It! The Terror from Beyond Space

1973. For the first time in the history of mankind, a manned expedition of ten astronauts was sent to Mars. However, shortly after landing, communication with the ship disappears. To find out the fate of the pioneers, six months later, a second expedition is sent there, the participants of which discover the first ship and only one survivor – the commander. A skull with a bullet hole belonging to one of the crew members is found next to the ship. From this, rescuers conclude that the commander, Colonel Edward Carruthers, killed all his subordinates in order to wait alone, with plenty of water and provisions, for a rescue expedition. The colonel himself denies his guilt, stating that all his comrades were killed by an unknown Martian creature, but no one believes him.

The ship is preparing to launch to take Carruthers to Earth, where he will be put on trial. Just before takeoff, some large humanoid creature sneaks into the ship. Soon, already in flight, it begins to kill and injure the crew members one by one, who have to admit their mistake regarding the colonel's accusations. An autopsy of one of the victims shows that "water and oxygen have been completely drained out of him." The crew is trying to destroy the alien with pistols, grenades, poison gas, electricity, radiation, but all this does not cause him noticeable harm. As a result, noticing that the oxygen consumption on the ship has greatly increased, the astronauts conclude that "this creature needs a large amount of oxygen, since it has huge lungs accustomed to breathing the rarefied air of Mars." Therefore, the survivors put on spacesuits and open the gateway to outer space from the control room, to which the alien has already approached. Uncontrolled decompression kills the creature.

On Earth, a White House spokesman tells reporters that the charges against Colonel Carruthers have been dropped, but Mars exploration will be stopped, "since the real name of this planet is Death."