⚡ Byte-Sized Overview:
A century-long war devastates the world, followed by a plague and then a techno-utopia where humanity aims for the stars. It’s 1936’s bold prediction of what the next hundred years would bring — spoiler: not all of it came true.
🎬 Things to Come
Release Year: 1936
Director: William Cameron Menzies
Written by: H.G. Wells
Starring: Raymond Massey, Ralph Richardson, Margaretta Scott
Subgenre Tags: Futuristic Sci-Fi, Utopian Sci-Fi, Dystopian Sci-Fi, Political Sci-Fi, Speculative Fiction
Watch it now on Prime Video | Buy it in 4K Ultra HD | Buy it on Blu-Ray | Buy it on DVD
⌛ Why Things to Come is a Sci-Fi Icon (and a vintage mind-melter)
Before Star Wars, before Star Trek, before everything, H.G. Wells asked:
What if we imagined the entire future of humanity in one movie?
Things to Come is ambitious as hell — a sprawling vision of global catastrophe, reinvention, and a final push into space. It’s basically the entire first half of the 20th century in fast-forward, with a futurist spin and some of the most stylish Art Deco spacewear you’ve ever seen.
🔍 Deep Dive Highlights
- The Great War: Begins in 1940 (well, they weren’t too far off).
- The Wandering Sickness: A pandemic wipes out what war didn’t.
- Everytown: A symbolic city rebuilt from the ashes.
- Wings Over the World: A technocratic order of airmen who restore peace and science.
- The Space Gun: Literally a massive cannon to launch humans at the moon.
- Capes. So Many Capes.
📼 Spoiler Mode: Story Sync for Pub Chat
Spoilers ahead — but also, predictions made with 1930s confidence.
The film opens in the fictional English city of Everytown, just as a second world war begins (set in the “distant future” of 1940). The war drags on for decades, collapsing civilization into a pre-industrial chaos. Then comes the Wandering Sickness, a plague that finishes off the infrastructure and most of the population.
Eventually, a high-tech organization called Wings Over the World emerges, flying sleek planes and wearing matching uniforms. They use science, order, and strong branding to reunite the world under reason and technology.
By the year 2036, Earth has become a gleaming utopia of glass towers and optimism — and humanity is preparing to launch its first manned mission to space via a giant space gun.
But not everyone is on board. An angry mob wants to stop the launch, fearing that humans are pushing too far, too fast. The movie ends with a famous monologue about progress, fear, and humanity’s destiny among the stars — a poetic mic drop from the future.
🧠 Things to Come Core Question
Can reason and science build a better world — or will fear always pull us backward?
🎲 Watch If You Like:
- Sweeping, high-concept sci-fi with vintage flair
- Old-school speculative fiction and future predictions
- Giant space cannons, utopian speeches, and cinematic history
🛰️ Want to Go Deeper?
- Watch the trailer on YouTube (expect booming narration, bold predictions, and enough capes to clothe a small planet)
- Explore the cast and trivia on IMDb (features a script by HG Wells himself and the kind of futurism that wears polished boots to launch people into space)
Watch it now on Prime Video | Buy it in 4K Ultra HD | Buy it on Blu-Ray | Buy it on DVD
