Things to Come is a 1936 British science fiction film, produced by Alexander Korda and directed by William Cameron Menzies. The screenplay was written by H. G. Wells and is a loose adaptation of his own 1933 novel The Shape of Things to Come and his 1931 non-fiction work, The Work, Wealth and Happiness of Mankind. The film stars Raymond Massey.
Christopher Frayling of the British Film Institute calls Things to Come "a landmark in cinematic design."
[edit] Synopsis
Spoiler warning: Plot and/or ending details follow.
Things to Come sets out a future history for the century following 1936.
The film begins in the fictional English town of 'Everytown' in 1940, as a global world war breaks out. The war lasts for decades, long enough for the remaining survivors to have forgotten the reasons for it in the first place. Strategic bombing is so successful that civilisation on both sides is totally devastated. Humanity falls into a new Dark Age where the technology level is reduced to that of medieval times, symbolised by an automobile being drawn like a cart by a horse. There is even a medieval-type plague sweeping through the land, known as "the wandering sickness."
In 1970, Everytown is run by a local warlord called Rudolf, a.k.a 'The Boss' or 'The Chief' (played by Ralph Richardson), who is at constant war with the "Hill People" and obsessed with fixing up the old remaining biplanes and capturing coal mines in order to convert the coal to fuel for the aircraft. The Chief consolidated his power over Everytown after having eradicated "the wandering sickness" by shooting all those infected with the disease.
One day, a futuristic aeroplane lands outside the town. The Chief and the townspeople are incredulous when the pilot John Cabal (played by Raymond Massey) proclaims that the last surviving band of scientists have formed a society known as 'Wings Over the World'. They are building a civilisation, based in Basra, Iraq, that has renounced war and has outlawed independent nation-states. The Chief resists by making the pilot his prisoner, but the Chief's mechanic (whom he was using to fix up old biplanes from the war) escapes to Basra in a plane he was testing, and alerts Cabal's scientist friends regarding his capture. [continued]
I wish they'd bring fist of fun and TMWRNJ out on dvd.
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