Klaatu Barada Nikto

In the classic 1951 sci-fi film The Day the Earth Stood Still the alien Klaatu arrives on Earth with a message for the world's leaders. His welcome on arrival was less than warm.

Anticipating that things could go very wrong, Klaatu teaches a human woman this phrase should anything happen to him. Klaatu Barada Nikto is a now common catchphrase in sci-fi. It was a message to shut down the rampage of the robot, Gort, that accompanied Klaatu on his mission to Earth. Oddly enough, no known translation has ever been given for the phrase though "Klaatu" can be presumed to refer to the film's protagonist.

The classic status of the film has led to Klaatu Barada Nikto being hidden in all manner of media from sci-fi to fantasy to comic books to music.

Despite its appearance in the original and even though Keanu Reeves insisted on its presence, the phrase was deliberately rendered almost unintelligible in The Remake.


Examples:

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    Anime & Manga 
  • Whether a coincidence or not, the phrase shows up in the second episode of the Read or Die OVA when Genjo begins to chant while preparing to chant. It's rendered more like klatu barata niktu and only in the dub, but it can still be heard fairly clearly.

    Comic Books 

    Comic Strips 

    Fan Works 
  • In Plan 7 of 9 from Outer Space this is the standard greeting for a Flying Saucer, but no-one has any idea what it means.

    Films — Live-Action 
  • In Army of Darkness, Ash needs to say these three words when acquiring the Necronomicon, or else something bad will happen. And of course when it comes time to say them, he forgets what the third word is. Twice.
    Ash: Klaatu... barada... niCOUGHtCOUGH!
  • Some of the subsequent allusions to this phrase (including some listed on this page) refer to Army of Darkness, which has overshadowed The Day the Earth Stood Still (1951) to some extent. Extremely obvious in Germany. In Army of Darkness's German dub version, the line was "Klaatu Verata Nikto", so every German dub afterwards that considered AoD to be the origin of the reference will have the "Verata" line.
  • In Galaxy Quest, the Thermians come from the Klaatu nebula.
  • In Star Wars, Klaatu and Barada were two of Jabba's Nikto guards in Return of the Jedi.
  • In the Robin Williams movie Toys, the Big Bad tries to deactivate his experimental killing machine with this in the climax.
  • In TRON, a plaque that reads "Gort, Klaatu Barada Nikto" can be seen on the wall of Alan Bradley's cubicle. Oddly appropriate for a programmer on a system like ENCOM's grid.
  • In Chopping Mall, one of the characters says this when trying to pacify a killbot.

    Literature 
  • In the short story "A Sound of Blunder", Klaatu Barada Nicto was the phrase spoken to the Captain Ersatz of the Necronomicon in order to travel through time. Saying it backwards brings one back to our time.
  • In one of the volumes of Animorphs Ax is forced to demorph in front of a human (to his andalite form) when his morph is poisoned. Marco, disguised in morph and speaking for Ax using thought-speak, attempts to convince the human that Ax is friendly using this phrase.
  • In the Star Wars Expanded Universe, the Nikto are a species of reptilian slaves, while Barada and Klaatu are two of Jabba the Hutt's lackeys.
  • In the Stephen King novel The Tommyknockers, a young reporter, John Leandro, is convinced that something is wrong in a small town called Haven. His colleague, David Bright mocks him from it, saying that it's must be "green men from space" and quotes the phrase. (The town is actually controlled by aliens).
  • The Poisonwood Bible gives a brief mention of this phrase when Rachel wants to yell some foreign language at the Congolese villagers, among other options "Bukabuka" or "We like Ike".
  • A series called 'The Klaatu Diskos' has the Klaatu, ghostlike beings made from a transplanted human consciousness. By book two, there have been no signs of either 'nikto' or 'barada', but a horse called Gort has showed up.
  • Leeloo says "Klaatu Barata Nikto" shortly after getting into Korben's cab in the novelization of The Fifth Element.

    Live-Action TV 
  • The phrase appeared in an episode of The Monkees, when Micky Dolenz is replaced by an alien-controlled robot.
  • One of the three passwords in the Room of the Secret Password in Legends of the Hidden Temple.
  • In The Rockford Files, Rockford said it to a rather large chunk of muscle.
  • In Two and a Half Men, when Alan starts sleepwalking, he says it to Charlie as he's put to bed.
  • In a third-season episode of The X-Files, a man pretending to suffer from stigmata begins faking glossolalia (speaking in tongues); one of the phrases he says is this.
  • In a last season episode of Hercules: The Legendary Journeys, this phrase is pronounced as Klaatu Varada Nictu as part of a spell from the Egyptian Necronomicon, a.k.a. The Book of the Dead.

    Music 
  • The band Klaatu is named after the same character. When Klaatu first became known, they were rumored to be the Beatles reunited under a pseudonym.
  • Ringo Starr's solo album Goodnight Vienna uses a still from The Day The Earth Stood Still as its cover art, with Ringo's head replacing Klaatu's.

    Radio 
  • In one episode of the German Comedy Series "Sataan - Die Serie", the titular character tries to use the phrase "Klaatu Verata niktu" (see the Army of Darkness example) to bring the end of the world.

    Theater 
  • The play The Foreigner references this. The main character, a science-fiction magazine editor, ends up scaring off the local KKK with a string of frightening-sounding nonsense, including this line.

    Video Games 
  • In Fallout 2 the hostile Mr. Handy robot guarding the crashed Enclave vertibird in Klamath Canyon says the line "Gort! Klaatu Berada Nictu!".
  • Reunion has a scientist named Klaatoo and a planet named after him with moons called Barada and Nikto. The manual mentions he is a fan of old SF films and the discoverer of the planet Klaatoo. The moons get discovered much later, though.
  • The Lost Vikings 2; in the medieval levels, the teleportation spell is always "Klaatu, barada, something". Needless to say they don't work as desired.
  • In RuneScape, the magic words "Klaatu Barada Nikto" spoken by a certain character trigger a spell that teleports you a place where you can mine rune essence.
  • In Sacrifice, "klaatu", "barada", and "nikto" are three of the magic words that are combined to form various magical incantations; though not necessarily all three together or in order.
  • Mysterio's first appearance in Spider-Man 2, The Game Of The Movie, has him posing as an alien invader, and says this, as well as "All Your Base Are Belong to Us."
  • In World of Warcraft, there are three NPCs named Klaatu, Barada and Nikto.
  • Spyro 2: Ripto's Rage! references this, as a sage in one of the later levels claimed that saying those words would bring Spyro to Dragon Shores (being where he wanted to go at the start of the game). However, he couldn't quite remember the third word, so he dropped the matter.
  • There's a series of helms in Dragonfable named after this.
  • Spike the Clown from Toon Struck says this in response to being told "I believe the spatula is mine!". Did we mention he's an insane clown?
  • In one mission in the RTS Myth II: Soulblighter, a barbarian is sent to say the magic phrase that will awaken Myrdred the Deceiver. Subverted when, even though the barbarian says something like "Clambake Baraka Nictuu", it works anyway... Myrdred wakes up from his thousand-year-sleep, says "close enough", and teleports himself and your troops out of the area.
  • When Globox is trying to open the doors in Rayman 3: Hoodlum Havoc, he can be heard calling out this phrase, among others.
  • In Robot Odyssey, it pops up after solving the final puzzle on the city level.
  • In the "Ebil Dread" adventure from the AdventureQuest Worlds 2nd Birthday Event, the horde of pink undead summoned up by Beleen can only be destroyed by assembling the George Lowe-onomicon and speaking the magic words. As the adventure in question is a Shout-Out to the Evil Dead series and Army of Darkness in particular (including Artix replacing his possessed pink hand with a chainsaw), one can pretty much guess what those magic words are. And much like Ash, Artix...doesn't quite get that last word right. Poor guy.
  • The Peacekeeper in Sword of the Stars, in Pig Latin. It's been nicknamed "Ortgay" as a result.
  • Ragnarok Online the quest in the underworld Nifflheim (part of the very long "Sign" quest) where you speak the magic words "Klaatu Barada Nikto" to a ghost named "Ash", this is another Army of Darkness reference as the title character of that movie is Ash.
  • Uttered by the Advanced Magic Towers in Kingdom Rush.
  • In Poker Night 2 when in the Evil Dead inventory skin, Max will try to say this from the Necronomicon to the first player eliminated, but messes it up (the player is still sucked into the book). Ash even tries to correct Max, but he still messes it up. He later claims he needs his ears checked.
  • One of Gaige's phrases when she summons Deathtrap in Borderlands2.
  • In Dungeons & Dragons Online, the Daelkyr Lord of Eyes, Belashyrra, chants the phrase 'Utaalk Adarab Otkin' in order to close a portal to the Plane of Madness during the quest Acute Delirium.
  • Wizard 101: Yevgeny Nightcreeper says this when he summons Khrulhu.
  • In Mystery Case Files: Huntsville, the alias of Doris Blevins, a hoaxer that disguises herself as an alien to terrorize the locals, is Klatu Barrada Nikto.
  • The enemy robots in Robo Recall sometimes say this upon death.

    Web Comics 

    Web Original 

    Western Animation 

    Real Life 
  • The Mozilla Firefox "about:robots" page has the title "Gort! Klaatu barada nikto!"

http://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pmwiki.php/Main/KlaatuBaradaNikto
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