hile his family opens Christmas gifts, Everytown resident John Cabal (Massey) broods over news of a war scare, little comforted by a friend's suggestion that war at least stimulates progress. Before long his fears are realized: Distant gunfire is quickly followed by waves of hostile aircraft, and Everytown is overwhelmed.
The war drags on for decades until both sides are exhausted and broken. Worse, the survivors face a deadly plague. With few doctors and no medicine, the world's population, already laid waste by a 30-year conflict, is cut in half.
By 1970 a man called the Chief (Richardson) is running Everytown. Shooting the afflicted on sight has ended worries of plague, and war on the "hill people" has the town rallying around him. He needs airplanes to overcome his enemies, though, and his engineer, Richard Gordon (deMarney), growls that without petrol and parts, flying is finished. But even as Gordon is speaking, a strange aircraft lands in their midst. Its pilot is John Cabal.
Cabal, part of a band of scientists trying to push back barbarism, is imprisoned, but Gordon secures his help in salvaging a single plane. The mechanic then escapes to warn Cabal's friends, returning with a fleet of huge airships that bomb Everytown with "gas of peace"; the Chief, seeing the end of his world, is the only casualty.
By 2036 the world is remade, and Everytown is a vast city of soaring towers. But a new discomfort has arisen, given voice by Theotocopulos (Hardwicke). Constant progress--represented by a "space gun" that will shoot man to the moon--isn't wanted anymore, he says. Cabal's descendant must defend progress against the incited masses, first with words and then hand-to-hand while the last-chance firing of the space gun approaches.
A sweeping spectacle
Things to Come is a remarkable film for several reasons, not least for presenting opposing points of view on the issues it raises, a rarity in today's cinemas. Scripted by H.G. Wells and based on his own work, the movie examines the nature of progress. Early on, when Passworthy (Edward Chapman) jauntily suggests that war stimulates advancement, Cabal muses, "You can overdo a stimulant." Later, war rolls back progress until the Chief can rave, "Why was all this science allowed to begin?" The last third of the film pits arguments for slowing down against an insistence on always striving for betterment in a way that lets viewers consider both sides.
Other films attempting this kind of exploration would devolve into a talky mess. Things to Come, however, is as devoted to being visually stunning as it is to being intellectually provocative. The agonies of war are told in a stirring montage of searing images. Later, another montage relates the new era's stunning scientific and industrial growth. Futuristic cities, imaginative airships, and towering structures are impressively realized, in some cases better than later films using more advanced technology.
William Cameron Menzies skillfully directed an excellent cast. Massey, making an early appearance in what would go on to be a long and distinguished career, is the soul of cool, informed reason, especially opposite Richardson's canny but ruthless Chief. Meanwhile, Maurice Braddell's portrayal of Dr. Harding perfectly captures the desperate frustration of scientists whose work is undone by mindless destruction. Hardwicke's angry philosopher is an excellent contrast to the later Cabal (also played by Massey).
Things to Come has as much to say today as it did on its opening night 63 years ago. The extent to which it seems dated is largely a measure of the extent to which science fiction films have moved away from the intelligent discourse pioneered by Wells a century ago.
