Original subtitles

In that last quarter of the twentieth century...

the whole world seemed to sicken.

Civilised institutions, whether old or new, fell...

as if some primal disorder was reasserting itself.

And men asked themselves...

"Why should this be?"

[TAXI ENGINE IDLES]

That's it. Come on - out.

But we're not there.

Look - I can't get no further.

The studio's just down there - through the alleyway.

You can walk it!

I distinctly understood...

Push off.

Don't you want your fare?

Where've you been, guv?

No cash - all been paid for. Just get going.

[THEME MUSIC BEGINS]

[THEME MUSIC ENDS]

[DRAMATIC MUSIC]

Get out of my way.

Certainly not.

All right.

You've got it.

We've got you, old chap.

What's he worth?

Well, I'm not worth kidnapping, if that's what you want?

That is for us to say.

Take his teeth out.

Mmmm.

I say - they're his own!

Well...?

Righto.

[SHOUTING AND GROANING]

[SHOUTING]

Look out!

[CAR HORN BEEPING]

[DOG BARKING]

Go gettem, boy!

Easy now.

Have they gone?

My dog's seeing them off.

[WHISTLES]

They were enjoying it.

Yes, of course they were.

Can you stand?

Yes.

That's better.

Where do you live?

What?

PUPPY. Here, boy!

Do you live around here?

Er... No, I was, er...

looking for the television studios.

I'm supposed to be in a programme.

So am I.

Maybe it's the same one. What's your name?

Er... Quatermass.

Well, I'm Joe Kapp.

Yes, of course. Yes. Yes.

Yes, they told me about you. How do you do?

Oh. What a way to meet!

[ALARM BELL RINGING]

What do you want?

There now, love. Won't 'ardly show.

Thank you.

Five minutes, studio.

All right?

You saved my life.

Oh, hardly that, sir!

Hm. I think you did.

I simply had no idea.

None at all.

It's bad.

They don't tell you.

They're just bland about it.

They call it "urban collapse", then it's nobody' s fault.

Yes, but... the savagery.

You should see Paris. Or Rotterdam.

Little suburban streets with...

with dead bodies.

Huh. I'd never have believed it till I came down here this week.

Where do you live?

Quite out of all this. In a cottage, by a loch.

In the West of Scotland.

Oh, I don't...

Oh, it's dreadful. It's dreadful.

- Look, don't stay. - What?

Go now, if you like.

I'll help you. Try and... get you on a train.

What, you mean, er... walk out on all this?

Oh, they don't care.

So why should you?

Er, no, um... I'm looking for my granddaughter.

Have you got the revised schedule?

Yes.

Now, Professor - Doctor Kapp, if you wouldn't mind.

Yes, yes, of course.

That's her.

My daughter's daughter.

Her parents were killed on an autobahn.

She-she-she came to stay with me, but, er...

then she ran away.

Have you any children?

Two. A lot younger.

She was only sixteen.

Do you know, they won't even list them?

There are so many missing they... they've just given up.

But I've... I've got to try.

Anything. Anything at all.

I mean, if you should ever... ever happen to, er...

Er... please keep it, hmm? Her name's on the back. Hetty. Hetty Carson.

I'll remember it.

Yes, I'm... I'm afraid it's become quite an obsession.

Forgive me, Dr Kapp.

Oh, don't worry. I... I'd feel the same.

Oh! I never even asked about your work.

[DRAMATIC MUSIC WITH ASTRONAUT CHATTER]

Stand by to take out grams.

Fade music.

[SPACE COMMS] Ah, roger - copy.

[MARSHALL'S VOICE] And there it is.

The Hands in Space Project.

- Complete at last. - [COMMS] Roger.

After all the long delays and disagreements...

these Russian cosmonauts and American astronauts...

are putting the final touches to their joint work.

Orbiting 22,000 miles above our heads.

And take Marshall. Good.

It's just a few minutes now to the joint switch-on...

by the Chairman of the Soviet Praesidium...

and the President of the United States.

And take Houston. Good. Well done.

At NASA - Project Control - everything is calm, but busy, you can be sure.

And back to Marshall. Good.

Back to studio.

- Meanwhile, let's grab a reaction from... - Five. Four...

Corning to you any moment now, studio.

Toby Gough. In London.

And cut to one. Right, on you now.

Well, thank you, Chuck.

Now, we're certainly very excited, here in London, about this project.

That's right - going in...

And we're fortunate in having with us here tonight...

two distinguished experts.

First, I'm going to ask Dr Joseph Kapp, radio astronomer.

Well, I suppose I'm sad. In this country we can only sit and watch.

Hmm. You'd like to be up there?

What, with all that apparatus? Oh, yes, of course.

But now, a father figure of space research...

Professor Bernard Quatermass.

- And cut to two. - And two.

Sir, after all the shocks and setbacks of your own career, what are your thoughts now?

I'm ashamed.

God!

What?

Well, I don't think you have any need...

To think that I might have contributed in any way to this...

disgusting charade.

Charade...?

That's what I said.

Yes, well, an understandable note of...

You asked for my thoughts, you're going to hear them.

- Dr Kapp. I wonder if you'd like to... - Pan over. Pan over to Kapp.

Let him talk.

What we're looking at there is a wedding.

A symbolic wedding between a corrupt democracy...

and a monstrous tyranny.

- Two superpowers, full of diseases... - Professor Quatermass?

Political diseases. Economic diseases. Social diseases.

And their infections are too strong for us - the small countries.

When we catch them, we die.

We're dying now.

And they... mock us with that thing?

Well, their diseases are in that, too. It can't live!

That is a most interesting contention. Unfortunately, we simply...

It'll come to nothing!

Please?

Sooner than they think!

And let's leave it at that.

- Well, you're evidently a man of very extreme... - Well, I'll.

- If you've had an opportunity... - L-l-I'll tell you what I am.

I'm an old man...

trying to find a child.

Do you see that?

That's all I'm interested in now.

A human face.

The child of my own child.

I want to see her again.

And to hell with all this!

I think we we're off the air. Have they cut us?

Thank you... sir.

I, um... I'm afraid, er, we lost some of that, er...

Well, it sounded like controversial comment from the English end, but...

[ELECTRONIC SOUNDS]

I'm afraid we have something slightly haywire with our communications here.

Over to Project Control.

[SPACE COMMS] Er, Houston, we lost radio contact.

Roger - we concur.

Something's bugging them, too.

Ah, we've got the picture back.

Project Control to Space Lab. We've indication of on-board malfunction.

How do you read? Space Lab - information, please.

My God.

Fast - report, please. Report!

It's out of control.

Chuck, what's happening?!

What's the word your end?

There's no regular contact. You know what I mean?

I've lost all systems.

There's something really wrong...

Space Lab, do you read me?

Project Control to Space Lab.

How could it happen?

We have indication of runaway malfunction on all on-board systems.

That's one of the Russians.

Project Control to Space Lab 2 - do you read me?

[SCREAMING]

Oh, my God.

Excuse me, gentlemen.

Come on.

[JEERS AND YELLS]

There's a car coming.

[ONE-MAN BAND PLAYING]

Real catskin. Oi - catskin?

You didn't expect this, did you?

[BACKGROUND CHATTER]

Here - what are you doin' here?

Get out of 'ere!

We don't want you 'ere.

Go on - get out of it!

[SMASHING GLASS]

Violence everywhere.

This is where they get rid of some...

Wembley Stadium.

Once the home of innocent sport.

Yes.

I've read about it.

They call it The Killing Ground.

- They actually encourage it? - Well, contain it.

Well, at least, that was the notion.

Pay COP-

Metropolitan Contract Police.

ID ready?

Let us through, officer.

We got a sniper here.

Really?

[BULLET RICOCHET]

You wanna chance it'?

Yes.

That way, then - and make it fast.

[GUN FIRING]

[GENTLE RINGING OF BELLS]

[HEAVY BREATHING]

- Who are they? - Planet People.

Oh. They've got some strange belief.

Magic. It's always magic.

He was swinging a kind of...

plumb-bob.

To bring on the magic.

What else?

More of them - look.

Up there.

Well, at least they don't seem violent.

Oh, they're violent in a different way.

To human thought.

[HORN BEEPING]

Stop here.

What's the matter?

I've got to talk to them.

Professor?

Bernard!

Be careful!

Er, excuse me.

I just wanted to ask...

has anybody seen her?

Why?

Have you?

What do you want to know for?

I'm her grandfather.

Please! I'm... I-I-I-I've got to find her.

Oh, please help me.

Look, her-her name's on the back. Hetty.

Mine's there too, hmm?

Er, please take them, urn.

Y-you're about her age.

Take-take some of these? Please? Please!

What are you?

Let's go.

Wait a minute.

What are you? Cops?

No.

What then?

What kind of an old man are you?

Well, I'm...

I was a scientist.

Leave them.

What kind of scientist? Some are worse.

- Space research. - Rockets?

Yes. That's worse!

Rockets make holes in the skin of the world.

Did you know that?

They tear it open!

Is that what you believe?

Come on.

No-no-no - wait.

Well, what does it mean to be Planet People?

What do you believe in?

You wouldn't understand.

I might.

We're going there.

To one of them.

To another planet?

Come on. They're mad.

We are not mad!

Then tell me - where, in the whole Solar System...

where you won't get frozen solid or fried alive?

Not there.

Oh, I give you UP-

Among the stars.

Okay.

Well, you might find a planet.

Only trouble...

it'll take you a hundred thousand years to get there.

By his rocket.

Well, how else?

Come on - let's hear it.

By meditation?

By occult transference?

This is one lift-off I really want to see!

[CHANTING] Leh. Leh.

Don't feel sorry for them.

But why?

[CHANTING IN THE DISTANCE]

[EERIE MUSIC]

Aren't they beautiful?

Come on, boy. Tell 'em I'm home.

Where d'you live? [DOG BARKING]

Down the bottom of the hill.

Ah.

What was this place?

An observatory.

No, no. I mean before.

No, always. Was and is.

Built by Josiah Doyle, in 1756...

to observe the moon, through his ten-foot telescope.

Now we look a bit further.

About seven hundred and fifty million light years.

Oh.

"To fright the ignorant".

Well, naturally, they called him "Mooney" Doyle.

That blasted door. Look, I distinctly said...

It's you. I didn't expect you back so...

This is Tommy Roach, who runs us all - as you notice.

- Tommy, I'd like to introduce you to... - Professor Quatermass.

- Pleased to meet you, sir. - Mr Roach.

You saw it last night?

Yes, we all did.

Alison Thorpe.

Frank Chen.

How do you do? Pleased to meet you.

Very pleased to meet you.

We, er, eavesdropped on the satellite link to make sure.

You never know these days what will get shown.

- How many died? - Twenty-seven.

God!

They've no idea?

None they're admitting to.

We found something.

It's not much, but...

Frank.

It was somewhere between the two dishes.

An anomaly?

I don't think so. Anomalies usually make me itch.

And I didn't itch.

We had one of them lined up on your show.

- Dog Dish. - That's right.

Oh, we call them "Dog Dish" and "Cat Dish".

Well, we've got to call them something.

So while we were playing an audience at about 02:57...

Cat Dish was on duty elsewhere...

keeping an eye on that black hole in Cygnus Z.

Now.

[RECORDING OF SPACE LAB TALKING TO PROJECT CONTROL]

There.

SPACE COMMS Space Lab.

That's when their picture appeared.

Approximately fourteen seconds after the first sign of trouble.

Fourteen point three.

Start of a great disturbance that lasted a total of... twenty seconds.

During which time they...

[RECORDING OF SPACE LAB TALKING TO CONTROL]

Well?

What did you find?

Well, afterwards in the, er, routine checks...

it was you, Alison, that spotted it.

The trace? Yes.

Ah, yes.

- Your heavy disturbance. - You boosted it?

No. It was that strong.

Look - what are you getting at, Tommy?

Well, the point is...

that Cat Dish, that's the other one...

facing in a totally different direction, picked it up too.

Identical.

It's nasty, Joe.

Fault?

In both the plotters?

Well, in the receivers? It must be. They're all over-age.

Frank, I've got five new modules - well, not new. What's new?

But they're the best I could manage.

Unload them and get them installed.

Right.

Joe, it's not just the timing...

the coincidence. It's the sheer spread.

Later, Tommy.

Come on.

Meet the family.

You get Government help?

A trickle.

Emergency generators.

Overworked, like everything else.

The trouble is getting the fuel.

Am I fiddling while Rome burns?

No.

Huh.

Bernard - I'm last in two hundred generations of learned Jews.

Well, not all so perfectly learned, but...

well, at least they tried.

Because they knew it was the only way...

to beat the dark.

Mummy! Mummy! Daddy's back!

- Mummy, Daddy's back! - Is he?

Hello, baby.

I've got something for you.

I promised I would, didn't I?

There.

Oh, Joe!

[CRYING]

You're all right, now.

[SNIFFLING]

- Hello, darling. - Hello.

- How are you? - Okay, thank you.

Been a good girl?

- How do you do? - Oh!

You know who this is?

- Yes! You're welcome. - Thank you.

Well, come in.

You eat a lot.

Shh! Debbie!

[LAUGHING] Well, I'm hungry.

Have some more.

Thank you. I will.

It's good. Very good.

Are old men always greedy?

Always!

And I'm the greediest of the lot.

That, er... that jar.

Oh, yes.

You didn't make it?

- No. - Mummy dug I'! UP-

It's a beaker.

Made by the Beaker Folk. Five thousand years old.

Well... give or take a few.

Hold it.

- It's perfect. - Not quite.

It should have gone to a museum, but...

they burnt the museum down.

Where'd you find it?

In the field out there.

Oh, er... not digging potatoes.

I'm trained.

It was going to be my work, but...

well.

I just manage a little.

In her spare time.

There's a Neolithic burial ground out there...

and our stone circle.

I'll show you.

Come on, PUPPY-Come on, PUPPY!

The locals call them "The Stumpy Men".

Well, they don't look very athletic.

They go incredibly deep.

I made a test on one.

Did you find anything?

Some day I'll do it properly.

Some day.

Come on, boy.

All I've done is down there.

A Beaker grave.

A dozen pots. Like the one you saw. Mostly broken.

Some arrow-heads, buttons.

They had buttons.

[BARKING] Mummy, Mummy! Look! Puppy.

He's gone funny! Come quick!

[GROWLING]

All right, Puppy! Good dog. Quiet.

Quiet, quiet. Good boy. Good boy!

[CHANTING] Leh. Leh. Leh. Leh.

Well, why would they come here?

I don't know.

They're singing!

[GIGGLING] Leh, leh, leh.

Trouble! Right - get that door locked and barred.

Tommy, you have a look.

You've been through this.

Stop!

STOP!

Leh. Leh. Leh.

Get out of here. You can't come in here.

Get away.

Go on! Get out!

[GUNSHOT]

No! Don't!

Clare! Get back.

Joe! They're only kids, Joe!

Go back!

They won't let you through.

Go another way!

This way.

Get back!

All of you! Go on - get out!

Joe. Wait!

Where are you going?

Ringstone Round.

Let them through.

Straight ahead.

Leh. Leh. Leh.

Don't go near anything.

And don't touch anything!

Ringstone Round.

Why there?

Oh, the usual.

Somewhere to sit and wait for the end of the world.

It used to be Stonehenge or Glastonbury.

Now it's Ringstone Round.

They find it with their magic bobs...

by following "magic" earth lines.

Last time I was there it was swarming with tourists.

I know a rhyme about Ringstone Round.

Yes, a nursery rhyme?

Yes, of course.

I remember teaching it to...

And how's it go, now?

"H uffity puffity."

"Huffity, puffity Ringstone Round."

"if you lose your hat it'll never be found."

"So, pull up your britches..."

- You have to do the things. - Yes, yes - that's right.

"right up to your chin..."

"and fasten your...?"

Cloak.

"your cloak with a bright new pin."

"And when we are ready then we can begin."

"H uffity, puffity, puff."

"H uffity, puffity, puff."

Ringstone Round is even older than Stonehenge.

Cruder, of course, and not as big...

but it could have been the prototype.

- To Stonehenge? - That's one theory.

It would have been the Beaker Folk.

Five thousand years.

Look.

This was Mummy's book, when she was little.

Really?

Come on, let's find it, then.

It's in here somewhere - I know it is.

"Huffity, puffity Ringstone Round".

That old man gave me this. It's a lady.

Leh. Leh. Leh.

Look! There it is.

[CHANTING GETTING LOUDER]

Who the hell are you? Come on. Shift!

Captain, we thought we could help these...

Shut up. I thought you had the gas?

They're nothing. No gas!

Knock 'em back, down there.

They're busting through!

Move!

[CHANTING AND SHOUTING]

They're doing no harm - don't hurt them!

For God's sake, man!

Listen - I've got a riot on my hands, here. Do you understand?

He's making it! Joe!

Kickalong!

[CHANTING] Kickalong! Kickalong! Kickalong!

Kickalong! Kickalong! Kickalong!

LEH. LEH. LEH. LEH. LEH.

Fall back into the middle!

Get back into the middle!

Get back! Get back!

Get out of here!

D'you wanna get killed? They're gonna rush us.

Can I talk to them?

Talk to them? Okay, you've got one minute.

Listen to me. Listen to me.

I'm on your side.

What the...

Leave him.

I agree with you.

I agree with you.

I say what you do about the world.

It's poisoned.

[CHEERING]

And it's sick.

[CHEERING]

And you want to go to another planet.

[CHEERING]

No!

It can't happen.

YES!

You'll get angry...

and you'll get hurt. By them.

No!

There is no such planet!

Yes!

Go home!

We go! We go to the Planet!

[CHEERING]

We leave them, in the muck they make!

They bust it - so they've got it.

We're getting out.

Soon!

[CHANTING] Soon. Soon. Soon.

[SCREAMING]

Get him out - while you can.

[CROWD SHOUTING AND YELLING]

You two - quick!

I didn't know. I didn't know!

Get back!

I had to try.

You did your best.

[CROWD SHOUTING AND SCREAMING]

Hurry up. Get me out of here!

Pull the door off!

Stand back!

[UNEARTHLY HIGH-PITCHED NOISE]

[RADIO STATIC]

God! We're going to lose the lot.

Wait, Tommy!

We're being swamped.

- It's over. - What?

I don't believe it?

Let's go.

[HISSING NOISE]

God, you can hear the earth!

[CRASH]

There must have been...

how many do you reckon were here?

Hundreds.

They did it!

They got away!

They've all gone!

[SHOUTING]

Not quite all of 'em.

Look.

[DRAMATIC MUSIC]

[GASPING]

Get a blanket.

'N. I~~_

Clare.

[LOUD WEEPING]

She was outside it.

You're all right.

Tom?

You're safe now.

What happened, Torn?

She can't hear you.

GODS!

They shouldn't have been here.

They weren't meant.

And them.

I know them.

On that road - they talked to us. Asking things.

Science Man.

What are they doing?

They've got somebody!

[CROWD CHANTING] Leh. Leh. Leh.

What are you doing now?!

She's hurt.

Then leave her!

I want to find out how.

For your science - that's what you want her for.

I want to help her.

- Stop trying to know things! - Look, give her here.

[CROWD SHOUTING]

Leave her alone.

Tom?

What happened, Torn?

He must have gone.

- She can't hear or see you. - Keep out of it, you!

He's gone!

They've all gone!

- All gone. - Yes!

I got left.

It was the lightning.

It was lovely lightning.

[CROWD CHANTING] Lovely lightning. Lovely lightning.

You'll go soon.

I can't see!

Stay with us! We can go together! We'll take you!

Yes, we will. We'll look after you.

It'll come again.

It'll take us, too!

[CHANTING] Soon. Soon.

We're waiting.

We won't be long!

We're coming out of all the blackness of this world!

Soon! Soon! Soon!

[CROWD CHANTING]

Clare?

Get in!

Quickly!

Go!

Let her go! She's ours!

- Give her here! - Get off!

Give her here! She's ours!

You're always interfering, you science men!

You think you know! But you DON'T know!

[CROWD SCREAMING AND SHOUTING]

[DRAMATIC MUSIC]

Hold on tight!

You stopped me!

You took my chance!

I could'a gone to the Planet!

Keep down! Heads down!

[MACHINE GUN FIRING]

[SCREAMING]

Who's she?

What happened?

Clare.

You go in first.

Did you see Ringstone Round?

Yes.

Now, listen. We've brought someone with us and she's ill.

So I want you to clear your plates and put them in the sink. All right?

Yes, Mummy.

Very quickly. There we are.

But I... I haven't finished.

Never mind. We can... can eat it later.

Now, straight off into the garden, all right?

Yes, Mummy.

I'll just move Debbie in with Sarah. It'll be all right.

But that leg!

You're safe.

I know what to do.

You... saw it happen.

I think we saw it too.

What, you?

The dishes picked it up.

Massive overload.

It nearly beat the failsafe. We could have lost the lot.

Okay.

We'll run everything.

Heuristic mode, start up a few guesses.

There's a lot of data wiped out.

The sheer weight did that.

Find something to build on. That's all we need.

Oh, we've got that. Frank - get back to one of the earliest.

No, wait a minute. I know the best approach.

Pull in last night's data?

- Only back to a certain point. - For comparison?

Yeah, but only... now, where's that other...

Joe.

Oh, Bernard - they got it all here.

I think you ought to get home.

No, I'm all right. I can carry on.

I don't mean that.

I think you ought to.

I'll get back up as soon as I can.

There's so much to work through.

Candles.

She's got the candles out.

We're not very religious, but every once in a while...

Yes.

Tonight.

Daddy?

- Why won't Mummy say? - What?

She always says about things. But she won't.

- Did the wind blow? - Yes.

- Like in the rhyme? - Yes.

Good!

Everything's all right, for the moment. I think.

Urn... sit-sit down. Sit down.

[DISTANT OWL SCREECHING]

- "Huffity puffity..." - Shh shh shh.

And now we eat.

Leh. Leh. Leh

[SCREAMING]

Leh. Leh. Leh.

[DRAMATIC MUSIC]

Leh! Leh! Leh! Leh!

[CHANTING]

Leh. Leh.

For her sake.

I had to.

[CHANTING] Leh. Leh. Leh.

[DOG BARKING]

[CAR HORN BEEPING]

It's Annie!

Come on, PUPPY!

Annie?

Dr Kapp!

Joe, did you see that?!

I nearly ran them down.

Half mad, those kids.

Joe - what's going on?

The phones are out - the radio's out. Nothing but mush.

This morning I got something through on my hot-line.

I think they want your help with your...

beautiful gadgetry up there.

Joe'?

She sure about this?

It's not a normal configuration.

Annie, these figures...?

Well, I did my best, Joe. I'm not an expert.

We'll try them anyway. Okay, Frank?

I thought I knew about trouble.

But this!

You're, urn... District Commissioner?

Yes.

Sounds like something from the days of Empire.

Evening dress in the jungle and...

putting down the natives!

Yes, that's what we were for - "putting down the natives."

Our own!

Joe - I'm getting a signal.

Okay. Let's have it.

That's the satellite.

What have they done to it?

Chuck!

That was Chuck Marshall, wasn't it?

Yes. Chuck!

Have we any contact yet? I'm trying for Dr Joseph Kapp.

Chuck - Joe Kapp here. I'm with you.

Okay, fine.

Can you locate Bernard Quatermass?

- Well, he's here. - What?

You mean he's with you? That's great!

Put him on.

Hello, Bernard?

Hello, Chuck.

Listen.

What we have here now is...

so urgent an-and so frightful...

it demands immediate action, so...

- You heard about it? - Heard about it?

I'm going to show it to you. I want you to watch this, Bernard.

I need your opinion.

Okay, run it.

But ho-how can he poss...

I don't think he means...

We just got this in from Brazil.

Some place known as... oh, what the hell...

O Papoes.

Some thirty hours ago when we were...

so occupied with our disaster in space...

what was really going on was there!

Some kind of youth gathering.

Twelve or thirteen thousand kids.

Nobody knows how many because they were wiped out!

Obliterated without trace!

Bernard, do you believe me?

Yes.

I believe you.

Bernard...

Does anything about this remind you...

Is it anything you recognise?

Recognise? Yes.

You do?

Tell him.

From yesterday, Chuck.

Yesterday.

- Go on, quick. - It happened here!

The same thing.

[RADIO STATIC]

- Hold him, can't you? - It's a low orbit.

Chuck!

It was here too!

Here, in England!

At Ringstone Round!

[RADIO STATIC]

Leh. Leh. Leh.

It's all right. It's all right. Shh, shh, shh.

Please. Please!

- Please! - Shh!

It's all right!

IsabeH

I want to get that girl to London.

She's the only evidence we've got.

The only specimen.

The proof of what this...

does to human tissue, and possibly how.

I want her under expert examination today.

Use her?

Yes.

Annie.

What's your badge worth?

Can you get us through?

I'll try my best.

That's MY blanket.

Mind out, kids.

Mummy!

That's my blanket! She's got my blanket.

She's sick, darling. She's sick.

- I didn't like her. - Joe?

I'll get through to you tonight.

One way or another.

Take care.

We're getting near London.

Pay Cops?

Remember the good old bobbies?

What went wrong...? And what happened?

Was it the kids?

Oh, Professor - Bernard - what got into them all?

I mean, the blind rage - in every land.

As if we had to have it.

Oh, when I was a girl...

That was years.

It really was different then.

Well, you could walk in the open and not be afraid.

You didn't have to... hide your face from strangers.

- All these years. - Dreadful years.

It could have been on its way.

From smashing things to smashing people.

We tried to find explanations and all we found were excuses.

The faults of the system - the contradictions of society.

- Homing in. - What...?

And these years would be nothing.

Just a final stage that came far enough.

Locating, probing, beaming.

What was that you said just now?

"What got into them?"

Well, supposing it was "that"?

Whatever it is.

Caused it? Is that what you're saying?

Immense power...

approaching through decades.

Decades to us!

A few seconds - in some different... inconceivable timescale.

I don't want to believe it. It's even worse!

Don't believe it.

Just suppose...

.“suppose“.

And the most vulnerable of human organisms...

always the most recently formed.

The youngest.

The things they kept saying to us.

"You don't understand us", they said.

As if they... sensed, what we didn't.

And then... and then the anger, because we couldn't.

Look.

Isn't it there in the eyes?

All there to see.

All the time.

The strangeness?

And I couldn't read it!

- Who is she? - She's mine.

My granddaughter.

Oh, God - I'm too old! My brain's drying.

If I could miss that...

what else am I missing now...?

All the rage of the world.

Leh. Leh. Leh.

Hold her.

Leh. Leh. Leh.

Isabel?

[CROWD CHANTING] Leh. Leh. Leh. Leh.

What's all that for?

I thought I'd go to the mound.

What? Now?!

I've got all my gear out.

I could start a dig. I always meant to.

Listen, bubeleh...

I want you to go back and stay with the kids.

Put them away.

It's not a good time - you know that.

Okay?

I'll be back soon.

- Where are you going? - One of the outer units.

I've got to.

I'll only be an hour.

Soon.

Promise.

Soon.

[CROWD CHANTING] Leh. Leh. Leh.

Yanks are giving it a miss, this time.

I hope that's all.

[PRINTING AND TAPPING NOISES]

[CROWD CHANTING] Leh. Leh. Leh.

[SINISTER MUSIC]

I want my Mummy!

I want my Daddy!

He'll come soon. He'll come!

[BARKING AND CHILDREN SHOUTING] Puppy, come back! Come back!

[UNEARTHLY HIGH-PITCHED NOISE]

[RADIO NEWSREADER] Lasfly“.

An official denial of rumours concerning the stone monument of Ringstone Round...

that some form of electric storm caused casualties...

among people visiting the spot.

No such weather conditions have been reported.

Now - tomorrow's power cuts.

Eastern England... [RADIO TURNED OFF]

They know.

This isn't going to be easy.

I'm counting on you.

Roadblock!

Get your ID ready.

No, it's not - it's Badders!

It's a gang fight! Hold on!!!

[AUTOMATIC GUNFIRE]

Oh, my God!!!

Blue Brigade. They're the worst!

Oh, they're on the car!

Hold on!

Hold on!

[UNINTELLIGIBLE SHOUTING]

Get off me!

Out!!!

Hold on!

[MORE GUNFIRE]

[TYRES SCREECHING]

CLARE!!!

CLARE!!!

Children...?

Children?!

[SOBBING]

[MEDICAL MONITORS BEEPING]

Can you hear me now?

No - please don't disconnect, sir. No - please, sir. PLEASE!

It's about the Ringstone Round disaster.

Yes, I said "disaster".

Yes, I have heard those bulletins, but you must know? Well, of course you do!

Quatermass here.

Professor Bernard Quatermass.

Now listen to me.

I've got one survivor.

We've managed to get her into Intensive Care.

At least, some attempt at it.

Doctor?

Now, will you please...

auth0rise some effective action.

[MEDICAL BEEPING INCREASES]

There may not be much time!

We need the most EXTENSIVE examination into these tissue changes.

A whole... unknown process of...

What?

What reports?

How many have there been?

[MEDICAL ALERT BEEPING]

Where...?

[ALERT INCREASES IN PITCH AND INTENSITY]

What's happening?

[EXPLOSION]

[QUATERMASS] It's my guess.

[QUATERMASS] That the stones were attempts...

[QUATERMASS] by our ancestors...

[QUATERMASS] to mark places that had become...

[QUATERMASS] ...terrible.

[MINISTER] Where it came the first time?

[QUATERMASS] Five thousand years ago.

[QUATERMASS] But its actual... guidance beacons, to use our own term...

[QUATERMASS] will be far beneath.

[MINISTER] And now it's using them.

[QUATERMASS] In every part of the world.

[QUATERMASS] Eighty-seven incidents so far.

[QUATERMASS] Gentlemen...

[QUATERMASS] the human race...

[QUATERMASS] is being harvested.

Professor Quatermass, this "harvest" theory of yours. I don't like it.

I don't buy it!

But surely, this terrible event...

"Terrible", "terrifying" - those are his words.

For countless thousands of deaths.

"Deaths"?

What do you mean, David?

I believe that we're in the presence of something that...

he doesn't begin to understand.

And you do?

Something...

momentous, I agree.

A process so...

infinitely... awesome.

Yes. Yes, professor - I think I do. I'm still young enough.

I can just begin to grasp what the kids instinctively feel...

must be.

The planet?

Yes!

[RADIO] "Er, Mission Control, Houston."

"Stand by to receive."

"Status report."

Shall we go?

"Indicates it is now in estimated..."

I'd like you to be right.

"Commencing direct radio transmission from shuttle rocket."

"Ten seconds from now."

"Radio alone will be used."

I've got an old friend up there. Chuck Marshall.

One of the best they ever had.

Direct transmission.

Isn't that taking a risk?

That's the idea, sir. To get noticed.

- They'll be within range now. - "Mission Commander to Mission Control."

"Ground elapsed time is six hours, forty minutes."

"Distance from Earth..."

"one hundred and ten thousand miles."

"We have, at this time, no sighting of any kind."

"Mother Bird. Mission Control to Mother Bird."

Of course - the mother bird draws attention away from the chicks.

"Zone of this... power web."

"We could be closing on it."

"We suggest you start signals now."

"Good a time as any."

"Roger. Will do."

Giorgi?

Yeah, he's ready with his box of tricks.

For the benefit of those that, er, might have missed it...

we are not talking to it in Russian.

The language is mathematics.

Clear sighting of Earth.

Looks real small.

Hard to believe anything could make a precise fix way out here.

[COMPUTER ALARM]

Hey, we got something.

They've found it.

My God!

Wait. Wait.

"Unless... it could just be an indication of..."

Malfunction.

Oh, my God, Chuck.

"Hold it, Mother Bird."

"Our computer says you've got a minor on board malfunction."

"Check it out, would you?"

[COMPUTER ALARM]

[SIGHING]

Sorry, Mission Control.

Blame Giorgi.

He's not, er, overly familiar with American-type control.

I don't know, though.

We're getting a kind of a generalised...

I don't know what the hell we're getting!

Hey, Giorgi - did you see that?

That was outside.

"It's incredible!"

"it's-it's like a gigantic laser beam... only it pulsates!"

"it could be ten miles away... or-or a hundred!"

"Pointing straight towards Earth!"

"And in the other direction - right away out!"

"I'll try and get a camera on it."

There won't be time.

"It's gone."

Twenty seconds.

I wonder where...?

We're into malfunction!

Total malfunction! All systems... [SCREAMING]

"Mother Bird, are you receiving me?"

"Mother Bird, are you able to receive me?"

"Mother Bird, this is Mission Control."

"Can you read us?"

"Mother Bird, do you read u..."

I don't think... it even knew they were there.

[AUTOMATIC GUNFIRE]

[GUNFIRE AND SCREAMING]

Hang on! Oi!

[GUNFIRE BECOMES SPORADIC]

[CHANTING] Leh. Leh. Leh.

Hold it! Look at that!

There's Reds and Blues marching together!

[CHANTING] Leh. Leh. Leh.

Let's go wiv 'em.

[CHANTING] "Huffity Puffity, Ringstone Round."

"if you lose your hat, it will never be found."

"So pull up your britches, right up to your chin."

"And fasten your cloak, with a bright new pin."

"And when you're ready, then we shall begin."

"H uffity, puffity, puff."

"Puff! Puff!"

"H uffity, puffity, puff."

"Puff! Puff!"

"Huffity Puffity, Ringstone Round."

"if you lose your hat, it will never be found."

"So pull up your britches, right up to your chin."

"And fasten your cloak, with a bright new pin."

"And when you are ready, then we shall begin."

"H uffity, puffity, puff."

[RHYME FADES IN DISTANCE]

- The Stadium. - What?

You've got to stop it.

Ah, no - no action.

But you must have heard.

They're gathering in tens of thousands.

God knows how they're getting there...

They've always done it!

It's an institution.

But not like this!

The game's ceased to matter much. I agree.

In fact it's minimal.

Oh, let's face it - the whole thing's been encouraged as an outlet.

A bit of harmless bloodletting.

We could accept a few hundred casualties.

Oh, that's us. That's what we've come to!

That place can hold a hundred thousand!

Do you really suggest Wembley Stadium is an ancient site?

The "Sacred Turf", they call it.

- I wonder what's underneath? - [SNIGGERING]

Do something, man. Stop them!

[CROWD ROARING]

[EXCITED SHOUTING]

[CAR HORN BEEPING]

[AUTOMATIC GUNFIRE]

Listen.

[MORE GUNSHOTS]

Shots.

I doubt if he'll do anything.

No - what they're chanting.

It's that old rhyme.

The nursery rhyme.

"H uffity Puffity..."

"Ringst0ne Round."

Get on with it, man.

Do you think he needs our help?

[PISTOL SHOTS]

[GLASS SMASHING]

[GUNFIRE AND CROWD NOISES]

Where do I go now?!

This way! This way!

[WAGON LAMP SMASHING AGAINST ENTRANCE]

They're still there.

Cut 'em off!

We're trapped!

[SCREAMING]

[GROANING]

Annie!

[AUTOMATIC GUNFIRE]

[UNEARTHLY HIGH-PITCHED NOISE]

[GHOSTLY CHILDREN TALKING] "What are you doing, Daddy?"

[FOOTSTEPS ECHOING, WIND KEENING]

[PLAINTIVE, DISCORDANT MUSIC]

[WIND KEENING]

Hey - you!

What do you think you're doing?!

Come here!

Loofing, eh?

You know the penalty for that?

No - no! Wait, please!

You'd better see my papers.

Who'd you steal them from?

How was I to know?

I want to see the Stadium.

Well, sir - you're not...

it's been affected, sir - we're not supposed...

It's only the dust.

You've struck this before?

Yes.

How many were there?

Who? Here?

Do they know?

Maybe seventy thousand.

Who can tell?

They shouldn't have been here!

Came for trouble.

Ripping each other to pieces.

Last night it was guns.

We were put on standby and I thought "here we go".

And...

then...

It's not only the dust.

You do...

you do find... other kinds...

other...

[RETCHING]

Yes, you do.

Here comes the sun.

Oh... I could do with that.

Worst night I've ever had.

The sun?!

[DISCORDANT MUSIC]

The sun - it's...

turned...

It's like vomit.

[QUATERMASS] This is Pavel Grigoritch Gurov...

[QUATERMASS] of the Soviet Academy of Sciences.

[QUATERMASS] Mr Gurov has a statement to make.

In the matter of this special threat, er...

co-operation between Soviet Union and US of America...

has now ceased.

Er, since failure of rocket mission...

And collapse of communications.

Er, please.

What is this force which attacks us?

Mass destruction of personnel in Soviet Union...

and also in associated democratic republics of Eastern Europe...

as well as other places...

indicates that it is not sensible.

Not... sentient.

Ah.

Academician Gurov now thinks as I do.

That we're facing not an intelligence...

but a machine...

of unbelievable sophistication...

but still a machine. Da. Da.

But, Professor...

a machine must have a maker?

Of course.

But the intelligence that made this...

is quite beyond our reach...

and our understanding.

It's probably thousands of light years away.

This is, um... call it a probe they've sent.

Just as we've sent probes to other planets...

to get soil samples.

This thing...

must be programmed...

to sense living human protein...

and to take it.

It is not efficient. It wastes.

Today I fly through a sky that has gone... gone sick!

Particles in the atmosphere.

Particles of... personnel that...

[SOBBING]

My... son. He was Major, Soviet Forces - Far Eastern Sector...

with duties to prevent these gatherings, but...

they run with the rest. Even Red Army, they are taken.

Mr Gurov has come here at great personal risk.

Because now I agree with him.

In Moskva, they say it alive.

Kolpakov say... he is a fool, but he say and they believe it - alive.

It's Marshal Kolpakov.

An extreme hawk.

They prepare now to send rockets - many of them.

Kolpakov wish to kill it.

He cannot. It will not kill.

He's got no target.

How can he?

Only......

if he knew in advance...

where that beam was going to strike.

If he could hit it...

during the... twenty seconds that...

The Earth is losing of its young.

It can die.

Time. We haven't any, have we?

None at all.

I will work with him.

I'll need facilities.

But there won't be enough of those, either...

so I want people.

Well, tell us who you want.

Well, they'll have to have their wits about them and, er...

like us, they must be old.

Old?

Yes.

The older the better.

[TELEPRINTER NOISE]

When computer beat me, I go back to this.

All my life I use it - since child.

Draws picture in mind - you can see problem.

So now we must keep problem clear in mind.

How this thing attacks.

It attacks on place marked from ancient time...

but only when also a big number of crowd is there, da?

- Oh, not again! - Oh, please?

Well... if it helps.

Spasiba. So, it must detect crowd...

like heat-seeking missile.

Body heat?

Well, I thought...

Oh, forgive that I think of missiles - I work on missiles...

but what about the sound of personnel? The noise?

Do we eliminate that?

No.

We use it.

So, I am right.

We use everything that's a possible factor.

But I'm sure all the aggression, the yelling...

and the dancing - it's just to excite.

To stir up the glandular secretions.

The unique smell of the human species.

You've heard about Bovington Camp?

Yes.

My God.

And Naples...

and Palm Springs.

[OSCILLOSCOPE TWEETING]

[YAWNING]

I never sleep.

I haven't slept for... oh, let me see...

[LAUGHING] quite a number of years.

[CHANTING IN DISTANCE] Leh. Leh. Leh.

Listen to them.

That sky.

Do you still say harvest?

Yes.

Well, perhaps we mistake. What sort of harvest is thrown away so.

Something was taken.

It must be.

But what?

Some... trace.

The very scent that betrays them.

Perhaps a flavour.

[EXCLAIMS IN RUSSIAN]

To enrich the lifestyle of...

inconceivable beings.

Not even that.

Just amuse them.

[ELECTRONIC HUMMING]

My God, I can't remember which of these...

There - the digital filter!

Who is that?

Dyevushka - girl?

My granddaughter.

Child of my daughter.

Gone?

I think so.

Oh, she was like you.

Help!

[DRAMATIC MUSIC]

He's collapsed.

- It was too much for him! - Jack!

Help him? Help him!

Oh, come on - hurry!

Well, you see - I've been worried about him all day.

Frances - calm, now. This is the sort of setback...

Setback?!

But we did it!

That's benzaldehyde.

The electric image of a smell.

Now we can begin!

This place was favoured!

It did come here!

[CHANTING] Leh. Leh. Leh.

Kickalong - look!

Halt!

This your place?

Yeah.

All gone but you?

Seen this before, haven't we?

Yes.

Always one or two left crying.

Yes.

It touched here, all right.

All touched with the fingers of the lightning!

[MUTTERING] Lightning.

What you been doing?

What you been up to?

You been trying to fix...

Don't!

Science Man - this is no good for anything.

I've got to use it!

I've got to get through!

Get through?

Communicate.

Transmit some kind of...

"Communicate"?

- He's interfering. - Don't let 'im!

We've got to find a way to make ourselves understood.

To show that we're capable of understanding.

Bust it!

No!

No!

[FRANTIC CHANTING] Leh. Leh. Leh.

SOON!

[CHANTING] Soon! Soon! Soon!

Evacuation?

Where?

We're clearing the area, sir.

Why?

Now, just be still.

No, no. No.

No, I don't need that.

Just tell me.

What's it for?

- Well, sir, because... - Where is he?

Where's Quatermass?

Professor Quatermass himself gave orders that you should...

Quatermass!

Is it okay to start everything now?

Yes, yes. Put them up.

Bernard?

[COUGHING]

You all right?

What's going on?

Listen...

all this talk of... evacuation?

They're clearing the area.

Joe, I'm sorry.

But, I mean, they wanted to get me out.

I... had to take it for granted.

I've got to use this place.

It's the only possible.

But it's already been hit.

That's what I mean.

I just can't seem to...

It means there's a marker.

Right here.

Somewhere underneath.

A marker beacon...

left fifty centuries ago.

That's why it was hit.

Why I can use it.

Use your antennae.

So you ARE going to try and signal?

I'm setting a trap for it.

What?

Look, Bernard.

Just say it!

Joe...

if you're after a wild beast...

you don't go chasing it around the landscape.

You bring it to you.

You bait a trap for it.

A beast?

A machine beast.

A man-eater.

I'm going to put out the analogue...

of a human presence.

The sound of them.

The smell of them.

Their blood.

Their secretions.

Hormones.

Pheromones.

Human young...

about a million of them.

How's that for bait?

And the poison?

There'll be poison

[CAR BEEPING]

Cup of tea, sir'?

Da.

If only it functions as it should.

Perhaps that's the hold-up?

Mmm. This focus mechanism.

Very ingenious.

But our people have certain criticisms.

Where the hell is it?

Quatermass - this is not for you to do!

You can trust me.

But I-I did not intend to...

I'll manage.

Besides...

I've got some help.

[HELICOPTER ENGINE, MOVING CLOSER]

Bernard? Look!

A focal bomb.

Thirty-five kilotons of nuclear blast...

just to sting it.

Send a shock back across the galaxy.

[ELECTRICAL HUMMING]

[HUMMING INCREASES]

Just thump it.

Like that.

Simplest arrangement we could rig up.

[ELECTRICAL HUMMING STOPS]

Foolproof.

Now - I'll arm it.

Blast area is focused to a minimum.

Yes.

Which will be approximately, um...

I know what I'm doing.

I wish to check.

Professor, I trust there's no question of this man's taking charge?

None.

Hmph!

There should be!

It should not be for him and him to do.

He's going with you.

Sorry.

That's it.

[ELECTRONIC BEEPING]

Quatermass?

Yes?

Right, General.

Thank you.

[OWL HOOTING]

Time.

Now, the build up.

Full hour?

Well, one million kids mustn't arrive too quickly.

Think it matters?

It might.

We are giving a performance.

[ELECTRIC HUMMING]

[HUMMING BUILDS IN INTENSITY]

Trap's set.

Our Planet People are... they're starting to arrive.

Monitor.

[ELECTRONIC CROWD NOISE]

Well...

just one thing to do.

Going to have that cup of tea.

[OSCILLATING TONE]

The hut down there.

I can just make it out.

Not much of a home.

Yes it was.

We were always going to go to the seaside.

Some day - when things got better, we said.

I can make them exist, do you know that?

Oh, not by magic or faith...

by thinking.

I can carry Debbie down to the water's edge...

where she never went.

She dips her toes in.

It's not so cold - not too cold.

She's pleased.

Because she's been afraid of it and now she isn't.

And she sees the little bits of weed drifting about...

the colours and the shine.

Then Clare comes with Sarah by the hand - walking in the waves.

I can touch them.

Oh, I know what evil is.

That's evil.

[DRAMATIC MUSIC]

Suppose it can't?

Like lightning not striking twice.

This lightning's programmed.

If only I've guessed the program.

They're all here, now.

A million of them.

Waiting for you.

A million kids.

[ELECTRONIC CROWD NOISE]

You came yesterday.

Five thousand years ago.

Tasted them.

Found them good.

And came again today.

So come now.

Come!

There's somebody!

[CHANTING] Leh. Leh. Leh.

There are more of them!

Get away!!!

Get back!!!

GET AWAY!!!

Get away from here!

Get away!

You'll all die!

[ELECTRONIC ALARM] That's a bomb!

[AUTOMATIC GUNFIRE]

[ELECTRONIC CROWD NOISE ROARING]

[DRAMATIC MUSIC]

[LABOURED BREATHING]

He...

[SINISTER MUSIC]

[PANTING]

[HOPEFUL MUSIC]

[DETONATION]

[GUROV] The message was taken.

It has not come again.

We pray it will never come again.

I have watched the sky and the land become clean.

Here, as in all the world...

countryside has beauty once more.

Little children can play in its fields...

and sing their innocent songs again.

[CHILDREN'S VOICES] Come on, hurry up. Come on!

Hurry.

[CHILDREN SINGING] "Huffity Puffity, Ringstone Round."

"if you lose your hat, it will never be found."

"So pull up your britches, right up to your chin."

"And fasten your cloak, with a bright new pin."

"And when we are ready, then we can begin."

"H uffity, puffity, puff."

"H uffity, puffity, puff."

[RHYME SEGUES INTO HOPEFUL END THEME]