Sci-Fi Film Fiesta: The Swingin’ 60s – Volume 4: “Purple People Eaters and Trippy Creatures” by Chris Christopoulos - HTML preview

“This is a thrilling once- in a-lifetime spectacle that simply must

be seen!”

Royal Botanic Gardens

In London, sturdy and dependable Big Ben stands silhouetted against a night sky illuminated by a celestial show of brightly flashing meteors entering the Earth’s atmosphere. At the Royal Botanic Gardens, a security watchman armed with flashlight, transistor radio and his packed evening meal enters a greenhouse as he has done on many occasions. He begins his routine evening rounds checking that all is well with the imprisoned flora and vegetation. Tonight however, some of the inmates are restless as three of the triffid specimens begin to rapidly grow in response to the light show outside. Content that all is well, as it inevitably always is, our diminutive watchman treats himself with a peek through the greenhouse glass at the spectacular light show in the night sky.

Moorfields Eye Hospital

Standing at the window of a patient’s room, Dr. Soames and Nurse Jamieson are also enjoying what seems to be nature’s amazing display in the evening sky. They then turn their attention to their patient, Bill Masen, a merchant navy officer who is in bed with his eyes covered in bandages. Much to his chagrin, his surgery was performed nine days ago and Dr. Soames insists he wait the prescribed ten days before the bandages be removed. What irony, having to miss the meteor shower on such a beautiful clear night, when people the world over are being treated to a spectacular meteor shower!

Lighthouse

Above a remote lighthouse off the coast of Cornwall, “the spectacular display of meteorites is still turning the night sky into a blazing display of fireworks” as it is doing the world over. However, at the moment there are no eyes willing or able to see it from the lonely sentinel whose intended function is to warn of danger and peril.

The occupants of the lighthouse are a husband and wife team of marine researchers, Tom and Karen Goodwin. Their gaze is turned inward and focused on their martial difficulties. Tom has turned to alcohol to deal with his demons and has become very cynical even claiming that the light show is an attempt by a tobacco company that “found a new way to light up the sky to sell more cigarettes.” Tom also easily flies off the handle whenever Karen makes an attempt at trying to repair their marriage and communicate with him. Instead, he wallows in self-pity declaring that he doesn’t care about his work as a marine biologist and that he just wants to get off the island and diver back into a bottle whenever he wants to. Nothing provides pleasure or incentive for him whether it be work or his relationship with his wife. It seems there is nothing left for the couple to do but leave the island and their research as soon as the boat arrives at the lighthouse the next morning to take them back to civilisation.

Royal Botanic Gardens

The watchman settles down to a well-deserved meal while listening to the BBC on his radio as listeners are kept posted on the “truly historic and marvellous display of nature at its best.” Closer to home, nature has indeed been hard at work as unknown to the watchman the triffids have grown much larger and appear to be on the move, gradually inching closer and closer to our oblivious little friend. Something innate perhaps seems to warn the watchman that something is wrong. Is it a sound? A primal sense or feeling that something is amiss? Or is it the constant drip-drop of t water contributing to the sense of unease? Switching off his radio, he decides investigate but only hears the sound of water dripping. Suddenly, the watchman turns away from his table as one of the giant triffids looms over him. While frozen in place from sheer terror, the watchman is flailed by a whip-like appendage before being drawn towards the triffid’s maw.

“I don't think I'd care to see the things that you're likely to see”

Moorfields Eye Hospital

As indomitable Big Ben chimes 9.00 a.m. the next morning, Bill Masen counts the chimes and is astonished. Hadn’t the good doctor informed him that the bandages would be removed at 8.00am? Even more disturbing is the fact that no one is answering his bell and after making his way to the door and the corridor he receives no response to his calling out for the doctor and the nurse. He cannot even get a response on the telephone!

Making his way back to his bed, Masen is startled by the sound of a woman screaming. Robbed of his sense of sight, all he has to rely on is his sense of hearing to make sense of this peculiar and unsettling state of affairs. All it is doing however, is serving to fuel his imagination in ways that must be almost unbearable. More data is required. Mason therefore, removes the bandages covering his eyes. Initially his vision is blurred, but objects in his room gradually resolve themselves and his eye-sight returns to normal.

Once out in the hallway outside his room, Mason is confronted with a scene of disorder as if a troupe of whirling dervishes had lost their minds and embarked on a rampage through the hospital. As Masen ponders the cause of the apparent wanton ransacking, he is suddenly startled by the touch of a man’s hand belonging to Dr. Soames. The doctor has been robbed of his eye-sight while his patient declares that he can't believe what he sees! As Masen is able to see, Soames asks him to be taken to his office.

In a strange twist of irony the two men’s roles are somewhat reversed with the patient shining a light in the afflicted doctor's eyes to determine the extent of the ocular damage. Even with his optic nerves gone, Dr. Soames is able to see things for what they are. He has deduced that “the glare of the meteorites last night” was the cause of the blindness that befell those who witnessed the light show and that Masen is “one of the few people left in London who can still see this morning." This realisation enables Dr. Soames to see the future implications not only for himself but for civilisation as a whole and this leads him to his next decision. The doctor sends Masen out of the exam room to his outer office to retrieve a black leather bag. He does this in order to get Masen out of the way while he makes a dash for the window and leaps out, plummeting to his death below.

“Blindness...man-killing plans...I'm not drunk, am I?”

Lighthouse

From their isolated lighthouse, Tom and Karen Goodwin have seen no sign of the expected supply ship. They do however learn that “the entire population of England appears to be afflicted with blindness as a result of watching the meteorite shower last night” They also learn that at the Royal dockyard at Devonport “a number of naval personnel have escaped blindness,” that a rescue centre is being established and that “all those who are still able to see are urged to make their way to the dockyard.” An urgent warning is then issued informing anyone listening that “all of England appears to be infested with a strange new plant that can inflict a fatal sting” and that “it is also rumoured that this plant can uproot itself and move about."

Having been appraised of the dire situation,Tom and Karen can only assess their own predicament and ask themselves the obvious question, “how do we get off this island….where would we go?” They are now stuck with each other where circumstances have forced them to look only to each other for strength and support to get them through this ordeal.

“Please, please help us!”

“Tell them everything's all right and not to worry”

“There is no one on board who can help you”

London

After the suicide of Dr Soames, Masen leaves the hospital and attempts to find a means of transportation back to his ship. Well, Bill you can now begin to see and understand the fears expressed by Soames as he visualized the breakdown of society where its citizens have been robbed of their primary sense of sight and are now beginning to lose their way. See the wrecked vehicles and blind people groping their way along the streets of the once bustling metropolis. The ability of a civilisation to function and progress depends on its ability to perceive the world visually. It’s greatest strength has become its greatest weakness now that collective blindness has taken over.

In the London Underground station people either wait about or wander around aimlessly while cold comfort instructions issue forth from a loudspeaker to their ears exhorting them to “remain calm” and not do anything that might cause them to injure themselves. The measure of people’s desperation can be gauged from their reaction at discovering that Masen can see. He is soon inundated by multiple appeals for assistance. In this world where “there are no taxis and the phones don't work,” it isn’t long before overwhelming fear takes over and that familiar world becomes a very strange and dangerous place.

At the platform, Masen witnesses a speeding locomotive approaching before it crashes. Blind passengers spill out of carriage doors and windows and a mass of entangled, distressed and confused humanity forms on the platform. Into this directionless and cacophonous human horde, a young girl by the name of Susan exits a train carriage. Unlike the other people, she can see and admits this in earshot of a desperate blind man who quickly grabs hold of her. Noticing this, Masen rescues her from the blind man’s clutches and they both exit the station.

Masen learns that Susan was in the train by herself hidden in the luggage van and that she had run away from that “stupid boarding school.” Furthermore, Susan doesn’t have any parents and that she’s “part of an estate” through which the bank in London takes care of her.

Sudcdenly, the barking of dog draws Masen and Susan’s attention. It turns out to be a small confronting introduction to the danger posed by triffids as Masen tries to shield Susan from witnessing the killing of a dog by a lone triffid.

Masen and Susan soon locate an abandoned car and use it to make their way to Masen’s ship. Along the way, their car seems as if it is engulfed by a pea-soup fog of the kind of smog that once bedeviled London. It certainly plays havoc with their sense of sight and therefore their ability to navigate. Their car soon becomes stuck in the path’s sandy soil which forces them to get out and search the nearby woods for rocks to use to extricate the car. During the search, Susan is pursued back to the car by a triffid intent on making her its prey. During a tense moment, Masen gets the car to move just as the pusuing triffid sprays a slimy substance on the car’s rear windshield.

Masen and Susan arrive at the docks and board Masen’s's ship. A radio broadcast ftom France and translated by Susan informs them that all services have stopped. Meanwhile, on board the SS Midland the situation is dire with the passenger ship plying the sea commanded and crewed by personnel who are as blind as all of their passengers. With the blind now leading the blind it ids little wonder that “the passengers have started to panic.” The sense of fear and panic has even gripped the ship’s doctor who cannot be located. He is unable to heedd the edict, ‘physician heal thy self’ let alone anyone else…..There is indeed no-one on board who can help the passengers.

In Paris a “disaster meeting” is to be convened and an appeal is made for those who can see to make contact. Meanwhile, high up in the sky, Flight 356 from Cape Town is issuing a mayday and requesting an emergency landing and to have someone to talk them down. As with the ship at sea, the crew and passengers of the plane are all afflicted with blindness. With thed normal and expected functioning structures of normal operations, authority and command, survival is a diminished option for all. All those in charge can offer is to assure those in their charge that “everything's all right and not to worry.” In other words, lies instead of the truth. It turns out that the passengers on board the plane cannot handle the truth when they realise that the pilot is also blind. At that point all semblance of self-control and order is abandoned and a state of complete panic ensues. Masen and Susan witness the results as the plane plummets to earth before crashing in a fireball of death and destruction.

“There is no one here who can see. There is no one

left. There's nothing”

Lighthouse

Back at the lighthouse, Tom is alerted by Karen to the presence of “one of those plants growing out there….on the ledge by The Cove.” Tom leaps into action and fashions a harpoon to use as a weapon against the triffid intruder. With he and his wife in peril and realising that one cannot be completely isolated from the world and the fate of humanity, his words stand as a lame mockery when he suggests that “there's no sense in getting killed by a plant” and that he had “picked a much pleasant way to die.” When faced with such danger, life can be given added meaning and purpose especially when there is something and someone to live and fight for. And so, with his wife insisting on accompanying him, the Goodwin’s exit the lighthouse to face whatever danger that awaits them together.

While Tom and Karen search unsuccessfully for the triffid, they are unaware thast the plant has surreptitiously entered the lighthouse in their absence. Does this suggest a degree of intelligence on the part of the triffid by undertaking a tactic both of diversion and ambush?

When the Goodwin’s return to the lighthouse, they soon discover within the presence of the triffid behind them. Tom quickly proceeds to engage in a desperate battle with the hostile plant, while Karen screams an awful lot and engages in a succession of terror-stricken facial expressions. Tom valiantly manages to vanquish the creature before comforting his distraught wife.

The momentarry feeling of relief, however is soon replaced by a final radio broadcast from across the Channel declaring “because of worldwide disruption it is impossible for delegates to gather.” Furthermore, the city of Paris, “with its millions of helpless inhabitants has become dangerous.” The broadcast ends on a very solemn and despondent note admitting that “there is no one here who can see…..there is no one left…..there's nothing…..”

“Faith is fine Mr Durant, but we'll need a lot more than that if

we're going to to survive”

France: Paris & Château

After the horrifying plane crash, Bill and Susan across the channel in a small launch and commandeer a car in Paris. The once bustling city is now a lifeless and morose empty shell of silence. Amid a downpour of rain, Bill and Susan are lost with only a road map to guide them. Suddenly, they encounter a couple of women out in the open who have been expecting someone else. One of the women is Christine Durant who can obviously see. Bill and Susan drive the pair back to their Château .

In the courtyard of the Château Masen and the others are met by Mr Coker who can also see as can his sister, Miss Coker. Christine's Chateau has been converted to into a hostel for about forty blind survivors. She and The Cokers met when they had an automobile accident. Being under sedation, they did not witness the meteor light display with the “tragic irony” being that “the sick stayed well and the healthy became blind.”

Susan is led upstairs by Miss Coker to the women’s sleeping quarters where she is introduced to one of the blind girls, Betina. Betina tries rather unsuccessfully to work out Susan’s physical appearance by means of her sense of touch. Susan diplomatically agress with her assessments. Betina concludes her examination by optimistically pronouncing that they are “going to be good friends until things get back to normal.” This shows that she’s a good judge of a person’s character and personal qualities which is not so dependent on the sense of sight as is determining a person’s physical characteristics. It also shows how important optimism and hope are when faced with dire circumstances, no matter how unrealistic it might prove to be.

Speaking of optimism, Bill is not ay all optimistic about their chances while remaining at the Chateau and instead suggests that they make their way to Spain. Judging by what he has witnessed thus far, “things are never going back to normal.” He disagrees with Christine when she suggests her preference for relying on faith. For Masen survival is what counts and that will require making hard-nosed rational decisions especially considering “in France alone there's over 50 million people, almost every one of them blind.” Consequently, “there's going to be starvation, fire, pestilence” and that “anyone caught in the middle of it doesn't stand a chance.”

The moral and ethical dilemma is raised when the question is posed as to how to get all the people at the Chateau to Spain. Masen’s simple answer is that they couldn’t. For Christine that would be tantamount to just running away to which Masen replies that she is closing her eyes and refusing to see the situation for what it is. It is all to easy to say who is right and who is wrong and what one would do in such a situation, but when one is forced into that situation, who can tell what is the right thing to do? Nothing is that simple.

Later on, faith and optimism are put the test when it appears that the lights are once again on and the electricity is working. Sacré Bleu! Don’t tell me “France is back to normal!” With such hope rising, an attempt is made to contact the outside world with the phone. Ah, but hope is dashed when Masen enters and informs the others that he has just put some fuel in the auxiliary motor for the generator and as long as it lasts they’ll have light. As for the phone…...