dirt surrounding the note before he can pick it up.
Doug pulls into a gas station, where the attendant apparently listens to the police radio for fun; don't worry gas station attendants, rock n' roll is just a year or so around the corner! Doug gets recognized by the attendant, but he gets back in his car and drives off. The attendant calls to give Doug's location to the police. This is followed by more stock footage of telephone operators plugging away, so that we are further impressed by this extraordinary technology that had only existed for 78 years before this film was made.
The thrilling potential police chase is nixed, however, as Doug has visions of those big ping-pong ball eyes again and runs off the road to get knocked unconscious. He wakes in the base's infirmary, where all of our main characters observe him. Doug gets paranoid and shouts "…they'll kill everyone!" so at least we get a mention of killers now. Clift the MD gives him a shot of sodium amethol to calm him down and also force him to tell the truth.
Doug finally gives up the goods. He says he had been ordered to deliver information under a rock. Thanks to Briggs, you can count that one as mission accomplished. We get some flashbacks of the floating toy plane from earlier as he now recalls what happened immediately following the crash, leading into a very long flashback scene.
Tired of waking up like this each morning, Briggs finally considered rehab.
He recounts waking up on a table inside a cave. Now we see the film's 'money shot', as three guys with those ridiculous ping-pong ball eyes come into view. Even Doug recounts that they're "horrible eyes" but he probably means horrible as in scary, where we would mean horrible as in the idea and execution of this special effect. Having completed whatever surgical procedure they performed on him, he makes his way over to Denab, the googly-eyed alien that speaks. Denab tells him they're super-advanced scientists. Doug tries to leave but Denab turns on some irritatingly noisy, pointy neon light that makes Doug walk back, even though it didn't look like it had any control over him.
Denab does not prove to be a fountain of information at first. Doug asks where his people are from, prompting "From a planet unknown by you". Doug asks where he is, only to hear "In a cavern in the upper crust of the Earth" Obviously, Denab is ready to be an Apple Support staffer.
Eventually Denab breaks down and reveals that his people are there to absorb the energy from the atomic test explosions going on in the area. He uses the same noisy neon light from before to turn on a monitor, so the noisy light is a multitasker, which helps save garage space, I assume. On the monitor another ping pong eyed alien reports readings and talks in what I guess is their native language: "…neener neener… na… neenu…"; either that, or this alien learned English from a teasing four-year old kid. Denab shows Doug some advanced atomic-related equations and symbols. Conveniently, the aliens use the same math symbols that most of Earth does. Small universe.
More blabber and visuals show the history of the aliens' old planet, from which they had to leave because their dying sun made the place uninhabitable, represented by stock footage of flowing lava. They built cities on new planets, but have to leave those now because of the same problem, sort of like a cosmic version of slum encroachment. Now, they want to make Earth home to all one billion of them. They're not interested in cohabiting with humans, though, so I guess we've finally found our Killers From Space!
Representatives of planet Folgers insisted on a seventeenth cup.
Doug regretted not paying extra for an out-of-network hospital.
Doug freaks out and runs away, though Denab tells him he won't escape the cave. Doug runs into a giant version of stock footage of a tarantula. Next, he sees stock footage of a lizard. He runs off and sees a big roach. See a pattern developing? They're just getting started on this latest bit of time-wasting. Next, another, uglier lizard! Don't forget the tarantula! Back to the first lizard, but now we hear frog sounds for some reason. The lizard eats the tarantula! I didn't mention that between every shot we see poor Peter Graves give a puzzled look and scratch his head. He's like someone that visits the big city zoo all hyped to see the tigers but can't find them.
Disappointed, Doug returns from his visit to the lame local zoo. Denab reveals that his people plan to use the atomic energy they collect to create enormous numbers of those giant, steroided-up creatures to unleash on humanity. Doug asks them what use Earth would be to the aliens if it were full of those creatures but Denab displays his ability to destroy the creatures with ease, using the same pointy neon light from before to accomplish this. Boy, that thing is handy. I wish I knew what it was called, as 'make-guy-change-his-mind / tv channel changer / mutant creature fryer / decorative party lamp' seems like a long name.
