Plan 10 From Outer Space – A Wacky Mormon Parody

Review by Steve D. Stones

On The evening of November 24th, 2019, I had the great pleasure of meeting local film director Trent Harris for a special screening of his 1995 film - Plan 10 From Outer Space. During this event, Harris autographed my VHS copy of his other 1992 cult masterpiece – Rubin & Ed. The event took place as a film festival at The Monarch building in Ogden – an arts hub for local artists. The event was well attended and director Harris answered questions from fans in attendance. I also had the pleasure of meeting the parents of actress Stefene Russell at this event.

Norman Talmage, played by Curtis James, is a mad prophet in 1853 who buries a bronze plaque near the shores of the Great Salt Lake in Utah. A hundred and forty years passes, and a young and beautiful woman named Lucinda Hall, played by Stefene Russell, discovers the plaque, known as the Plaque of Kolob, and becomes obsessed with decoding its meaning. Kolob refers to a star or planet mentioned in the Book of Abraham, a foundational scripture of LDS theology.

Hall’s brother Larsen (Pat Collins) is a return LDS missionary, who is receiving shock therapy treatments for stealing women’s panties. Larsen begins to see strange hallucinations after his shock treatment. He intercepts messages from outer space. Meanwhile Hall spends her time writing a book but is greatly distracted by her neighbor who dances almost completely naked in front of his apartment window every evening.

While researching Norman Talmage, Hall decides to track down his only living relative – Guy Fonsbeck (Deva Cantrell). Fonsbeck turns out to be the half-naked guy who dances in front of his apartment window every evening. Attempting to decode the Plaque of Kolob, Hall discovers a plot by aliens and their feminist goddess Nehor, played by Karen Black, for world domination to put women in charge.

The most intriguing scenes of this film are of the one-eyed beehive alien in his red space suit with bee wings. Nehor’s animated throne is another great highlight of the film. Director Harris narrates a sequence early in the film about the history of the Nephites and Lamanites in the Book of Mormon.

An interesting connection is made in Plan 10 to Harris’ earlier film of Rubin & Ed. Hall is not allowed inside a music club where Nehor and some aliens are doing a dance. To get into the club, Hall puts a tire hub cap on her head and dresses in a cape. In Rubin & Ed, actor Crispin Glover also places a hubcap on his head to shield the heat of the desert sun. The hub cap connects the two films together.

If you own the DVD or Blu-Ray of Plan 10 From Outer Space, don’t miss the extras of a documentary Harris puts on the disc – Naked Reality. Harris drives around in the desert near the Great Salt Lake salt flats looking for interesting subjects to film. He encounters a dead beetle that crawled out into the desert and died from the heat. Harris talks about living in Hollywood and getting a phone call to go to lunch with Warren Beatty. Look quickly as the end credits roll for a special thank you to Wade Williams – science fiction archivist and collector. Happy viewing.

(The second photo above shows director Harris at far right. Blog post author Steve D. Stones is at far left. The photo is from the above-mentioned 2019 event in Ogden.)