SYNOPSIS

One of the most memorable sci–fi stories ever made, THINGS TO COME also set a benchmark for innovative design and incredible special effects when it was first made in 1936.

It’s Christmas 1940. The people of Everytown find themselves at war against an enemy who had been planning such a conflict for years. The land is devastated by the horrors of aerial bombardment as the war drags on until 1966. There follows a period of despair, with feudal tyrants ruling a downtrodden population also prey to famine and a fatal plague known as ‘The Wandering’. Can the human race rise above its desperate situation and use science for the common good?

Whilst much is made of the influence of METROPOLIS on the sci-fi movie genre, little credit is given to THINGS TO COME yet this film depicts the first-ever cinematic vision of a devastated world, post-war desolation and utopian futurism. Its political foresight is remarkable but its production design is just as astonishing – with its plasma screens, mobile phones and versions of virtually every product Apple has launched in the last ten years, this film prefigures much of today’s design aesthetic. Released in 1936 at 87 minutes, we screen the original director’s version with 20 minutes of never-before-seen footage. The film has been painstakingly restored and we present it in glorious HD.

Arthur C. Clarke insisted on Stanley Kubrick seeing this movie as they began work on 2001…


TRAILER


RELEASE DATE

March 01, 1936

DIRECTOR

William Cameron Menzies

WRITER

H.G. Wells

COMPANY

United Artists Corporation

GENRE

Sci-Fi

CERT

PG

RUNTIME

117 minutes

IMAGES