Pretty Good

As somebody who had not heard any of this before, it became a curious phenomenon to sit and watch a film and slowly have the realities begin to click into place.

Close shines in drama with strong language, adult themes.

The movie really just wants to entertain people.

This is quite a troubling movie. It is so broad in its scope and so cynical in its intent. Until the election of 2016, I thought this was a bit far fetched. Unfortunately, we have our own Cabal for the time being and we hope things don't disintegrate as they could. What we have here is a devastating war which results in the destruction of most of the world. Evil people are doing evil things and technology has virtually disappeared. It has devolved into tribal peoples (naturally) and the prospects for recovery are not good. Eventually, a force develops which has plans to recreate society. The problem is that societal evolution is hard to plan because human beings are the objects of the plan. On the one hand, there are all the incredible advancements brought about by necessity; on the other, a fear of men playing god. This is quite a curiosity. The film's fate depends on restoration because of the kinds of film that were used in those days. This is certainly worth a look, however, even though the quality is quite poor.

It's (big) business as usual in Everytown during Christmas, 1940- but, before you can say "Duck and cover," the bombs are raining down on Jolly Ol' England. Raymond Massey as John Cabal hopes for the best- but War rarely results in "the best." The War drags on for decades and results in diseases like "the wandering sickness." Anyone seen so much as staggering weakly is shot on sight. These are some of the best scenes in the film, with emaciated survivors eking out subsistence among believably rendered ruins. Technology, most are convinced, is a thing of the past... until a plane lands and Cabal emerges in a futuristic helmet and wearing body armor (not unlike Klaatu in THE DAY THE EARTH STOOD STILL). He and fellow scientists have vowed to "salvage the world" and have formed a group called Wings Over The World. The locals are waging war for nearby oil fields, but Cabal rejects the whole notion of "victorious peace through war." Cabal's people arrive to free him from the Tribe, using "the Gas of Peace" to win the day. Says Cabal: "We shall make such use of the treasures of sky and sea and earth as men have never dreamt of hitherto." We then see the techno-marvels at work milking the Earth of its Natural Resources. Everytown becomes a gleaming metropolis- and, in fact, can be viewed in retrospect as a prequel to Fritz Lang's METROPOLIS. With things the way they are Now, at this very moment in history, with our rivers and oceans being poisoned and the land irradiated and the air too toxic to breathe, THINGS TO COME comes across as a tad bit optimistic in its overall future world view. Don't you think...?

I assumed that this film would be about space, astronauts or aliens because of the image I saw from the film, I didn't think to read any description besides the mention in the book 1001 Movies You Must See Before You Die, so I was looking forward to watching it, from writer H.G. Wells (The War of the Worlds, The Time Machine). Basically set in the fictional British city of Everytown in 1940, successful businessman John Cabal (Raymond Massey) was sure a war would happen, and so was Dr. Harding (Maurice Braddell), only optimistic Passworthy (Edward Chapman) was convinced it wouldn't happen, and if it did it would only help the need for technology, but soon enough global war occurred after bombings began. Later some enemy bombers are taken down, and an enemy airman (John Clements) was pulled from the wreckage, and for some time poisonous gas drifted through the air, the war continued for decades that the survivors forgot why it began in the first place, and as a result a Dark Age has taken over humanity. There is little technology besides the firearms by the year 1966, and a "wandering sickness" has infected many vulnerable people, including Mary Gordon (Ann Todd), the daughter of Dr. Harding, and they find it hard to find a cure, and in 1970 we see The Boss (Ralph Richardson), a local warlord rise to power in the south of England with the newfound fuel supply. May that same year a strange aeroplane from a near future design lands outside of Everytown, the single pilot John Cabal (also Massey) comes out claiming to be from a civilisation called Wings Over the World, and he is the one of band of surviving engineers and mechanics based in Barsa, Iraq who have put aside the war. The Boss gets his hands on Cabal and put him with aeroplane repair mechanic Richard Gordon (Derrick De Marney) and forced to work, and a little later the city is attacked with gigantic aeroplanes with sleeping gas bombs by Wings Over the World, The Boss tries to organise a counter attack that can't be completed, and he is killed while the people of the city awaken with the airmen having taken over. Technological progress builds throughout the city as the Wings Over the World carry out global consolidation over the coming decades, and by the year 2036 Everytown and many other places in the world have become modernised underground cities with mankind trying to adapt. Theotocopulos (Cedric Hardwicke) the sculptor however believes that the technology in progress has caused a threat to mankind, there is even the plan to have the first manned spacecraft travel around the Moon, the people called the Luddites want to bring down the governing council headed by Oswald Cabal (Massey again) with his grandson John Cabal. The Moon mission have Cabal's daughter Catherine (Pearl Argyle) and her boyfriend Horrie Passworthy (Pickles Livingston) volunteering, but a large mob rush to the launching sight of the spacecraft, only for Cabal to launch it ahead of schedule to stop destruction, and the final scene sees him deliver a speech about how humanity will always be exploring the quest for knowledge and trying to achieve technological breakthroughs, inventions and discoveries, but a choice must be made as to whether life will be changed for the better or worse with these future happenings. Also starring Edward Chapman as Pippa Passworthy / Raymond Passworthy, Margaretta Scott as Roxana / Rowena, Maurice Braddell as Dr. Harding, Sophie Stewart as Mrs. Cabal, George Sanders as Pilot and Terry-Thomas as a Man of the Future. The story of a city and a world spanning one hundred years of advancing technology is really clever when you consider the modern day now full of great inventions and growing cities, the war element obviously plays a realistic part considering the time it was made, and it has interesting visions of a coming future, I can see the comparison to Metropolis, it is a fantastic science-fiction epic. Very good!

Some startling visual images, including good special effects and shots of panicking extras, helps to raise this to above average.The story and acting are dated. From the modern perspective, the tugging at the heartstrings bits seem trite, forced, and silly. The kiddies in danger scenes are so ham-handed that your eyes don't tear up; they roll. The acting includes an awful lot of shouting of non-dramatic lines, which must have been considered "serious acting" back then, but is just irritating to this modern ear.The scientific prognostication doesn't work well for me either, particularly in that the war itself seems to stagnate in WWI technology; no one invents a better bomb or tactic to win the war. As much as I hate war, I have to admit, it's how we get most technological advances, but the filmmakers didn't seem to get that.The film is notable because it introduces the very first zombies in film, those who have the mysterious wandering disease, a virus that makes them shamble about wordlessly (though they don't want to eat your brains). No doubt this was intended to be metaphor about how war affects people (the filmmakers had seen plenty of shell-shocked WWI vets to give them the idea). If for no other reason, this must be counted a classic s.f. film.