Things to Come

H.G. Wells' chilling vision of the future, which imagines the 20th Century as a near-endless war and struggle against tyranny, remains a key milestone in British science fiction.

A key work in both British science fiction and the genre as a whole, this speculative fiction imagines, with some prescience, the progression of the remainder of the 20th Century, as tyranny and near-endless war eventually give way to a fragile utopia. Raymond Massey and Ralph Richardson star in this chilling and lavishly designed vision of the future, adapted for the screen by H.G. Wells from his own novel.

The author hated Fritz Lang’s Metropolis (1927) - "I have recently seen the silliest film, I do not believe it would be possible to make one sillier.”, said his New York Times’ review - and vowed to do things differently. On release, Things to Come became the most expensive British film ever made. It survives now in the 96-minute version presented here.