The Beast
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The film's titular Beast, the "Rhedosaurus", is the main antagonist of the film. Though often called a dinosaur, the fictional Rhedosaurus has several differences from any true dinosaur species. For one, it has semi-sprawling limbs, a feature no dinosaur possessed; second, it was portrayed as a quadrupedal predator, also unlike any true theropods. It also features an undinosaurian skull, lizard-like spines, a forked tongue and dragging tail. It has been suggested that the "Rh" in the creature's name are Ray Harryhausen's initials.
A dinosaur whose appearance was based on that of the "Rhedosaurus" appeared in the 1978 film Planet of Dinosaurs, where it was killed by a Tyrannosaurus Rex. Before this, another dinosaur similar in appearance was featured in the 1970 film When Dinosaurs Ruled the Earth.
Read more about this topic: The Beast From 20,000 Fathoms
Famous quotes containing the word beast:
“The motive of science was the extension of man, on all sides, into Nature, till his hands should touch the stars, his eyes see through the earth, his ears understand the language of beast and bird, and the sense of the wind; and, through his sympathy, heaven and earth should talk with him. But that is not our science.”
—Ralph Waldo Emerson (1803–1882)
“Dialect words—those terrible marks of the beast to the truly genteel.”
—Thomas Hardy (1840–1928)