In 1940 in Everytown, England John Cabal (Raymond Massey) and his family are having Christmas dinner. Their guests are Dr. Harding (Maurice Braddell) and Pippa Passworthy (Edward Chapman). The talk of the day is the growing rumors of war. John is concerned, as is Dr. Harding. Pippa has a more positive outlook of the future and besides if war happens it would be good for the economy.
But war does happen. A world war. The war lasts until 1966. By the time it ends a good portion of the world is reduced to rubble and most have no idea why they were fighting. The younger people have never known anything but war. The economy is destroyed and war and plague have decimated the population. Governments tumble.
What rises out of the ashes are small communities run by war mongers. In Everytown the head of the land is Rudolf (Ralph Richardson). The people refer to him as “The Boss”. He runs the town with an iron fist. He starts a war with the people of the Floss Valley wanting to take their coal and shale to turn it into oil to run his broken down planes. He believes that he can win the war if he has the right weapons. He needs his planes to fly.
In 1970 the residents of Everytown hear an unfamiliar hum. Out of the sky comes a futuristic plane. The pilot is John Cabal. He tells the people of Everytown that he is part of a surviving group of engineers and mechanics known as “World Communications”. They are creating a civilization of airmen called “Wings Over the World”. They no longer have war and they are rebuilding civilization. They want Everytown to join. Boss likes being Boss and he likes making war. But eventually civilization wins and the warlords of the world are overcome. Wings Over the World rebuilds the world and civilization progresses to the year 2036. The world is now at peace and scientific advancements have brought the world closer to utopia. But utopia is in the eye of the beholder.
“Things To Come” AKA “H.G. Wells’ Things To Come” was released in 1936 and was directed by William Cameron Menzies. It is a British science fiction and war film based on the 1933 story “The Shape of Thing to Come” written by H.G. Wells. Wells also drew from his other written works “A Story of the Days to Come” written in 1897 and “The Work, Wealth and Happiness of Mankind” written in 1931. The film was made in collaboration between producer Alexander Korda, director Menzies and writer H.G. Wells.
The movie “Things to Come” is what is known as retro-future. As in films like “Metropolis” 1927 or “Just Imagine” 1930 the future, to those in the twenties and thirties, looked slightly art deco with geometric patterns, minimalism and everything happened up in the air. It wasn’t just planes that flew but cars as well. A little like “Blade Runner” 1982 but a lot cleaner. And everything looked like incandescent light bulbs.
Even though the film talked about ending war and developing the world using science to utopian-esq glory the film seemed a little gloomy to me, despite Oswald Cabal’s (Raymond Massey) semi-encouraging speech at the end. The first half is about war, disease and dictators. When we get to the utopia part there is still unrest. The sculptor Theotocopulos (Cedric Hardwicke) is unhappy and angry with progress. He wants it to stop so he can rest. He incites the populous to destroy progress. If we’re not making war on each other than we’re making war on the future. Man never seems to be satisfied. If that’s the case then how can we ever reach utopia. And if we did would we destroy that too?