Original subtitles

Keep your chin up!

Chin up!

Had enough?

-I haven't even started yet. -Come on.

MAN: It's the 12th minute for the last 400 feet.

Nick will pace you.

Henry, take them!

Well done, Henry.

6.75, Carlo. Excellent!

Where is Jean-Paul?

Ah, Beanpole sends his apologies. He's detained in the laboratory.

We must train according to the schedule.

He say's he'll do it after the final study period tonight.

Then you can inform him he's forfeited his chance of selection.

So you see, if you drop a stone into a pond,

the waves spread out from the point of impact.

What the ancestors discovered was that there are waves in light,

just as there are waves in water.

But the great difference between water waves and light waves

is their speed.

If you drop a rock into the narrowest part of our lake,

it takes the first wave about six seconds to reach the other side.

In that same time,

a light wave could travel to the moon and back, twice.

In one second,

it can travel 300,000 kilometres.

Now, once the ancestors understood that,

they found that they could use light to do some very remarkable things.

And some of those will be the subject of our next lesson.

I hear your athletic achievements

threaten to take you away from your studies.

I... Well, actually, I'm very much in two minds about it.

Don't be, my boy.

A chance to look closely at Tripod technology in their own city?

Oh, I wish my old limbs would give me such a chance.

When the Tripod arrives, the farm will be deserted

and the sound from the stream will mask any noise.

Don't cry.

Just think of the honour.

Dear friends,

we are here today to give thanks to the Tripods,

who, for over a hundred years,

have brought peace and tranquillity to our world.

Through the miracle of the cap,

which is given to us all as we cross the threshold into adult life,

the violence of our emotions is held in check

and all youthful thoughts of rebellion are taken away.

Today, the Tripod comes amongst us once again

to perform that miracle on our daughter Brigitte

and our sons Philippe and Jack.

We give thanks for this great gift and pray that through it

they may know the joy of lifelong peace.

(SQUEALING)

(WHIMPERING)

(BRIGITTE SCREAMING)

How can they do it? To their own children?

Because the Tripod has them in its power through the cap.

-Julius. -Shall we walk?

What I'd like to know is

since we have weapons which can kill a Tripod, why can't we use them?

When we let anger rule our heads,

as you did earlier when you were sparring with Kurt,

then we lose control.

But Henry did it. He destroyed a Tripod.

Will, there have been Free Men hiding in these mountains

for nearly a hundred years,

deluding themselves that they were strong enough to defeat the Tripods

using the weapons which you admire so much.

But the Tripods had only to wait,

and let them exhaust themselves in futile anger.

I felt that success could never come that way.

So under my leadership,

we are trying to let our heads rule our hearts.

What we are attempting now is to find out the Tripods' weaknesses.

That's why we need young men like you,

to be taken as champions into the Tripod city.

To discover the secrets of their power

and to bring those secrets back to us.

Then we can plan to attack them where they're most vulnerable.

Anne, we must be quick.

Bandits!

Anne!

We must create a diversion. Take care of the others.

(SCREAMING)

Pierre!

Hi, Beanpole. Did you make it?

Oh, hello.

-How did it go? -Well, I made the jump.

-Seven? -Yes.

Well, then, you are the best. You must be selected.

Herr Krull does not like me.

-Drink? -Yeah.

Mmm.

It doesn't matter a bit what Krull thinks, I know what Julius thinks.

-You've spoken to him? -This afternoon.

Which is why I know he won't send me.

-Well, you've won all your bouts. -No, I bet we all go.

Really. Provided they judge on our results.

You're all so keen on suicide.

None of you have seen the Tripod City of Gold, have you?

Not from the inside but...

It's vast. Another world.

Its power is...

Well, you can't imagine.

-It's beyond imagination. -You've seen it, then?

Oh, yes.

And the Tripods are 20 years more powerful now then they were then.

What's in your minds, I wonder?

Scaling the walls of an old castle, perhaps?

Climbing up the battlements to slit the throat of a dozing guard...

Everyone who goes will be accurately briefed.

How can you be so sure of that? When we went raiding for food,

we came back with mule trains laden with victuals.

Now what do we get?

A mangy cow and a bag of hens.

In exchange for one of our best fighters.

Well, what would you do now, Schenker, if you were our leader?

It's too late.

One really hard winter

and we shall all starve to death.

And that will be an end of it.

If you have nothing positive to offer... Come on.

Positive? To send mere boys to the city?

What happened to last year's?

They, too, were brave and full of hope.

Where are they now?

However, we've had scouts on reconnaissance,

and we've selected three possible routes.

One by Lake Constance.

Another by Basel.

And a third through the Jura.

We have experienced guides for all three parties.

And the Basel party would complete their journey by barge.

Uh, that's right.

The Erlkonig is due to leave for Koblenz on the 29th of September.

-The skipper's already been briefed. -Excellent, Kieran.

I'd just like to record our thanks to the reconnaissance parties.

Clearly, excellent work has been done.

ALL: Here, here.

Has anybody any questions?

-Henry? -During our recce we discovered a point

where the Tripods exercise, high up in the hillside.

No doubt preparing for an assault on us.

Somewhere near here.

They regularly tramp through the edge of the forest.

There's a perfect spot where with just a few men

we could prepare a trap to capture a Tripod.

And what new purpose would that serve, do you think?

Well, we could prove that they are not gods,

as the capped believe.

We could show they are just machines with men inside them.

Then surely we can convince more of the capped that they've been fooled.

I wish a solution to the problem could be found that way.

But the history of the Tripods that has been handed down to us

and as we have researched it over the years is...

Well, it's more complex.

And more disturbing than you think.

But we've seen the ancient city.

We know they were capable of making such machines.

Indeed they were.

Kieran, please explain the theory of artificial intelligence to Henry.

What we learnt from studying the remains of the ancestor civilisation

is that about 150 years ago,

they began to make machines that were capable of doing calculations

much more quickly than we can in our heads.

-JULIUS: Like crude mechanical brains. -They called them computers.

Very quickly these machines became more and more sophisticated,

till eventually by means of a process called bio-engineering,

computers could be grown from human tissue.

Now, not only did they look more like the human brain in form,

they began to be superior in performance.

What we believe then happened

was that the artificial intelligences became discontented

with the illogical behaviour and the violence of their human creators.

They began to communicate secretly with each other.

And when the ancestors began yet another war,

the brains devised the Tripods

and began the capping process

to strip our ancestors of the power to destroy themselves.

What we have to do now

is to recover control over our own destiny,

which our ancestors had forfeited by their own stupidity.

Free friends,

this meal

is to celebrate the selection of our candidates for the games.

But first, sadly,

we offer our condolences to Anne,

whose brother Pierre

has sacrificed his own life to save others.

Pierre's loss is one that this community can ill afford.

And we all extend our sympathies to Anne

in her personal grief.

But Pierre's death underlines

the seriousness of the occasion which we are here to celebrate.

The six young people

chosen to compete in the games

will face the same dangers as Pierre.

But the future of all of us,

indeed the future of human freedom,

may well depend on them.

So now...

Fritz Eger.

-Julius. -We have selected you to compete

in the 100 and 200 metres.

Maria Sagon.

Maria, we have chosen you for the javelin.

Gianni Mannotti,

I think we can say that you have chosen yourself

for the 3,000 metres.

Jean-Paul Deliet, better known as Beanpole...

Yay!

...you are chosen for the long jump.

Kip Earhart.

You will compete for us in the 400 metres.

But before I come to the last name,

I must try to stem

what I know will be a flood of disappointment

from one who has trained so hard.

And whose athletic achievements have been so great

that he must have felt himself to be an automatic choice.

Henry Parker.

Your development at new tactics for combating the Tripods

has ensured for you a key role

in the vital defence of our stronghold.

After long deliberation,

we have decided to keep you here

to play what we know will be an invaluable part in ensuring that

when your companions return from the City of Gold,

we shall still be here to receive them.

Do you accept the task?

Yes, I do.

(APPLAUSE)

Then finally, we come to the last athlete to be chosen.

In the lightweight division of the boxing,

we shall be represented by Will Parker.

Let us begin by raising our goblets

to the success of our champions in the games,

and in the vital task of bringing back to us the secrets of the Tripod city.

-To the games! -ALL: To the games!

I was so sure you would be going.

-Do you mind very much? -Of course I mind.

But I respect the decision.

Thanks, Henry.

You have Eloise inside the city. Julius knows that.

An extra spur.

I hope you find her.

Thanks, Henry.

It's a great relief to know you don't resent the choice...

I resent it like hell.

What's he up to now?

(CHUCKLES) Oh!

Making a star chart. In case we get lost.

Everyone in the world will know the way to the City of Gold.

You try telling him that.

Don't worry, Kate, it'll all have grown back before we leave.

Mark and Henry will provide an escort for the third pair, Will and Fritz.

You'll make your way to the ancestors' port of Basel.

There you'll find a river barge called the Erlkonig.

The captain's name is Ulf.

The Erlkonig will take you downriver

to the site of the games.

The stadium is between Koblenz and the City of Gold.

If you win your events,

the Tripods themselves will carry you into their city.