Things To Come - a Conspiraloon™ Film Review

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Released in 1936, this 'prophetic' film Things to Come - the work of one H.G. Wells - sought to plant the seeds - or in today's fashionable parlance, memes - of several ideas into the public consciousness in good time for the war that everyone in the know expected to begin within a few years

H.G. Wells was seminal in the role of persuading mass populations via fiction with the aid of the new audiovisual media... in this case persuading the masses that war was not the work of a murderous profit making elite, but that the situation was instead the unavoidable product of child like nations wielding overcomplicated machines, the solution to which could only be found in domination from above and beyond by a militarily superior enlightened army of technocrats

Wells is also famous for persuading Americans that the aliens were coming, which THEY ARE !!! THEY ARE!!!...
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The consumerist delights of Christmas fill the streets, but in and around the rejoicing are other signs...

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Noel Noel is sung to an increasingly war-march like interpretation of the accompanying tune

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At home, a man named Cabal sits
reading portentous headlines
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joined by his friends, Cabal (whose business is "going up" during the war footing) insinuates that war will put a stop to 'progress' and medical research - the notion that war stunts 'progress' is a falsehood, and establishes him as the bearer of misinformation - though he is supposed to be viewed as a bringer of enlightenment, as is demonstrated later in the film
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that same evening, with several generations gathered around the Christmas tree...
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the Grandfather sits holding a child's Christmas toy cannon, and proclaims "nice toys they have nowadays" and ponders whether perhaps "all these new toys aren't a bit too much for them" (toys meaning weapons, children meaning nations) and continues "and I suppose their grandchildren will see even more wonderful things...progress ! progress ! I'd like to see the wonders they'll see"
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Cabal pipes in with "don't be too sure of progress"

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'Pippa' - the foolish everyman to this Everytown - asks what could stop progress ? to which Cabal replies "WAR !" Pippa retorts that "firstly there isn't going to be a war and secondly war doesn't stop progress - it stimulates progress" - of course, progress for the state's apparatus with which to dominate the people is the correct interpretation of progress here. Pippa continues "the last war wasn't as bad as some people make out, something great seemed to have got hold of us"...the intelligent Cabal hates war while the everyman loves war
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long shadows glower over the Yuletide tree
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gunfire and masonically symbolic searchlight patterns - 'rays' of light - herald the coming of war...
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a telephone call and the radio announce:
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Mobilisation !
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THE THREAT OF GAS !...
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...WAR !!

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amid this new fatalism that war is imminent, a classic self contradicting message from the state - whose army converge upon Everytown - bellows from a mobile PA in the square:

"war has broken out suddenly !
there may be an air raid !
but it is not likely to be a very serious one !!
you must be prepared for it !
the danger will not be great !
...the streets will be dangerous !
go home !
go home ! go home ! go home !
get out of the streets !
turn out your lights !
close the windows !
put a wet sheet or a wet blanket over doors and windows !
stay indoors !"

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suitably panic stricken, the mob darts in all directions like an enormous swarm of cockroaches
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Cabal, however, is not afraid
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in a crass show of symbolism from director William Cameron Menzies, Pippa the dangerous simpleton everyman encourages his young son to imitate his war loving father, the child is then seen to march in front of a projection of men off to war, suggesting that their fate will be his if he lives long enough:
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an air raid ensues and bombs and gas are dropped on Everytown
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the dangerous mob loot even as the bombs fall
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the war rages on, becoming ever more aggressive...
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Cabal, now a fighter pilot, shoots down one of the enemy, and upon landing saves him from his crashed plane and asks "why does it come to this ? god why do we have to murder each other ?"
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his new erm, unspecified origin friend tells him: "go my friend, zat is my gas, ze bad gas, funny if I am killed by my own poison" he then gives his gas mask to a little girl who runs over, proving that those who fly - those who possess the highest technology - are honourable at heart, the 'bad gas' was just him following orders after all
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throwing the possibly German pilot a pistol Cabal takes once again to the air with the girl, getting a casual wave of thanks from his former enemy, who laments and laughs at the irony of killing the girl's family and then saving her, before killing himself
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the war rages on through , and is still as fierce in , the shiny smooth tanks used at the peak of the war disappear and the fighting devolves into bloody trench warfare of old, humankind is slipping toward the precipice... passes, the war continues, and a pestilence drifts across the Earth
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Everytown has been destroyed by a decades long war, tribal squabbles and barter have replaced sophistication and mass produced consumer goods, into this primitive clan flies a familiar face, part of a worldwide group of benevolent enforcers of global control, Wings Over the World - who through progress have replaced gas of death, with a sleep agent known as 'the gas of peace'...there's lots more going on this film, i've only scratched the surface...
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...a perfectly reasonable supposition to make is that 'Wings over the World' represents the NWO, a stern but kind elite guardian over the childlike horde - a NWO controlled by the very same people who made the world such a dangerous place to begin with

Wings Over the World is ever overhead and ready to launch its GAS OF PEACE, a global Stockholm syndrome if you will, love your oppressor, as they love you, because without a superior more technologically advanced elite, you'd be pushing berries up your arse and machine gunning the next village into oblivion...this film demonstrates that clearly
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