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Things to Come
1936 · Film · 100 min
Directed by William Cameron Menzies
The story of a century: a decades-long second World War leaves plague and anarchy, then a rational state rebuilds civilization and attempts space travel.
3 positive3 neutralfrom 6 commenters
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6 comments on Hacker News
Well, there was a (now under public domain) movie which predicted WW2 bombings.
https://publicdomainmovie.net/movie/things-to-come-1
On nukes, "The World Set Free" from HG Wells predicted nuclear weapons:
https://www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/1059
Also:
https://gutenberg.net.au/ebooks03/0301391h.html from 1933
> Chaplin wasn't alone in calling out the dangers,
A very honourable mention to Alexander Korda.
Particularly 'Things To Come', his 1936 film warning of the rise of fascism in Europe, global war and the dangers of air bombardment (thereby bringing mechanised warfare to civilian populations for the first time).
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Things_to_Come
And yes, it is based on the HG Wells story.
There is a good british movie from 1936 about future https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Things_to_Come
It seems forgotten but i think it is still great and dusturbing.
Several years ago i went to see a screening of Things to Come, the tremendous 1936 adaptation of H. G. Wells's post-apocalyptic (and then some!) novel [1]. The writer and film critic Kim Newman gave a little introductory talk about the film. At some point, he referred to something that happens halfway through; a shout came from the audience, "Oi! Spoilers!". Newman was so thrown by the idea that talking about the plot of a famous 75-year-old film might be considered a spoiler that he stopped his talk and walked offstage. Which was a shame, as he's very interesting, but the film was great, so it was alright.
[1] https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=atwfWEKz00U
In 1899, H.G. Wells wrote "A Story of Things to Come", which later was adapted become the 1936 film "Things To Come". In the original story, the main characters mention being irritated by the advertisements projected onto the backs of the people they walk behind. Old idea, only now possible without image distortion.
I think it's very unlikely. "Things to come" and "metropolis" were huge in their day, but ultimately didn't have the same effect 2001 did. "M" by fritz Lang is my comparator for a film which defined a genre (film noir)
Elements of many films since 2001 have their moments. "Silent running" was probably the first successful eco scifi. "Dark Star" was the precursor comedy scifi. Nobody much wants to laud "interstellar" or "inception" but both have moments of cinematic genius. "Tron" was Disney lite but a neccesary moment.
I could make a case for the original "Solaris" or "stalker" which are beautiful and more about an inner journey than scifi proper.