Original subtitles

Journey to the Beginning of Time

Screenplay by Karel Zeman / J. A. Novotný

Cinematography by Václav Pazderník / Antonín Horák

Music by E. F. Burian

Cast

Directed by

Our logbook. The diary of our journey.

My friends and I, we just had the best holiday ever!

We went on a voyage of discovery - back into prehistory.

Like other boys playing Cowboys and Indians.

There were four of us.

That's me, Peter, holding the book.

In the middle is Georgie, the youngest in our team.

Beside him is Jack.

Tony isn't there. He took the photo. But you can see his shadow in the corner.

He was our photographer.

And here, by the cave, where that cross is, that's where Georgie found this.

That's what started it all.

This is not any old stone. It is a fossilized trilobite.

Georgie didn't know that trilobites had died out long ago,

so he wanted to see a live one.

He didn't understand that, long ago, this was a seabed covered by an ocean of trilobites.

It's only thanks to their fossils that we even know what they looked like.

So he could imagine it better, we showed him on this chart

how there were 500,000,000 years between us and this trilobite.

And if he wanted to see a real one,

he'd have to go back into the past,

right down these giant steps:

past the Ice Age,

through the Tertiary,

down to the Mesozoic

and the Paleozoic,

and all the way back to the Silurian seas and the trilobites!

So he could understand it better, we took him to the museum.

He looked at more fossils, a lot rarer and a bigger.

Tony even took a picture of him with a mammoth.

Georgie loved it,

but was sad he would never see one alive.

If there were only mammoths like that out in the woods, that would make Georgie's day!

Dead bones and artists' impressions just aren't the same.

What Georgie really wanted was to see them move!

So when he read the Jules Verne book about people going to the centre of the Earth

and seeing "antediluvian monsters",

he thought we could do the same.

And since almost everything in Jules Verne books came true,

we decided to go.

To sail upriver into that cave,

our magic cave!

That's where our journey began...

Ice...

- Seriously, there's ice here. - Never mind, keep rowing!

We're still moving, aren't we?

Yes, but it will soon get worse.

Look at all that ice!

That looks really like the Ice Age.

We'll never get past that icepack.

Even an icebreaker wouldn't make it!

We'll have to make it.

First put on something warm!

Georgie put this on!

- Down over the ears or you'll get frostbite!

Hand me the lamp.

Here we go!

Careful, Georgie!

Don't worry. It can take us.

Guys, get out and we'll drag the boat over the ice, like a sled.

Good idea. Come on guys!

Let's go!

Come on.

A little bit further.

Everything in the boat!

It will be alrightas long as we keep moving!

It won't be easy...

Take some. They've got jam in!

Thanks, they're super!

We must be careful with this, Georgie.

It's our expedition logbook.

Let's write something now!

And so we wrote our first entry,

how we made our camp in the Ice Age.

That really was an Ice Age -

our faces and fingers were frozen stiff, but that didn't matter.

We were just happy we got this far.

Georgie was the happiest of all,

he got exactly what he had wished for

- an adventurer's trek into the great unknown.

The next day we were back on our way again

on the open river.

There was a lot less ice now,

and the further we got, the more bushes and trees there were just like back home.

Then the ice disappeared completely.

- Guys! Look over there! By the fir trees!

- It's a mammoth! - Really!? Let's get closer!

- A mammoth! A real mammoth, boys!

What a giant!

- Hurry up, let me see! - Me too!

Quickly!

- Let me see, for goodness' sake! - Quiet, you guys!

- He's not paying any attention to us at all!

Hello!

Hello! Hellooo! Hellooo!

Mr. Mammoth, are we in the right place - in prehistory?

Hello!

Sit down!

When we set up camp, we talked about nothing but the mammoth, especially Georgie.

It was much better than the one in the museum.

It was real, a live animal.

The first one we'd seen in the prehistoric world.

We set off at first light.

There were still some glaciers on the horizon, but the landscape had changed completely.

Everything was green now and it felt almost like home.

But water from the glaciers was flooding the river,

and we couldn't row against the strong current.

Jack, look! A path!

Right there!

Guys, what did you find?

Come and have a look.

Wait, I'll pull you in.

Don't fall! Easy now, hold tight!

It's some kind of a path.

- The mammoths must have made it.

But there are no tracks here.

Maybe animals come here to drink.

Let's see where it leads.

Why not! Come on!

- Careful, don't go in! You never know what might be inside.

Look. There's a campfire!

Look. There's a campfire!

- A prehistoric hunter. - What if he's in?

- I don't think so. There's too much grass here.

- Wait, I've made a torch. - Okay, you go first!

There's nobody here.

Someone was here and he made a fire.

And he was a hunter, look!

Now that's cool!

And heavy.

What is it anyway?

What do you think Peter?

They must be deer-antlers.

- Boy, I'd like to have seen that one! He must have been, amazing!

- And strong, carrying two hundred pounds on his head!

What's over here, guys?

Gentlemen, it won't budge.

How about this one?

Let me see.

- Wow, that is a bone! Must be a mammoth's tusk.

Yes, but only about a third of it.

Think about it guys!

Let's take it with us.

Sure, and who's going to carry it?

Here's another find, Peter.

That's the caveman's axe.

He attacks mammoths with this?

He must be a hell of a fighter.

A brutal savage...

Just as well he's not home right now...

Guys, if he

comes back...

I don't know,

but there's a tunnel back there...

- OK. We'd better check. Just in case...

Careful, Jack!

Peter!

Animal Paintings!

Bison.

That was our biggest surprise of all in this cave,

those animal paintings.

That hunter had etched his thoughts and feelings right there on the rock.

He hunted deer and bison,

but he could also paint them,

like a master.

We'd all seen the mammoth by the river,

but none of us could have drawn it like he did.

The caveman stopped being just a butcher of animals for us.

We no longer feared him.

He was a human being, just like us.

- Peter, you sure we can't take anything?

- No, Georgie. How do you think we'd carry that?

- Tony was right. - Pity.

- Tony's gone outside already! Come on, let's go after him.

We have to move on.

Tony, where are you going?

Don't worry, I'll be right back!

- Catch up! We're going back to the river!

I'll just get a few more pictures!

Tony!

Tony!

We called in vain.

Tony wouldn't let go of the caveman's trail.

He wanted to find him and get a picture.

It would be the first photo ever of a live caveman.

He imagined what a sensation it would be,

so he went further and further into the woods,

deeper into the unknown forest...

- Can you see him? - No.

- Look harder! - Can't see him anywhere.

- So get down, and we'll have to go look for him.

- Something must have happened to him.

Look! Do you see that?

Look, over there!

- Peter, do you know what they are?

Woolly rhinos, I think.

Definitely! Woolly rhinos!

So the fight is over.

- Georgie, let's go! We have to find Tony.

We're wasting time.

Guys, it's swimming towards us!

- Georgie, what's wrong with you? What are you doing?

- Shush! Don't talk! There, on the ridge! He's coming this way!

Who's coming?

The caveman, with a spear.

Look! Behind the bushes!

- Tony! - Tony, wow! Look at you!

- Guys! You have no idea what I've just been through!

- Where have you been? - I've been looking all over for you lot!

- Show me! - That's nice, isn't it?

Guys, make some space.

Stand there with the spear,

Tony, like a hunter.

This will be some picture!

Get away, I'm taking the photo.

Look this way. Smile!

All done!

Tony finally dried out by the fire.

And I dutifully put everything in the log.

We wondered what would come next.

Most of our journey into the past still lay ahead of us.

Millions and millions of years before the time of mammoths

lay the Tertiary,

our next stop.

- This is cool! - This is great!

- Welcome to the Tertiary! - Hooray!

Sweaters off or we'll burn up.

Just like summer back home.

- Georgie, do you see that? Flamingos.

Look,

over there on the other side!

This was an animal paradise,

like you'd imagine in Africa.

There were gazelles, antelopes, giraffes

and elephants.

Only this was not our elephant.

This one was different - a Tertiary elephant,

with tusks growing from its lower jaw,

not like ours whose tusks

grow from the top down.

Then there was this predator, also with tusks

teeth actually -

sharp as a sabre.

On the hint, it would kill on sight.

It was one of the most fearful beasts of the whole Tertiary.

Georgie wished we had a rifle,

but it was better we hadn't.

We were on a scientific mission, not a safari.

We just had to let nature be,

and observe.

Georgie!

Georgie!

Where is the kid gone again?

You just can't watch him!

Better go look after him.

- I'll go this way and you go there. - OK.

Georgie!

Georgie!

Georgie!

Georgie!

Georgie!

Georgie!

Georgie!

Hear that?

It's Peter.

He can't find him either.

Come on.

- Georgie! - Georgie!

Georgie!

Georgie!

Georgie!

Guys!

What were you thinking?

Can't you hear?

- Never mind that... just give me a hand here!

Wow!

What a catch!

You did it!

Must be ten kilos at least!

He looks tasty!

We'll have a feast tonight!

When we all got back to the boat

and saw how proud Georgie was,

we couldn't stay mad at him.

It was a fine catch after all!

So we named

that Whale Bay

in Georgie's honour.

We gave all the mountains and bays names,

like all serious explorers do.

We used them for the maps in our logbook.

That is Thunder Mountain,

because we got caught there in a dreadful storm.

It was wild!

- We decided to stay the night on the boat.

We couldn't really light a fire in the rain

and were afraid

to camp out without one.

First watch fell to me.

The rain finally stopped,

and it was a calm tropical night.

I was thinking about everything we'd seen so far,

and then about home.

What was that?

Nothing, Georgie, nothing at all.

Just the lamp.

Nothing but a small flame,

but it helped us so much.

As long as we had it, we felt safe.

What must it have been like

when Man lit the first torch,

when he discovered the secret of fire!

Since then, he's truly become the master of all creation.

Man as we know him.

Give them here!

Boy the water's cold today!

Georgie!

Georgie!

Get the Fire! Quickly!

Quickly!

Take that!

Swim to the boat!

Row! Let's get out of here!

The rest of our ride

was like a trip through a wonderful zoo in the Tertiary.

There were different animals

everywhere we looked,

too many to name.

What a monster!

Never seen anything that ugly before!

It has an even weirder name.

Uintatherium.

What?

Uintatherium.

- Uintataterium! - Did you make that up?

What a tongue-twister!

Stop laughing you lot!

It's scientifically correct.

It's not a joke.

Science needs names,

so they have to make them up,

like for that thing.

They always use Latin or Greek,

so they can be understood all around the world.

Made-up names sound okay in science,

better than in ordinary language.

I mean, it wouldn't sound good

if it was called "bumpyhead" or "bubblenose",

or whatever.

"Uintatherium"

sounds a lot better.

Georgie, time to get up, it's morning!

- Let's go. - Come on!

Peter, hurry up!

Let's move it!

Phorusrhacos.

Look!

See?

In the past whenever people

found parts of these animals, like a talon,

they figured it was from some flying demon.

So we have all these legends about places with dragons and basilisks,

and how strong and powerful they are.

We were about to enter just such a world of dragons.

Not the legendary ones,

the real ones, in the flesh.

As soon as we entered the Mesozoic

Georgie was on the look-out for "monsters".

So far, all we'd seen were bare rocks.

Nothing but stones and sand

No, there's no sign of any dinosaurs.

What about over there? Look at that!

Where?

That's a dinosaur?

That thing?

That's just a turtle,

a perfectly ordinary turtle!

OK, Georgie, see up there?

There's your dragons,

flying beauties!

It's like an air-show!

Yep.

With prehistoric aircraft called

Pteranodons.

They put on quite a show!

- Guys, watch out! I think it's coming down!

Duck!

Georgie!

Watch out!

Hold on! We'll go to the bank!

They're flying away!

Hope they don't come back!

- Must have wanted to see what we were doing here.

Seems we panicked for nothing.

It says here they feed exclusively on fresh fish!

On fresh fish? Excuse me,

that's because they had no people

to eat back then!

You saw how wide its beak was!

Big bully!

Up to the shore, Georgie.

They'll leave us alone now, you'll see.

If only.

I'm soaked through!

Better come ashore, guys.

It's Georgie's turn to dry off.

Hey, guys,

look at these trees!

Plants and bushes everywhere!

Over there, it's like a forest!

Almost like

trees back home.

Especially those tall ones.

Pines, right?

- They look like them, but they're called Araucarians.

They're full of resin,

so they should make a great campfire.

And below them, what look like mini-palm trees,

they're cycads.

Some of them survived all the way

into modern times,

but the animals changed

in all sorts of ways over the years.

Georgie! Peter!

What's that?

What do you think it is?

A Styracosaurus!

You'd think, going by the horns on its collar

it would be pretty mean,

but in fact it was a dumb giant.

Its skull might be two meters,

but its brain was small

as a cat's.

Some faster reptiles passed us by,

but too quick for us to spot them!

And this lumbering fortress

is Stegosaurus.

It looked like a animal robot

built by some mad professor!

The shields protected it from attack.

It was like a knight in armour!

Bigger than a tank!

And when in danger,

it could use its barbed tail like a mace!

- There were lots of weird creatures in the Mesozoic.

We saw another

passing a rocky shore.

It was like half duck, half kangaroo.

What they called a Trachodon.

Jack!

Shush!

I drew a picture of it,

another one for our log!

But our biggest catch of all,

and the longest chapter in our log of the Mesozoic,

was the Brontosaurus,

probably the largest land animal that ever lived.

The first time we saw it,

we were frozen stiff.

But curiosity overcame our fear.

We decided to go closer.

- That mountain of meat didn't really pose much danger,

since it wasn't very smart.

Its brain was so tiny it couldn't control its enormous body,

so the Brontosaurus had a second brain

down by its backside!

It was lucky it could move at all.

Generally they preferred to stay in the water.

It helped support their giant bodies,

weighing in at as much as forty tons!

- Go slower Jack, so we can check him out.

Don't be afraid.

He's big!

- Seems the mountain is turning towards us.

Yep, he's turning 'round to face us!

- Maybe we should turn around too, just in case.

Alright, to the left.

Guys, guys!

Wait!

I've got to get a picture of it.

Oh that's great!

I can't go without one.

I totally forgot.

Hold on, keep still!

Thanks, we're done!

Look! He's noticed us!

Seriously, he's coming towards us.

I think we should go now!

Good idea!

- ...studying the remains of extinct creatures, palaeontologists

- are able to... - Guys, there's something moving over there.

On the other side, it's like a walking rock or something.

It's a... Stegosaurus!

Pity it's so dark. I can hardly see.

- There! Look at that! There's another one!

It just came out!

- As soon as it was day, we crossed the river

to look at the Stegosaurus.

It had to be dead.

It had been lying in the same place since the day before.

This was our one chance

to see a dinosaur up close, to touch it.

Maybe he's just asleep.

No way, he's dead. Let's get closer!

Yeah, he's a goner.

- Told you so. He's well out of it.

- Close up like this, you can see just how big it is.

Big as a tank.

Hello!

Lucky he's dead!

We can get a really good look at him.

It's not lucky. It's a shame!

He could have been our pet.

Now there's a bright idea!

- I'd like to see you tame a thing that big!

Like Androcles and the Lion!

- Yeah, sure! - Sure, I could!

I'd heal his wounds, that's how!

You know,

like Androcles helping the wounded lion and the lion followed him.

Everyone would be so jealous if I brought him home.

That would be amazing!

- That's true. But there's something more important at stake here, Georgie.

We didn't set out just to get famous or even have an adventure.

We really wanted to know what life was like in prehistoric times.

That was our goal!

We're so lucky to see all this

with our own eyes.

That's why we're here.

So, we should take this chance

- write it all down, draw it and measure it up.

I'll take photos of him

from every side, Peter.

Any details you want.

- Right! Start over here with the head, just back up a bit

and get down lower.

That's fine.

While you do that, I'll measure him and make a drawing.

Bother!... I left the log in the boat.

Georgie, would you go and get it for me?

Me again? Do I have to?

- We'll just get things ready. Go on!

Alright!

Anything for science...

Good man!

Now do the other side and again just the head.

- Peter, I've got a small notepad if you want it.

Thanks Jack, that'll do for now.

Let's measure it by paces. Start right by the head.

- One, two, three, four, five, six, seven, eight, nine.

Nine paces, Peter, to right here.

- Nine steps, that's about eight meters.

Now let's do the plate.

Maybe by hand.

One, two, three, four, five, six,

That makes about sixty centimeters.

And now the width.

One, two, three, four, five, six.

The same, write it down.

Height

and width sixty, right?

It's Georgie!

Something must have happened.

What happened?

A dinosaur smashed it.

From the size of the tracks

it must have been huge.

Did you see it?

No, I didn't.

It was al...already like this when I came.

- This is the end. - We'll never fix this. It's totally wrecked.

The gear's okay.

- The diary! The logbook, guys! It's here! Untouched.

- At least we have that! - But we can't go on.

- Don't cry, Georgie, this is nothing. We'll just build a raft.

- Now that's good! There's no shortage of trees and we can keep going!

Right! We'll make it to the end.

Don't worry, we can do it!

- We won't let a little thing like this stop us, Georgie.

We knew from experience that this fog on the river signaled another change.

It was like a curtain,

behind which a new world was waiting to be discovered,

older and stranger than before.

According to the plan this should be the Carboniferous,

a world of endless swamps and ponds.

It was all kind of depressing and ominous.

There wasn't a single sound.

It was like Nature had been cursed.

Peter, come here!

See, I think I know those trees!

Which ones?

There on the shore.

The ones by the water.

See?

They're horsetails, right?

- Down there by the water, those are horsetails,

but see those next to them?

They're giant moss plants, Lycopodia.

One day, instead of these weird trees,

there'll be a mining rig standing right here.

This is where coal comes from, forming right now below our feet.

Men will come here to mine it one day.

That's still millennia in the future.

Wait, I'll get rid of it.

There sure is a lot of this stuff!

Tony!

Wait, I'm coming.

Guys, that's not going to budge.

We won't be able to sail any further.

What did you expect?

- There's just no way through here.

Okay, so now what?

- We'll walk. We'll just take everything with us.

That's all.

- Don't leave anything behind, guys.

We'll need everything for the rest of the trip.

- Especially the logbook. Be extra careful with that!

Georgie!

Georgie come here!

- Quiet! - Take something.

Quiet!

Do you hear? It's a cricket!

Somewhere over there.

Uh, any excuse.

Typical of him.

What could it be anyway?

- Yeah, you know him. He's always finding something.

- Guys, I just found a carboniferous creature!

Show us!

- Well, I'm no scientist, but that certainly wasn't chirping.

It's a centipede, you cricket-head!

- I know that, but I'll find it, whatever it was.

It's here, I can still hear it.

Don't go too far!

The swamp's dangerous, remember. Don't get sucked in!

Georgie!

Hello! Georgie!

Come back!

- Georgie! - Georgie!

The logbook, our logbook!

Get! Get!

Go on! Get away!

Go! Go!

I'll teach you!

You villain! Get out of it!

Go on! Wow! Go, go on, go!

- Do you hear that? It's him! At long last!

It's coming from over there!

This way.

Let's go get him, boys!

Before he gets soaking wet in the swamp!

It's okay, he heard us!

- Guys, this time we mustn't let him get away with it.

He needs teaching!

- He's certainly earned it, this time.

Hey guys, I'm back.

Glad I found you.

The whistling really helped.

You'll never guess what happened!

This lizard thing, like a salamander, I don'tknow exactly what it was.

Peter would know.

Suddenly it stuck its head out at me and...

know what I did?

- No, We don't, but we know one thing: you're not acting

like a member of an expedition. You're just a boy, and nothing more!

- I didn't do anything... - Swamp everywhere

and you run off God knows where!

I fought it and drove it away,

and it was a terrible lizard!

- Must have been! Look at your pants!

What you need is a diaper.

From now on, you follow us!

You don't believe me!

- That's enough out of you! Now come on!

I really fought it!

- Just get, we have to find a place to camp before the sun goes down.

Georgie take this!

Did you hear me? Take it!

Georgie, come here!

See how great we've made it!

We'll sleep dry tonight!

Sir George is not amused.

What are you looking for?

The logbook. Can't find it!

Packed it myself.

It must be here somewhere

- You put it in the kit-bag, I saw it.

Look again!

I know,

but it's not there.

- Then it must have fallen out along the way.

Or when we went over those trees.

What will I do!?

Not much point

looking for it

in this swamp.

- We don't even know how we got here...

This is bad.

The most important thing we had, that log.

Everything we recorded,

it's all gone!

The logbook, that's it!

- You're not acting like a member of an expedition.

You're just a boy, and nothing more! Isn't that what you said?

Guys, our Georgie.

Sit here!

- So, let me see what it's like here!

This goes in the log!

- Don't forget George battling the salamander!

- And how he found the logbook! That was something!

- Sure was! Georgie's biggest catch so far!

With our logbook back, it was like hope had returned

we nearly didn't finish it.

We crossed the maze of the Carboniferous swamp

and there was just one last part of our journey left.

We stood on the shores of Siluria,

the Silurian Age; rocks and boulders,

as if the whole world was turned to stone.

Not a blade of grass,

not a bush, not even a beetle, just nothing.

Nothing could live here.

The Sea!

For the first time in our lives, we saw the sea,

wide and without end.

The scale of it just overwhelmed us.

And then, somewhere out there in the distance,

at a time so far back, no man can even imagine it,

there was the beginning of all creation,

life itself was born!

So what do you think? Like it?

I like it, a lot.

Is this water salty?

What?

Is the water salty?

Try it and see.

Well? Is it the sea?

- Too bad it's all so barren, so lifeless.

Look, over there!

Do you see that seaweed? That's alive.

For now, it lives only in water,

but when there are storms some of it will get thrown ashore.

Most will die, but some will survive.

Over time it'll get used to the air

and the first plants will grow.

- And one of them will turn into great forests!

Millions of years later!

Guys! I found something.

More life!

Crustaceans.

There must be plenty more in the sea.

That's where these come from.

Let's look for more!

Guys, look what I got.

Do you see that?

- Georgie, you know what this is?

No...

- A Trilobite! - Really?

That is trilobite number two.

You found the one before, remember?

- Yeah, let me see, what did I do with it?

Here it is!

- So Georgie now had two trilobites in his hands.

Lying there side by side and yet so very far away from each other.

Between them lay 500,000,000 years.

That stone

was a piece of the history of our Earth.

Georgie finally understood,

and that was it,

we'd reached the goal of our expedition,

to show him the primeval world as it was.

Neither he nor we will ever forget

what we have seen:

life, always changing, growing,

unstoppable,

like the waves on the seashore!

And so it will go on, never ending,

forever and ever...