Forbidden Planet

Monsters from the Id: A Late-Night Discussion on Forbidden Planet

The whiskey was smooth, the night warm, and the movie had just ended.

Jessica leaned back in her chair on the porch, stretching her legs out in front of her, watching the glow of Sam’s cigarette as he exhaled a slow stream of smoke.

“Well,” Sam said, tapping the ash into a tray, “I’d forgotten how much of a head trip that movie was.”

Jessica smirked faintly, swirling the last of her drink. “You’re telling me. I went in expecting robots and sci-fi pulp, not an existential nightmare wrapped in Shakespeare.”

“You should’ve known better,” Sam murmured. “The best sci-fi always circles back to the same thing, us. Our minds. Our fears. Our limits.”

Jessica didn’t argue. He wasn’t wrong.

“Monsters from the Id,” she said, staring into her glass. “That line hit hard.”

“Because it’s true,” Sam said simply.

Jessica exhaled, thinking back to the film. Dr. Morbius and his creation. The Krell and their downfall.

A civilization with near-limitless technology. A people who had built wonders beyond human understanding.

And yet, in the end, they destroyed themselves.

Not from war. Not from invasion.

But from their own minds.

From the things they had buried deep inside.

Jessica tapped a fingernail against her glass. “So what do you think it means?”

Sam didn’t answer right away. He took another slow drag from his cigarette, staring at the dark waves beyond the porch.

“I think it’s the same thing Sartre always said,” he murmured. “Hell isn’t other people, Jess. It’s us. The worst things in the world don’t come from out there.” He gestured vaguely at the horizon. “They come from in here.” He tapped his temple.

Jessica smirked faintly. “Spoken like a man who reads too much existentialism.”

“Spoken like a man who’s seen what people do when they can’t control their own demons.”

Jessica’s fingers tightened slightly around her glass.

She thought about that.

About Dr. Morbius, who had unlocked the ultimate power of the Krell, only to be killed by the subconscious force he couldn’t control.

About the things inside her own head. The memories that weren’t hers. The ghosts she had spent years fighting. And she wondered— Had she ever been any different from him? Had she spent her life running from things that were never outside of her at all? Had she been chasing ghosts, or had she been chasing herself?

“You’re thinking too hard,” Sam said, watching her.

Jessica exhaled a soft laugh. “Can’t help it. The movie hit close to home.”

Sam smirked faintly. “Yeah. You would relate to a man who got destroyed by his own subconscious.”

Jessica arched a brow. “You saying I’m my own worst enemy?”

Sam took a sip of his drink, unbothered. “Aren’t we all?”

Jessica shook her head, but she couldn’t argue. Because that was the truth, wasn’t it? She had spent her life fighting external enemies. Vanguard. Mr. Black. The people who had hunted her. But at the end of the day, the biggest battle had always been internal. Not against them, but against herself. Against the past, the doubt, and the weight of memory and identity.

“The Krell had it all,” she murmured. “Technology that could shape worlds. They could’ve been gods.”

“And they wiped themselves out,” Sam finished. “Because no matter how powerful we get, we never stop being human. We never stop carrying the things inside us.”

Jessica exhaled, staring into her glass.

“So how do you stop it?”

“Stop what?”

“The monsters from the Id.”

Sam was quiet for a long moment.

Then, softly,  “You don’t.”

Jessica glanced at him.

He shrugged. “You just learn to live with them.”

Jessica leaned back, staring up at the stars. Maybe that was the answer. Maybe the past, the doubts, the ghosts... maybe they never truly left. Maybe you didn’t erase them. Maybe you just stopped letting them control you.

“Monsters from the Id,” she murmured again.

“Yeah,” Sam said. “But maybe not all monsters are bad.”

Jessica smirked faintly, finishing the last of her drink.

Maybe not.