Following the official rejection of his theory that Martians colonised this earth five million
years ago by proxy, Professor Bernard Quatermass received startling confirmation of it.
The drill operator, Sladden, is found to have run from the excavation at Knightsbridge,
possessed by frightful visions and poltergeist outbreaks, which grip him even in the church
where he takes refuge.
Convinced that these are Martian faculties implanted in man's ancestors, and still capable
of being dangerously stirred up by the great hull in the pit, Quatermass carries out tests
there.
Through Dr Roney's optic encephalograph and the susceptible mind of Barbara Judd, a stored
image is obtained of a race purge on ancient Mars.
But this evidence is rejected as the record of mere hallucination, and that night people
are admitted to the excavation.
Press and television representatives.
Even as Quatermass challenges Colonel Breen's official statement, a violent electrical discharge
breaks out in the house.
A technician laying a power cable there has been electrocuted.
What do you think?
Artificial respiration?
That's no use.
He's burnt up.
Well, we'd better get an ambulance for this chap.
Higgins!
I couldn't help him, Caesar.
I couldn't.
It's all right.
You said he fell.
Yes, it's all slippery in there.
He was just fixing the junction box when he...
It was an accident.
It may not have been.
Quatermass, what do you mean?
He's making up as though it was my fault.
Now look, sir, there was nothing.
I could have done nothing.
All right, I believe you.
Switch on again as soon as you're ready up there.
No, wait.
We've got to get some light back.
Well, cut the cable into the hull.
All right.
Cue number two.
What did you see?
Right there.
It's glowing.
But I was sure.
It was before the lights came on again, but perhaps that was it.
Perhaps...
It's too bright now to see.
You shouldn't have come here, you of all people.
Potter.
I did.
I did.
I did.
I did.
I did.
I did.
I did.
I did.
I did.
I did.
I did.
I did.
I did.
I did.
I did.
I did.
I did.
I did.
I did.
I did.
I did.
I did.
I did.
I did.
I did.
I did.
Everybody, the waiting hall.
Kathryn?
Panther?
Potter?
I didn't see you.
Where are you, Potter?
I don't want to go.
Get a hold of this.
Can you do that?
Well, I think I can.
Keep back!
The cable is disconnected now.
It's all right.
I think not.
Breen, get these people away from here quickly.
I'll do nothing of the sort.
Just because there's been an accident...
An accident?
Here?
My name is Quatermass.
If that means anything to you, take my advice.
Leave this place now.
I think there may be grave danger.
What do you mean, sir?
Danger of what?
Let's go where the professor can give us a full and free statement.
Anywhere, away from here. Hurry!
One moment!
If you want to leave, that's entirely your own affair.
But the official arrangements will go on as planned.
Do as I said. Get out!
Do you mind turning around this way, sir? Face the cameras.
Thank you very much.
Breen, you can't. You've got to release these people.
Cancel it for the present at least.
Precisely on what grounds, professor?
I think there may be some new activity starting in that thing.
What reason have you to believe that?
Something else you can't prove?
You're a tired man and you need a long rest.
That's not just my view, either.
Colonel Breen, we should be doing the live television broadcast in about five minutes.
Would you mind, sir? Just holding it there.
We shall carry on as rehearsed.
Unless, of course, in view of this controversy, you might like to include the professor for a few questions.
What?
Well, it might be a good idea, sir.
Do you agree, sir?
Would you mind, professor, just stepping this way so that we can get a balance?
Thank you very much.
statistic
Cassette!
Here you are, governor. Thank you.
Cassette!
In a few moments...
We hope to take you to Hobs Lane Knightsbridge
to see something of the remarkable missile discovered there recently
and to hear an official account of the...
It's only a couple of blocks away. Why we got a seed on that thing?
Do you believe in these Martians?
Be your age, Kitty. Of course, of course. 29.
No, it's just a ruddy gate, Jerry Buzzbomb, that's all.
You listen to me. I know. I was in the room when the war finished.
It's all now.
What? All right, quick. Good evening. I'm standing just a few
yards away from the mysterious missile which has been so much discussed.
I feel...
Colonel Green, I think perhaps you ought to...
I'm terribly sorry, but something seems to have gone wrong.
I think perhaps I'd better...
Won't let you see for yourself and then they go and muck it up.
Honey noises. Vision on sound, that's all.
Have another. Yes, I will.
Arthur, they were running.
There's men down there.
Children! Children!
Come here, girls.
Hang on. Get out, all of you. Do you hear? Get out!
Pull it up! Come and help me!
Don't you feel it? I've got to get some more pictures.
Green! Green! Get away from here!
No! No!
Let me go! Let me go back!
Wait a minute!
No!
It's no use. I can't do anything with it.
Let's go.
Damn, there was some boxing on after this.
We'll have one more and then we go on to Millie's.
I say, are you OK?
I feel a bit dizzy. I don't know.
You're hungry, I expect. You'll get some grub at Millie's.
Say what you like about Millie. There's one thing about it...
Oh!
Give me a drink, quick. Whiskey, anything.
I just got caught in it out there.
What's the matter with you all, don't you know?
Know what?
All those people running.
Must have been an explosion or something.
I could hear... Give me another.
Yes, there must be hundreds out here.
I say, do you feel up to moving? I really think we ought...
Something went off. It was in here.
Where? I don't know. Don't see nothing.
That's it. Like the noise down the street.
Where did it go, sir? I don't know. I'm sure.
Don't say it's fishing on sound, for God's sake!
Spider-Man! Spider-Man, don't you know me?
That's better. Can I leave you a second?
Every last bottle broken.
Still selling this one.
No way to serve decent whiskey, but...
We're out of mugs.
You know, I'm not a good drinker.
I'm not a good drinker.
Get that in there.
You stopped me. That's right, I stopped you.
You were being dragged along.
Where are the people?
I was just leaving the museum. I heard some shouting in the distance.
There were police cars around. But don't you feel it?
What? Clear.
Anything. No.
Perhaps some don't. A few don't.
Full of love, didn't.
It was what I was afraid of.
The thing got a huge intake of energy and...
And only it's the hull itself, the substance of it.
This time, it was almost alive and...
And then...
And then you can't see this world anymore.
Is it like that now?
No. Better not.
It's quieter.
It hurt pretty badly.
What was it like in the excavation?
Was there anybody still there?
Do you remember?
Yes. A few.
Bring...
You've got to do something. Easy.
No, no, no, no, no. You have to fight.
You see, it's there all the time.
Telephone. Telephone.
Everybody must know by now. They'll be taking measures.
I must try.
As soon as I touched it.
No good. It's dead now.
I'll go up and see if I can find another...
It's changing. I can feel it.
It's getting stronger.
Hello. Hello, sir. Are you there?
It's Jackson, news editor.
I'm at the office.
Can you hear me now, sir?
Listen, sir. I'm worried about...
No, there's nothing from the agencies. Nothing from anybody.
Not even the radio.
Yours too? Everything's going mad.
I can see the street from here.
There's fire engines mostly.
Some ambulances heading west.
It's Bedlam down there.
Huge crowds running wild.
By the way, sir, what about Fuller Love?
James Fuller Love, he's there.
He's at Hobbs Lane. Resort's supposed to have started.
What do you want me to do?
He's in a bad way, poor guy.
We should get him out of here.
Quintermans! No!
Quint! Quint!
Quintermans! It's using you, taking you over!
You've got to go on fighting it, man.
Can you hear me?
I think... I think...
It was your brain, your memory.
Bernard Quintermans.
Remember that summer you came down to my place?
We went fishing, and you got that bloody big pike that had always been in the pool.
You nearly lost a finger landing him in the...
His tail caught that little guy that was with... What was his name?
His name!
Willis.
That's right, Willis!
Knocked him right in, soaked him from head to foot.
But we got that pike home.
Weighed 29 pounds.
That's right, it did, and I've got it in a case at home.
All right, hold on.
You hold on now.
I wanted to kill you.
I could do it without moving.
I knew it, and I would have done it.
Why? Did you know why?
Because... Because you're different.
I could feel it.
You're not one of us.
You had to be destroyed, destroyed.
Don't say any more. Look, try to keep it out of your mind.
I said...
Act!
Animals!
Killing the animals!
Not only the animals.
Only this is it.
This is the wild hunt.
This is the image that was in the pits.
This is the compulsive.
It wasn't control.
It must be.
To preserve their colony.
Kill every mutation away from the fixed pattern.
Destroy everything that didn't belong to them.
Every living thing and every object.
And now it's happening five million years too late.
Draining the whole human energy of London...
To turn it into a Martian colony.
Possibly not after so long as...
Can, can.
My name is Quintemaz.
Professor of Experimental Physics.
Director of the General British Rocket Group.
Press, press, press the gas.
I can feel it.
I see it, see them.
You must.
You're needed.
We've got things to do, nobody else can.
Remember that pipe?
It was hard to take.
I used it.
I used it.
It was late afternoon.
Sunset.
Go on.
Go on.
And now the 4 p.m. news.
Washington.
Flash.
Latest reports on the amazing and still unexplained paralysis of London, England.
In the past hour it seems to have spread to outlying districts.
Power breakdowns have plunged vast areas of the city into total darkness...
And all contact with the rest of the country has been broken.
Planes have been diverted from London Airport.
However, we are now going to try to get an eyewitness account by boosted radio link...
From a U.S. freighter now over the stricken city.
Go ahead, pilot.
Go ahead, pilot.
Hello, hello.
I'm over central London at this moment.
But it's completely unrecognizable, all blacked out.
Except for those fires down there.
Same as in World War II.
I can still see lighted areas out beyond.
They must be 20 or 30 miles away, though.
Hey, well, I'm just blacked out. A whole great patch.
You see that, Joe?
I guess that means it's still spreading, whatever it is.
I'm going to take one last turn around before heading for our diversion field.
Go down and take a closer look.
It's all smoke.
A lot of fires.
Looks like some kind of building went down there.
Big place by the river.
Now there's something right ahead.
Look at that, will you?
I don't know what this is, but it does seem like a fire.
Hey, Joe, take over for a second. There's something...
What's the matter with you? I said take over!
Fire!
Fire!
Who's that?
Oh, Potter.
What are you doing here?
It's all right. Just my ankle.
Where's Barbara?
I did it.
I did. I had to.
I'd have been killed if I hadn't. She isn't dead.
So, that's it.
The devil.
The horned devil!
Don't look at it.
The whole skull, completely.
Mass and energy.
Hovering there like a great fireball.
Driving men mad.
What about you?
I just feel a bit sick.
Like me, immune.
I guess we're the unlucky ones.
I was nearly killed a dozen times getting here.
They seem to pick you out.
He was with me. Confuses them.
I was going to try and reach the barracks. Look for some explosives.
You'll never get through.
Mass and energy.
Electrical energy, I guess.
It's all right. I'm with you.
Ever study legends?
Then you'd know the devil's traditional enemies, iron and water.
What are you driving at?
Legends gave us the first clue in this business that may be worth trying again.
It was possible to fling a mass of steel cable through the middle of it,
connected to wet earth.
That might make sense, both magical and scientific.
There's a lot of steel chain outside in the street.
I thought that was you.
They saw me.
And a man came, blundering into them.
A blind man with a dog.
Here, is there enough, do you think?
Tie it to that pipe. It should be down at the main sewers.
I'll try.
No!
Yes, yes, it's our only chance.
I'm least likely to be detected.
All right, don't get too close.
Throw it as far as you can, right up into that fireball.
Take cover!
Don't go down there.
No!
Mario!
Sweetie.
Rony.
Rony.
That isn't full of cogney.
Matthew Rony
and friend. Much more, for it is with his kind that hope lies, for they have outgrown
the Martians. If another of these things should ever be found, we are armed with knowledge,
but we also have knowledge of ourselves and of the ancient destructive urges in us that
grow more deadly as our populations increase and approach in size and complexity those
of ancient Mars. Every war crisis, witch hunt, race riot, purge is a reminder and a warning.
We are the Martians. If we cannot control the inheritance within us, this will be the
second dead planet.
Thank you.