Quatermass And The Pit
1967

Workers excavating a site at the London underground uncover a strange skull. Mathew Roney, an archaeologist, is notified about the find and comes to the site to examine it. He believes that it represents the fossilised remains of our distant ape ancestors, and this he relates to a contingent of gathered journalists. He tells them that it could significantly alter our understanding of human evolution.

Further digging uncovers what appears to be an unexploded World War II bomb.

Colonel Breen, from the Ministry of Defence, and Professor Bernard Quatermass are summoned to see the object. Colonel Breen is convinced the object is simply a German bomb, but when an intact ape skull is found inside the vessel, Quatermass concludes that the truth may lie elsewhere.

Barbara Judd, one of Mathew Roney's colleagues, unearths evidence that the area surrounding the excavation site has had a bizzare history of ghostly sightings. Investigating with Quatermass, they both suspect that those sightings are somehow connected with the discovery of the object in the pit.

When the interior of the object is exposed after drilling, some strange dead locust creatures are found.

Quatermass proposes the theory that these creatures are from a long dead planet - probably Mars. He supposes that when they knew they were dying they tried to colonise the Earth, but the Earth's atmosphere was too hostile for them. So instead they tried to colonise the Earth by proxy, enhancing primitive mens' brains to become masters of the planet.

After Quatermass leaks his idea to the press it causes an uproar. He is summoned by his supervisor to explain himself. Colonel Breen scoffs at Quatermass's idea and puts forward his own proposal, namely that the object in the pit is simply a propoganda tool sent by the Germans to cause widespread panic.

When Quatermass's idea is dismissed as outlandish, colonel Breen's explanation seems even less likely as the the object begins to exert a strange influence on people in its vicinity.