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An alien planet is doomed to extinction. Inhabitants are insect-like creatures, who communicate through mental telepathy. Two space explorers are assigned to investigate Earth for possible colonization: Zandar is a spoiled brat from the planet’s ruling royal family. His pilot is Hanok, a powerless drone who preaches equality.
Nearing present-day Earth, their spacecrafts goes out of control, entering a temporal fold. It descends on Egypt, Nevada, a silver-mining town in 1885!
Hanok manages to maneuver the craft inside a mountain. The aliens metamorphose into humans. Through a twist of fate, Hanok transforms into a white man, but the royal brat Zandar becomes a black man!
The alien-humans are befriended by Dickie Garrett, a black man whose silver claim is in a cave adjacent to the hidden spacecraft. Hanok and Zandar realize their mental powers are far superior. They can secretly receive thoughts from humans, as well as send them, with the ability to project false images to the unsuspecting earthlings. By means of their brain waves, the aliens use a thin crystal rod as both tool and weapon.
Dickie and wife Sara take the two travelers from the black shantytown in the foothills into the town of Egypt, to Sunday church services. Zandar gets an initial lesson in Earth prejudice, as he and the other blacks are segregated from Hanok and the other whites of the congregation.
Hanok thrives on his newfound power and privilege, as Zandar absorbs a generous dose of humility, learning the meaning of compassion. By reading minds, the aliens discover many secrets… Marcus Vaughn, the most powerful man in town, has hired Phillips, an unscrupulous geologist to covertly take core samples of Dickie’s claim. A wealthy silver vein lies just three feet inside the cave walls. The racist Vaughn intends to steal Dickie’s claim by driving him out of town – or by killing him.
Zandar confides in newspaperwoman Karen Scott, revealing his alien identity. Their mutual trust evolves into interracial love. Zandar helps his fellow blacks stage a 19th-century civil rights protest and foils Vaughn’s mission to get Dickie and the other blacks out of the Nevada town.
Hanok rigs a six-shooter with the crystal rod and simulates a gun which fires continual laser blasts. He plants a vision into the mind of Reverend Isaac Slaughter, convincing the preacher that he is an angel. Slaughter accepts Hanok’s murderous actions as the will of God’s avenging angel.
One-by-one, opposition is wiped out, and Slaughter persuades people to worship and obey Hanok, who becomes an omnipotent tyrant. He descends into ever-increasing depravity: seducing women at will, numbing himself with liquor, and reverting to cannibalism, storing his victims underground in a grotesque “meat locker”.
Vaughn attempts to kill Hanok, using several of his henchmen. At first, the ambush appears to work, but the maniac alien uses his powers to kill the hired guns and finally destroys Vaughn.
The opportunistic Phillips offers his services to aid Hanok in his quest to dominate first the state, then America, and ultimately the world. Hanok plans to show the Nevada Governor a sample of his power and contempt for human life. Through Reverend Slaughter’s misguided influence, Hanok arranges for citizens to board a “Paradise Express” train to Denver, to wait in the mountains for “The Rapture” of God. But his actual intent is to erect a forcefield on a bridge, destroy the train, and send the occupants to their deaths in a deep river gorge far below.
When Zandar tries to show Slaughter that Hanok isn’t an angel, but an alien being like himself, Hanok manages to imprison Zandar. As the “Paradise Express” train leaves town, Dickie and Sara bust Zandar out of jail.
Hanok and Zandar confront each other on the railroad bridge outside of town and battle, as the train heads toward them. The train begins screeching to a stop, bearing down on the two aliens!
Zandar clings to a beam on the outside of the bridge. But, Hanok is wedged between the bridge and the sides of the passing railroad cars, as the lower half of his body is twisted and mangled! The train comes to a stop, just inches from the forcefield. Hanok’s lifeless form drops into the river below, as the train reverses and heads back to Egypt.
Zandar offers to transform the blacks into whites. The blacks all decline, having experienced pride in themselves for the first time and having a better feeling for their future.
Zandar instructs Dickie to strike a spot in the cave wall. After several mighty blows with his pickax, Dickie’s efforts expose the vein of silver. Justice has finally come to Egypt. So has love - Karen leaves with Zandar, as he maneuvers the repaired spacecraft into the sky, bound for his planet.
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