[THAMES IDENT]
[OPENING THEME]
[SILENCE, BARRING FOOTSTEPS]
[PLAINTIVE, DISCORDANT MUSIC]
[WIND KEENING]
Hey - you!
What the hell are you doing?!
Come here!
L0ofing,eh?
Do you know the penalty for that?
No - wait, please!
I've been down there all night.
Liar!
Nobody's been down there all night!
Do you know what's happened here?!
Don't turn your back on me, you filthy, smelly old git.
I, uh... think you'd better... see my papers
Papers“?
He's says he's got papers.
I don't want to see your papers - I might catch something from them.
Take him round the back.
Look - here.
Who'd you steal that from?
Look at it, man.
How was I supposed to know?
Anyone else down there?
Well, go and have a look!
No.
There's nobody alive.
Just something to... investigate later.
I want to see the Stadium.
Well, sir...
...it's all... it's all been affected, sir - we're not supposed---
It's only the dust.
You've struck this before?
Yes.
How many were there?
Here?
Do they know?
Maybe seventy thousand.
Who can tell?
They shouldn't have been here!
Should've been stopped a long time ago.
Look at it!
Guns everywhere.
They only came for trouble.
Ripping each other to pieces.
Last night it was guns.
We were put on standby and I thought "here we go".
And...
...then---
It's not only the dust.
You do...
...you do find... other kinds...
...other---
[RETCHING]
Yes, you do.
Here comes the sun.
Oh... I could do with that.
Worst night I've ever had.
The sun?!
[DISCORDANT MUSIC]
The sun - it's...
...turned---
It's like vomit.
[FRANTIC CHANTING] Leh! Leh! Leh!
[CHANTING] "Huffity Puffity, Ringstone Round."
"if you lose your hat, it will never be found."
"So pull up your britches, right up to your chin."
"And fasten your cloak, with a bright new pin."
"And when you are ready, then we can begin."
"Huffity, puffity, puff. Puff puff"
This is Pavel Grigoritch Gurov.
Of the Soviet Academy of Sciences.
Mr Gurov has a statement to make.
In the matter of this special threat, er...
...co-operation between Soviet Union and US of America...
...has now ceased.
Er, since failure of rocket mission---
And collapse of communications.
Er, please.
What is this force which attacks us?
Mass destruction of personnel in Soviet Union...
...and also in associated democratic republics of Eastern Europe...
...as well as other places...
...indicates that it is not sensible... not---
Not... sentient.
Academician Gurov now thinks as I do.
That we're facing not an intelligence...
...but a machine...
...of unbelievable sophistication...
- ...but still a machine. - Da. Da.
But, Professor...
...a machine must have a maker?
Of course.
But the intelligence that made this...
...is quite beyond our reach...
...and our understanding.
It's probably thousands of light years away.
This is, um... call it a probe they've sent.
Just as we've sent probes to other planets...
...to get soil samples.
This thing...
...must be programmed...
...to sense living human protein...
...and to take it.
It is not efficient. It wastes.
Today I fly through a sky that has gone... gone sick!
Particles in the atmosphere.
Particles of... personnel that---
[SOBBING]
My... son. He was Major, Soviet Forces - Far Eastern Sector...
...with duties to prevent these gatherings, but...
...they run with the rest. Even Red Army, they are taken.
Mr Gurov has come here at great personal risk.
Because now I agree with him.
In Moskva, they say it alive.
Kolpakov say... he is a fool, but he say and they believe it - alive.
It's Marshal Kolpakov.
An extreme hawk.
Yeah. He prepare now to send rockets - many of them.
Kolpakov wish to kill it.
He cannot. It will not kill.
He's got no target.
How can he?
Only---...
...if he knew in advance...
...where that beam was going to strike.
If he could hit it...
...during the... twenty seconds that---
It is not possible to shoot at the William of the Wisp.
The Earth is losing of its young.
It can die.
Time. We haven't any, have we?
None at all.
I will work with him.
I'll need facilities.
But there won't be enough of those, either...
...so I want people.
Well, tell us who you want.
Well, they'll have to have their wits about them and, er...
...like us, they must be old.
Old?!
Yes.
The older the better.
- Where you taking 'im? - I need him.
What do you want with 'im?
Mr Chisholm, love?
I need his help, Edna.
Back among the perfumes of the world!
I can't wait!
You come too, Jack.
I need a good thief.
[TELEPRINTER NOISE]
We've got the old man.
I didn't think he'd survive it.
What use? Even these - they don't remember.
They don't know what they do.
Each remembers something - a specialised essential.
- Now, if we can co-ordinate--- - Co-ordinate?!
You can't even read my cyrillic.
I can read your equations.
When computer beat me, I go back to this.
All my life I use it - since child.
Draws picture in mind - you can see problem.
So now we must keep problem clear in mind.
How this thing attacks.
It attacks on place marked from ancient time...
...but only when also a big number of crowd is there, da?
- Oh, not again! - Oh, please?
Well... if it helps.
Spasiba. So, it must detect crowd...
...like heat-seeking missile.
Body heat?
Well, I thought---
Oh, forgive that I think on this as I work on this...
...but what about the sound of personnel? The noise?
Do we eliminate that?
No.
We use it.
So, I am right.
We use everything that's a possible factor.
But I'm sure all the aggression, the yelling...
...and the dancing - it's just to excite.
To stir up the glandular secretions.
The unique smell of the human species.
- Not us. - What?
Not the old. We stink.
[SNIFFING]
Pure, perfect zibetone.
However did you isolate it?
I made it.
This?
Synthetic.
Never!
Ah! All right, cock - let's have it. Come here.
We got batteries for all occasions, here.
Oh, Guv. I got most of that stuff.
Er, niaouli oil beat me, that's all.
Good man.
And the bedding and all that stuff - that's outside.
Nothing but the best.
There you are, sir. You'll be all right now.
Oh! Guv... listen?
Them that's down the 'ole?
Oh, yes.
See they're supplied.
No, No. They wanna help.
Them that's up to it.
Tea, everyone.
I'm not sure any more.
Even on the simple part - it's been too long!
Glad you're with us.
You've heard about Bovington Camp?
Yes.
My God.
[OSCILLOSCOPE TWEETING]
[YAWNING]
I never sleep.
I haven't slept for... oh, let me see...
[LAUGHING] ...quite a number of years.
[CHANTING IN DISTANCE] Leh. Leh. Leh.
Listen to them.
That sky.
Do you still say harvest?
Yes.
Well, perhaps we mistake. What sort of harvest is thrown away so.
Something was taken.
It must be.
But what?
Some... trace.
The very scent that betrays them.
Perhaps a flavour.
[EXCLAIMS IN RUSSIAN]
To enrich the lifestyle of...
...inconceivable beings.
Not even that.
Just amuse them.
My God, I can't remember which of these---
There - the digital filter!
[ELECTRONIC HUM]
I'll leave at dawn.
Shouldn't take more than a day.
Who is that?
Dyevushka - girl?
My granddaughter.
Child of my daughter.
Gone?
I think so.
Oh, she was like you.
Help!
[DRAMATIC MUSIC]
He's collapsed.
- It was too much for him! - Jack!
Help him? Help him!
Oh, come on - hurry!
Well, you see - I've been worried about him all day.
Frances - calm, now. This is the sort of setback---
Setback?!
But we did it!
That's benzaldehyde.
The electric image of a smell.
Now we can begin!
Thought so.
Not much damage here.
May be in luck.
Just a minute, sir.
All circuits burned out, of course.
Only to be expected.
Somebody's been here.
This is the---
Yes, they've actually tried to fix--- [NOISE FROM OTHER ROOM]
Hello?
Anybody there?
30$.!
I'd no idea that...
...that you were still here.
We knew the place had been hit.
Joe,en“
...the family?
They're alive.
They escaped?
Where are they?
Alive.
All...
...they're all alive!
Joe'?
You can go now.
What?
I want you to go.
You've been, urn... working on this?
Yes.
There was less damage than I thought.
But I'll get it going.
I'm going to try and communicate.
Only simple signals.
...just enough to indicate that we're capable...
...of understanding any message it sends back.
Of course, it may be completely beyond our intelligence---
30$.!
---but I've got to try.
It's been tried!
The Russians and the Americans - they did what they could.
Marshall died in the attempt!
This was only the beginning.
It's gone on.
It's wiped out vast numbers all over the world.
It never stops.
They aren't destroyed.
Nobody's destroyed. They're all alive.
And I'm going find them.
Come with me, Joe?
Look, I told you---
I'll be back.
Don't interfere with me.
Don't interfere!
[CAR ENGINE]
[GHOSTLY CHILDREN TALKING] "What are you doing now, Daddy?"
Fixing.
[GHOSTLY CHILDREN TALKING] "Always fixing."
[GHOSTLY CHILDREN TALKING] "Let's go somewhere."
[GHOSTLY CHILDREN TALKING] "All of us."
[GHOSTLY CHILDREN TALKING] "Somewhere we've never been."
We will.
[GHOSTLY CHILDREN TALKING] "When?"
When you're bigger.
[GHOSTLY WIFE TALKING] "Soon?
Soon.
[GHOSTLY WIFE TALKING] "Soon?
[GHOSTLY CHILDREN TALKING] "We'll take Puppy!"
At last! I can now believe it may be possible.
We should be able to convert the signals.
If we get enough power.
Into any form of radiation.
What about the signals?
How far advanced?
The sound. Very good.
Misru?
The pheremone synthesis?
I think we are onto it.
A vital part.
That Chisholm?
Incredible!
No machine could do it.
I remember, you see...
...the first girl I ever lay with.
Her body odour.
The precise constituents.
After seventy-four years.
This place was favoured!
It did come here!
[CHANTING] Leh. Leh. Leh.
Kickalong - look!
Halt!
This your place?
Yes.
All gone but you?
Seen this before, haven't we?
Yes.
Always one or two left crying.
Yes.
It touched here, all right.
All touched with the fingers of the lightning!
[MUTTERING] Lightning.
What you been doing?
What you been up to?
You been trying to fix---
Don't!
Science Man - this is no good for anything.
I've got to use it!
I've got to get through!
Get through?
Communicate.
Transmit some kind of---
"Communicate"?
- He's interfering. - Don't let 'im!
We've got to find a way to make ourselves understood.
To show that we're capable of understanding.
Bust it!
No!
This is a kid's toy.
All kids' things.
I had a baby once.
You wanted to be with them.
Go after 'em. Find 'em.
That was no way, Science Man - all them silly wires.
The Planet don't want none of that.
It takes you if you're fit to go.
[MURMURING] Takes you - the lightning.
Fit?
Your woman and your kids. Were they fit to go?
Or did you spoil 'em?
He'd spoil them.
Too much think and talk. That'd spoil 'em.
Got to know it all.
Know it, know it, know it.
If you done that, Daddy Science Man...
...if they're no good...
...they just get... spilled away.
Spmed?
See the sky? All sick.
What that is...
...is "spillings".
All them - now they're fit to go!
I picked 'em.
I picked you.
I walk you and guard you and guide you till it comes for us!
[MURMURING] Comes for us. Lightning.
The lightning comes to take us.
Can he come too?
You a Jew?
Yes.
Okay - it's a start. It's believing.
But you don't do it right.
You got too much sin.
Sin?
All this is... sin.
Your sin... is to know things.
Now you want to come with us...
...you gotta to get it all outta your brain.
Get it out?
All the muck you learned. Every bit.
But you can't unlearn!
All them words in there.
You've got to get them out.
Get them out.
Words?
That's it.
How?
- "How?"! - Listen to him.
What's that?
- I won't. - Say!
Arm!
Lew.
[OTHERS JOIN IN] Leh!
Lew.
Loh.
Loh!
Lah.
- Lah. - Lah.
Lam
[FRENZIED CHANTING] Lah! Lah! Lah! Lah! Lah! Lah!
NO!!!
You can't be made fit!
Your woman - and your kids.
Spillings!
[FRANTIC CHANTING] Leh. Leh. Leh.
SOON!
[CHANTING] Soon! Soon! Soon!
Hey, you!
I wanna stay with him!
[AUTOMATIC GUNFIRE]
[CHANTING BEGINS AGAIN]
[HEAVY TRUCK ENGINES]
[DOOR OPENING]
Quatermass!
It's all right.
Bernard.
I know.
What?
They ARE dead.
Mr Gurov?
I've managed to get that call through for you, sir.
Ah.
Look out for the marked crates, remember.
They needn't be opened yet. Now, where's Mr Misru?
Mr Misru?
Mr Misru?!
[SPEAKING IN RUSSIAN]
Da.
Da, da. Spasiba.
My Embassy contact.
Kolpakov - he did it!
Like I say, he did deploy against that...
...greatest part of strikeforce Soviet Union.
- Hundreds of rockets. - What happened?
Useless.
Got no target.
Some did locate - poof! Instant malfunction.
One of them even attacked the Moon.
So I was right.
And you.
We both knew it.
This is going to be the only way.
Government has lost control.
Your government?
Da.
This on top of all in Soviet Union - revolution.
[CAR ENGINE STARTING]
Evacuation?
Where?
We're clearing the area, sir.
Why?
Now just be still.
No, no. No.
I don't need that.
Just tell me.
What's it for?
- Well, sir, because--- - Where is he?
Where's Quatermass?
Professor Quatermass himself gave orders that you should---
Quatermass!
Is it okay to start everything now?
Yes, yes. Put them up.
Bernard?
[COUGHING]
You all right?
What's going on?
Get off!
Listen...
...all this talk of... evacuation?
They're clearing the area.
Joe, I'm sorry.
They wanted to get me out.
I... had to take it for granted.
I've got to use this place.
It's the only possible.
But it's already been hit.
That's what I mean.
I just can't seem to---
It means there's a marker.
Right here.
Somewhere underneath.
A marker beacon...
...left fifty centuries ago.
That's why it was hit.
Why I can use it.
Use your antennae.
So you ARE going to try and signal?
We're setting a trap for it.
Eh?
Bernard?
Just say it!
Joe...
...if you're after a wild beast...
...you don't go chasing it over the landscape.
You bring it to you.
You bait a trap for it.
A beast?
A machine beast.
A man-eater.
I'm going to put out the analogue...
...of a human presence.
The sound of them.
The smell of them.
Their blood.
Their secretions.
Hormones.
Pheromones.
Human young...
...about a million of them.
How's that for bait?
And the poison?
There'll be poison.
[CROWD CHANTING FROM SPEAKERS]
[PITCH OF SOUND INCREASES TO INAUDIBILITY]
Gone out of human range.
[DRAMATIC MUSIC]
Gently - gently!
[CONCERNED MUTTERING]
- Let me at it. - Is he all right?
Jack---
Why are they all so old?
We've got to be.
Old and crazy.
I mean - to destroy that with a bomb!
That!
I can't.
What?
No question.
But you...
- ...you just--- - Sting it.
Send a shock through its ganglia.
It'll be like a man who stepped on a hornet.
That's all.
Give it a zetz, eh?
Somewhere...
...on the other side of the universe.
[CAR BEEPING]
Cup of tea?
Da.
If only it functions as it should.
Perhaps that's the hold-up?
Mmm. This focus mechanism.
Very ingenious.
But our people have certain criticisms.
Where the hell is it?
Quatermass - this is not for you to do!
You can trust me.
But I- I did not intend to---
I'll manage.
Besides...
...I've got some help.
[HELICOPTER ENGINE, MOVING CLOSER]
Bernard? Look!
Thirty-five kilotons of thermonuclear blast...
...focussed upwards.
If this won't do it... nothing will.
[ELECTRICAL HUMMING]
[HUMMING INCREASES]
Just thump it.
Like that.
Simplest arrangement we could rig up.
[ELECTRICAL HUMMING STOPS]
Foolproof.
Now - I'll arm it.
Blast area is focused to a minimum.
Yes.
Which will be approximately, um---
I know what I'm doing.
I wish to check.
Professor, I trust there's no question of this man's taking charge.
None.
Hmph!
There should be!
It should not be for him and him to do.
He's going with you.
Sorry.
That's it.
[ELECTRONIC BEEPING]
[METAL WHISTLE]
I'll confirm the second our patrols are clear - about half an hour.
Civilians?
Done our best.
By the nature of the weapon there shouldn't be too much---
I mean... Sorry.
Gentlemen, I don't know how to---
Probably see you in the morning.
Ah... yes.
[ENGINE STARTING]
Bye, love.
I've made some sandwiches for you - they're over there.
I put a thermos as well.
Thank you, Edna.
Our military friend left this.
Latest statistics.
My God.
Quatermass?
Yes?
Right, General.
Thank you.
[OWL HOOTING]
Time.
Now, the build up.
Full hour?
Mmm. One million kids mustn't arrive too quickly.
Think it matters?
It might.
We are giving a performance.
[ELECTRIC HUMMING]
[HUMMING BUILDS IN INTENSITY]
Trap's set.
Our Planet People are... they're starting to arrive.
Monitor.
Well...
...just one thing to do.
Going to have that cup of tea.
The hut down there.
I can just make it out.
Not much of a home.
Yes it was.
We were always going to go to the seaside.
Some day - when things got better, we said.
I can make them exist, do you know that?
Oh, not by magic or faith...
...by thinking.
I can carry Debbie down to the water's edge...
...where she never went.
She dips her toes in.
It's not so cold - not too cold.
And she's pleased.
Because she's been afraid of it and now she isn't.
And she sees the little bits of weed drifting about...
...the colours and the shine.
Then Clare comes with Sarah by the hand - walking in the waves.
I can touch them.
Oh, I know what evil is.
That's evil.
Perhaps "evil" is...
...always something else's "good"?
Perhaps it's a cosmic law?
Satan?
The Enemy.
[ELECTRONIC ALARM]
Suppose it can't?
Like lightning not striking twice.
This lightning's programmed.
If only I've guessed the program.
They're all here, now.
A million of them.
Waiting for you.
A million kids.
[ELECTRONIC CROWD NOISE]
You came yesterday.
Five thousand years ago.
Tasted them.
Found them good.
And came again today.
So come now.
Come!
There's somebody!
[CHANTING] Leh. Leh. Leh.
There are more of them!
Get away!!!
Get back!!!
GET AWAY!!!
Get away from here!
Get away!
You'll all die!
[ELECTRONIC ALARM] That's a bomb!
[AUTOMATIC GUNFIRE, SCREAMING]
[ELECTRONIC CROWD NOISE ROARING]
[DRAMATIC MUSIC]
[LABOURED BREATHING]
He--—
[GASPING FOR BREATH]
[SINISTER MUSIC]
[HOPEFUL MUSIC]
[DETONATION]
[GUROV] The message was taken.
It has not come again.
We pray it will never come again.
I have watched the sky and the land become clean.
Here, as in all the world...
...the countryside has beauty once more.
Little children can play in its fields...
...and sing their innocent songs again.
[CHILDREN'S VOICES] Come on, hurry up. Come on!
Hurry.
[LAUGHING]
[CHILDREN SINGING] "Huffity Puffity, Ringstone Round."
"if you lose your hat, it will never be found."
"So pull up your britches, right up to your chin."
"And fasten your cloak, with a bright new pin."
"And when we are ready, then we can begin."
"H uffity, puffity, puff."
[RHYME SEGUES INTO HOPEFUL END THEME]