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We know that Morbius has not only increased his intelligence by playing with the Krell technology, but without realizing it allowed his subconscious Id the access to a matter projecting machine with nearly unlimited power. This creates a monster, the "Monster from the Id". This has killed every other surviving member stranded on the planet on arrival because Morbius' ego did not want them to bring back that knowledge.

If we ignore the need to build up tension, Why does the monster first sabotage the ship and then (on the second visit) kill Chief Engineer Quinn instead of just annihilating the whole spaceship?

The only reason I could see personally was that Morbius' ego wanted other people to share what he found out about the Krell and therefore (subconsciously) did not want that the ship leave again.

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    There's no need for spoiler tags on a 58 year old film. Anyone likely to be "spoiled" will have already seen it.
    – Valorum
    Commented Nov 14, 2014 at 23:29
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    @Richard But it's a good film (for sci-fi and the 50s) and the explanation isn't sooo obvious...
    – Thorsten S.
    Commented Nov 14, 2014 at 23:34

2 Answers 2

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Dr. Morbius was of several minds about the visitors. He wanted to keep the secret of the Krell, but he also wanted to brag about his discoveries; he wanted at least some of the crew to stay as companions for his daughter, but boyfriends? His internal conflicts are what brought out the id-monster.

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  • Can you substantiate your answer with any quotes or other sources?
    – SQB
    Commented Sep 13, 2023 at 13:16
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Morbius is not a killer, but he does seem a bit conflicted. He just wants the crew to leave. He didn't want them to land in the first place, but since they did land, he tried to be a civilized host, while at the same time showing off and encouraging them to leave as soon as possible. The death could be seen as an over-escalation of the id creature's behavior.

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  • Can you substantiate your answer with any quotes or other sources?
    – SQB
    Commented Sep 13, 2023 at 13:16
  • @SQB Consider that Morbius himself never took any violent action against anyone, and he built a robot which could easily kill, except that he had programmed it with appropriate inhibitions. The monster from his id had no such inhibitions; it was simply realizing Morbius' desire to be left alone, by whatever means necessary.
    – Anthony X
    Commented Sep 13, 2023 at 22:48

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