Villain(s)  Aliens, prehistoric creatures

Actor(s):  William Bryant, Wanda Curtis, Douglas Henderson, Patti Gallagher

Brief Description  King Dinosaur (1955) is an American black-and-white independent science fiction B-movie directed and produced by Bert I. Gordon in his directorial debut. Infamous for its ultra-low budget, heavy use of stock footage, and short runtime of 63 minutes, the film holds a notoriously low rating of 2.2/10 on IMDb and was famously mocked on Mystery Science Theater 3000. The plot follows four Earth scientists who travel to a newly discovered planet, only to discover it is populated by regular Earth animals, giant insects, and a prehistoric iguana masquerading as a dinosaur.

Plot:
In the "far-flung future" of 1960, a new planet named Nova enters Earth's solar system. Earth nations rush to build a space program, and the United States constructs a spaceship to investigate if Nova can support human colonization. A crew of four scientists is assembled and blasts off on a four-month rocket journey. Upon landing on Nova, the scientists discover the planet has an atmosphere and terrain identical to Earth. They begin exploring, but quickly complain about the heat, get lost in the woods, and spend significant time sunbathing and engaging in romantic interludes. They encounter a friendly kinkajou, which they name "Little Joe" and adopt as a pet. As they venture deeper, they face a barrage of hostile native wildlife, including a giant alligator, an enormous snake, giant ants, and prehistoric mammals like a cave bear and a mastodon.

Richard and Nora build a raft to explore a nearby isolated island. There, they are trapped in a cave by the island’s apex predator: King Dinosaur, which is visually represented by a live green iguana blown up to massive proportions using rear-projection special effects. The trapped scientists fire a distress flare. Back at the mainland, Ralph and Patricia see the flare. They grab the spaceship's portable nuclear power supply (which functions exactly like an atomic bomb) and paddle a raft to the island to stage a rescue. They successfully rescue Richard and Nora, but before fleeing back to their main ship, they set the nuclear power source on a 30-minute countdown timer.

The scientists paddle safely back to their rocket just as the nuclear device detonates. A massive mushroom cloud destroys the entire island, rendering King Dinosaur and all other native prehistoric creatures extinct. The movie ends with the scientists casually remarking that they have successfully "brought civilization to Nova" as they prepare to head home.