“Things to Come” (1936) is a British film which presents H.G. Wells’ view of the next hundred years, from 1936 to 2036. Alexander Korda produces, William Cameron Menzies directs and Raymond Massey stars.
H.G. Wells, having written “The Outline of History” (1920), a past history of the world from the formation of the earth to 1920, wrote a future history too, “The Shape of Things To Come” (1933), which goes from 1933 to 2106. This film is loosely based on that book. Wells wrote an outline of the next hundred years, Korda made it into a film.
The film presents a far more hopeful future than either Aldous Huxley in “Brave New World” (1931) or George Orwell in “1984” (1949).
Everytown: The film follows Everytown, a British city, through the hundred years.
In 1940, world war starts on Christmas Day – only a year off. But instead of lasting six years, it lasts 26 years! It features aeroplanes dropping bombs and poison gas on cities. People are killed like ants. The war does not so much end as sink to a lower level, where country no longer fights country, but town fights the hills.
In 1966 comes the plague, the wandering sickness, a sort of zombie apocalypse. There is no cure. A bullet to the head becomes the preferred treatment, ending the plague in four years.
By 1970 Everytown has been bombed out. Britain has sunk into a dark age. Horses pull automobiles because there is little petrol. Aeroplanes too no longer fly for lack of fuel and spare parts.
Wings Over the World: Meanwhile a new civilization, one that calls itself the Wings Over the World, has arisen in the Mediterranean basin and the Near East, apparently based in Basra in Mesopotamia. The remaining airmen, scientists and inventors of the world have banded together to create a new and better world, one where science is used to help ordinary people, not the governments of warlike nations.
The gas of peace: The airmen take over the world with a secret weapon: the gas of peace, a sleeping gas meant for the battlefield.
By 2036, Everytown is a city again, this time underground, with plenty of light and space and warmth, looking like a vast shopping centre. Automobiles now fly (autogyros). Telephones are now a thing you wear on your wrist. What we call television is a plate of glass. Capes are back in style.
But progress has created its enemies.
The Space Gun: Everytown has built a huge space gun that is about to send the first human beings to circle the moon, a man and a woman. That leads to protests. The protest leader, who wants to destroy the gun, says:
“The object in life is happy living. Progress is not living, it should be only the preparation for living.”
But Raymond Massey’s character says:
“Rest enough for the individual man, too much of it and too soon, and we call it Death. But for Man, no rest, no ending.”
He pictures mankind spreading out among the stars.
– Abagond, 2017.
See also:
- My 1949 media diet
- Words not in H.G. Wells:
- Orwell – 1984
- HG. Wells
- How the West tells itself history:
- The future that kind of never was
- 1968: Stand on Zanzibar
- 1982: Blade Runner
- Norman Bel Geddes
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sometimes i have plans i guess it is too grandiose self aggrandizations, i don’t know if it’s a story or something i can do
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eg produce an assembly line in philadelphia for a docsis 3.1+ modem that hooks up to fiber or cable and of course anything out fttd
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It would be nice to spread out among the stars… and get away from Trump for awhile!
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Where’s my flying car?!?!
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The 2036 television and wrist-mounted phone are dead ringers for today’s flatscreen TV and smartphone watch. The flying car idea still hasn’t panned out.
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☀ Space Guns. Excellent for launching cargo and satellites up to 4 tons to Low-Earth Orbit. But it will liquefy, no, evaporate, anything human.
☀ Personal Autogyros: Most people can’t drive for sh!t, so why the raas would you want them to fly?
☀ Capes: Oh God I need one so bad. And we nee one for Trump too. Melania I mean. I need one of those Vampire Hunter D anime capes.
Other than that, the over-awe and over-reliance on airpower and the fear of Eurocide are some of the features that remain today.
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They got the flat screen television right and the wrist phone (Iwatch).
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You just know that Trump has several golden capes hidden in his closet, along with his scepter and his crown, for when he cosplays World Emperor.
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