Things to Come (1936)

In the city of Everytown in southern England, businessman John Cabal cannot enjoy Christmas Day, 1940, with the news everywhere of possible war. His guest, Harding, shares his worries, while another friend, the over-optimistic Pippa Passworthy, believes it will not come to pass, and if it does, it will accelerate technological progress. An aerial bombing raid on the city that night results in general mobilisation and then global war.

Months later, Cabal, now a Royal Air Force airman piloting a Hawker Fury, shoots down an enemy aircraft dropping gas on the British countryside. He lands and pulls the badly injured enemy pilot from the wreckage. As they dwell on the madness of war, they put on their gas masks, as poison gas drifts in their direction. When a young girl runs towards them the wounded pilot insists she take his mask, choosing to accept death to save her life. Cabal takes the girl to his aeroplane, pausing to leave the doomed man a revolver. The pilot dwells on the irony that he may have gassed the child’s family and yet he has sacrificed his own life in order to save her. A gun shot is heard.