Things to Come

Plot synopsis:
In the British city of "Everytown", businessman John Cabal (Raymond Massey) cannot enjoy Christmas Day, 1940, with the news everywhere of possible war. His guest, Harding (Maurice Braddell), shares his worries, while his other friend, the over-optimistic Pippa Passworthy (Edward Chapman), believes it will not come to pass, but if it does, it will accelerate technological progress. An aerial bombing raid on the city that night results in general mobilisation and then global war.
Cabal, now piloting a biplane, shoots down a one-man enemy bomber. He lands and pulls his badly injured enemy (John Clements) from the wreckage. As they dwell on the madness of war, they have to put on their gas masks, as poison gas drifts in their direction. When a little girl runs towards them, the wounded man insists she take his mask, saying he is done for anyway. Cabal takes the girl to his aeroplane, pausing to leave the doomed man a revolver. The man dwells on the irony that he may have gassed the child's family and yet he has saved her. A gun shot is then heard.
The war continues into the 1960s, long enough for the people of the world to have forgotten why they are fighting. Humanity enters a new Dark Age. The world is in ruins and there is little technology left, apart from the firearms used to wage war. In 1966 a biological weapon called the "wandering sickness" is used by the unnamed enemy in a final desperate bid for victory. Dr. Harding and his daughter struggle to find a cure, but with little equipment it is hopeless. The plague kills half of humanity and extinguishes the last vestiges of central government.
By 1970 a local warlord called Rudolf, but known as the "Boss" or "Chief" (Ralph Richardson) has risen to power in southern England and eradicated the sickness by killing the infected. He dreams of conquering the "hill people" to obtain coal and shale to render into oil so his biplanes can fly again.
On May Day 1970, a sleek, futuristic aeroplane lands outside of what remains of Everytown. The sole pilot, John Cabal, emerges and proclaims that the last surviving band of "engineers and mechanics" have formed a civilisation of airmen called "Wings Over the World". They are based in Basra, Iraq and have renounced war and outlawed independent nations. The Boss takes the pilot prisoner and forces him to work for Gordon, a mechanic struggling to keep the Boss's remaining aeroplanes flying. Together, they manage to repair one of them. When Gordon takes it up for a test flight, he leaves to alert Cabal's friends.
Gigantic flying wing aircraft arrive over Everytown and saturate its ruins and population with sleeping gas globes. The Boss orders his biplanes to attack, but they prove to be ineffective. The people awaken shortly thereafter to find themselves under the control of the airmen of Wings Over the World and the Boss dead from a fatal reaction to the sleeping gas. Cabal observes, "Dead, and his old world dead with him ... and with a new world beginning".
A montage follows, showing decades of technological progress, beginning with Cabal explaining plans for global consolidation by Wings Over the World. By 2036, mankind lives in modern underground cities, including the new Everytown.
All is not well, however. The sculptor Theotocopulos (Cedric Hardwicke) incites the populace to demand a "rest" from all the rush of progress, symbolised by the coming first manned flight around the Moon. The modern-day Luddites are opposed by Oswald Cabal, the head of the governing council and grandson of John Cabal. Oswald Cabal's daughter Catherine (Pearl Argyle) and Maurice Passworthy (Kenneth Villiers) insist on manning the capsule. When a mob later forms and rushes to destroy the space gun, used to propel the projectile toward the Moon, Cabal launches it ahead of schedule.
Later, after the projectile is just a tiny light in the immense night sky, Oswald Cabal delivers a stirring philosophical monologue about what is to come for mankind to his troubled and questioning friend, Raymond Passworthy (Chapman), the father of Maurice. He speaks passionately to progress and humanity's unending quest for knowledge and advancement as it journeys out into immensity of space to conquer the stars and beyond. He concludes with the rhetorical questions, "All the universe or nothingness? Which shall it be, Passworthy? Which shall it be? ..."

Tags: anti war, philosophical

Review:
If the Chrysler Building really were a rocket ship and could fly past the moon and stars and comets of art deco friezes...if we could look into those naive mindsets, whose visions of man's destiny were being energized by the discoveries of relativity, atomic energy and deep space...we might indeed embrace the images of "Things to Come".Some of the scenes may strike us a corny - as might those of Fritz Lang's "Metropolis" - but they are no cornier in their context than those in "2001, a Space Odyssey" or, for that matter, "Starship Troopers".
The film shows the destructive nature of war and how is will catapult us back to a state of barbarism, warlords, and another Black Death-like plague called the "wandering Sickness."  However, because man clings to science, man will rise above all this and create a new, modern society free of warfare.
"Things to come" along with "Metropolis" is the must have for any Sci-Fi buff, representing the foundation of this genre, that is to flourish in 50's and 70's, with ideas and effects that originated in these two films, which set the marker in Science Fiction to this day.
However it is one of the most futuristic movies of all times, since it predicted many events of the near and far future, such as World War II and the way it will be fought, that only German military in those days was prepared for, globalization in the shape of scientific community called Wings Over the World that is imposing it's rule to indigent and retrograde nations that are "not in sync" with world order (like John Cabal said to The Boss, "we don't approve of sovereign and independent countries"), technical achievements of the future (LCD screens and architecture, which for the truth of the matter came earlier than 2036, but still..), use of helicopters which in 1936 were only experimental aircraft, and general opinion that the scientific progress is in reverse equation to human happiness.H.G. Wells was dreamer and a prophet of Jules Verne size, and his dreams are put to the screen many times, but very few of them carry the look and the feel of "Things to come", if you love Science Fiction this is an alphabet movie.
Visually it is a wonder to behold, but the script allows too many intellectual speeches about war and progress.This gets very corny when the actors are given to recite a lot of high minded messages at all times.Raymond Massey and Cedric Hardwicke,both great actors,come off as quite a pair of fanatics.
In many ways, the sets look highly reminiscent of the "modern cities" featured at the 1939 WORLD'S FAIR.I think the movie is also interesting because it seems torn by the question "are people really THAT stupid or are we destined for greatness?" The end result seems to be a little of both!
Were almost 80 years past the point that Wells wrote The Shape Of Things To Come on which this film is based and no closer to the world he describes than before, in some ways farther away.Though such well known players as Raymond Massey, Ralph Richardson, and Cedric Hardwicke are in the cast, they're more caricatures than real characters.
While this film stands the test of time as a science fiction classic, its importance may not lie in its depiction of future wars, pestilence, and rebuilding.
In reality, intellectual cinema has been achieved more often in the decadent West's commercial movie business: most notably by Kubrick in "2001" and, 32 years earlier, by Korda and HG Wells in "Things to Come".Don't look to this flick for well-rounded characters, a coherent A-to-B storyline or naturalistic dialogue and body language.
In the long montage of rebuilding Everytown, laser cutting technology and computers are implied: the movie was released the year Alan Turing's famous paper on computable numbers was written.More than "The Private Life of Henry VIII", "Things to Come" stands for Korda's rescue job on the British sound film.
His character almost comes across as the new Christ sent to save the world from its own destruction with the new religion of science.This is a good piece of cinema history whose themes are still relevant today even if its vision of the future missed the mark..
I consider Things To Come (1936) essential viewing for anyone who's at all interested in the history of Science Fiction on celluloid.Yes - At times Things To Come may be a bit slow and noticeably dated, but all is easily forgiven once the viewer is treated to the spectacle of its impressive "art deco" set designs and the awesome fleet of futuristic aircraft.Global war takes place in 1940 where the battle is long, dragging on for decades.
With nothing being manufactured anymore, society breaks down into primitive, localized communities.Following a devastating plague in 1966, which almost wipes out everyone on the planet, slowly, but surely an organization called "Wings Over The World" is formed with the sole purpose of rebuilding civilization.The year is now 2036 and we find the world's population now replenished (to some degree) with everyone living in vast underground cities of tall, gleaming towers and fantastic monorail transportation systems.For its time, Things To Come is, in many ways, quite impressive.
Taking the time to look at this movie as if you saw it in a Picture Palace in the year of its release, you would not realise the film's significance until you had seen the start and end of WW2.
H.G. Wells story the shape of things to come was made into a movie in 1935.very well made science fiction tale about a war that lasts for decades.great cast includes;Raymond Massey(arsenic and old lace) Sir Cedric Hardwick(ghost of Frankenstein)Ralph Richardson(time bandits) and Margaretta Scott.early glimpses of helicopters,holograms,a rocket ship,and futuristic cities.this film was ahead of its time.directed by William Cameron Menzies(invaders from mars)its very enjoyable much like the earlier movie metropolis(1927)but avoid the so called sequel the shape of things to come,that was made in 1979.
Things to Come is an early Sci-Fi film that shows an imagined world, or "Everytown" through 100 years.
"THINGS TO COME" Movie Review by kWRiceHere is another wonder filled science fiction film from a different time and place.
You've probably seen his work before, "Around the World in 80 Days," "Pride of the Yankees," and "Gone With the Wind." He did not direct after this Sci-Fi epic opera he and Mr. Wells created, but his film imagery, sets, and design are very recognizable.That imagery is very effecting.
G. Wells' astonishingly dull monograph, this gloriously awful film made before the War portends the future.After a devastating war with the Germans, the world is broken down to a post-apocalyptic state, eventually brought back to civilisation by the 'Airmen' and their wonderfully impossible Art Deco air machines.The scenes then switch to the future in 2036, where the population lives in a Grecian idyll (?!) in large blocks of flats with no windows and they have managed to invent flat screen televisions only 70 years after Sir Clive Sinclair.A plan to send to send a couple to the moon in a 'space gun' (how they can get back is not explained) is opposed by a noisy senator and the population rebels against the gun for unspecified reasons.
The sets are outstanding and very impressive, the idea of a devastating world war starting in the late thirties seems like prophecy for a 1936 film, the dictator of "Everytown" is pure Mussolini and Raymond Massey is just charming, believable and ideally cast as "the hero".
The positive tone towards technology and progress is quite refreshing by todays usually pessimistic standards - especially the finishing scene which always brings a tear or two to my eyes, even after watching the film so many times.This movie is good on TV but it was made for the big screen, so if you have an opportunity to see it in some cinema.
Nowhere is the theatrical excess more evident than in the performances of RAYMOND MASSEY and RALPH RICHARDSON, each engaging in scene-stealing tactics whenever they share a confrontational moment.The last half-hour of the movie is the most intriguing, as it shows the progress of industrialization, accompanied by images of modern tools, equipment and machinery and the evolution of society into 2036.But for a film that deals with futuristic ideas and imaginative content, the treatment is strictly mired in the film-making techniques of the '30s with melodramatic performances and a script that is loaded with pompous characters and speeches that sound as though all the actors are directing their words to a theater audience.
Beginning with a long war, a plague that results from it and then the gradual development and advancement of progress via the latest technology, "Things to Come" offers a fascinating insight into the evolution that our world would supposedly undergo during that aforementioned time period.
In 1969, while United States astronauts were busy being the first known human beings to walk on some body other than Earth (and while a certain Massachusetts U.S. Senator was busy killing one of his campaign workers), ABC television was busy presenting clips of science fiction movies, comparing them to the realities of science, at least the science of 1969.One of the clips, and one I still remember even after those 47 years, was the stirring speech near the end of "Things To Come."As Ayn Rand wrote "Atlas Shrugged" mainly to present the long speech by her hero John Galt, and as Charles Chaplin produced "The Great Dictator" mainly to present the barber's speech near the end of that movie, so apparently was "Things To Come" made for its great speech.On 9 August 2015 I clicked On Demand to watch this classic again, and again I am stirred and moved and enthralled.Yes, it is somewhat stilted and very much an allegory, and maybe even over-done in spots, but it's far better to put aside any skepticism and especially cynicism and watch it with the context in mind: It's 1936 and Europe has still not recovered from The Great War, which is known now as World War I.
An organization called "Wings Over The World" is committed to peace, and they manage to take over Everytown, using their newly developed "gas of peace." The movie then skips ahead again to 2036, to the point at which humanity once again seems civilized and technically advanced, with a gigantic "space gun" getting ready to blast people to the moon, which, strangely, is declared to be in "the right position" for the next two or three months.
Whilst Menzies will probably be mostly remembered as a production designer (winning an Oscar for work on 1939's Gone With the Wind), he did also direct a personal favourite '50's science fiction classic, Invaders From Mars (1953), which also highlighted political fear like Things to Come, in the shape of communism - and the ever-growing concerns of senator Joseph McCarthy.www.the-wrath-of-blog.blogspot.com.
The story, based on a H.G. Wells novel, begins with an outbreak of a World War 2 in 1936 and follows the 100 years of fictional history of human society devastated by war and then raising again to space travels and industrial development.
By the by, The Chief struck me as quite Churchillian at times in manner and speech...and in the movie he is a jolly rotten chap...I wonder if that was reflection on Churchill?).Some points of interest in the film: * Some of the shots of the destruction and ruin of Everytown (the city where the story is set) are good...it's not el cheapo looking special effects (that 'honour' belongs to the acting, as far as the "el cheapo" tag goes).* Post-war, plague kills over half of humanity...it's vaguely like a zombie movie in this part of the movie (the 'zombies' are humans who have 'the wandering sickness', which, from memory, was caused by a gas used as a weapon...but Wikipedia mentions it as being of virus origin).* The final monologue of the film is actually good stuff...like I said, a lot of the performances and dialogue earlier in the film struck me as being amateurish.* Many actors play multiple parts in this film...characters who span the 96 years of the story.
It seems to me that genetic determinism is taken for granted in this movie.* The vision of the future can be interesting: wrist phones; moon trips via a 'space gun'; prospect of colonising other planets; "the gas of peace" (!); * Unironic notions of a 'better world'......I'm not sure how today's audience would respond to the pure capitalism lauded in the film..."Excavate the eternal hills"...it's like B.H.P. or B.P. or Enron have become beacons of hope!
Wells, one of the most important exponents of science fiction, seems to have an ambiguous attitude towards progress; while the villains in the film are portrayed in a somewhat one-dimensional manner as either despots (Ralph Richardson) or agitators (Cedric Hardwicke - replacing Ernest Thesiger), the over-optimistic hero Cabal (Raymond Massey) comes off as no less ruthless in his drive for evolution.
(Yes, a lot of sci-fi films are set in the future, but this one sets out to tell the story of how that future comes to be, which is a different thing entirely.)Unfortunately, that's also this film's inherent weakness: Trying to compress a hundred years of history that hasn't happened yet into an hour-and-a-half movie is just naturally going to leave little space to flesh out your characters.
Besides the fascist overtones of Wells' New World Order, his convictions about the "Freemasonry Of Science" as the basis for an ideal ruling class appear touchingly naive in the light of subsequent events.In the first major section of the film (following a prologue set at the beginning of the war on Christmas Eve, 1937) Raymond Massey plays John Cabal, a former fighter pilot who lost his family in the first air raids thirty years previous.
(Any such contraption would have reduced the capsule's occupants to a thin layer of meat paste on the deck before it even left the muzzle!) But hey, smutty-minded types like me can still have a lot of fun with the obvious Freudian implications.Though the score by Arthur Bliss -- like the dialog -- is occasionally a bit overwrought, it also contains some real gems, particularly the final chorus, as it echoes Oswald Cabal's challenge: "Which shall it be: All the universe or nothing?" Corny, yes, but it still sends a shiver down my spine...As a historical document -- particularly in light of other science-fiction films of the same period by British and German studios -- or for anyone interested in how the mid-1930s envisioned the future, this movie is worth viewing at least once.
As civilization breaks down and destroys itself, the war eventually comes to an end and then we see how it's rebuilt into the future.H.G. Wells' was rather lucky as he was able to adapt his novel into the screenplay that this movie was based on.
The sets, costume design and the effects are just beautiful to look at and you can't help but be amazed at the craft.The film basically takes place at different eras and I thought this was an interesting way to tell the story.
Things to ComeThe first thing to do in a post-apocalyptic world is execute all the psychics for not warning us ahead of time.Thankfully, the citizens in this sci-fi movie received many declarations of war.An air raid on Everytown from an unknown adversary sets off a global conflict that finds resident John Cabal (Raymond Massey) enlisting as an airman.Decades later, the war-torn town is devoid of technology as society has deteriorated into a dystopian wasteland controlled by warlords.But engineers have created an advanced civilization in the desert that will lead humanity into a new technological age.Exploring the evolution of humanity through the ashes of war and regenerative powers of progress, this 1936 adaptation of H.G. Wells' novel may suffer from longwinded diatribes but its unique narrative and stylized set designs are worth it.Moreover, dystopian futures are the reason the sewer housing market is so hot right now.Yellow Lightvidiotreviews.blogspot.ca.
H.G. Wells was a great writer of science fiction in his earlier days, but by the time he wrote the screenplay for Things to Come, he had run out of gas and was more interested in preaching than coming up with an imaginative story.
The final third act of the movie, set in the new futuristic society in 2036, is an improvement but doesn't save the movie.Nevertheless, "Things To Come" is still worth seeing for what it attempted to do; for where it fell short; and to better understand the fears of what was considered total war back then (poison gas bombs destroying civilization) that were prevalent in the late 1930's..
Released in 1936 and based on HG Wells' 1933 book, "Things to Come" envisions a future that suffers three decades of world war, a human-made plague and a new one-world order that opens the way for space travel.
To come to this point we must first endure a second world war that lasts 30 years and destroys the planet, thrusting us into a new Dark Age. As such, this is a post-apocalyptic movie with the corresponding 'mutants' (the plague victims) decades before that genre came into vogue.While I reject socialism (which is basically communism with a smile), there's a lot of truth to Wells' message, which was that the individual's life and actions are inconsequential when compared to the purpose and progress of the entire human race.
The problem with "Things to Come" is the story itself, which focuses on three basic times: 1940 (which was five years in the future when the film was made), 1970 and 2036.
Wells was way off, however, in regards to humanity making it to the moon, which took place 70 years before his prediction.In its day I'm sure this was an amazing movie, dull characters & tale or not, but great films hold up over time, like 1933's "King Kong" and 1939's "The Wizard of Oz." "Things to Come" generally doesn't.