We are always fascinated of our own future from the technological progress of our own creations to the deplorable sights of our own dow...
We are always fascinated of our own future from the technological progress of our own creations to the deplorable sights of our own downfall and extinction. Nevertheless, we never cease to be amazed by what science fiction visionaries and futurist prophecies of what the world has in store for us 100 years into the future.
H.G. Wells is just one of the many who explored the idea of picturing out how our future selves would have lived and governed the world that we would be living in. During his times, the world is in a turmoil after the Great Depression plunge the world into an economic malaise while most of Europe are spellbound by the likes of Fascist leaders Adolf Hitler and Benito Mussolini and Soviet demagogue Joseph Stalin. It is not a surprise that Mr. Wells' view of what the "things to come" is somewhat influenced by the events of his time.
With that in mind. the world of tomorrow in the year 2036 AD would be an underground city with its glass enclosed, compressed air elevators, overhead streets, overhead tracks for cigar-shaped "street cars," apartments in tiers like the homes of the Pueblo Indians, its people getting the news of the day by television, is vividly portrayed. He even envisioned a 'Next War’ and a rebuilt world that is eerily similar to World War 2 and the antebellum build-up to the Cold War.
Would you ever live in Everytown in Mr. Wells' dystopian world? A city where everything is sanitized and ordered according to rules. People live like Romans with their "futuristic"-looking togas and modernist architecture with a 1930's feel.
Historical parallelism is almost spot on that some believed that Mr. Wells predicted the impending war that was to happen! Its graphic depiction of strategic bombing in the scenes in which Everytown is flattened by air attack and society collapses has always fueled the fear of enemy bombers reaching London and bomb it with poison gases. However, there was much concern that the Germans would use poison gas in the build-up to the Second World War as these were extensively used at the trenches in the Great War. Which is why, the film provoked a civilians to carry gas masks and trained in their use. When war did break out, however, the Germans did not use gas for military purposes.
Interestingly, the Wings Over the World is based in Basra, in southern Iraq, from where it begins a new civilization. Southern Iraq was also the home of the Sumerian civilization, one of the world's first known civilizations that existed in 6000 BC, that invented the wheel and other basic building blocks of early human cities. People in the future will have a single-world government with engineers, scientists and inventors as the rulers. It mimics the ideology of the concept of technocracy, where those of the greatest skill and intellect in various vocations would be the leaders.
The aerial invaders attacking Everytown's naval base at the beginning of the film are fired upon by the "guns of the battleship Dinosaur". The use of the name "Dinosaur" appears to be a metaphor, indicating that the aviation-minded Mr. Wells perceived the power of the battleship as having been rendered obsolete by air power.
Historical parallelism is almost spot on that some believed that Mr. Wells predicted the impending war that was to happen! Its graphic depiction of strategic bombing in the scenes in which Everytown is flattened by air attack and society collapses has always fueled the fear of enemy bombers reaching London and bomb it with poison gases. However, there was much concern that the Germans would use poison gas in the build-up to the Second World War as these were extensively used at the trenches in the Great War. Which is why, the film provoked a civilians to carry gas masks and trained in their use. When war did break out, however, the Germans did not use gas for military purposes.
Interestingly, the Wings Over the World is based in Basra, in southern Iraq, from where it begins a new civilization. Southern Iraq was also the home of the Sumerian civilization, one of the world's first known civilizations that existed in 6000 BC, that invented the wheel and other basic building blocks of early human cities. People in the future will have a single-world government with engineers, scientists and inventors as the rulers. It mimics the ideology of the concept of technocracy, where those of the greatest skill and intellect in various vocations would be the leaders.
The aerial invaders attacking Everytown's naval base at the beginning of the film are fired upon by the "guns of the battleship Dinosaur". The use of the name "Dinosaur" appears to be a metaphor, indicating that the aviation-minded Mr. Wells perceived the power of the battleship as having been rendered obsolete by air power.
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