Original subtitles

(AUDIENCE CHEERING AND APPLAUDING)

Ah!

Marvellous!

It can't be.

And yet...

- Vera! - William?

Vera, have you seen it? Have you looked at Mars this evening?

Yes, (LAUGHS) I have.

There's a great light on the illuminated part of the disc.

It's like a puff of flame, bursting from the planet.

(BOTH LAUGH)

The Society's in raptures. I've just left them.

Ah, what can it mean?

- Life, do you think? -(LAUGHS) Don't be absurd.

Must I remind you how unlikely it is for evolution

to have taken place on two adjacent planets?

No.

But a volcano, perhaps a lightning storm!

It is possible, William. Think of it just a moment.

Think of what?

Mars receives barely half the light and heat of Earth.

Even at the equator at noon, it's colder than our coldest winter.

What could live?

Something else perhaps.

Something, something older.

If Mars is colder now, then once it was hotter.

It's cooled, and before we did here,

so maybe life began before us too, and advanced before us.

(LAUGHS) We'd be like monkeys to them.

(LAUGHS) The stuff of dreams, Vera, of fancy, of femininity.

Mars's oceans have shrunk.

Its snow-caps regularly melt and devastate its temperatures.

If there was ever life, my dear, it's at the last of its exhaustion.

Well, perhaps it is.

It's a volcano.

- Such a flash of light. -Indeed.

(THUNDER RUMBLING)

Perhaps a storm.

Well, then, what a storm!

(WIND HOWLING)

My, my! Vera, come quickly!

We should leave!

(EERIE WHISPERS ECHOING)

(INDISTINCT CONVERSATIONS)

Mars is no longer capable of sustaining life.

Our water is depleted.

Temperatures increase annually, while our populations plummet.

Efforts to stabilise the atmosphere have failed.

We have arrived at the only remaining course of action,

the conquest and occupation of Earth.

- Earth. -ALL: Earth.

Earth is abundant with the natural resources our ancestors squandered.

The environment will seem uncomfortable, but not inhibitive.

The problem is, of course, the humans.

- The humans. - ALL: The humans.

They have developed primitive intelligence,

but their young society remains structured around perpetual conquest and conflict.

- Conflict. - ALL: Conflict.

A rapid offensive to their social and economic heart

should prevent significant opposition.

- Opposition. - ALL: Opposition.

The means for this attack are already being realised.

- Realised. - ALL: Realised.

A large scale hydrogen accelerator will be constructed

to launch suspension pods carrying the assault forces.

We have not required such destructive weaponry in over 5,000 years

but modifications to our current technologies

should overwhelm the inferior human defences.

- Defences. - ALL: Defences.

It is time for Mars to thrive again, on Earth's young, unprotected soil.

GEORGE: No one would have believed, in the last years of the 19th century,

that human affairs were being watched

by intelligences which inhabited the timeless worlds of space.

No one could have dreamed we were being scrutinised,

as someone with a microscope studies creatures

that swarm and multiply in a drop of water.

Few men even considered the possibility of life on other planets

and yet, across the gulf of space,

minds immeasurably superior to ours regarded this Earth with envious eyes,

and slowly, and surely, they drew their plans against us.

(DRAMATIC MUSIC PLAYING)

(UPBEAT DRAMATIC MUSIC PLAYING)

(INAUDIBLE)

(MUSIC FADES)

(AUDIENCE APPLAUDING)

(MUSIC RESUMES)

At midnight on the 12th of August,

a huge mass of luminous gas erupted from Mars and sped towards Earth.

I made contact with Ogilvy, the astronomer, and we hurried to his observatory.

Across 200 million miles of void, invisibly hurtling towards us,

came the first of the missiles that were to bring so much calamity to Earth.

As we watched, there was another jet of gas. It was another missile, starting on its way.

And that's how it was for the next 1O nights.

A flare spurting out from Mars, bright green, drawing a green mist behind it,

a beautiful, but somehow disturbing sight.

Ogilvy assured me we were in no danger.

Perhaps a huge volcanic explosion was in progress,

but he was convinced there could be no living thing

on that remote, forbidding planet.

(SINGING) The chances of anything coming from Mars are a million to one, he said

The chances of anything coming from Mars are a million to one

But still they come

GEORGE". Then came the night the first missile approached Earth.

Hundreds saw it, but thought it was an ordinary falling star.

Some say it travelled with a hissing sound,

-some that it landed with a green flash. -(CAPSULE HISSING)

However, next day there was a huge crater in the middle of Horsell Common,

and Ogilvy came to examine what lay there,

a cylinder, 30 yards across, glowing hot

and with faint sounds of movement coming from within.

Suddenly the top began moving, rotating, unscrewing,

and Ogilvy feared there was a man inside, trying to escape.

He rushed to the cylinder, but the intense heat stopped him

before he could burn himself on the still glowing metal.

(SINGING) The chances of anything coming from Mars are a million to one, he said

The chances of anything coming from Mars are a million to one

But they still come!

Yes, the chances of anything coming from Mars

Are a million to one, he said

The chances of anything coming from Mars are a million to one

But Still

(CAPSULE WHOOSHING)

They come

(AUDIENCE CHEERING AND APPLAUDING)

(HEART BEATING)

(EERIE MUSIC PLAYING)

It seems totally incredible to me now that everyone spent that evening

as though it were just like any other.

From the railway station came the sound of shunting trains, ringing and rumbling,

softened almost into melody by the distance.

It all seemed so safe and tranquil.

(EERIE MUSIC CONTINUES)

(EERIE WHISPERS ECHOING)

(INDISTINCT CONVERSATIONS)

(SCRATCHING STRINGS RHYTHMICALLY)

(PLAYING PLODDING RIFF)

(LOUD METALLIC SCRAPING)

GEORGE'. Next morning, a crowd gathered on the Common,

hypnotised by the unscrewing of the cylinder.

Two feet of shining screw projected when, suddenly, the lid fell off!

(CRASHES)

(SINGING THROUGH VOCODER)

Two luminous disc-like eyes appeared above the rim.

A huge, rounded bulk, larger than a bear, rose up slowly,

glistening like wet leather.

Its lipless mouth quivered and slavered and snake-like tentacles writhed

as the clumsy body heaved and pulsated.

(PLAYING UPBEAT MUSIC)

GEORGE'. A few young men crept closer to the pit.

A tall funnel rose, then an invisible ray of heat leapt from man to man

and there was a bright glare, as each was instantly turned to fire.

Every tree and bush became a mass of flames

at the touch of this savage, unearthly Heat-Ray.

(DISTORTED GUITAR PLAYING ROCK RIFF)

People clawed their way off the Common, and I ran, too.

I felt I was being toyed with, that when I was on the very verge of safety,

this mysterious death would leap after me and strike me down.

At last I reached Maybury Hill

and I looked with astonishment at the tranquillity of the scene.

Yet once inside, in the dim coolness of my home,

I wrote an account for my newspaper

before I sank into a restless, haunted sleep.

I awoke to alien sounds of hammering from the pit,

and hurried to the railway station to buy the paper.

NEWSBOYS: Morning paper! Men from Mars! Men from Mars!

(NEWSBOYS' VOICE ECHOING)

GEORGE". Newsboys exclaimed that one or two adventurous souls

had crawled near the Martians in the night, never to be seen again.

Yet around me, the daily routine of life, working, eating, sleeping,

was continuing serenely as it had for countless years.

(EERIE MUSIC CONTINUES)

On Horsell Common, the Martians continued hammering and stirring,

sleepless, indefatigable, at work upon the machines they were making.

Now and again a light, like the beam of a warship's searchlight,

swept the Common,

and the Heat-Ray was ready to follow.

(DISTORTED GUITAR PLAYING ROCK RIFF)

(SINGING THROUGH VOCODER)

In the afternoon,

a company of soldiers came through and deployed along the edge of the Common,

to form a cordon.

That evening, there was a violent crash

and I realised with horror that my home was now within range

of the Martians' Heat-Ray.

At dawn, a falling star with a trail of green mist

landed with a flash like summer lightning.

This was the second cylinder.

NEWSBOYS: Morning paper! Men from Mars! Men from Mars!

(MUSIC FADING)

(OWL HOOTS)

(AUDIENCE APPLAUDING)

(HOOTING)

(LOW RUMBLING)

(PLAYING PLODDING RIFF)

(SYNTHESISED ORGAN RIFF PLAYING)

(HOOTING CONTINUES IN DISTANCE)

(LOW RUMBLING)

GEORGE'. The hammering from the pit and the pounding of guns grew louder.

My fear rose at the sound of someone creeping into the house.

Then I saw it was a young artilleryman, weary, streaked with blood and dirt.

Anyone here?

Come in.

Here, drink this.

Thank you.

GEORGE: What's happened?

They wiped us out. Hundreds dead, maybe thousands.

- The Heat-Ray? - The Martians!

They were inside the hoods of the machines they'd made,

massive metal things on legs!

Giant machines that walked. They attacked us! They wiped us out!

Machines?

Fighting-machines, just hunks of metal, but they knew exactly what they were doing.

GEORGE: Mmm.

There was another cylinder that came last night.

Yes. Yes, it looked bound for London.

London! Carrie!

I hadn't dreamed there could be danger to Carrie and her father, so many miles away.

I must go to London at once.

And me.

Got to report to Headquarters, if there's anything left of it.

(CLASSIC ROCK GROOVE PLAYING)

We started out on foot.

At Byfleet we came upon an inn, but it was deserted.

The Artilleryman found the kitchen and we filled our stomachs,

and then our pockets, with everything we could hold.

Look, a bottle of whisky, huh! That's a lucky find.

GEORGE'. We hurried onwards.

There didn't seem to be a living soul anywhere.

ls everybody dead?

Not everybody. Look! Six cannons with gunners standing by.

- It's bows and arrows against the lightning. - GEORGE: Mmm.

They haven't seen the Heat-Ray yet.

We hurried along the road to Weybridge. Suddenly, there was a heavy explosion.

-(GLASS SHATTERING) - The ground heaved, windows shattered

and gusts of smoke erupted into the air.

Look! There they are! What did I tell you?

Watch out! They're getting closer!

Quick! Down here, they'll never find us.

(TEMPO INCREASING DRAMATICALLY)

Quickly, one after the other, four of the fighting-machines appeared.

Monstrous tripods, higher than the tallest steeple,

striding over the pine trees and smashing them.

Walking engines of glittering metal.

Each carried a huge funnel

and I realised with horror that I'd seen this awful thing before.

(DRAMATIC MUSIC PLAYING)

A fifth machine appeared on the far bank.

In an instant, it raised itself to full height, flourished the funnel high in the air

and the ghostly, terrible Heat-Ray struck the town.

(LOUD RUMBLING)

As it struck, all five fighting-machines exulted,

emitting deafening howls which roared like thunder.

(MARTIANS HOWLING)

The six guns we had seen now fired simultaneously,

decapitating a fighting-machine.

-(EXPLOSION) - The Martian inside the hood was slain,

splashed to the four winds,

and the body, nothing now but an intricate device of metal,

went whirling to destruction.

As the other monsters advanced, people ran away blindly,

the Artilleryman among them,

but I jumped into the water...

(BASS GUITAR PLAYING SOLO RIFF)

Until forced up to breathe.

Now the guns spoke again,

but this time the Heat-Ray sent them to oblivion.

(RUMBLING)

With a white flash, the Heat-Ray swept across the river.

A huge wave near to boiling point rushed upon me and I screamed aloud.

Then scalded, half-blinded and agonised, I staggered through

leaping, hissing water towards the shore.

I fell helplessly in full sight of the Martians, expecting nothing but death.

The foot of a fighting-machine came down close to my head,

then lifted again, as the four Martians carried away the debris

of their fallen comrade.

And I realised that by a miracle, I had escaped.

(DRAMATIC MUSIC CONTINUES)

(MUSIC FADING)

-(BELL TOLLING) -(AUDIENCE APPLAUDING)

For three days I fought my way along roads packed with refugees, the homeless,

burdened with boxes and bundles containing their valuables.

All that was of value to me was in London,

but by the time I reached their little red-brick house,

Carrie and her father were gone.

(FOLKY GUITAR MUSIC PLAYING)

(SINGING) The summer sun is fading as the year grows old

And darker days are drawing near

The winter winds will be much colder

Now you're not here

I watch the birds fly south across the autumn sky

And one by one they disappear

I wish that I was flying with them

Now you're not here

Like the sun through the trees You came to love me

Like a leaf on a breeze you blew away

Through autumn's golden gown We used to kick our way

You always loved this time of year

Those fallen leaves lie undisturbed now

'Cause you're not here

'Cause you're not here

'Cause you're not here

George, where are you?

Fire suddenly leapt from house to house, the population panicked and ran,

and I was swept along with them, aimless and lost without Carrie.

Finally, I headed eastward for the ocean,

and my only hope of survival, a boat out of England.

(SINGING) Like the sun through the trees You came to love me

Like a leaf on a breeze you blew away

A gentle rain falls softly on my weary eyes

As if to hide a lonely tear

My life will be forever autumn

'Cause you're not here

'Cause you're not here

'Cause you're not here

As I hastened through Covent Garden, Blackfriars and Billingsgate,

more and more people joined the painful exodus.

Sad, weary women, their children stumbling and streaked with tears,

their men bitter and angry,

the rich rubbing shoulders with beggars and outcasts.

Dogs snarled and whined, the horses' bits were covered with foam

and here and there were wounded soldiers as helpless as the rest.

We saw tripods wading up the Thames,

cutting through bridges as though they were paper.

Waterloo Bridge, Westminster Bridge.

- One appeared above Big Ben. -(RUMBLING)

(MARTIANS HOWLING)

(DRAMATIC MUSIC PLAYING)

Never before in the history of the world

had such a mass of human beings moved and suffered together.

This was no disciplined march, it was a stampede,

without order and without a goal.

Six million people unarmed and un-provisioned,

driving headlong.

It was the beginning of the rout of civilisation,

of the massacre of mankind.

(STEAM WHISTLE BLOWING)

(STEAM WHISTLE BLOWING)

A vast crowd buffeted me towards the already packed steamer.

I looked up enviously at those safely on board,

straight into the eyes of my beloved Carrie!

At sight of me she began to fight her way along the packed deck to the gangplank.

At that very moment it was raised,

and I caught a last glimpse of her despairing face

as the crowd swept me away from her.

(SINGING) Like the sun through the trees You came to love me

Like a leaf on a breeze you blew away

Through autumn's golden gown We used to kick our way

You always loved this time of year

Those fallen leaves lie undisturbed now

'Cause you're not here

'Cause you're not here

'Cause you're not here

George, my love!

(MARTIANS HOWLING)

(DRAMATIC MUSIC PLAYING)

GEORGE: The steamer began to move slowly away,

but on the landward horizon appeared

the unmistakable silhouette of a fighting-machine.

Another came, and another, striding over hills and trees,

plunging far out to sea and blocking the exit of the steamer.

Between them lay the silent, grey ironclad Thunder Child.

Slowly it moved towards shore,

then, with a deafening roar and whoosh of spray,

it swung about and drove at full speed towards the waiting Martians.

(SINGING) There were ships of shapes and sizes

Scattered out along the bay

And I thought I heard her calling As the steamer pulled away

The invaders must have seen them As across the coast they filed

Standing firm between them

There lay Thunder Child

Moving swiftly through the waters

- Cannons blazing as she came -(EXPLOSION)

Brought a mighty metal warlord Crashing down in sheets of flame

Sensing victory was nearing Thinking fortune must have smiled

People started cheering

Come on, Thunder Child

Come on, Thunder Child

(FIRING)

The Martians released their black smoke, but the ship sped on,

cutting down one of the tripod figures.

Instantly, the others raised their Heat-Rays and melted the Thunder Child's valiant heart.

(EXPLOSION)

(SINGING) Lashing ropes and smashing timbers

Flashing Heat-Rays pierced the deck

Dashing hopes for our deliverance As we watched the sinking wreck

With the smoke of battle clearing Over graves in waves defiled

Slowly disappearing

Farewell, Thunder Child

Slowly disappearing

Farewell, Thunder Child

Farewell, Thunder Child

Farewell, Thunder Child

When the smoke cleared,

the little steamer had reached the misty horizon,

and Carrie was safe.

But the Thunder Child had vanished forever, taking with her man's last hope of victory.

The leaden sky was lit by green flashes, cylinder following cylinder,

and no one and nothing was left now to fight them.

The Earth belonged to the Martians.

(GEORGES VOICE ECHOING)

(MARTIANS HOWLING)

(AUDIENCE CHEERING AND APPLAUDING)

(HEART BEATING)

(EERIE MUSIC PLAYING)

(WHOOSHING)

The Earth now belonged to the Martians

and I knew not how the fate of mankind would end.

But, at least for the moment,

I also knew that my beloved Carrie and her father were safe,

on another, but distant shore.

(WHOOSHING)

George, my love, where are you?

I will not count you yet among the dead.

Not yet.

But my dreams are strange and hideous.

Carrie, do not mourn me.

I will hold your hand again. I will feel your touch.

I will quench this aching in my heart.

Are you still safe?

Ghastly night. Dark.

And mankind swept from existence.

You swept from me.

But I know. George, I know.

I cannot sleep.

I have found myself praying. Praying, Carrie.

Not the muttered charms I uttered when I was in extremity.

But since seeing your face,

pleading steadfastly and sanely, face to face with the darkness.

Oh, strange, terrible night!

Hideous night.

Not even a pale sliver of light to help with the finding.

But...

- I will not count you among the dead. - I will not count you among the dead.

(EERIE MUSIC PLAYING)

Next day, the dawn was a brilliant, fiery red

and I wandered through the weird and lurid landscape of another planet.

For the vegetation which gives Mars its red appearance

had taken root on Earth.

As man had succumbed to the Martians,

so our land now succumbed to the red weed.

(OMINOUS PASTORAL MUSIC PLAYING)

(CRESCENDO BUILDING)

Wherever there was a stream,

the red weed clung and grew with frightening voraciousness,

its claw-like fronds choking the movement of the water.

And then it began to creep like a slimy red animal across the land,

covering field and ditch and tree and hedgerow,

with living scarlet feelers, crawling!

Crawling.

(WHOOSHING)

it was impossible to recognise the route I had taken only yesterday,

so engulfed was it by the red weed.

It was like walking upon gigantic blood drops.

I kept to the road after that, walking steadily towards London.

I knew a terrible fear.

The red weed had formed a crimson blanket over our world,

and it threatened to smother all of mankind.

I suddenly noticed the body of a parson,

lying on the ground in a ruined churchyard.

I felt unable to leave him to the mercy of the red weed

and decided to bury him decently.

I gazed down sadly at his ravaged face,

and then reeled with shock as his eyes flickered open.

He was alive!

-(DRIVING ROCK BEAT PLAYING) - BETH: Nathaniel.

Nathaniel!

(SINGING) No, Nathaniel

Oh, no, Nathaniel

Nathaniel! I saw the church burst into flame!

- Are you all right? - Don't touch me!

But it's me, Beth. Your wife.

No. You're one of them.

- A devil! - But they're not devils, they're Martians.

Yes, they came from Mars, not from God.

Lies! I saw the Devil's sign.

BETH: What are you saying?

NATHANIEL: The green flash in the sky.

His demons were here all along,

in our hearts and in our souls,

just waiting for a sign from him.

And now they're destroying our world.

He's delirious!

GEORGE: Now pull yourself together, man.

What good is religion if it fails you in a calamity?

It was I who failed.

-(RUMBLING) - After all my promises,

I couldn't help the people when they needed me.

- Take heart, you'll have the chance again. - No!

But we must leave here. Now!

- NATHANIEL: No. - Look! A house still standing!

Come, Nathaniel, quickly!

GEORGE: We took shelter in a cottage and black smoke spread, hemming us in.

Then a fighting-machine came across the fields,

spraying jets of steam that turned the smoke into thick, black dust.

(DISTORTED) Black dust.

(DISTORTED) Thick black dust.

(MARTIANS HOWLING)

Dear God, help us!

(ECHOING) The voice of the Devil is heard in our land!

(SINGING) Listen, do you hear them drawing near in their search for the sinners?

Feeding on the power of our fear and the evil within us

Incarnation of Satan's creation of all that we dread

When the demons arrive Those alive would be better off dead!

There must be something worth living for

There must be something worth trying for

Even some things worth dying for

And if one man can stand tall

There must be hope for us all

Somewhere, somewhere, in the spirit of man

Once there was a time when I believed without hesitation

That the power of love and truth could conquer all

In the name of salvation

Tell me what kind of weapon is love When it comes to the fight

And just how much protection is truth against all Satan's might

There must be something worth living for

Beth, no.

There must be something worth trying for

Even some things worth dying for

And if just one man can stand tall

There must be some hope for us all

Somewhere, somewhere in the spirit of man

People loved you and trusted you,

came to you for help.

Didn't I warn them this would happen?

Be on your guard, I said.

For the Evil One never rests.

I said exorcise the Devil.

But no, no, they wouldn't listen.

The demons inside them grew and grew.

Until Satan gave his signal and destroyed the world we knew.

(SINGING) No, Nathaniel

Oh, no, Nathaniel

No, Nathaniel, no

There must be more to life

There has to be a way

That we can restore to life

The love we used to know

No, Nathaniel, no

There must be more to life

There has to be a way

That we can restore to life

The light that we have lost

(LAUGHING)

Now darkness has descended on our land

And all your prayers cannot save us

Like fools we've let the Devil take command

Of the souls that God gave us

To the Altar of Evil like lambs to the slaughter we're led

When the demons arrive The survivors will envy the dead!

There must be something worth living for

No, there is nothing!

There must be something worth trying for

I don't believe it is so

Even some things worth dying for

(LAUGHS)

Name me one thing

If just one man could stand tall

There would be some hope for us all

- Somewhere, somewhere in the spirit of man -Somewhere, somewhere in the spirit of man

Forget about goodness and mercy, they're gone!

NATHANIEL: (ECHOING) Didn't I warn them?

- Pray, I said. - Pray, I said.

Destroy the Devil, I said.

(ECHOING) Devil, I said.

(LAUGHING)

No, no they wouldn't listen.

I could have saved the world.

But now it's too late.

Too late!

BETH: (SINGING) No, Nathaniel

Oh, no, Nathaniel

No, Nathaniel, no

There must be more to life

There has to be a way

That we can restore to life

The love we used to know

No, Nathaniel, no

There must be more to life

There has to be a way

That we can restore to life

The light that we have lost

CHORUS'. No, Nathaniel BETH". Oh, no, Nathaniel

(WHISPERING) Nathaniel

- No, Nathaniel - CHORUS: No, Nathaniel

Oh, no, Nathaniel

Nathaniel!

-(NATHANIEL GASPS) -(EXPLOSION)

-(GLASS SHATTERING) -(GRUNTS)

(NATHANIEL GRUNTS)

Dear God! A cylinder's landed on the house!

And we're underneath it, in the pit!

The Martians spent the night making a new machine.

It was a squat, metallic spider with huge articulated claws,

but it, too, had a hood in which a Martian sat.

I watched it pursuing some people across a field.

It caught them nimbly and tossed them into a great metal basket upon its back.

Beth!

She's dead!

Buried underneath the rubble.

Why?

Satan, why did you take one of your own?

(SINGING) There is a curse on mankind

We may as well be resigned

To let the Devil The Devil take The spirit of man

- BETH: No, Nathaniel - CHORUS: No, Nathaniel

- Oh, no, Nathaniel -(WHISPERING) Nathaniel

- No, Nathaniel - CHORUS: No, Nathaniel

Oh, no, Nathaniel

GEORGE: As time passed in our dark and dusty prison,

the Parson wrestled endlessly with his doubts.

His outcries invited death for us both

-and yet I pitied him. -(NATHANIEL SCREAMING)

(PANTING)

(MUSIC FADES)

(SLOW MYSTERIOUS ROCK BEAT PLAYING)

Then, on the ninth day, we saw the Martians eating.

Inside the hood of their new machine,

they were draining the fresh, living blood of men and women

and injecting it into their own veins.

(SCREAMING)

It's a sign! I've been given a sign!

They must be cast out

and I have been chosen to do it.

I must confront them now!

Those machines are just demons in another form!

I shall destroy them with my prayers!

I shall burn them with my Holy Cross!

- I shall, I'll try, if I can just... - No, Parson, no!

(SLAPS)

The curious eye of a Martian appeared at the window-slit,

and a menacing claw explored the room.

I dragged the Parson down to the coal cellar.

I heard the Martian fumbling at the latch.

It understood doors!

In the darkness I could see the claw touching things,

walls, coal, wood, and then it touched my boot!

I almost shouted!

For a time it was still and then, with a click, it gripped something.

The Parson!

With slow deliberate movements,

his unconscious body was dragged away.

And there was nothing I could do to prevent it.

(LUSH ORCHESTRAL CHORDS PLAYING)

(OMINOUS PASTORAL MUSIC PLAYING)

I crept to the blocked window-slit and peered through the creeper.

The Martians and all their machinery had gone!

Trembling, I dug my way out and clambered to the top of the mound.

Not a Martian in sight!

The day seemed dazzling bright after my imprisonment,

and the sky a glowing blue,

red weed covered every scrap of ground,

but a gentle breeze kept it swaying

and, oh, the sweetness of the air!

(MUSIC STOPS)

(AUDIENCE APPLAUDING)

(EERIE MUSIC PLAYING)

Again, I was on my way to London,

through towns and villages that were blackened ruins,

totally silent, desolate, deserted.

Only the red weed lived.

I felt a sense of dethronement,

a realisation that I was no longer a master,

but a puppet, under Martian domination.

Man's empire had passed away, taken swiftly and without error,

by these creatures who were composed entirely of brain.

Unhampered by the complex systems which make up man,

they made and used different bodies according to their needs.

In a sexual world, they were without sex,

without the tumultuous emotions that arise between man and woman.

They never tired, never slept and never suffered,

having long since eliminated from their planet

the bacteria which cause all fevers, cancers and other morbidities.

(EERIE MUSIC CONTINUES)

Halt! Who goes there?

- Friend. -Be on your way.

This is my territory.

Your territory? What do you mean?

Wait a minute, it's you!

The man from Maybury Hill!

Good heavens! The Artilleryman!

I thought you surely burned.

I thought you surely drowned.

Is this your house?

Well, it is now.

Have you seen any Martians?

Everywhere. We're done for all right.

You mean the war is lost?

There never was a war.

There's no war between men and ants and that's what we are now. Ants!

We can't just give up!

Correct. But squealing and panicking don't help.

I've been in sight of death before,

and you know who always comes through?

- The man who keeps on thinking. - Uh-huh.

What brought you to lslington?

Thinking.

Everyone was rushing away, so I headed right for the Martians,

like a sparrow goes for the crumbs.

Now, people are starving in heaps out there,

treading on each other, but I've everything I need,

till the Martians are ready.

Ready for what?

The next stage, bringing over the rest of their people.

After that, they won't go catching us one at a time.

They'll do it systematic.

Laying traps and storing us in cages and things.

So we'll have to fix up a new kind of life for ourselves,

and there'll be none of your namby-pamby civilisation and stuff,

that game's over.

Then what is there to live for?

The breed, man!

We can't let ourselves be caught and fattened like cattle.

But how can we prevent it?

I've got a plan!

(DRAMATIC CHORDS SOUNDING)

We're gonna build a whole new world for ourselves.

Look, they clap eyes on us and we're dead, right?

So we gotta make a new life where they'll never find us.

You know where?

Underground.

You should see it down there, hundreds of miles of drains,

sweet and clean now after the rain.

Dark, quiet, safe.

We can build houses and everything, start again from scratch.

And what's so bad about living underground, eh?

It's not been so great living up here, if you want my opinion.

(SINGING) Take a look around you

At the world we've come to know

Does it seem to be much more

Than (LAUGHS) a crazy circus show

But maybe from the madness

Something beautiful will grow

In a brave new world

With just a handful of men

We'll start, we'll start all over again

All over again

All over again

All over again

We'll build shops and hospitals and barracks right under their noses,

right under their feet!

Everything we need, banks, prisons and schools.

We'll send scouting parties to collect books and stuff,

and men like you will teach the kids.

Not poems and rubbish,

science, so we can get everything working.

We'll build villages and towns,

and we'll play each other at cricket!

Listen, maybe one day we'll capture a fighting-machine, eh?

Learn how to make 'em ourselves

and then wallop!

Our turn to do some wiping out!

Whoosh with our Heat-Ray, Whoosh!

And them running and dying, beaten at their own game.

Man on top again!

(TRIUMPHANT MUSIC PLAYING)

(SINGING) Now our domination of the Earth is fading fast

And out of the confusion the chance has come at last

To build a better future from the ashes of the past

In a brave new world

Give me a handful of men

We'll start all over again

- Look! - CHORUS: Look!

Look, man is born in freedom But he soon becomes a slave

In cages of convention From the cradle to the grave

The weak fall by the wayside But the strong will be saved

In a brave new world

With just a handful of men

We'll start all over again

I'm not trying to tell you what to be

Oh, no, oh, no, not me

But if mankind is to survive

The people left alive

They're gonna have to build this world anew

And it's going to have to start with me and you

Yes!

I'm not trying to tell you what to be

Oh, no, oh, no, not me

But if mankind is to survive

The people left alive

They're gonna have to build this world anew

Yes and we will have to be the chosen few

CHORUS: Just, just, just, just, just

Just think of all the poverty The hatred and the lies

And imagine the destruction of all that you despise

Slowly from the ashes

A phoenix will arise

In a brave new world

With just a handful of men

We'll start all over again

Take a look around you

At the world you've loved so well

And bid the ageing Empire of Man A last farewell

(ECHOING)

It may not sound like Heaven

But at least it isn't Hell

It's a brave new world

With just a handful of men

We'll start, we'll start all over again

All over again

All over again

All over again

I've got a plan!

Can't you just see it?

Civilisation starting all over again, a second chance! (LAUGHS)

We'll even build a railway and tunnel to the coast,

go there on our holidays.

Nothing can stop men like us.

I've made a start already.

Come on down here. Have a look.

In the cellar was a tunnel scarcely 1O yards long,

that had taken him a week to dig.

I could have dug that much in a day,

and I suddenly had my first inkling of the gulf between his dreams and his powers.

It's doing the working and the thinking that wears a fellow out.

I'm ready for a bit of a rest. How about a drink, eh?

Nothing but champagne, now I'm the boss.

We drank and then he insisted upon playing cards.

With our species on the edge of extermination,

with no prospect but a horrible death, we actually played games.

Later, he talked more of his plan,

but I saw flames flashing in the deep blue night,

red weed glowing, tripod figures moving distantly,

and I put down my champagne glass.

I felt a traitor to my kind

and I knew I must leave this strange dreamer.

(DRAMATIC CHORDS SOUNDING)

(SINGING) Take a look around you

At the world we've come to know

Does it seem to be much more

Than a crazy circus show

But maybe from the madness

Something beautiful will grow

(AUDIENCE CHEERING AND APPLAUDING)

(DREAMY MUSIC PLAYING)

There were a dozen dead bodies in the Euston Road,

their outlines softened by the black dust.

All was still, houses locked and empty, shops closed,

but looters had helped themselves to wine and food,

and outside a jewellers'

some gold chains and a watch were scattered on the pavement.

In Bloomsbury, the stillness grew even more profound.

An odd, unnerving feeling of suspense,

as though the destruction which had annihilated the countryside

might at any moment strike these gracious houses in the very heart of London,

and leave all in smoking ruins.

(MARTIANS HOWLING)

I stopped, staring towards the sound.

It seemed as if that mighty desert of houses

had found a voice for its fear and solitude.

(MARTIANS HOWLING)

The desolated cry worked upon my mind.

The wailing took possession of me.

I was intensely weary, footsore, hungry and thirsty.

Why was I wandering alone in this city of the dead?

Why was I alive, when London was lying in state in its black shroud?

I felt intolerably lonely,

drifting from street to empty street,

drawn inexorably towards that cry.

(MARTIANS HOWLING)

I saw over the trees, glittering in the sunlight,

the hood of the Martian fighting-machine from which the howling came.

I crossed Regent's Canal,

now a spongy mass of dark red vegetation,

and pushed on towards Primrose Hill.

There stood a second fighting-machine, upright, but as still as the first.

(MARTIANS HOWLING)

(HOWLING STOPS)

Abruptly, the sound ceased.

Suddenly, the desolation, the solitude, became unendurable.

While that voice sounded, London had still seemed alive.

But suddenly, there was a change,

the passing of something, I knew not what.

Except now all that remained was this gaunt quiet.

(DRAMATIC MUSIC PLAYING)

I looked up and saw a third machine.

It was erect and motionless, like the others.

An insane resolve possessed me.

I would give my life to the Martians, here and now.

(UPBEAT DRAMATIC MUSIC PLAYING)

I marched recklessly towards the titan

and saw that a multitude of black birds was circling and clustering about the hood.

I began running along the road.

I felt no fear, only a wild, trembling exultation,

as I ran up the hill towards the motionless monster.

Out of the hood hung red shreds,

at which the hungry birds now peeked and tore.

(SINGING) The chances of anything coming from Mars are a million to one, he said

The chances of anything coming from Mars are a million to one

But still they come!

I scrambled up to the crest of Primrose Hill,

and the Martians' camp was below me.

A mighty space it was,

and scattered about it, in their overturned machines,

were the Martians, dead.

Slain, after all man's devices had failed,

by the humblest things upon the Earth,

bacteria, minute, invisible, bacteria!

These germs have plagued us since life began.

Through millions of years we've developed a resistance to them.

But there are no bacteria on Mars.

Directly the invaders arrived and drank and fed,

our microscopic allies attacked them.

From that moment, they were doomed!

ALL: (SINGING) The chances of anything coming from Mars are a million to one, he said

The chances of anything coming from Mars are a million to one

But still they come!

Yes, the chances of anything coming from Mars are a million to one, he said

The chances of anything coming from Mars are a million to one

But Still

(WHOOSHING)

They come!

(AUDIENCE APPLAUDING)

(UPBEAT MUSIC PLAYING)

My heart lightened gloriously as the rising sun struck the world to fire.

The shadow had at last been rolled back

and I felt a wave of emotion close to tears.

Yes, the torment had ended.

The people scattered over the country,

desperate, leaderless, starved.

The thousands who had fled by sea,

including the one most dear to me, all would return.

The pulse of life, growing stronger and stronger, would beat again.

MAN: Ladies and gentlemen,

please show your appreciation for our cast of players...

Vera May and William Rowland,

Lily Osborne and Michael Falzon.

(AUDIENCE CHEERING AND APPLAUDING)

The Sung Thoughts of the Journalist, Marti Pellow.

(AUDIENCE CHEERING AND APPLAUDING)

The Voice of Humanity, Will Stapleton.

(AUDIENCE CHEERING AND APPLAUDING)

The Artilleryman, Ricky Wilson.

(AUDIENCE CHEERING AND APPLAUDING)

Beth, the Parson's wife, Kerry Ellis.

(AUDIENCE CHEERING AND APPLAUDING)

Parson Nathaniel, Jason Donovan.

(AUDIENCE CHEERING AND APPLAUDING)

Ladies and gentlemen, Jeff Wayne.

(AUDIENCE CHEERING AND APPLAUDING)

The ULLA dub ULLA Strings.

(AUDIENCE CHEERING AND APPLAUDING)

The Black Smoke Band, Kennedy Aitchison,

Accy Yeats,

Julia Thornton,

Laurie Wisefield,

Tom Woodstock,

Steve Turner,

Neil Angilley, Chris Spedding,

and Herbie Flowers.

Ladies and gentlemen,

please show your appreciation for the on-screen ensemble.

(AUDIENCE CHEERING AND APPLAUDING)

Carrie, the Journalist's fiancée, Anna-Marie Wayne.

(AUDIENCE CHEERING AND APPLAUDING)

And the Journalist, Liam Neeson.

(AUDIENCE CHEERING AND APPLAUDING)

No one would have believed.

As life returns to normal, and man is again supreme,

the question of another attack from Mars causes universal concern.

Is our planet safe,

or is this time of peace merely a reprieve?

It may be that across the immensity of space,

they have learned their lessons and even now await their opportunity.

Perhaps the future belongs not to us,

but to the Martians.

(STATIC CRACKLING)

(BEEPING)

MAN: It's looking good.

- It's going good. -(BEEPING CONTINUES)

We're getting great pictures here at NASA Control, Pasadena.

The landing-craft touched down on Mars 28 kilometres from the aim point.

We're looking at a remarkable landscape,

littered with different kinds of rocks, red, purple...

How about that, Bermuda?

Fantastic! Look at that dune-field.

(BEEPS)

Now wait, I'm getting a no-go signal.

Now I'm losing one of the craft.

Hey, Bermuda, you getting it?

No, I lost contact. There's a lot of dust blowing up there.

(STATIC CRACKLING)

Now I've lost the second craft.

We got problems.

All contact lost, Pasadena.

Maybe the antenna's...

What's that flare? You see it?

A green flare, coming from Mars.

Kind of a green mist behind it.

It's getting closer!

You see it, Bermuda?

Come in, Bermuda!

Houston, come in!

What's going on?

Tracking Station 43, Canberra, come in Canberra!

Tracking Station 63, can you hear me, Madrid?

Can anybody hear me?

Come in, come in, come in, come in, come in, come in,

(ECHOING) come in, come in, come in.

(WHOOSHING)

MARTIANS: The problem is, of course, the humans!

(EERIE MUSIC PLAYING)

(AUDIENCE CHEERING AND APPLAUDING)

(ELECTRONIC BEAT PLAYING)

(NATHANIEL'S VOICE ECHOING)