All language subtitles for Apocalypse, la guerre des mondes - 2019.eng

NARRATOR: Berlin, August 12th, 1961.

The residents of West Berlin
awake to the barbed wire

that separates them from East Berlin,

like this mother from her daughter.

(dramatic music playing)

East German soldiers build a wall

to separate their part of the city
from the Western half,

occupied by the Allies.

Since 1945, the world
was already cut in half

by an invisible iron curtain.

Between the West, the democracies
that rallied around the United States,

and the East, Communist nations,
dominated by Russia,

known as the Soviet Union, and China.

Nuclear weapons prevented
a global confrontation,

but this balance of terror
brought forth local conflicts

like in Indochina in 1946
or in Korea in 1950.

And now, in Berlin.

The East and West are in a state of war,

which can, at any moment,
lead to the Apocalypse.

(opening theme music playing)

East Berliners try to flee
before the wall is completed.

One of them, anonymously,
attests to this...

MAN (in French): It was when, I think,

that I understood for the first-time

what freedom really means.

NARRATOR (in English): The American
bulldozer tanks forge ahead.

Will they destroy the Wall?

(cheering)

Five years before the construction
of the Berlin wall,

in 1956, three years after Stalin's death,

Nikita Khrushchev
is the leader of the Soviet Union.

Khrushchev is a Ukrainian.

A political emissary
during the Russian Civil War,

he climbed the ladder
to the highest echelons of the Party.

As Stalin's henchman, he starved Ukraine.

During the Second World War,
he was merciless on the Stalingrad front.

(marching footsteps)

Yet now, Khrushchev
surprises the entire world.

Like Beria, his predecessor,

he feels the need to save the regime
and its faltering economy.

He wants to ease tensions with the West,

to limit military expenditures.

Without turning his back on his ideology,

he wants to distance himself from Stalin.

At the 20th congress
of the Soviet Communist Party

on February 24th,1956,

Khrushchev has the assembly applaud

the Frenchmen Jacques Duclos
and Maurice Thorez

because they are
staunch Stalin supporters.

But then, suddenly,
Khrushchev reads a secret report

that denounces Stalin's crimes!

This stupefying act
awakens hopes of freedom

in the Eastern countries
colonized by the Russians,

such as Poland and especially Hungary.

In Budapest, in the fall of 1956,

Hungarian students
begin to protest peacefully.

Moscow cannot accept this.

After fierce internal debate, Khrushchev
decides to forcibly intervene in Hungary.

The stakes seem so essential

that the issue of the West's reaction
becomes secondary.

The elites may not be killing
one another anymore,

but they still reject any change.

Marshal Konev, one of the heroes
in the victory over Germany,

is placed in charge
of keeping Hungary in check,

in the name of the Warsaw Pact,

which regroups the Eastern countries
to counterbalance the Atlantic Alliance.

Konev sets the Red Army
tanks loose on Budapest.

The officers tell their soldiers that they
will be fighting against German fascists!

The entire population is against them.

The Hungarian army,
trained by the Russians,

are on the insurgents' side

and its first targets are Soviet symbols.

-(thud)
-(people cheering)

October 23rd, 1956.

A massive armed uprising in Budapest.

(gunshots)

The city is surrounded by Konev's army.

(explosion)

Budapest's radio
launches a desperate plea,

"The Soviet troops
have begun their attack!

We fight them in the name of freedom!"

(explosion and gunshots)

Twenty-five hundred Hungarian civilians
and military

and 800 Soviet soldiers die
during these few days of fighting.

On November 10th,1956, the Russian tanks
launch their final attack.

The Hungarian rebellion
is definitively crushed, in bloodshed.

Budapest is in ruins.

The Russians and those
who continue to support them go wild

and order thousands of arrests, hangings
and deportations to the gulags.

Two hundred thousand Hungarians
manage to escape to Austria,

and then Switzerland,

Canada, the United States and France.

The whole world protests but does nothing.

Because at the same time, the world
is being shaken by another major crisis.

All eyes are on the Suez Canal.

It is the vital oil route, owned by
a Franco-British private company.

It was just nationalized
by Colonel Gamal Abdel Nasser,

the Rais, the leader,
who just came into power in Egypt.

Nasser proclaims:

There is no shame in being poor.

What is shameful
is the exploitation of people.

We are taking back our rights
and the Canal belongs to Egypt!

November 6th, 1956.

British and French forces arrive to occupy
the zone of the Suez Canal,

with the help of the Israeli army.

After taking the towns along the Canal,

soldiers are ready to move
into the operation's final phase:

overthrowing Nasser's regime.

(gunshots and explosions)

Suddenly, they are given
the order to cease hostilities.

London and Paris
have just been seriously threatened

with nuclear retaliation, by Moscow.

In the United States, President Eisenhower
refuses to get involved in the conflict.

With his Secretary of State Foster Dulles,

he backs down before the threat
of the Arab world joining the Soviet camp.

(cheering)

Nasser is the leader of the Arab nations.

The French paratroopers head back
to Algiers, where they came from,

to fight against
the insurgents from the FLN,

the Algerian National Liberation Front.

They are welcomed by the French community,
who is under great threat.

Nasser sinks 40 ships in the canal,

rendering it inoperative
for several months

and cutting off 90% of oil supplies.

In just a few days,
France has no more fuel.

A voucher system is instituted,
and factories stop production.

Drivers abandon their cars
in the Place de la Concorde.

In Moscow, the Suez crisis
has strengthened Khrushchev's power.

He has just won
his first duel against the West.

The master of the Kremlin
is still Master of the World.

(crowd applause and cheering)

Especially since he has
gained new supporters

in what is called the Third World.

"Non-Aligned" is the term invented
by Indian Prime Minister Nehru,

to refer to countries who don't belong
to the Communist or Capitalist camps.

But the Soviet Union and China compete
to rally the non-aligned countries,

these African or Asian nations
whose independence is often recent.

(crowd cheering)

In 1956, Mao condemns the rebellions
of the Eastern European countries.

For him, they are the result of the famous
Khrushchev report on Stalin's crimes.

Mao sees himself
as Stalin's true successor.

He sees himself as the master
of the world's one billion Communists.

For him, the "detente with the West"
that Khrushchev is aiming for

can only weaken the Socialist camp.

War is the glue of Communism,

and as such, war must continue.
In Vietnam.

Mao has already greatly contributed
to the Communist victory in the North.

Their leader, Ho Chi Minh, has never
missed an opportunity to go to China,

to show Mao his gratitude.

And in the Soviet Union,
to show his gratitude to the Politburo.

(lively music playing)

Ho Chi Minh comes out of Lenin
and Stalin's mausoleum in tears.

Khrushchev will say, "Ho Chi Minh is truly
one of Communism's Saints!"

Ho Chi Minh obtained the equivalent
of one hundred million euros

from the USSR.

Along with the 200 million Mao gave him,

he can now confront the famine
that ravages his country.

As soon as they came
into power in North Vietnam,

Ho Chi Minh and his regime
launched a major agrarian reform.

Vietnamese farmers make up
95% of the population.

To control them,
the Government takes their land.

It's called forced collectivization,

which begins
with the destruction of their land titles.

(crowd shouting)

Small landowners are forced
by the police to wear bourgeois

or mandarin clothing
and are humiliated with mock trials.

They are accused of terrible crimes
by their family...

even by their children.

(speaking in Vietnamese)

NARRATOR (in English): Tens of thousands
of these poor people are executed

or thrown into "re-education camps",
immediately established by the regime.

Following the Stalinist model,

two and a quarter million acres
are transformed into collective farms

whose profits revert to the State.

Since 1954, hundreds
of thousands of peasants

manage to escape to the South.

Amongst them are many city-dwellers,

civil servants or employees of the French.

The roads are quickly closed off

so they climb onto anything that floats.

Overloaded bamboo rafts
are picked up by American ships.

They leave everything behind.

Their land and their ancestors.

They bring only their Christian faith,
which they display like a laissez-passer.

The South Vietnamese leader
is a Catholic as well,

in a country which is primarily Buddhist.

His name is Jean-Baptiste Ngo Dinh Diem.
He is 53 years old.

Exiled for years, he is the main face
of non-Communist anti-colonialism.

His plans are guided
by his fear of the Communists

who he hunts down and imprisons.

With the help of his brother,

Ngo DinhNhu, the head of the secret police
and his wife, Mrs. Nhu,

quickly renowned
for her beauty and outspokenness

when it comes to denouncing the opposition

and the Western medias that she believes
are manipulated by the Communists.

In Hanoi, North Vietnam, the Communists
gathered around Ho Chi Minh,

are now preparing to go back to war.

The "Ho Chi Minh Trail" through Laos
and Cambodia, must be reopened,

as it was during the Indochina War.

But it will be expanded into a complex
network of paths and trails

invisible from the sky.

Over 1200 miles through mountainous
jungle stretching to the South.

One of the Communist fighters,
Tran To Nga, recalls,

"The density of the forest is suffocating.

Cut one vine and ten more grow!

Clear a path
and it disappears the next day!

How strange it feels
to defy nature this way."

Most of the time, the soldiers
are very young and very indoctrinated.

Their faith gives them strength,
even in the worst conditions.

Their "capitalist enemies"
quickly give them a nickname:

Viet Cong, meaning "Viet Commies".

To secure their trail, they line it with
as many booby traps as possible,

just like their elders did,
but with more imagination and cruelty.

Unsecured zones grow in size.

(gunfire)

The survivors receive attention from Diem,

the president of South Vietnam,

who demands an increase in American aide.

The first American
"military advisors" arrive.

A diabolical "war-machine" is activated.

(dramatic music playing)

The Southern soldiers have the means
to retaliate against the Viet Cong.

(gunshot)

They show no clemency
when they manage to flush them out.

And they are merciless
towards the villages that sheltered them.

This repression feeds hatred.

These are also
the Khrushchev years, the fifties,

a break in the Cold War.

(lively music playing)

The USSR begins
to slowly open up to tourism

and amateur filmmakers.

In France,

the magazine of Renault's CGT union,
publishes an article entitled

"A Renault steelworker's
visit to the USSR."

"Steelworkers here work six hours a day.

And they retire at 55 years old.

The USSR is paradise
on earth for steelworkers."

Khrushchev wants to pursue
an easing of tensions

and peaceful coexistence.

And in July 1959,

the Russians are stunned to see

the United States vice-president,
Richard Nixon.

He is invited to inaugurate
the first exhibition in Moscow

of American products.

Khrushchev begins by drinking a Pepsi,
forbidden in the USSR!

Is this strong symbol of détente,

a sign of renouncing the Cold War?

It is just the opposite.

The Soviets are not ready
to abandon their ideology.

The conquest of new countries

and progress in military
and space programs

put Khrushchev in a position to stand tall
before Capitalism's representative,

in a very unexpected dialog.

(in Russian): In seven years,
when we will have surpassed you,

we'll give you a friendly wave!

(people laughing)

NARRATOR (in English): Nixon then invites
Khrushchev to the United States.

Khrushchev flies to Washington
on the Tupolev 114,

to impress the Americans,

A huge 180-ton aircraft,

with a glass nose like the bomber
it was derived from.

The Americans are also astounded.

Both flags, side by side!

The Soviet anthem performed
by the US Air Force orchestra!

A warm welcome from their president,
General Eisenhower,

a review of the Marines

and the two men striving
to appear well-intentioned.

Our common purpose should be, as always,

a just, universal and enduring peace.

It is in this spirit Mr. Chairman,
that I greet you

and welcome you to Washington,
and to the United States.

(people clapping)

NARRATOR: When Mrs. Khrushchev, Nina,
climbs into the presidential Lincoln,

Eisenhower hesitates for a moment.

Journalist David Garroway accurately
summarizes what is happening:

"We had never seen him so close up.

His pudgy physique doesn't correspond

to the vision of the world's
most powerful dictator.

How did this bulky fellow
with a round clownish face

reach his present pinnacle?"

All smiles,

he presents Eisenhower and Vice-President
Nixon with a space probe,

similar to the one he sent up
to the Moon the previous day.

Eisenhower gives a forced laugh.

He is mortified by the series
of failed American spaces launches,

still far from manned flights.

(church choir music)

(music crescendos)

The Russians are able
to send a dog, Laika, into space.

Which proves that they will
soon be able to send a man,

a satellite, or a bomb.

The balance of terror
is dangerously threatened.

Convinced of his superiority,

Khrushchev takes the liberty
of entertaining the press,

playing on his Mr. K persona,

gregarious and reassuring.

He visits Hollywood,
where he is invited to a lavish dinner,

broadcast using all the latest
television technology of the time.

Every movie star attends,

wanting to see the strange creature
who has come from "the cold",

including Frank Sinatra,
David Niven, Tony Curtis

and most importantly,
the queen of Hollywood and the world,

Marilyn Monroe.

In Peking, attractions
of another kind await Khrushchev.

On September 28th, 1959,

only fifteen days after
his visit to the United States,

he is in China to celebrate
the tenth anniversary

of Mao's rise to power.

Khrushchev fears Mao

and has decided to break his commitment
to supply him with the latest prototype

of a nuclear bomb.

Mao continues
to openly criticize Khrushchev

and his "peaceful coexistence"
with the West.

This signals the split
between the Chinese and the Soviets.

For Ho Chi Minh, who is also invited,

it is a sign that the Vietnam War
is going to intensify.

Khrushchev writes,

"China holds Vietnam in its claws.
And it won't loosen its grip."

Communist North Vietnam trains
its army to invade the South.

Weapons and supplies
travel along the Ho Chi Minh Trail,

which goes through Laos
and drags the country into the war.

(helicopter whirring)

The chain of events remains the same.

American military advisors
are now joined by the mighty Green Berets,

who have come to train
the young Laotian Army.

The Green Berets are part
of the American Army's Special Forces,

created in the 1950's.

In South Vietnam,
the Green Berets gather the villagers

in highly-guarded strategic Hamlets.

This triggers increasing hostility
among the farmers.

The Viet Cong has little difficulty
finding informants

and creates an entire spy network,

enabling them to carry off their attacks
accurately and successfully.

-(shouting)
-(gunfire)

The Green Berets
begin to fear their elusive enemy.

This is one of the most
striking images of the War of Worlds.

The one the East wants to project,

that of a small, heroic nation,
in holes and tunnels,

entirely devoted to the cause.

But in fact, entire divisions
with powerful artillery

are confronting
the steel monsters from the West.

A Lockheed U2 reconnaissance aircraft

flies regularly over the Soviet Union,

at more than 65,000 feet, a record.

This altitude shields it
from anti-aircraft missiles.

It can safely photograph
Russia's ballistic missile sites.

It is quickly spotted by Soviet radar,

but is far too high to be targeted.

(speaking in Russian)

NARRATOR (in English): Khrushchev,
feeling betrayed by the West

in his attempt to ease tension,

and weakened vis-a-vis
the Party and the Chinese,

decides to launch his fighter squadrons

and his new anti-aircraft missiles.

At first, these Soviet missiles shoot down
their own fighter planes

as they approach the U2!

But in the end, they manage
to hit the American plane.

The U2 pilot, Francis Gary Powers,
ejected himself.

After heavy interrogation, his trial
begins on August 24th, 1960, in Moscow.

In the famous Column Hall in the House
of the Unions, the old Throne Room.

Ever since the Revolution,

this hall has served to honor Communism's
great deceased figures,

and to celebrate other
important regime events.

This trial has worldwide impact.

(speaking in Russian)

NARRATOR (in English):
The Prosecutor asks Powers...

TRANSLATOR: Do you plead guilty
to the charges as listed?

Yes, I plead guilty.

(translator translating in Russian)

(prosecutor interrogates)

TRANSLATOR (in English):
Who gave you these instructions?

The commander of my detachment.

(translator translating in Russian)

NARRATOR (in English):
In his defense, he says...

Not as an enemy but as a human being...

(translator translating in Russian)

(in English): ...who is not
a personal enemy of the Russian people.

(translator translating in Russian)

NARRATOR (in English):
Powers is not sentenced to death,

the usual punishment
for such a case in the Soviet Union.

He is sentenced to ten years in prison

and is rapidly exchanged for the head
of Russian espionage in America,

Colonel Rudolf Abel.

In November 1960,

Khrushchev closely follows
the American elections,

a face-off between a brilliant, young
Democrat Senator, John Kennedy

and the Republican Vice-President,
Richard Nixon.

Khrushchev hates Nixon,

whom he considers
to be very anti-Communist,

and applauds when
Eisenhower hands over power,

on January 20th, 1961, to Kennedy,

who Khrushchev believes
to be a progressive.

Is he a new Roosevelt?

At his inauguration,

Kennedy and his vice-president,
Lyndon Johnson,

have chosen Marian Anderson
to sing the American anthem,

traditionally sung on such an occasion.

She is a hero
in the fight for civil rights.

(singing "The Star-Spangled Banner")

But contrary to Khrushchev's hopes,

Kennedy reveals himself to be a determined
adversary of the Soviet Union.

His brother, Robert Kennedy,
had worked with Senator Joseph McCarthy,

who had hunted down
American Communists ten years earlier.

Robert Kennedy becomes
United States Attorney General

and the main advisor to his brother,
the new president.

As soon as they step into office,

John Kennedy and his vice-president,
Lyndon Johnson,

have urgent matters to handle.

The first, is the issue of Cuba,

the largest Caribbean island situated
right next to the United States.

Two years earlier, on January 3rd,1959,

Fidel Castro and his guerrillas
marched triumphantly into Havana.

(crowd cheering)

Castro had defeated
the army of Colonel Batista,

accused of being a corrupt dictator.

Castro had promised to keep his beard

until social justice,
as he called it, was victorious.

(speaking in Spanish)

Freedom or death!

NARRATOR (in English): The beard had
become a symbol of the Revolutionaries.

Castro firmly turned towards
his only possible means of support.

The Soviet Union.

One month after Castro seized power,

Mikoyan, the Soviet minister
of Foreign Trade, hurried to Havana

to sign a one-hundred-million-dollar loan

and a promise to buy
Cuba's sugar production.

The Americans have only one goal:
to overthrow Castro.

Soon after taking office in 1961,

Kennedy discovers a plan formulated
by his predecessor, Eisenhower,

and the CIA.

A military expedition composed
solely of Cuban exiles.

They must land, rally the population
and appeal to America for help.

Kennedy approves this plan.
He chooses the landing spot,

a beach 125 miles from Havana,

the Bay of Pigs, named after a local fish.

(gunfire)

On April 17th, 1961,

1400 anti-Castro Cubans land.

Castro gathers all the troops he has.

(people cheering)

(man speaking in Spanish)

(fire and explosions)

NARRATOR (in English):
His modest air force

fires on the shores of the Bay of Pigs

and sinks the anti-Castro ships.

(gunshots and explosion)

However, Castro remains concerned.
What will the population do?

It doesn't react, either terrified
or won over by the Revolution.

Kennedy gives the order to abandon
the Cuban exiles to their fate.

The anticipated uprising
doesn't take place.

One thousand surviving
anti-Castrists surrender.

They are later exchanged
by Cuba for medicine.

Barely three months
after his inauguration,

Kennedy has just
experienced a terrible setback

with the failure of the Bay of Pigs.

He fears the worst. He says,

"We moved on Cuba.
Now Khrushchev will move on Berlin."

Berlin remains
the central issue of the Cold War.

Three million East Germans have already
escaped to the West, via Berlin.

This is an unbearable
situation for the Communists,

who demand that the Western part
of the city be annexed.

In an attempt to end the escalation,

Kennedy goes to Vienna
to meet with Khrushchev.

He wants to prevent him from occupying
West Berlin, which would mean war.

On the way to Vienna, Kennedy stops
in Paris with his wife Jackie,

Kennedy is impressed by
the French president, General de Gaulle,

a historic personality.

De Gaulle advises him
to remain firm about Berlin.

The big meeting takes place
the next day in Vienna.

Kennedy knows perfectly well
that he is in a weakened position,

barely two months after
the Bay of Pigs disaster.

Khrushchev, on the other hand,

is empowered by his planetary success.

He has just sent the first man,
Yuri Gagarin, into space.

In the Vienna salons,

when the incredibly elegant
Jackie meets Khrushchev,

and president Kennedy
meets Mrs. Khrushchev,

it's the collision
of irreconcilable cultures.

A dialog between
the two men is impossible.

Kennedy has no idea
what Khrushchev has brewing.

Building a 90-mile wall to isolate
Berlin West from East Berlin,

the rest of Germany,
and all other Eastern bloc countries.

Three million refugees have already
managed to get to the other side.

Khrushchev, chose the solution
the Western world least expected.

A French diplomat,
Henri Froment-Meurice, recalls,

"We had imagined everything,
except the Wall.

Because it is difficult for democracies

to imagine the kinds of things
dictatorships could do.

We had considered
blocking off access to the city.

But we hadn't pictured the adversary
suddenly blocking himself off!

Locking in his own population,
to stop them from reaching the West."

But the wall
is also a relief for the West.

Berlin is better locked up
than under Russian control.

(tank approaching)

But for Khrushchev,
the offensive continues.

He honors the Cuban Revolution and says,

"Now we will put a hedgehog
in America's underwear!"

With Castro, he decides
to install nuclear missiles,

125 miles from the US coast.

October 1962,

an American reconnaissance plane
brings back photos from Cuba

of ballistic missile sites,

which could strike American towns
in a matter of minutes.

This balance of terror has already
been upset by the Americans.

President Eisenhower had installed Jupiter
ballistic nuclear missiles in Turkey.

These Jupiters are close
to the Russian border,

even closer than the Soviet missiles
in Cuba are to America.

(dramatic music playing)

This situation, intolerable
for the leaders in Moscow,

has forced Khrushchev
to put Kennedy in the same situation.

Kennedy alerts the UN
and seizes the Security Council,

showing pictures
of the construction of the missile sites.

The Americans are called upon.

Their president is going to address them.

I call upon Chairman Khrushchev

to halt and eliminate
this clandestine, reckless

and provocative threat to world peace.

NARRATOR: The US Navy establishes
a blockade around Cuba

closing off the route
for the Russian ships

carrying the missiles.

But, suddenly, four Soviet
nuclear submarines surface

inside the blockade.

This round has just become
extremely dangerous.

Pope John XXIII launches
a solemn appeal to the governments,

"We beg all governments not to
remain deaf to this cry of humanity!"

Castro rallies his population,
to the notes of The Internationale.

(singing "El Himno de Bayamo")

NARRATOR: "Brother countries" loudly relay
slogans in support of Castro.

On the beaches of Florida, the Americans
strengthen their defense.

Concentrate their troops and put their
air force on maximum alert.

The whole world sees this
as the beginning of World War III.

The universal reflex
is to urgently build food reserves

and to identify anything
that could be used as a fallout shelter.

In school,

children begin learning how
to protect themselves in a nuclear threat,

and their parents create shelters
to save the human race.

After days of secret negotiations,

like this game of badminton
with US Secretary of State Dean Rusk,

Khrushchev wins

by obtaining the disarming
of the US Jupiter missiles in Turkey.

As though he were surrendering to Kennedy,

on October 28th, 1962,

Khrushchev orders his fleet
to head home with its Soviet missiles.

The Americans film them, covered in tarps
on the decks of the Russian ships.

The images travel the world.

The Murphy family comes out
of its fallout shelter in Vermont.

(lively music playing)

Barbara in New York,
and Max and Rachel in Texas,

let out a huge sigh of relief,
as does the whole world.

They are all convinced
that Kennedy saved them.

Their president expresses
his thanks to God,

at Mass with his family on Sunday,
October 28th, 1962

in a small church.

Yet Khrushchev is the real winner.

He secured the withdrawal
of the American missiles

and their commitment to leave Cuba alone.

But Khrushchev has accepted to lose face,

which will eventually result in his fall.

Kennedy comes out
of the crisis strengthened.

In June 1963,

he goes to West Berlin,
split in two by the wall of shame,

and still under the threat
of Russian invasion.

(crowd cheering)

Kennedy gives his most
direct and explicit speech,

Two thousand years ago,

the proudest boast was:

(in Latin):
I am a citizen of Rome!

(in English):
Today in the world of freedom,

the proudest boast is:

(in German):
I am a citizen of Berlin!

(crowd cheering)

KENNEDY (in English):
There are some who say...

there are some who say,

that Communism is the wave of the future.

Let them come to Berlin.

NARRATOR: And while visiting
the Berlin Wall, he adds...

"Our democracy is not perfect,

but we have never needed to build a wall
to stop our people from escaping."

The wall provides glaring proof
of the failure of the Communist system.

The priority that now awaits
Kennedy is Vietnam,

where the war will drag the West
and the East towards the abyss.

(theme music playing)