The War of the Worlds (2019) s01e02 Episode Script
Episode 2
1 (HAUNTING CHORAL MUSIC) It's a sign of His providence that the hallowed places are places where food may still be grown.
The church grounds are the only spaces where the cursed weed does not dare encroach.
It puts one in mind of the olive branch brought by the dove after the great flood.
And like the great flood, we must put our faith in the Lord to overcome our adversity.
He gives us victory against our foes (CRACK! THUNDER RUMBLES) and brings us, once again, the miracle of new life.
(SUSPENSEFUL MUSIC BUILDS) (FLAMES WHOOSH) (GUNSHOTS, CANNONS FIRE) Right.
We need to move.
There are tunnels down here.
Over to the naval docks.
Right.
Wasn't that just incredible? Knocked people down like skittles.
Imagine what'll happen once we have hold of one of those things.
(COUGHS) Expansion is everything.
We must get hold of one of those machines.
You You truly think they come from Mars? Does it matter? Amazing, isn't it? The world's surface being limited.
Our object has been to take as much of the world as possible.
But if we could go up there, an empire beyond the Earth! Think! Sir? (WIND HOWLS SOFTLY) (GURGLES) Run! - Did you breathe it in? - I don't think so.
(MECHANICAL GROANING) That's London.
- I'll get you some water.
- (GRUNTS SOFTLY) This cart's going to drop to pieces.
It's rotten.
My husband needs some water.
Very nice of them to leave these things about.
(EXHALES) Is she a sensible person? My wife? In most situations, yes.
Water? (THUNDER RUMBLES) Seeing that, I'd say a sensible person would head for the coast.
(MECHANICAL GROANING) I have a summer house in Shoeburyness on the Essex coast.
Does George know about that? Yes, it used to belong to our mother.
Well, Frederick, if he if he can't get to London, if he can't meet you here, maybe he'll go there.
Frederick? Look, I don't know what's happened to George.
I'm sorry.
But our thoughts for this moment must be on our survival, on your survival.
(DISTANT INDISTINCT SHOUTING) How are we gonna govern this mess, fight back? We're to head north.
You understand? It's my duty.
Especially, since the Minister Yes, Frederick.
I understand.
Thank you for your help.
What's the address for your summer house? No, we are to go north.
- Listen.
Listen to me.
- (THUD!) (PEOPLE SPEAK INDISTINCTLY) Shoeburyness, you said.
Yes? Amy! (LOW, UNSETTLING MUSIC) (FOOTSTEPS, INDISTINCT CHATTER) Amy! Amy! (MEN ARGUE INDISTINCTLY) He won't be happy about going to France.
Goodness, you all right? Your no your nose is bleeding.
Are you all right? Yes.
Do you feel all right? I'm just feeling a a bit under the weather, that's all.
- Look, I think the beach is just down there.
- Oh.
You stay here, and I'll come back for you.
All right? Oh, my darling.
(LOW PERCUSSIVE MUSIC) (MUSIC CONTINUES) MAN: Women and children only! Women and children only! Others are to find refuge where possible.
Get out! Get out! There is no safety on the roads.
There is no safety on the north.
Remove that man! Where is it bound? Keep these men back.
Dunkirk, if it can be managed.
- Are the people there? - Keep these men back! - Has it happened there too? - All we know is it's happened here.
- Calm down! - MAN: Get them out of the boat.
- MAN: Women and children.
- (INDISTINCT SHOUTING) What do you mean there is no safety in the north? Get these men back.
Please, sir.
I am secretary to the Minister of War, sir! They've wiped out the cities up there too Manchester, Liverpool, Birmingham at least.
What about the Army? What, is the Army dark? Guns can't touch them.
Mortars, shells It's like bows and arrows against lightning.
We have to ship out.
- Amy! - Keep those men out of the boats! - Keep those men out of the boats! - (GUN FIRES, SCREAMING) (GUNSHOTS FIRE IN DISTANCE, BELL TOLLS, INDISTINCT SHOUTING) Amy! You have to come on board the boat! No! He'll be here somewhere, Frederick! - He'll be here! - George isn't coming! - He is very likely dead! - No! And if by a miracle he isn't, then you will have done him no good by waiting here to be killed.
- No, that means they are coming! - (BELL TOLLS) - It is quite clear we are finished.
- No! You have to go! - Give him a while longer, Frederick.
- Women and children only! - Frederick, I don't want to go.
- Please live.
Live! Live! - SOBS: No! - Please do that for George and for my family.
- Please.
- (SOBS, SCREAMS) Frederick, please! Frederick! (INDISTINCT SHOUTING) (SOLEMN MUSIC) (BELL TOLLS) (MUSIC CONTINUES) Fred! (INDISTINCT SHOUTING) Fred! - Oh! Where's Amy? Is Amy with you? - She, uh Amy! Amy! - George! - (LOUD MECHANICAL GROANING) George! - (PEOPLE SCREAM) - Amy! (CANONS FIRE) (MECHANICAL GROANING, THUDDING) George! Amy! (GASPS) (ELECTRICAL BUZZING, BOOM!) (WHIMPERS) (ELECTRICAL BUZZING) Grab on to this.
Hold on tight.
George! - (LOUD MECHANICAL GROANING) - Amy! Keep swimming.
(BOOM!) (EERIE MUSIC) (CRUMBLING) (THUD!) (LAUGHS) (CHEERING) (SOFT MUSIC) George! - I thought I'd lost you.
- You won't ever lose me.
Ever.
(WARM MUSIC) (LOUD MECHANICAL GROANING) - Come on! Let's go! - (PEOPLE SCREAM) (MECHANICAL CREAKING, GROANING) (LOUD MECHANICAL GROANING) (THUD!) (SOLEMN MUSIC) (MUSIC CONTINUES) (FOOTSTEPS APPROACH) (SIGHS SOFTLY) I'm sorry I'm not someone else.
(MUSIC SWELLS) It's all right.
(SNIFFLES) It's all right.
(WIND HOWLS OUTSIDE) (WHISPERS): Goodnight.
Where have you been? At death's door, mainly.
First cholera.
And then I got this, trying to experiment with captured weapons.
I was in a nice enough place for a while.
And then the food ran out.
And you've got this fine young man.
Where's George? We lost him.
Never saw him again.
(LOW, UNEASY MUSIC) FREDERICK: Not much further, and then we can rest.
(WIND HOWLS SOFTLY) Hello? Hello? (PAPER RUSTLES) Well, they've they've moved on, haven't they? Moved on.
WOMAN: I don't think I can go much further.
(PANTS SOFTLY) Apologies.
Just find me somewhere picturesque.
I'll be right as ninepence.
Oh! (PANTS) - Here we go.
- Oh.
(PANTS) (GROANS) Well, we may as well stay the night.
That gets my vote, staying the night.
(DISTANT EXPLOSION, MECHANICAL GROANING) Well, someone's fighting back at least.
(MECHANICAL GROANING) (DISTANT EXPLOSIONS) Come on.
Let's get you inside.
There's a door here.
(DISTANT MECHANICAL GROANING) OGILVY: The heroic fightback and the great victory it's rubbish, all of it.
The wheat fields in America.
The grain coming from Australia.
It's a lie.
There hasn't been a harvest this year anywhere.
Any fool can see that.
Mm.
And that's what they feed us instead of real food.
(SCOFFS SOFTLY) We've got this totally wrong.
We remember the wrong things.
About the war? Do you think it's right to call it a war? Well, what else? - A massacre? - A visitation.
A reconnaissance.
The seeding.
What? We may have won something, Mrs.
Thing blown them up, killed them off.
But can you really call this victory? This very much looks like a red planet to me.
(UNSETTLING MUSIC BUILDS) What if this is what they wanted? Send down machines to start the process of making Earth again in the image of Mars.
That's what the black smoke did.
That's what it was for.
Whatever it left behind has spread across the Earth like a virus, growing first into the red weed, and then into the shards we see emerging from the ground.
Harvests fail.
The water's getting redder.
Babies aren't born.
Unless we can think of some way to stop this, this will not be our planet any more.
(LIGHTNING CRASHES, THUNDER RUMBLES) (LIGHTNING CRASHES) How do you think the Martians died? As it says in George Jr's picture book gunned down by the Woolwich Arsenal and the might of the Birmingham Small Arms Company.
Why do you ask? (THUNDER CRASHES LOUDLY) (DOOR CREAKS) Hello? (DOOR CREAKS) Hello? Right.
I think what we should do is try and find you somewhere to lie down.
Shall we do that? Shall we go in there? - There.
- Oh! Oh.
(GRUNTS) I just don't like to think of him, his body just left lying there.
Nobody's going to be left behind.
Don't worry.
(WATER PUMP CREAKS) There you go.
(SIGHS SOFTLY) What's your name? Mm? I'm George.
Do you know what I think the problem is? Here, I'll tell you what I think the problem is.
I think that someone, some negligent fellow, has fallen asleep, and he's forgotten to wakeup, and all of us you, me, Mrs.
Elphinstone, Frederick and Amy all of us, we've all got mixed up in his dream.
And I think that we're stuck here until his alarm clock goes off.
I don't think there's anything more to worry about than that, really.
I think it's just a dream.
And you will wake up.
(OBJECTS CLATTER) (CLATTERING) Sorry that I didn't find you sooner.
It's just that things have been rather unusual.
I was a little bit worried about you; I'll be honest.
- Other than that, nothing too bad.
- No.
I even half made friends with your brother.
Well, that's a (CHUCKLES) That's good news.
So, um, the house is still standing.
It's still there.
- Mary.
- She, um - Did you ? - I'm sorry to be a bother, (PANTS) but is there any water? Oh, yes.
Of course.
Um Let me see if this (WATER PUMP CLATTERS, CREAKS) George, there isn't any.
I looked.
She's asleep already.
Look.
(WHISPERS): When's the baby due? (CHUCKLES SOFTLY) - About seven and a half months.
- So, January? Is it January? - 1906.
- After Christmas.
After the, uh After the summer.
We have so many things to look forward to until then.
- What? - I saw lots of people killed.
I saw lots of people killed.
And there was one man.
He was, um He was a soldier.
He wanted my hand, - and I didn't give it to him because I ran away.
- George.
But you see, the thing is, Amy, I wanted to be alive for you and for the (VOICE BREAKS): And there was a baby on on Mayberry Hill, - and it was crying and - No.
No, don't.
Don't.
All we need to concentrate on right now is survival.
- Yes? - Yes.
Yes.
- You promise me that.
- I promise you that.
I promise you that.
There's just a box of matches and some candles.
- Must've taken everything else with them.
- (DISTANT THUDDING) (THUD!) (RUMBLING) - (LOUD MECHANICAL GROANING) - Come on! Under the table! - Quickly! - Oh! Oh! - (GRUNTS) - (GLASS SHATTERS) (LOUD MECHANICAL GROANING) (MECHANICAL CREAKING) It's coming down! (MECHANICAL GROANING) (GLASS SHATTERS) (UNSETTLING MUSIC BUILDS) (GASPS, PANTS) (LOW, UNSETTLING MUSIC) (THUD!) - We should go.
- No.
We don't know what's out there.
We need rest more than anything.
We have a child and a sick person.
I'm, uh, not feeling too well myself, to be honest.
You are a little warm.
How long do we stay? A night? (LOW SUSPENSEFUL MUSIC BUILDS) (CLANK!) (LOW, SOLEMN MUSIC) (THUD!) (THUD!) (THUD!) GEORGE: I love you.
(THUD!) I love you, Amy.
How did it end for you? Oh, I don't, um Hard to say.
I crawled up a drain.
I think.
I'd been scalded, you see.
I had to get out of Weybridge, so I jumped in the Thames.
They made the water boil.
There was a drain somewhere along the river, so I crawled up there for days.
The smoke didn't reach me.
(SIGHS) There was water there.
I had water there, so that was something.
By the time I gathered enough strength to come to my senses, victory was won.
How did it end for you? (THUDDING ECHOES) I don't remember.
(THUD!) - What time is it? - FREDERICK: It's 9 o'clock.
Well, it can't be.
Well, it's 9:02 a.
m.
The day hasn't dawned.
(LOW, UNSETTLING MUSIC) It's the, uh It's the smoke.
I I saw it rising up across London.
Are they shutting out the sun? Is that the idea? Are they gonna smother the earth in it? Maybe it's what the sky looks like on Mars.
I can't believe it just dropped.
What killed it? Well, I imagine it was hit with the explosions.
We need food and water.
(SIGHS) Here.
Eat some of these.
You need your strength.
A few days ago, me and Mrs E, we drank some rather unpleasant-looking water.
So I think that perhaps that's what's responsible.
- That was a bit silly, wasn't it? - Was a bit.
Mm, is that what you do when I'm not here to take care of you? Evidently.
There's a door unlocked down the hall.
Come on.
Let's see if we can find anything.
Rest.
Eating my sweeties.
(DOOR SHUTS) Where is everyone? This was supposed to be a refuge.
Maybe no one ever made it here.
No, someone's been here, otherwise there'd be food, supplies.
It's like they just vanished.
- (DOOR RATTLES) - Oh, one of these must be unlocked.
Must be a storeroom or something somewhere.
(CLANKING) (CLANK!) (CLANK!) (CLANK!) (CLANK!) (CLANK!) (CLANK!) (CLANK!) (CLANK!) (CLANK!) - It's a door banging.
- (CLANK!) It's just the wind.
(LOW, UNSETTLING MUSIC) (GROWLING, CHITTERING) All right.
You that way; I this.
(WIND HOWLS OUTSIDE) (DOOR RATTLES) (DISTANT CLANGING) (FLOORBOARDS CREAK LIGHTLY) (DOOR RATTLES, LOUD CLANGING) (FLOORBOARDS CREAK LIGHTLY) (LOW, SUSPENSEFUL MUSIC BUILDS) (DOOR RATTLES) (MUSIC STOPS) (DOOR CREAKS) (SCREAMS) What? What? There are bodies scattered all over the roof.
There are your refugees.
God knows how they ended up there.
Some water.
It's enough for Mrs Elphinstone, George and the child.
I'm not sure the old lady should have any.
What? She's dying.
I think she's got typhoid.
We need to prioritize people who have a chance.
Don't tell George.
He'll only give her his.
There's nothing else here.
We can't stay.
- (LOUD MECHANICAL GROANING) - (GASPS) (THUD!) Run.
Mrs.
E, come on.
Come on, wake up.
She won't wake up.
- George, come on! - There isn't time.
Grab the girl! Get under cover! (THUD! RUMBLING, GLASS SHATTERS) (MECHANICAL WARBLING) (JARRING CLICK) Shh.
(MECHANICAL GROANING) (MECHANICAL GROANING) (WHISPERS): It's seen her.
(MECHANICAL CREAKING) (WHISPERS): That came from in here.
(CLINKING METALLIC FOOTSTEPS) (WHISPERS): Don't move.
(MECHANICAL GROANING) (PANTS) - (MECHANICAL GROANING) - (WHISPERS): No.
Who Who is it? (MECHANICAL CHITTERING) (WHISPERS): Run.
- Mrs.
E, come on! - (GASPS) Be quick! (WHIMPERS) Ple Please! Oh! - We have to help her! - Quiet.
Shh.
- (SPEAKS INDISTINCTLY) - (MECHANICAL CHITTERING) (WHIMPERS) (SUSPENSEFUL MUSIC BUILDS) (CLINK!) (SUSPENSEFUL PERCUSSIVE MUSIC) (LOW MECHANICAL CHITTERING) (WHIMPERS) - (METALLIC RINGING, FLESH SQUELCHES) - (GROANS) (DISTANT MECHANICAL GROANING) (GROANS) (STRAINS) (BREATHES SHAKILY) - (SQUELCHING) - (GROANS) (GNAWING, FLESH SQUELCHES) (SLOSHING, GROWLING) (SUSPENSEFUL MUSIC BUILDS) What was that? It must have come out of the machine.
We're going to have to shut ourselves in.
And we need to fight.
(INDISTINCT CONVERSATIONS) (GEORGE JR WHIMPERS) George? What is it? Is he all right? No, of course not.
He's starving, and his sickness is getting worse.
(LOW, UNSETTLING MUSIC) (MUSIC CONTINUES) We must thing of something, Mrs.
Thing.
- (GEORGE JR GRUNTS SOFTLY) - Shh.
(SOFT, HAUNTING MUSIC) (FOOTSTEPS APPROACH) (DOOR OPENS) I try to do this as often as I can.
- Do you ever seen anything? - No, nothing unusual.
Just a planet.
Mars isn't as close as it was five years ago.
I think perhaps that they start doing things once they come into opposition.
Look.
They're burning the bodies.
There's fever in the village.
I'll try to do another couple more hours before bedtime.
- Do you believe in God? - (SCOFFS) Assuredly not.
Then how do you explain the churchyards? In what way? The churchyards, the burial grounds have been the only fertile places since the last few years.
So if you don't believe in God, in miracles, providence, how do you explain that? It's clearly something to do with the corpses.
Either some nourishment that they give to the earth or some rot from the putrification that repels the weed.
Fasciitis bacteria maybe.
We did some experiments with that.
Although, most of my colleages still believe their infection was caused by bad air.
It didn't work.
Perhaps it is something to do with God, then, like they say.
You put your hope in that rubbish, Mrs.
Thing, we're in the Dark Ages.
We're already in the Dark Ages.
(CLATTERING) (CLATTERING CONTINUES) Now, I know things might look bleak, but let's keep our chins up.
It's not all doom andgloom.
And whatever that thing is out there, we outnumber it.
There's four of us against one creature.
And clearly it doesn't know yet we are here.
Therefore we have an advantage.
Let's not forget that chaps have been in situations like this before and they've come outsmiling.
Just think of Baden-Powell at Mafeking.
Key thing is self-preservation and defence.
So fire bombs.
We can make them for lamp oil.
Come on.
Come on.
All hands to the pump.
That means you too, Georgie.
Can you fill these bottles? - How many matches ? - Amy, can you help me tear these into strips to make wicks? - How many matches, Frederick? - (EXHALES HEAVILY) Two.
- Yes, Baden-Powell at Mafeking.
- What? Don't you think that that this could be our fault? - Whose? - Us.
Um Englishmen.
- Are you ? Are you quite serious? - Yes.
I mean, this is what we do, isn't it? We've been doing this to people for years people that know no better.
- T-Take a rest, Georgie.
- No.
- What if this is punishment? - (SIGHS) It's not.
Life doesn't work like that.
Just think what it would've been like for a man in the jungle to have seen white people for the first time, to not to have received friendship but death, to be cut down by bullets? That is what we do.
We move across the Earth, and we take land, and we build railways, machines and smoke and metal all in our own image that is us.
We cut people down with bullets and fire, when all they have is stones and spears.
- That's just rubbish, George.
- Why? Because, it's just complete rubbish.
Do you think that we bear some of the blame? No, to be perfectly honest, I don't, no.
No.
Who do you think is punishing us God? And do you think that's the same God that made us also made them? You think that God created heaven and Earth and Mars? - Well, who else? - (LAUGHS) - God created Mars.
- Mm.
And all the little old ladies up on Mars, they put on their best hats, and they go to church on a Sunday, and they sing hymns, and there's a little Martian Jesus and all the little Martian Romans nailed to a - Don't laugh at me! - That is the problem with you lot! You're always trying to see the other chap's side, which is fine when you're sitting in your drawing room in Weybridge, drinking sherry, but it doesn't wash when you are fighting for your life! Frederick.
He can't stay here.
None of us can.
We have to leave.
(FOOTSTEPS RECEDE) (GEORGE JR SNORES SOFTLY) He's no better, Ogilvy.
If anything, he's worse.
What do you think they've got down in the village? We're all that weak from lack of food.
- The water's bad.
- Do you think it could be typhoid fever? (GRUNTS SOFTLY) Can you culture typhoid? Well, yes, I suppose.
- You mean make a serum? - Yes, but just culture it.
Well, yes, I could, if I had access to someone who's sick.
Why? I don't think that we killed them.
I-I mean that I don't think we killed them with guns.
You see, people were in hiding or they were isolated, they were far away, but I was there.
I was there when they came out of their machines.
They came out of their machines? (DOOR CREAKS SOFTLY) (DISTANT MECHANICAL CHITTERING) (CRUNCHING, GROWLING) Something's wrong with it.
Maybe it's injured.
Or is it sick? Either way, this is our chance.
And then we make a run for it.
All of us.
There's a way around the edge of the machine.
Come on.
- Where is she? - She - (MATCH SCRAPES) - Oh, she's just gone to get her, uh - Come on, darling.
- (MATCH STRIKES) - Quick.
- (MECHANICAL CHITTERING) - Run.
Run! - (GIRL SCREAMS) (SCREECHES) There's another one! Go! (SCREECHING) Come on.
Get through.
In there! Go! Come on, then, ya bastard.
(SCREECHES, CHITTERS) Fred.
Fred! Fred! Fred! (CHITTERS) Fred.
(HYPERVENTILATES) Shh.
Shh.
Shh.
(SOBS) I've never told anyone this before.
I've never told anyone how it, um how it ended for me.
I thought you said you couldn't remember.
I didn't think I did.
I think I've just kept it locked away.
We've done all right, not remembering.
(GEORGE COUGHS) (THUD!) It was easier not to remember.
Wish we'd been married.
Yes.
(SOBS SOFTLY) (THUD!) The thing is, Ogilvy, they ate flesh.
What? They ate human flesh.
(UNSETTLING MUSIC) (LOW, UNSETTLING MUSIC) (LOW CHITTERING) (CHITTERING CONTINUES) They ate flesh.
They ate human flesh.
I think that's what killed them.
(GEORGE GROANS) You want to experiment on these sick people to test some theory that it was our own infection, - our own disease - That's an emotive way of putting it.
Something here has made them ill, just like it makes us ill that combined with the fact that they were eating the rotting flesh.
- That is a rumour of the more lurid type.
- I saw it! People saw many things under great grief.
Half of them are fairy stories.
Fairy tales of people being eaten alive.
It won't hurt just to let us in and try.
- No.
- (THUNDER RUMBLES) (GEORGE JR SNORES SOFTLY) (SOFT MUSIC) (INTRIGUING MUSIC BUILDS) He'll be fine.
I promise you.
We have to try.
(MUSIC CONTINUES) GEORGE: I just need to finish this.
(CLEARS THROAT) I need to finish this.
I need to get going in the morning, 'cause I need to give Greaves a column and a half by about 7.
Then I'll hand hand in my notice, but I, uh I just have to finish this.
I-I just have to finish this article first.
All right, George.
You just, uh, do it in the morning.
Yes? Mm.
Mm.
(UNSETTLING MUSIC) (LOW CHITTERING) There must be something in the air.
Or maybe maybe it's in the meat something they don't like; something that weakens them.
- It would be rather poetic, wouldn't it? - (OVERLAPPING INDISTINCT VOICES) FADES: If they'd studied us, if they'd they'd worked out how to deal with FREDERICK: If you persist in your folly, then I guarantee you will have no life.
Always been a coward.
Broke my heart.
Too afraid to face up to responsibilities.
- Selfish.
Cruel.
- You emptied this house.
You emptied my life of all its best years.
- Coward.
Coward.
Coward.
Coward.
- Cruel.
Cruel.
- (VOICES STOP) - We should just call out to it.
- We should just shout out to it.
- George.
I'll go and speak to it.
I'll go and, uh I'll go and reason with it.
It must be able to see reason, because it's intelligent, isn't it? It's intelligent, and this can't be the first, um, meeting between advanced worlds.
I think it's just a t - I think it's just a terrible torture.
- George, stop.
George, stop.
George! - I'll just try and reason with it.
- No, George, stop! (WHISPERS): Oh, it's all right.
It's all right.
Don't worry.
Don't worry.
It's all right.
(COUGHS, INHALES RAGGEDLY) We just need to wait here for a while, - and it will die, like the other one did.
- (COUGHS) (SOBS SOFTLY) (SNIFFLES) (GENTLE MUSIC) (GRUNTS SOFTLY) (DOOR OPENS) (DOOR SHUTS) (WHISPERS): Come on.
Come on.
(DOOR OPENS) It was George Jr's.
It was his.
I used the blood I collected before we gave him the serum.
I cultivated typhoid bacteria.
Salmonella typhi, combined it with fasciitis rotting flesh.
It's dead.
You killed it.
(CHUCKLES SOFTLY) It's a start.
- It is.
- (CHUCKLES) It's perhaps not too late in the year to clear some land, plant some seeds.
If we could just make it through another year.
There's no guarantee the seeds will grow, but this is how we do it, not by praying, not by saluting the bloody Union Jack.
(CHUCKLES SOFTLY) When he's better, Mrs.
Thing, I would like to take George for a swim in the sea, without it being clogged up with all that horrid stuff.
- I should like a bacon sandwich.
- (CHUCKLES) - It's a start.
- It's a start.
(CHUCKLES SOFTLY) It's proof of nothing.
It's hardly anything.
Take it or leave it, sir.
It's dying.
And the victory, the knowledge of victory, the knowledge that God and Great Britain repelled the creatures you would take that away and have the men think instead that it was their own rot that was humanity's salvation? I think it's more suggestive of a higher purpose that the Martians were killed by the smallest creatures that God put on the planet, that we have learned to fight off or live with over millions of years at the cost of millions of lives.
That's not Christianity, sir; that's Darwinism.
All survival is built on sacrifice, and that is a fact.
Something has to happen soon.
(SIGHS) George.
Something has to happen soon.
(GASPS) (BREATHES DEEPLY) (INHALES SHARPLY, GROANS) (SOBS SOFTLY) George, I'm all right.
Please just lie down.
- Amy.
- What? I don't think anything's gonna happen soon.
I don't think it's going to go away.
Stands to reason, doesn't it? There's two of us.
And there's one of it.
- It can't kill us both.
- What? I'm a nice fellow.
I'll just talk to it.
And I'll tell it that I have I have a wife, (SOBS SOFTLY) I have a child I would very much like to spare.
(SOBS) Please, George, don't.
Please, George.
(SNIFFLES) (WHISPERS): No.
No.
I love you.
(SOBS) I love you, Amy.
(SOBS) (SOBS) (DOOR OPENS) George! George! (SOBS) Please come back.
(SOBS) (EERIE, HAUNTING MUSIC) George.
(SUSPENSEFUL PERCUSSIVE MUSIC) (CHITTERING) (SOBS SOFTLY) (SOBS): Run! (CHITTERING CONTINUES) Come on.
(SCREECHES) (DEBRIS CLATTERS) (CHITTERS) (SOBS) SOBS: Run.
(ETHEREAL, TWINKLING MUSIC) George! (SOBS) (SLOW, ETHEREAL MUSIC CONTINUES) I think he'd gone half-mad with typhoid.
We were in an orphanage.
We'd been there for days.
There was a creature there.
It had killed the others.
There was only George and I left.
And he wanted to go out and tell it that we were there.
I wouldn't let him.
But then, eventually, as the days passed, we were dying of thirst.
I knew I'd lose the baby.
So I let him go.
And I was able to get away.
I didn't see him die; I just ran.
I suppose I've always hoped he lived.
Why have you carried this for so long? How could I not? Amy, you had a child growing inside you one of the last children to be born here perhaps even one of the last children ever to be born.
George was delirious, probably dying in any case.
So how can you blame yourself? You were not being selfish.
You did this impossible thing in order that your child might be born and might live.
In which case, that makes me no better than them if I do unspeakable things just to survive.
For one, I fell in love with George, and he was married to a perfectly good woman.
I took him for myself.
She's on the list.
She's in a plague pit somewhere in Highgate.
And perhaps if if George had been there to take care of her, then maybe she'd be alive now.
- These things happen.
- What good has it done? Look at him.
I haven't been any sort of mother.
Look at him.
He's on his own.
No.
Amy, he's alive.
And that's what counts.
Life is what counts.
(BIRDS CAW, SQUAWK) (GASPS, COUGHS, PANTS) (CAWING CONTINUES) (ORCHESTRAL STRING MUSIC) (MUSIC CONTINUES) (MUSIC STOPS) (SOFT, SOLEMN MUSIC) (MUSIC CONTINUES) (MUSIC CONTINUES) (MUSIC CONTINUES) (SNIFFLES SOFTLY) (SOFT, SOLEMN MUSIC CONTINUES) (SNIFFLES SOFTLY) (THUNDER RUMBLES) (DOOR SHUTS) GEORGE JR: Tell me about things.
Things? In the world.
(CHUCKLES SOFTLY) Things.
Well, move up, then.
Come here.
You know, George, there's a there's lots of marvellous things.
Where I grew up, people didn't look like us.
They, uh They had brown skin.
And often, they were very poor, didn't always have enough to eat.
You know what they were so cheerful and so happy.
And they wore really bright colours.
(CHUCKLES SOFTLY) And the sun And the sun shone there.
It was so warm, so bright.
And the sky wasn't grey and pink.
It was blue.
Clear blue.
And there were lots of animals.
All sorts of birds of different colours.
Tigers, mongooses, snakes.
(CHUCKLES SOFTLY) Then there were the mountains.
The mountains were Oh, well, they were bigger than you can even dream, George.
They were colored purple, black, gray some of them were even even white as snow.
Cold, white snow.
I used to go visit my father up there.
He'd be drawing maps.
And one day, (SNIFFLES) when I was a little bit older, I, uh I got on a ship, and I sailed across the oceans, and I came I came here.
And I got off the ship and I thought, "Oh, it's a little bit rainy.
" (CHUCKLES SOFTLY) And I thought it was pretty, with its countryside, (SNIFFLES) and its cities.
People.
Millions of people.
And children.
Thousands of children.
Children everywhere, playing and laughing, singing and eventually going to sleep.
One day, can we go there? (THUNDER RUMBLES) I will start packing our bags.
(EMOTIVE MUSIC SWELLS) (SNIFFLES) Night-night, Mummy.
(SNIFFLES) I love you.
(KISSES) (THUNDER RUMBLES) Go to sleep.
(INTRIGUING MUSIC BUILDS) (THUNDER RUMBLES) (SMASH!) - (GRUNTS) - (SMASH!) (THUNDER RUMBLES) (INTRIGUING MUSIC CONTINUES) (MUSIC CONTINUES) (MUSIC SOFTENS)
The church grounds are the only spaces where the cursed weed does not dare encroach.
It puts one in mind of the olive branch brought by the dove after the great flood.
And like the great flood, we must put our faith in the Lord to overcome our adversity.
He gives us victory against our foes (CRACK! THUNDER RUMBLES) and brings us, once again, the miracle of new life.
(SUSPENSEFUL MUSIC BUILDS) (FLAMES WHOOSH) (GUNSHOTS, CANNONS FIRE) Right.
We need to move.
There are tunnels down here.
Over to the naval docks.
Right.
Wasn't that just incredible? Knocked people down like skittles.
Imagine what'll happen once we have hold of one of those things.
(COUGHS) Expansion is everything.
We must get hold of one of those machines.
You You truly think they come from Mars? Does it matter? Amazing, isn't it? The world's surface being limited.
Our object has been to take as much of the world as possible.
But if we could go up there, an empire beyond the Earth! Think! Sir? (WIND HOWLS SOFTLY) (GURGLES) Run! - Did you breathe it in? - I don't think so.
(MECHANICAL GROANING) That's London.
- I'll get you some water.
- (GRUNTS SOFTLY) This cart's going to drop to pieces.
It's rotten.
My husband needs some water.
Very nice of them to leave these things about.
(EXHALES) Is she a sensible person? My wife? In most situations, yes.
Water? (THUNDER RUMBLES) Seeing that, I'd say a sensible person would head for the coast.
(MECHANICAL GROANING) I have a summer house in Shoeburyness on the Essex coast.
Does George know about that? Yes, it used to belong to our mother.
Well, Frederick, if he if he can't get to London, if he can't meet you here, maybe he'll go there.
Frederick? Look, I don't know what's happened to George.
I'm sorry.
But our thoughts for this moment must be on our survival, on your survival.
(DISTANT INDISTINCT SHOUTING) How are we gonna govern this mess, fight back? We're to head north.
You understand? It's my duty.
Especially, since the Minister Yes, Frederick.
I understand.
Thank you for your help.
What's the address for your summer house? No, we are to go north.
- Listen.
Listen to me.
- (THUD!) (PEOPLE SPEAK INDISTINCTLY) Shoeburyness, you said.
Yes? Amy! (LOW, UNSETTLING MUSIC) (FOOTSTEPS, INDISTINCT CHATTER) Amy! Amy! (MEN ARGUE INDISTINCTLY) He won't be happy about going to France.
Goodness, you all right? Your no your nose is bleeding.
Are you all right? Yes.
Do you feel all right? I'm just feeling a a bit under the weather, that's all.
- Look, I think the beach is just down there.
- Oh.
You stay here, and I'll come back for you.
All right? Oh, my darling.
(LOW PERCUSSIVE MUSIC) (MUSIC CONTINUES) MAN: Women and children only! Women and children only! Others are to find refuge where possible.
Get out! Get out! There is no safety on the roads.
There is no safety on the north.
Remove that man! Where is it bound? Keep these men back.
Dunkirk, if it can be managed.
- Are the people there? - Keep these men back! - Has it happened there too? - All we know is it's happened here.
- Calm down! - MAN: Get them out of the boat.
- MAN: Women and children.
- (INDISTINCT SHOUTING) What do you mean there is no safety in the north? Get these men back.
Please, sir.
I am secretary to the Minister of War, sir! They've wiped out the cities up there too Manchester, Liverpool, Birmingham at least.
What about the Army? What, is the Army dark? Guns can't touch them.
Mortars, shells It's like bows and arrows against lightning.
We have to ship out.
- Amy! - Keep those men out of the boats! - Keep those men out of the boats! - (GUN FIRES, SCREAMING) (GUNSHOTS FIRE IN DISTANCE, BELL TOLLS, INDISTINCT SHOUTING) Amy! You have to come on board the boat! No! He'll be here somewhere, Frederick! - He'll be here! - George isn't coming! - He is very likely dead! - No! And if by a miracle he isn't, then you will have done him no good by waiting here to be killed.
- No, that means they are coming! - (BELL TOLLS) - It is quite clear we are finished.
- No! You have to go! - Give him a while longer, Frederick.
- Women and children only! - Frederick, I don't want to go.
- Please live.
Live! Live! - SOBS: No! - Please do that for George and for my family.
- Please.
- (SOBS, SCREAMS) Frederick, please! Frederick! (INDISTINCT SHOUTING) (SOLEMN MUSIC) (BELL TOLLS) (MUSIC CONTINUES) Fred! (INDISTINCT SHOUTING) Fred! - Oh! Where's Amy? Is Amy with you? - She, uh Amy! Amy! - George! - (LOUD MECHANICAL GROANING) George! - (PEOPLE SCREAM) - Amy! (CANONS FIRE) (MECHANICAL GROANING, THUDDING) George! Amy! (GASPS) (ELECTRICAL BUZZING, BOOM!) (WHIMPERS) (ELECTRICAL BUZZING) Grab on to this.
Hold on tight.
George! - (LOUD MECHANICAL GROANING) - Amy! Keep swimming.
(BOOM!) (EERIE MUSIC) (CRUMBLING) (THUD!) (LAUGHS) (CHEERING) (SOFT MUSIC) George! - I thought I'd lost you.
- You won't ever lose me.
Ever.
(WARM MUSIC) (LOUD MECHANICAL GROANING) - Come on! Let's go! - (PEOPLE SCREAM) (MECHANICAL CREAKING, GROANING) (LOUD MECHANICAL GROANING) (THUD!) (SOLEMN MUSIC) (MUSIC CONTINUES) (FOOTSTEPS APPROACH) (SIGHS SOFTLY) I'm sorry I'm not someone else.
(MUSIC SWELLS) It's all right.
(SNIFFLES) It's all right.
(WIND HOWLS OUTSIDE) (WHISPERS): Goodnight.
Where have you been? At death's door, mainly.
First cholera.
And then I got this, trying to experiment with captured weapons.
I was in a nice enough place for a while.
And then the food ran out.
And you've got this fine young man.
Where's George? We lost him.
Never saw him again.
(LOW, UNEASY MUSIC) FREDERICK: Not much further, and then we can rest.
(WIND HOWLS SOFTLY) Hello? Hello? (PAPER RUSTLES) Well, they've they've moved on, haven't they? Moved on.
WOMAN: I don't think I can go much further.
(PANTS SOFTLY) Apologies.
Just find me somewhere picturesque.
I'll be right as ninepence.
Oh! (PANTS) - Here we go.
- Oh.
(PANTS) (GROANS) Well, we may as well stay the night.
That gets my vote, staying the night.
(DISTANT EXPLOSION, MECHANICAL GROANING) Well, someone's fighting back at least.
(MECHANICAL GROANING) (DISTANT EXPLOSIONS) Come on.
Let's get you inside.
There's a door here.
(DISTANT MECHANICAL GROANING) OGILVY: The heroic fightback and the great victory it's rubbish, all of it.
The wheat fields in America.
The grain coming from Australia.
It's a lie.
There hasn't been a harvest this year anywhere.
Any fool can see that.
Mm.
And that's what they feed us instead of real food.
(SCOFFS SOFTLY) We've got this totally wrong.
We remember the wrong things.
About the war? Do you think it's right to call it a war? Well, what else? - A massacre? - A visitation.
A reconnaissance.
The seeding.
What? We may have won something, Mrs.
Thing blown them up, killed them off.
But can you really call this victory? This very much looks like a red planet to me.
(UNSETTLING MUSIC BUILDS) What if this is what they wanted? Send down machines to start the process of making Earth again in the image of Mars.
That's what the black smoke did.
That's what it was for.
Whatever it left behind has spread across the Earth like a virus, growing first into the red weed, and then into the shards we see emerging from the ground.
Harvests fail.
The water's getting redder.
Babies aren't born.
Unless we can think of some way to stop this, this will not be our planet any more.
(LIGHTNING CRASHES, THUNDER RUMBLES) (LIGHTNING CRASHES) How do you think the Martians died? As it says in George Jr's picture book gunned down by the Woolwich Arsenal and the might of the Birmingham Small Arms Company.
Why do you ask? (THUNDER CRASHES LOUDLY) (DOOR CREAKS) Hello? (DOOR CREAKS) Hello? Right.
I think what we should do is try and find you somewhere to lie down.
Shall we do that? Shall we go in there? - There.
- Oh! Oh.
(GRUNTS) I just don't like to think of him, his body just left lying there.
Nobody's going to be left behind.
Don't worry.
(WATER PUMP CREAKS) There you go.
(SIGHS SOFTLY) What's your name? Mm? I'm George.
Do you know what I think the problem is? Here, I'll tell you what I think the problem is.
I think that someone, some negligent fellow, has fallen asleep, and he's forgotten to wakeup, and all of us you, me, Mrs.
Elphinstone, Frederick and Amy all of us, we've all got mixed up in his dream.
And I think that we're stuck here until his alarm clock goes off.
I don't think there's anything more to worry about than that, really.
I think it's just a dream.
And you will wake up.
(OBJECTS CLATTER) (CLATTERING) Sorry that I didn't find you sooner.
It's just that things have been rather unusual.
I was a little bit worried about you; I'll be honest.
- Other than that, nothing too bad.
- No.
I even half made friends with your brother.
Well, that's a (CHUCKLES) That's good news.
So, um, the house is still standing.
It's still there.
- Mary.
- She, um - Did you ? - I'm sorry to be a bother, (PANTS) but is there any water? Oh, yes.
Of course.
Um Let me see if this (WATER PUMP CLATTERS, CREAKS) George, there isn't any.
I looked.
She's asleep already.
Look.
(WHISPERS): When's the baby due? (CHUCKLES SOFTLY) - About seven and a half months.
- So, January? Is it January? - 1906.
- After Christmas.
After the, uh After the summer.
We have so many things to look forward to until then.
- What? - I saw lots of people killed.
I saw lots of people killed.
And there was one man.
He was, um He was a soldier.
He wanted my hand, - and I didn't give it to him because I ran away.
- George.
But you see, the thing is, Amy, I wanted to be alive for you and for the (VOICE BREAKS): And there was a baby on on Mayberry Hill, - and it was crying and - No.
No, don't.
Don't.
All we need to concentrate on right now is survival.
- Yes? - Yes.
Yes.
- You promise me that.
- I promise you that.
I promise you that.
There's just a box of matches and some candles.
- Must've taken everything else with them.
- (DISTANT THUDDING) (THUD!) (RUMBLING) - (LOUD MECHANICAL GROANING) - Come on! Under the table! - Quickly! - Oh! Oh! - (GRUNTS) - (GLASS SHATTERS) (LOUD MECHANICAL GROANING) (MECHANICAL CREAKING) It's coming down! (MECHANICAL GROANING) (GLASS SHATTERS) (UNSETTLING MUSIC BUILDS) (GASPS, PANTS) (LOW, UNSETTLING MUSIC) (THUD!) - We should go.
- No.
We don't know what's out there.
We need rest more than anything.
We have a child and a sick person.
I'm, uh, not feeling too well myself, to be honest.
You are a little warm.
How long do we stay? A night? (LOW SUSPENSEFUL MUSIC BUILDS) (CLANK!) (LOW, SOLEMN MUSIC) (THUD!) (THUD!) (THUD!) GEORGE: I love you.
(THUD!) I love you, Amy.
How did it end for you? Oh, I don't, um Hard to say.
I crawled up a drain.
I think.
I'd been scalded, you see.
I had to get out of Weybridge, so I jumped in the Thames.
They made the water boil.
There was a drain somewhere along the river, so I crawled up there for days.
The smoke didn't reach me.
(SIGHS) There was water there.
I had water there, so that was something.
By the time I gathered enough strength to come to my senses, victory was won.
How did it end for you? (THUDDING ECHOES) I don't remember.
(THUD!) - What time is it? - FREDERICK: It's 9 o'clock.
Well, it can't be.
Well, it's 9:02 a.
m.
The day hasn't dawned.
(LOW, UNSETTLING MUSIC) It's the, uh It's the smoke.
I I saw it rising up across London.
Are they shutting out the sun? Is that the idea? Are they gonna smother the earth in it? Maybe it's what the sky looks like on Mars.
I can't believe it just dropped.
What killed it? Well, I imagine it was hit with the explosions.
We need food and water.
(SIGHS) Here.
Eat some of these.
You need your strength.
A few days ago, me and Mrs E, we drank some rather unpleasant-looking water.
So I think that perhaps that's what's responsible.
- That was a bit silly, wasn't it? - Was a bit.
Mm, is that what you do when I'm not here to take care of you? Evidently.
There's a door unlocked down the hall.
Come on.
Let's see if we can find anything.
Rest.
Eating my sweeties.
(DOOR SHUTS) Where is everyone? This was supposed to be a refuge.
Maybe no one ever made it here.
No, someone's been here, otherwise there'd be food, supplies.
It's like they just vanished.
- (DOOR RATTLES) - Oh, one of these must be unlocked.
Must be a storeroom or something somewhere.
(CLANKING) (CLANK!) (CLANK!) (CLANK!) (CLANK!) (CLANK!) (CLANK!) (CLANK!) (CLANK!) (CLANK!) - It's a door banging.
- (CLANK!) It's just the wind.
(LOW, UNSETTLING MUSIC) (GROWLING, CHITTERING) All right.
You that way; I this.
(WIND HOWLS OUTSIDE) (DOOR RATTLES) (DISTANT CLANGING) (FLOORBOARDS CREAK LIGHTLY) (DOOR RATTLES, LOUD CLANGING) (FLOORBOARDS CREAK LIGHTLY) (LOW, SUSPENSEFUL MUSIC BUILDS) (DOOR RATTLES) (MUSIC STOPS) (DOOR CREAKS) (SCREAMS) What? What? There are bodies scattered all over the roof.
There are your refugees.
God knows how they ended up there.
Some water.
It's enough for Mrs Elphinstone, George and the child.
I'm not sure the old lady should have any.
What? She's dying.
I think she's got typhoid.
We need to prioritize people who have a chance.
Don't tell George.
He'll only give her his.
There's nothing else here.
We can't stay.
- (LOUD MECHANICAL GROANING) - (GASPS) (THUD!) Run.
Mrs.
E, come on.
Come on, wake up.
She won't wake up.
- George, come on! - There isn't time.
Grab the girl! Get under cover! (THUD! RUMBLING, GLASS SHATTERS) (MECHANICAL WARBLING) (JARRING CLICK) Shh.
(MECHANICAL GROANING) (MECHANICAL GROANING) (WHISPERS): It's seen her.
(MECHANICAL CREAKING) (WHISPERS): That came from in here.
(CLINKING METALLIC FOOTSTEPS) (WHISPERS): Don't move.
(MECHANICAL GROANING) (PANTS) - (MECHANICAL GROANING) - (WHISPERS): No.
Who Who is it? (MECHANICAL CHITTERING) (WHISPERS): Run.
- Mrs.
E, come on! - (GASPS) Be quick! (WHIMPERS) Ple Please! Oh! - We have to help her! - Quiet.
Shh.
- (SPEAKS INDISTINCTLY) - (MECHANICAL CHITTERING) (WHIMPERS) (SUSPENSEFUL MUSIC BUILDS) (CLINK!) (SUSPENSEFUL PERCUSSIVE MUSIC) (LOW MECHANICAL CHITTERING) (WHIMPERS) - (METALLIC RINGING, FLESH SQUELCHES) - (GROANS) (DISTANT MECHANICAL GROANING) (GROANS) (STRAINS) (BREATHES SHAKILY) - (SQUELCHING) - (GROANS) (GNAWING, FLESH SQUELCHES) (SLOSHING, GROWLING) (SUSPENSEFUL MUSIC BUILDS) What was that? It must have come out of the machine.
We're going to have to shut ourselves in.
And we need to fight.
(INDISTINCT CONVERSATIONS) (GEORGE JR WHIMPERS) George? What is it? Is he all right? No, of course not.
He's starving, and his sickness is getting worse.
(LOW, UNSETTLING MUSIC) (MUSIC CONTINUES) We must thing of something, Mrs.
Thing.
- (GEORGE JR GRUNTS SOFTLY) - Shh.
(SOFT, HAUNTING MUSIC) (FOOTSTEPS APPROACH) (DOOR OPENS) I try to do this as often as I can.
- Do you ever seen anything? - No, nothing unusual.
Just a planet.
Mars isn't as close as it was five years ago.
I think perhaps that they start doing things once they come into opposition.
Look.
They're burning the bodies.
There's fever in the village.
I'll try to do another couple more hours before bedtime.
- Do you believe in God? - (SCOFFS) Assuredly not.
Then how do you explain the churchyards? In what way? The churchyards, the burial grounds have been the only fertile places since the last few years.
So if you don't believe in God, in miracles, providence, how do you explain that? It's clearly something to do with the corpses.
Either some nourishment that they give to the earth or some rot from the putrification that repels the weed.
Fasciitis bacteria maybe.
We did some experiments with that.
Although, most of my colleages still believe their infection was caused by bad air.
It didn't work.
Perhaps it is something to do with God, then, like they say.
You put your hope in that rubbish, Mrs.
Thing, we're in the Dark Ages.
We're already in the Dark Ages.
(CLATTERING) (CLATTERING CONTINUES) Now, I know things might look bleak, but let's keep our chins up.
It's not all doom andgloom.
And whatever that thing is out there, we outnumber it.
There's four of us against one creature.
And clearly it doesn't know yet we are here.
Therefore we have an advantage.
Let's not forget that chaps have been in situations like this before and they've come outsmiling.
Just think of Baden-Powell at Mafeking.
Key thing is self-preservation and defence.
So fire bombs.
We can make them for lamp oil.
Come on.
Come on.
All hands to the pump.
That means you too, Georgie.
Can you fill these bottles? - How many matches ? - Amy, can you help me tear these into strips to make wicks? - How many matches, Frederick? - (EXHALES HEAVILY) Two.
- Yes, Baden-Powell at Mafeking.
- What? Don't you think that that this could be our fault? - Whose? - Us.
Um Englishmen.
- Are you ? Are you quite serious? - Yes.
I mean, this is what we do, isn't it? We've been doing this to people for years people that know no better.
- T-Take a rest, Georgie.
- No.
- What if this is punishment? - (SIGHS) It's not.
Life doesn't work like that.
Just think what it would've been like for a man in the jungle to have seen white people for the first time, to not to have received friendship but death, to be cut down by bullets? That is what we do.
We move across the Earth, and we take land, and we build railways, machines and smoke and metal all in our own image that is us.
We cut people down with bullets and fire, when all they have is stones and spears.
- That's just rubbish, George.
- Why? Because, it's just complete rubbish.
Do you think that we bear some of the blame? No, to be perfectly honest, I don't, no.
No.
Who do you think is punishing us God? And do you think that's the same God that made us also made them? You think that God created heaven and Earth and Mars? - Well, who else? - (LAUGHS) - God created Mars.
- Mm.
And all the little old ladies up on Mars, they put on their best hats, and they go to church on a Sunday, and they sing hymns, and there's a little Martian Jesus and all the little Martian Romans nailed to a - Don't laugh at me! - That is the problem with you lot! You're always trying to see the other chap's side, which is fine when you're sitting in your drawing room in Weybridge, drinking sherry, but it doesn't wash when you are fighting for your life! Frederick.
He can't stay here.
None of us can.
We have to leave.
(FOOTSTEPS RECEDE) (GEORGE JR SNORES SOFTLY) He's no better, Ogilvy.
If anything, he's worse.
What do you think they've got down in the village? We're all that weak from lack of food.
- The water's bad.
- Do you think it could be typhoid fever? (GRUNTS SOFTLY) Can you culture typhoid? Well, yes, I suppose.
- You mean make a serum? - Yes, but just culture it.
Well, yes, I could, if I had access to someone who's sick.
Why? I don't think that we killed them.
I-I mean that I don't think we killed them with guns.
You see, people were in hiding or they were isolated, they were far away, but I was there.
I was there when they came out of their machines.
They came out of their machines? (DOOR CREAKS SOFTLY) (DISTANT MECHANICAL CHITTERING) (CRUNCHING, GROWLING) Something's wrong with it.
Maybe it's injured.
Or is it sick? Either way, this is our chance.
And then we make a run for it.
All of us.
There's a way around the edge of the machine.
Come on.
- Where is she? - She - (MATCH SCRAPES) - Oh, she's just gone to get her, uh - Come on, darling.
- (MATCH STRIKES) - Quick.
- (MECHANICAL CHITTERING) - Run.
Run! - (GIRL SCREAMS) (SCREECHES) There's another one! Go! (SCREECHING) Come on.
Get through.
In there! Go! Come on, then, ya bastard.
(SCREECHES, CHITTERS) Fred.
Fred! Fred! Fred! (CHITTERS) Fred.
(HYPERVENTILATES) Shh.
Shh.
Shh.
(SOBS) I've never told anyone this before.
I've never told anyone how it, um how it ended for me.
I thought you said you couldn't remember.
I didn't think I did.
I think I've just kept it locked away.
We've done all right, not remembering.
(GEORGE COUGHS) (THUD!) It was easier not to remember.
Wish we'd been married.
Yes.
(SOBS SOFTLY) (THUD!) The thing is, Ogilvy, they ate flesh.
What? They ate human flesh.
(UNSETTLING MUSIC) (LOW, UNSETTLING MUSIC) (LOW CHITTERING) (CHITTERING CONTINUES) They ate flesh.
They ate human flesh.
I think that's what killed them.
(GEORGE GROANS) You want to experiment on these sick people to test some theory that it was our own infection, - our own disease - That's an emotive way of putting it.
Something here has made them ill, just like it makes us ill that combined with the fact that they were eating the rotting flesh.
- That is a rumour of the more lurid type.
- I saw it! People saw many things under great grief.
Half of them are fairy stories.
Fairy tales of people being eaten alive.
It won't hurt just to let us in and try.
- No.
- (THUNDER RUMBLES) (GEORGE JR SNORES SOFTLY) (SOFT MUSIC) (INTRIGUING MUSIC BUILDS) He'll be fine.
I promise you.
We have to try.
(MUSIC CONTINUES) GEORGE: I just need to finish this.
(CLEARS THROAT) I need to finish this.
I need to get going in the morning, 'cause I need to give Greaves a column and a half by about 7.
Then I'll hand hand in my notice, but I, uh I just have to finish this.
I-I just have to finish this article first.
All right, George.
You just, uh, do it in the morning.
Yes? Mm.
Mm.
(UNSETTLING MUSIC) (LOW CHITTERING) There must be something in the air.
Or maybe maybe it's in the meat something they don't like; something that weakens them.
- It would be rather poetic, wouldn't it? - (OVERLAPPING INDISTINCT VOICES) FADES: If they'd studied us, if they'd they'd worked out how to deal with FREDERICK: If you persist in your folly, then I guarantee you will have no life.
Always been a coward.
Broke my heart.
Too afraid to face up to responsibilities.
- Selfish.
Cruel.
- You emptied this house.
You emptied my life of all its best years.
- Coward.
Coward.
Coward.
Coward.
- Cruel.
Cruel.
- (VOICES STOP) - We should just call out to it.
- We should just shout out to it.
- George.
I'll go and speak to it.
I'll go and, uh I'll go and reason with it.
It must be able to see reason, because it's intelligent, isn't it? It's intelligent, and this can't be the first, um, meeting between advanced worlds.
I think it's just a t - I think it's just a terrible torture.
- George, stop.
George, stop.
George! - I'll just try and reason with it.
- No, George, stop! (WHISPERS): Oh, it's all right.
It's all right.
Don't worry.
Don't worry.
It's all right.
(COUGHS, INHALES RAGGEDLY) We just need to wait here for a while, - and it will die, like the other one did.
- (COUGHS) (SOBS SOFTLY) (SNIFFLES) (GENTLE MUSIC) (GRUNTS SOFTLY) (DOOR OPENS) (DOOR SHUTS) (WHISPERS): Come on.
Come on.
(DOOR OPENS) It was George Jr's.
It was his.
I used the blood I collected before we gave him the serum.
I cultivated typhoid bacteria.
Salmonella typhi, combined it with fasciitis rotting flesh.
It's dead.
You killed it.
(CHUCKLES SOFTLY) It's a start.
- It is.
- (CHUCKLES) It's perhaps not too late in the year to clear some land, plant some seeds.
If we could just make it through another year.
There's no guarantee the seeds will grow, but this is how we do it, not by praying, not by saluting the bloody Union Jack.
(CHUCKLES SOFTLY) When he's better, Mrs.
Thing, I would like to take George for a swim in the sea, without it being clogged up with all that horrid stuff.
- I should like a bacon sandwich.
- (CHUCKLES) - It's a start.
- It's a start.
(CHUCKLES SOFTLY) It's proof of nothing.
It's hardly anything.
Take it or leave it, sir.
It's dying.
And the victory, the knowledge of victory, the knowledge that God and Great Britain repelled the creatures you would take that away and have the men think instead that it was their own rot that was humanity's salvation? I think it's more suggestive of a higher purpose that the Martians were killed by the smallest creatures that God put on the planet, that we have learned to fight off or live with over millions of years at the cost of millions of lives.
That's not Christianity, sir; that's Darwinism.
All survival is built on sacrifice, and that is a fact.
Something has to happen soon.
(SIGHS) George.
Something has to happen soon.
(GASPS) (BREATHES DEEPLY) (INHALES SHARPLY, GROANS) (SOBS SOFTLY) George, I'm all right.
Please just lie down.
- Amy.
- What? I don't think anything's gonna happen soon.
I don't think it's going to go away.
Stands to reason, doesn't it? There's two of us.
And there's one of it.
- It can't kill us both.
- What? I'm a nice fellow.
I'll just talk to it.
And I'll tell it that I have I have a wife, (SOBS SOFTLY) I have a child I would very much like to spare.
(SOBS) Please, George, don't.
Please, George.
(SNIFFLES) (WHISPERS): No.
No.
I love you.
(SOBS) I love you, Amy.
(SOBS) (SOBS) (DOOR OPENS) George! George! (SOBS) Please come back.
(SOBS) (EERIE, HAUNTING MUSIC) George.
(SUSPENSEFUL PERCUSSIVE MUSIC) (CHITTERING) (SOBS SOFTLY) (SOBS): Run! (CHITTERING CONTINUES) Come on.
(SCREECHES) (DEBRIS CLATTERS) (CHITTERS) (SOBS) SOBS: Run.
(ETHEREAL, TWINKLING MUSIC) George! (SOBS) (SLOW, ETHEREAL MUSIC CONTINUES) I think he'd gone half-mad with typhoid.
We were in an orphanage.
We'd been there for days.
There was a creature there.
It had killed the others.
There was only George and I left.
And he wanted to go out and tell it that we were there.
I wouldn't let him.
But then, eventually, as the days passed, we were dying of thirst.
I knew I'd lose the baby.
So I let him go.
And I was able to get away.
I didn't see him die; I just ran.
I suppose I've always hoped he lived.
Why have you carried this for so long? How could I not? Amy, you had a child growing inside you one of the last children to be born here perhaps even one of the last children ever to be born.
George was delirious, probably dying in any case.
So how can you blame yourself? You were not being selfish.
You did this impossible thing in order that your child might be born and might live.
In which case, that makes me no better than them if I do unspeakable things just to survive.
For one, I fell in love with George, and he was married to a perfectly good woman.
I took him for myself.
She's on the list.
She's in a plague pit somewhere in Highgate.
And perhaps if if George had been there to take care of her, then maybe she'd be alive now.
- These things happen.
- What good has it done? Look at him.
I haven't been any sort of mother.
Look at him.
He's on his own.
No.
Amy, he's alive.
And that's what counts.
Life is what counts.
(BIRDS CAW, SQUAWK) (GASPS, COUGHS, PANTS) (CAWING CONTINUES) (ORCHESTRAL STRING MUSIC) (MUSIC CONTINUES) (MUSIC STOPS) (SOFT, SOLEMN MUSIC) (MUSIC CONTINUES) (MUSIC CONTINUES) (MUSIC CONTINUES) (SNIFFLES SOFTLY) (SOFT, SOLEMN MUSIC CONTINUES) (SNIFFLES SOFTLY) (THUNDER RUMBLES) (DOOR SHUTS) GEORGE JR: Tell me about things.
Things? In the world.
(CHUCKLES SOFTLY) Things.
Well, move up, then.
Come here.
You know, George, there's a there's lots of marvellous things.
Where I grew up, people didn't look like us.
They, uh They had brown skin.
And often, they were very poor, didn't always have enough to eat.
You know what they were so cheerful and so happy.
And they wore really bright colours.
(CHUCKLES SOFTLY) And the sun And the sun shone there.
It was so warm, so bright.
And the sky wasn't grey and pink.
It was blue.
Clear blue.
And there were lots of animals.
All sorts of birds of different colours.
Tigers, mongooses, snakes.
(CHUCKLES SOFTLY) Then there were the mountains.
The mountains were Oh, well, they were bigger than you can even dream, George.
They were colored purple, black, gray some of them were even even white as snow.
Cold, white snow.
I used to go visit my father up there.
He'd be drawing maps.
And one day, (SNIFFLES) when I was a little bit older, I, uh I got on a ship, and I sailed across the oceans, and I came I came here.
And I got off the ship and I thought, "Oh, it's a little bit rainy.
" (CHUCKLES SOFTLY) And I thought it was pretty, with its countryside, (SNIFFLES) and its cities.
People.
Millions of people.
And children.
Thousands of children.
Children everywhere, playing and laughing, singing and eventually going to sleep.
One day, can we go there? (THUNDER RUMBLES) I will start packing our bags.
(EMOTIVE MUSIC SWELLS) (SNIFFLES) Night-night, Mummy.
(SNIFFLES) I love you.
(KISSES) (THUNDER RUMBLES) Go to sleep.
(INTRIGUING MUSIC BUILDS) (THUNDER RUMBLES) (SMASH!) - (GRUNTS) - (SMASH!) (THUNDER RUMBLES) (INTRIGUING MUSIC CONTINUES) (MUSIC CONTINUES) (MUSIC SOFTENS)