Things to Come: H.G. Wells - SPECIAL EDITION - HD REMASTERED HIGH QUALITY - Cult Science Fiction

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IMPORTANT NOTE: This is a creatively edited remaster of the original film, it has been upscaled, tone graded, denoised and image sharpened by AFLIX using proprietary technologies and software systems, therefore AFLIX holds all intellectual property over this version. Consequently, it cannot be shared, copied or distributed without ALFIX agreement and permission.

Synopsis
In 1940, businessman John Cabal, living in the city of Everytown in southern England, cannot enjoy Christmas Day as the news speaks of possible war. His guest, Harding, shares his worries, while another friend, the over-optimistic Pippa Passworthy, believes that it will not come to pass, and 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 with the unnamed enemy. Cabal becomes a Royal Air Force pilot and serves bravely, even attempting to rescue an enemy pilot he has shot down.

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. Every city in the world in ruins, the economy has been devastated by hyperinflation, and there is little technology left other than greatly depleted air forces. A pestilence known as "wandering sickness" is inflicted by aerial bombing and causes its victims to walk around aimlessly in a zombie-like state before dying. The plague kills half of humanity and extinguishes the last vestiges of government.

By 1970, the warlord Rudolf, known as the "Boss", has become the chieftain and eradicated the pestilence by shooting the infected. He has started yet another war, this time against the "hill people" of the Floss Valley to obtain coal and shale to render into oil for his ragtag collection of prewar biplanes. On May Day, a sleek new monoplane lands in Everytown, startling the inhabitants who have not seen a new aircraft in many years. The pilot, a now elderly John Cabal, emerges and proclaims that the last surviving band of engineers and mechanics have formed a civilization called "Wings Over the World". They are based in Basra, Iraq and have outlawed war and are rebuilding civilisation throughout the Near East and the Mediterranean. Cabal offers the Boss the opportunity to join Wings, but he immediately rejects the offer and takes Cabal prisoner, forcing him to repair the obsolete biplanes and render them airworthy.

With the assistance of Cabal, the Boss's disillusioned mechanic Gordon contacts Wings Over the World. Gigantic flying wing aircraft arrive over Everytown and saturate its population with a "Gas of Peace" that temporarily renders them unconscious. The people awaken to find themselves under the control of Wings Over the World and the Boss dead from a fatal allergic reaction to the gas. Cabal promises them that Wings Over the World will usher in a new age of progress and peace.

Under Cabal's guidance, Wings Over the World quickly rebuilds civilization to even greater heights. By 2036, a stable mankind is now living in modern underground cities, including the new Everytown, and civilisation is at last devoted to peace and scientific progress. All is not well, however. The sculptor Theotocopulos incites the populace to demand a "rest" from all the rush of progress, symbolised by the coming first crewed flight around the Moon. When the mob threatens to destroy the space gun that will launch the ship to the moon, Oswald Cabal (the grandson of John Cabal and current head of government) is forced to move the launch ahead of schedule.

Oswald Cabal's daughter Catherine and fellow scientist Maurice Passworthy are the astronauts. As the projectile is just a tiny light in the immense night sky, Cabal debates the desirability of human progress with Passworthy's anxious father. To Passworthy's concerns that humanity shall never be able to rest, Cabal retorts that humans have no choice but to conquer the universe and its mysteries: "All the universe or nothingness? Which shall it be, Passworthy? Which shall it be?"

Cast
Raymond Massey as John Cabal/Oswald Cabal
Edward Chapman as Pippa Passworthy/Raymond Passworthy
Ralph Richardson as Rudolf, "The Boss"
Margaretta Scott as Roxana Black/Rowena Cabal
Cedric Hardwicke as Theotocopulos
Maurice Braddell as Dr. Edward Harding
Sophie Stewart as Mrs Cabal
Derrick De Marney as Richard Gordon
Ann Todd as Mary Gordon
Pearl Argyle as Catherine Cabal
Kenneth Villiers as Maurice Passworthy
Ivan Brandt as Morden Mitani
Anne McLaren as The Child (2036)
Patricia Hilliard as Janet Gordon
Charles Carson as Great Grandfather (2036)