Things To Come

HG Wells is pretty much responsible for the rise of 20th Century British science fiction. His works are among the most widely-read in the history of the genre, and many writers still reference his stories today. The story The Shape of Things to Come was adapted into the film Things to Comes, and it's less a story than it is a rumination on the path of human progress over a hundred years, detailing war, peace, invention and innovation. It's the kind of film that was designed to make viewers in 1936 ooh-and-ah over the future that was just down the road. And the film was as well-designed as a Rolls-Royce touring car. The art direction is incredibly detailed, and it takes cues from things like Metropolis and makes it a bit more real. Wells himself oversaw the production of the film and under director William Cameron Menzies, they came up with a breath-taking future history. If you can, watch the colorized version, because the colorization was over-seen by Ray Harryhausen and is how they would have made it… if they'd had the money! Why it's on the list The kind of film that makes you think long and hard about how we got where we are, and the missed opportunities along the way.