Original subtitles

The whole world is watching and waiting.

Watching Bacchus, the largest rocket ever built, as she plunges through space

carrying the hopes of the whole world with her.

Object Z is now about 200 ,000 miles away.

And unless we can score a direct hit with Bacchus... Here. ...this horror

outer space... Come on. ...will strike the Earth in nine days' time.

What time do you make it?

Seven o 'clock. Haven't you been to bed yet? No, I stayed up to watch that.

You look awful. I feel awful.

There's some interesting news about Keeler.

They say he's hiding out in the Scottish Highlands with a gang of his bully

boys. Says he will return when his country needs him.

Until then, he'll bide his time.

Well, you'd better get a move on, I suppose.

Where to?

Haven't you heard? The government's moving to emergency headquarters in

Dunstable.

You'd better get down there with Peter. We'll have to cover all this. If there's

anything left to cover after the big bang.

What about you?

I've decided to stay here.

You can't possibly... Don't argue, Diana. I have made up my mind.

Any news here?

No, John.

They're phoning here as soon as it comes through.

How's the shelter position now?

There should be room for about ten million people.

The rest will just have to take their chances.

Of course, we may never need it, you know.

No, possibly not.

Cabinet.

Yes, this is Molly.

Yes, he is. Just a minute.

It's for you, John.

Santa speaking.

Yes.

Yes, yes.

Oh.

Very well, then, I'll say that.

Yes, goodbye.

That was Ramsey.

Bacchus has failed completely.

Object Z is still approaching us.

that Object Z is approaching the Earth on the same course as before and at the

same speed.

As you know, there is not enough time to prepare and fire another rocket, even

if we could be sure that such a rocket could have any effect.

And there is nothing we can do but await the impact with courage and calmness,

as I know you will.

Turn the radio off, Diana.

Tell me for them.

Hmm?

Oh, I was just having a good look at London.

Strange to think that in a short while it may not exist.

I'm glad we're getting out of it.

Wish I could have persuaded Brown to come with us.

Yes.

I don't think the next few days here are going to be much fun.

They're going to be fun anyway.

No, I don't suppose it is.

I don't understand it.

We scored a direct hit with a thousand -maker -ton bomb and we didn't even dent

it.

Evil if it's made of nickel -ion. How do you know it is?

It's got to be. If it was stony, it'd be shattered to bits. How do you know it's

stony? It's got to be either stony or nickel -ion. These things always are.

nothing like this has ever been seen before.

How hot is it?

It's pretty hot after that explosion.

I make it about 6 ,400 degrees.

Well, I'd better get to work with my spectroscope while it's still bright.

It'd be worth finding out what it's made of, wouldn't it?

Yes. Yes, it would.

I'll get on to Harvard and check with them.

There just won't be time to get 25 million people to high ground.

Unless we start now.

Then we must start now. That's all there is to it.

I think it's better to let people take their chance.

There's barely a 50 -50 chance of us surviving anyway.

Why drive people from their homes?

Why frighten them?

It's better to leave them alone.

If moving them gives them a better chance of survival, then of course we

move them.

Come in.

Ah, Ramsey, what's the latest? The speed is increasing.

Object Z is now entering our gravitational field.

So the speed will go on increasing?

Yes. At present it's about six miles a second. By tomorrow it might be nine.

I'm afraid we haven't got six days as we expected.

In fact, it's barely four.

Only four days?

The speed of head -on impact will be at about 15 miles a second.

This is much higher than we thought.

Yes. Of course, the effect will be much greater. I can see that.

We think we can tell you now where it's most likely to fall. Show us on the map.

According to our calculations, it will fall in the Atlantic about 1 ,600 miles

west of here.

Twelve hours before impact, we might be able to give you the point within 200

miles. Suppose it falls here.

Then it will destroy New York and most of New England.

Complete destruction will extend north to Canada, west to the Alleghenies, and

south to Florida.

And here?

Then I'm afraid we should be completely destroyed.

There will be severe shock and flooding from Norway to Morocco.

At east, as far as the Elbe. We must speed up the evacuation.

Start it tonight.

We must get the people out of London within three days.

Get 40 million people out of London in three days? It can't be done. We must

try. It's about time we made a move, John.

The emergency headquarters at Dunstable are ready whenever you want to move in.

Dunstable? Well, at least we shall be safe from flooding there.

I wonder if we shall ever see London again.

must be the vastest movement of population in the history of man.

In World War II, about 2 .5 million people left London.

This time, about three times of many have left the capital, and in about one

-tenth of the time.

As a feat of organisation, it is magnificent.

Police, troops and transport workers have been toiling 12, 15, 20 hours at a

stretch during the past few days.

coping with the incredible numbers of people that must be got out of London if

they are to survive.

And these scenes are being repeated at this moment in countries all over the

world.

I have seen no panic, but these people, however bravely they may hide it, are in

the grip of fear.

When they arrive at their destination, they must ascend into the shelters

prepared for them, and there await the impact of Object Z.

As you see, we have less than three hours to go.

Object Z is barely 120 ,000 miles away, and it may be possible soon to get the

exact point of impact.

But at present we can say no more than that it will strike within a circle east

of Florida and north of the Azores.

The evacuation of low -lying regions have gone well.

As you can well imagine, the task of moving so many millions of people in

short time was immense.

This map shows an up -to -the -minute progress of the evacuation.

As you can see, we are using the normal plotting technique.

Fortunately, in view of the possibility of severe flooding, the government have

built most of the shelters on high ground.

The rest have been fitted with flood -proof steel doors and enough oxygen for

hours. The scientists have assured us... that this will give us an ample margin,

and that the floods, severe as they are likely to be, will have receded within

six to ten hours.

May I ask a question?

I ask.

These shelters, are they going to be any good?

Well, they will improve the people's chances immensely. The main damage is

expected from shock and blast, and the home shelters are proof against that.

If there hasn't been a public tumble, to what we all know, where the shelters

are virtually useless, they might as well take their chance up on the

and we're all doomed. That's absolutely untrue.

We're not all doomed.

I'd better put a few facts straight before we begin.

Now, it's quite true that the home shelters will not be any good.

I've known that for several weeks.

But what would you have me do?

Leave people without shelter at all?

Or worse still, leave them without even the hope of survival?

Why do you think those who went into the deep shelters were chosen by lot?

Because it was the only fair way to do such a thing.

It isn't easy to condemn 30 million people to death.

I'm sorry, sir. I don't think any office appreciates your position.

Well, I hope you do now.

May I ask a personal question?

Certainly. The drawing of lots for the shelters was done.

Were there any exceptions?

None whatever.

Not even to members of the government? Not even to them.

Well, none of us were lucky.

May I ask you... I think I know what you're going to say, and the answer is

I was present at the drawing of lots.

I'm afraid I wasn't one of the lucky ones either.

What time is it, Peter?

Six minutes to go.

Are you frightened?

Yes.

I suppose it'll be very quick when it comes.

Very.

We won't know what hit us.

Oh, hello, Doctor.

Hello.

Well, I suppose everyone must be done in their shelters by now.

Yes, I expect so.

The lucky one in tin.

Well, at least we know where we are now.

Four minutes.

You mustn't be frightened.

Life will go on.

Not ours, but others'. I find it helpful to think that some part of humanity

will survive.

It would be too bad to think of everyone perishing.

That would be death indeed.

Do you think the world will ever recover from this?

Oh, yes.

Quite a few people will survive on the other side of the world.

They'll have to start again, of course.

That's been done before.

Civilization has fallen in ruins before.

Ruins so complete that even the memory of it has been lost.

But man has survived.

Civilization has survived.

We must try and think of that.

One minute to impact.

Looks as though I won't be able to finish this after all.

Pity. I found it rather helpful.

What is it?

Socrates.

He wrote 2 ,500 years ago, but what he says remains true.

Look.

He said, Why should we fear death?

It distresses us not when it is present.

For when we are here, death is not.

And when death is here, we are not.

50 seconds to go.

Hello. Yes, this is Ramsey speaking.

What?

Yes, I will.

Thank you.

That was Rickover in America.

Object Z has gone into orbit.

It will not strike the Earth.

And that you are all safely back in your home?

And the terrible danger which threatened us all has passed us by.

I need hardly say how thankful we all are at such a miraculous reprieve.

Object Z, as you know, is now orbiting the Earth at a height of 1 ,600 miles.

And going round it at the amazing speed of nearly ten revolutions daily.

Why this has happened, we do not know.

Even the scientists are completely baffled.

Baffled as to why an object, approaching directly towards the air, should

suddenly change course... Give me that file on McHenry.

Charlie. Where have you been the last two days? Having a holiday?

Very funny.

Come on, we've got a programme to get out.

What do you think we've been doing for the last two days? Don't you watch your

own programmes? You've taken long enough time to get back.

It doesn't usually take people ten hours to drive from Dunstable to London.

What do you expect of anybody trying to get home? Diana, get me that address

book.

Home, sweet home.

Well, what's the next step?

Well, the first thing is to set up a program with Ramsey. He's with the

at the moment. They're having a press conference in an hour's time.

See if you can get him to agree to do a program or an interview about Object Z

being in orbit.

That won't be easy. He's still under pressure from security.

I wonder if my friend Captain Wade can help us there.

You know, I have a feeling he knows a lot more than he says.

There's one thing I don't understand about all this.

What's that?

Well, I'm not a scientist, so I don't know.

But how can a vast object stop suddenly as if it's at a brick wall and then go

into orbit?

I wish I knew.

Such a thing is against all the laws of science as we know them.

Object Z is now orbiting the Earth at a speed of 15 ,000 miles an hour. It might

break up.

Break up? Yes, into millions of fragments, each one weighing anything

several tons to 10 or 20 ,000 tons.

20 ,000 tons? If this object breaks up, how much warning of it shall we have?

Several days, I hope.

Any slowing down will be a sign that break -up was imminent.

So there would be ample time to get the people into the shelters? Yes, but

they'd be quite useless against a direct hit.

They would be useful against blast.

Yes.

Now, look here. I told you we were not to be disturbed.

Chalice.

It's a Miss Chalice and a Mr. Duncan, John. They've just arrived from the

observatory. What are they doing here?

They have some new information.

Apparently they can't talk about it on the telephone.

Have them sent in.

Send them in, will you?

Yes, right away.

Who are they, Ramsey?

Chalice is an expert on spectroscopy.

Duncan's up at Abernethy.

They've been working on the composition of Object Z so far, I'm afraid, with

very little success.

Good afternoon.

Dr. Ramsey, of course, you know. This is Ian Murray. How do you do?

We have some information.

I think you'd better address yourself to the Prime Minister.

I'm sorry.

Well, we've been working on the composition of Object Z.

It's very difficult, the temperature.

Go on.

Well, as you know, we've assumed that Object Z was composed of nickel iron or

stone. Well, it isn't, sir. It's made of sodium vapour.

Sodium? Are you sure?

We've been in touch with the Americans and the Russians, and their findings

tally with ours.

And what's more, it's got a metallic centre, probably not more than a few

hundred feet across.

Well, what has sodium vapour got to do with it?

When a space vehicle is put into orbit, it's quite usual to equip it with a

device which releases a cloud of sodium vapour at the correct distance from

Earth. A cloud of ten or twelve miles across can be formed. It helps us to

the vehicle's course.

Track the vehicle?

Are you trying to tell us that Object Z is... Artificial.

And it is not from our world.

Come on, Peter, ten seconds. All right.

Five, four, three, two, one.

Good evening.

I've just returned from a press conference in Downing Street with the

news of Object Z.

For four weeks now, we've all been living in fear.

as Object Z, until recently thought to be a minor planet, plunged remorselessly

towards us.

Now, moments before impact, moments before the destruction of the Earth

absolutely certain, it has altered course and gone into orbit.

The vision of centuries, the nightmare of science fiction, an invasion from

outer space, has come true.

For Object Z is no planet.

It is an artificial body of enormous size, And it is, we must assume, manned

intelligent beings from some other world.

We call them the invaders.

Who are they?

What are they like?

Are they anything like us?

Or are they so unimaginably strange that our worst nightmares can give us no

conception of them?

Where do they come from?

What do they want?

Do they come as friends or as enemies? Can we contact them?

We do not know.