- 6 months ago
Category
🎥
Short filmTranscript
00:00Witness Flight Lieutenant William Terence Decker, Royal Flying Corps, returning from a patrol somewhere over France.
00:19The year is 1917. The problem is that the lieutenant is hopelessly lost.
00:30Lieutenant Decker will soon discover that a man can be lost not only in terms of maps and miles, but also in time.
00:44And time, in this case, can be measured in eternities.
01:00THE END
01:30All right, miss, take it out of there.
01:49What do you think you're doing?
01:52Who in the name of...
01:54What do you mean running this antique in front of an approaching aircraft?
01:57Don't you understand what I'm saying?
02:01Are you French?
02:03I'm British.
02:05Are you American?
02:08Can't you see this is an American base?
02:11But all this...
02:12We had no idea you were so advanced.
02:15What?
02:18You better come with me.
02:19Major Wilson to see you, General.
02:34Major Wilson to see you, General.
02:38Sit down, Major. I'll be with you in a minute.
02:50Oh, what is this?
03:06This man, sir.
03:07He's apparently British.
03:09He landed his ship on our field.
03:12His ship, I might add.
03:13Who are you?
03:16Second Lieutenant William Terence Decker, sir.
03:18Royal Flying Corps.
03:20You mean Royal Air Force?
03:22No, sir.
03:24Royal Flying Corps.
03:29What are you doing here?
03:30Why are you dressed like that?
03:33I beg your pardon, sir?
03:34Is there some kind of an air show nearby?
03:38Air show, sir?
03:40Are you making a film?
03:43I'm afraid I don't quite understand you, sir.
03:45You don't understand?
03:47What are you...
03:48Why are you wearing this costume?
03:52This is my uniform, sir.
03:53You're...
03:54At ease.
03:57Thanks, sir.
04:03Excuse me, sir.
04:06Where exactly am I?
04:09Where exactly did you think you were?
04:14Well, uh...
04:16I thought I was landing at 56th Squadron RFC.
04:2056th Squadron RFC?
04:23Wasn't that it?
04:31What's today's date?
04:32March the 5th.
04:34What year?
04:35Oh, in 1917.
04:411917.
04:43Yes, that's correct.
04:51Well, isn't it?
04:54It's March the 5th, 1959.
04:57I've done it.
04:57I've done it.
04:58What was this...
04:58I've done it.
05:22Look here.
05:26You're not joking with me, are you?
05:35Good Lord.
05:42You don't seriously expect us to believe that...
05:47Well, it's true.
05:50It's true. When I took off this morning, it was 1917.
05:56That cloud. While I was passing through it, I couldn't hear my engine.
06:19It was like being swallowed in a vacuum.
06:24Same sort of thing happened to Guimere.
06:32The French fighter pilot?
06:34He disappeared one day while flying.
06:41At the memorial service, the Cardinal said,
06:43he belonged to the sky, and the sky has taken him.
06:49Who the devil do you think you're fooling, Decker? Or whatever your name is?
06:55Sir, I swear to you, when I took off this morning, it was March the 5th, 1917.
06:59Mac and I were going on our...
07:01Who?
07:02Mac, Captain Mackay.
07:03Mackay?
07:04Yes, we're in the...
07:05Alexander Mackay?
07:07How did you know?
07:08What have you got to do with this?
07:12How did you know?
07:13I suppose you're going to tell us you don't know that Alexander Mackay...
07:18Air Vice Marshal Alexander Mackay is at this moment en route to this base for a tour of inspection.
07:25But that's impossible!
07:27Why is it impossible, Lieutenant Decker?
07:32Because he's dead.
07:37It's a genius. I'll give it that much.
07:55This could be checked on, sir.
07:57If we wanted a waste of time, yes.
08:03If it's a hoax, it's certainly an elaborate one.
08:07If it's a hoax, Major.
08:10I mean, sir, it's hard to believe that anyone would go to such incredible lengths just to play a joke.
08:16Who said it was a joke?
08:19All right, sir, what is it?
08:21We'll find out when Mackay arrives.
08:28We could ask the Minister of War in London. There might be records on this, Decker.
08:33I think you believe him.
08:35No, sir.
08:37It's just that I can't help feeling there's something more to this than just a hoax.
08:44Exactly.
08:48You don't think he meant to use that on Mackay?
08:51We'll know soon enough.
08:52Sir, I'd swear the man was genuinely shocked when he heard Mackay was coming here.
08:56If he'd meant to do the man any harm, he'd have warned his gun. He wouldn't have left it in this plane.
09:00Major, if you'll excuse me, I have a lot of work to do.
09:02But, General, this whole idea doesn't make any sense.
09:04Major!
09:06If you'll excuse me.
09:07Yes, sir.
09:08Yes, sir.
09:37Lieutenant. Why am I a prisoner here? Not quite as bad as all that. I'm being kept here, am I not?
09:51I'm only following orders, Edgar. Now look here, what earthly good is he going to do for me to see
09:55Mackay? Why are you so afraid of seeing Mackay? I'm not afraid. I'm not afraid of anything. Well,
10:01eh? Well, all right, I'll see him. Good. Not that white cloud you spoke of. I've told you everything.
10:16Now look here, Decker. You realize you're asking us to believe something rather incredible.
10:21A cloud of silence, a World War I pilot landing at an American attack base in France in 1959.
10:27Such a thing just doesn't happen every day. Well, it happens a day.
10:31Now look here, I've told you I'll see Mackay. Now, why don't you leave me alone?
10:46You really feel you know him, don't you? Know him?
10:51Old Leadbottom? Leadbottom?
10:53Yeah, well, whenever we fly, whenever we flew over the German lines, the soldiers fired at us.
11:06Well, one day, Mack got hit in a most embarrassing spot.
11:10I always called him Old Leadbottom after that.
11:17It's a private joke, of course.
11:20Mack's a proud fellow, you know. He wouldn't like it if I brooted it about.
11:25But why do you keep insisting that he's dead?
11:29Because the last I saw of him, he was caught in a circle of seven German planes.
11:33There was nothing I could do about it. Of course, I was involved with three others.
11:38Obviously, he got away.
11:41I don't see how he could have.
11:43Not only could have, he did.
11:45He was one of Britain's great heroes during the Blitz.
11:50That was the second war we told you about.
11:52He won the D.F.C. for knocking down three German bombers one night over London.
12:06He undoubtedly saved hundreds of lives.
12:08Maybe even thousands.
12:13Decker!
12:20One minute, sir.
12:21Yes, you can wait outside.
12:33What's wrong, Decker?
12:33I've got to leave.
12:34That's impossible.
12:37Mackay will be here in a little while, and we'll get to the bottom of this.
12:38I don't know. I can't see it.
12:39Why not?
12:40Because you'll know me for what I am.
12:41Why not?
12:41I'm a coward!
12:44I'm a coward!
12:49I've always been a coward.
12:51All my life, I've been running away.
12:56Pretending to be something I never was, never could be.
12:59That's why I'm here, because I was trying to run away.
13:01Because I wanted so desperately to escape that I did escape.
13:08I got by with my pretending well enough.
13:12My kind of strained idiocy, as exactly the brand we all put on.
13:20Playing the part, you know?
13:24Boys on a lark.
13:26Laughing, joking, drinking.
13:28Oh, it's too much, all of it.
13:30I'm turning into deadly, ice-cold killers in the sky.
13:37Although, not me, of course.
13:40No, not me.
13:43Up there, I'm just as afraid as I am on the ground.
13:45Well, Mac and I are supposed to go on patrols together, but, uh...
13:55I can usually manage to persuade him into splitting up.
13:59You know, I think he actually hopes he'll run into some trouble.
14:02Me, well, I just linger in the clouds, flying back and forth.
14:11Dreading the possibility that I might see an enemy plane.
14:15Just hoping for enough time to pass so that I can go back.
14:21You know, sometimes I think...
14:23I'll land behind the German lines,
14:26and I'll let myself be captured.
14:29The pilots always get the best of treatment, you know?
14:32But I'm afraid of doing that, Eden.
14:37I'm afraid that I'd be discovered and discredited.
14:44I couldn't bear that.
14:47I have to carry on the self-delusion, you know.
14:52You know,
14:53I've actually fired bullets through the cockpit walls
14:58so that the chaps will see them and be impressed.
15:02God help me.
15:04God help me.
15:05It isn't a crime to be afraid, Decker.
15:10It isn't a crime to be afraid, Decker.
15:12Every pilot's afraid of one time or another.
15:19I'm sure Mackay would understand that.
15:21No.
15:22No.
15:22Well, what makes you think he knows, anyway?
15:27Because it was Miele let the Germans trap him.
15:30But I thought you said you were fighting three German planes yourself, so how could...
15:33I wasn't fighting anyone.
15:36I wasn't fighting anyone.
15:37I was running.
15:38I was running.
15:39I was running.
15:40When the Germans came at us, I left him up there to die.
15:41Well, he didn't die.
15:42Well, I can't understand that.
15:43I'm sure Mackay would understand that.
15:44No.
15:45Well, what makes you think he knows, anyway?
15:46Well, what makes you think he knows, anyway?
15:48Because it was Miele let the Germans trap him.
15:49I wasn't fighting anyone.
15:50I was running.
15:51I was running.
15:52I was running.
15:53When the Germans came at us, I left him up there to die.
15:55Well, he didn't die.
15:56Well, I can't understand that.
16:04Well, maybe he got help somehow.
16:17What's the matter?
16:18What you said.
16:22What?
16:23That he got help.
16:25It's certainly in the realm of possibilities.
16:29See?
16:30Maybe it was me that helped him.
16:32Decker, I said when he got help, I meant that somebody else...
16:36Well, there wasn't anyone within 50 miles who could have helped him.
16:39Maybe it wasn't an accident that I had landed here.
16:43Maybe I was brought here for a purpose, to find out that Mack had survived.
16:47To find out that time was giving me a second chance.
16:51You've got to let me go.
16:53But I can't.
16:54But you've got to, don't you see?
16:55It's the only chance I have.
16:57It's the only chance he has.
16:58But he's alive.
16:59He's coming here today.
17:00How do you know that?
17:01How do you know that?
17:02How do you know that if I don't get back, he won't be here?
17:04How do you know that he won't have been killed 42 years ago unless I help him now?
17:09That's insanity, Decker!
17:11He won't.
17:12He'll wait, too.
17:13Come on.
17:14Boom.
17:15The end!
17:16Come on.
17:17Come on.
17:18We'll see him soon.
17:19The end!
17:20Come on.
17:21Come on.
17:22Go on.
17:23He'll go, Peck.
17:24Yeah!
17:25Go on.
17:26He'll do it.
17:27I'll do it.
17:28I'll do it.
17:29I'll do it.
17:30You'll be sure, I'll do it.
17:31I'll do it.
17:32All right.
17:33I'll do it.
17:34You'll be good, too.
17:35THE END
18:05THE END
18:35Hey, where do you think you're going?
18:44Hey, where do you think you're going?
18:56Hey, where do you think you're going?
19:00Turn it up!
19:01No.
19:03But can't you understand it?
19:04It's not just him.
19:05It's all those other lives, you say.
19:07Are they to be lost as well?
19:09Turn it up, Decker, or fire!
19:11Or fire?
19:12I'd rather die!
19:42You're in trouble, Major.
20:01I hope you know that.
20:03I know it, sir.
20:03You know, your thought processes elude me.
20:07They positively elude me.
20:09Letting that maniac loose.
20:11Yes, sir.
20:11How could you possibly...
20:13Yes?
20:16Air Vice Marshal Mackay, sir.
20:18Fine, fine.
20:19We're supposed to meet him when he landed.
20:20All right.
20:21Have ease.
20:22Sir?
20:24Marshal Mackay.
20:24How do you do, General?
20:25I'm very pleased to meet you, sir.
20:27I trust you had a comfortable flight.
20:28Oh, yes, yes.
20:29Splendid.
20:30Good, good.
20:30This is, uh, Major Wilson.
20:32How do you do, sir?
20:32Honored, Major.
20:34Why don't you sit down, sir?
20:35May I?
20:37Oh, thanks.
20:41Sir, did you ever know a man by the name of William Terence Decker?
20:45Terry Decker?
20:47I certainly should know him.
20:49Saved my life.
20:52What?
20:53How did he save your life, sir?
20:55Well, you see, we were out on patrol together.
20:57Now, as a rule, we'd have split up.
20:59But on that day, we were flying together.
21:02When a flight of Germans dropped down on us.
21:04You fought them together?
21:06Well, not at first.
21:08What do you mean, sir?
21:11Well, I had a feeling that old Terry was lighting out on me.
21:15He flew away?
21:17Yes.
21:18Climbed high.
21:20Disappeared in a cloud.
21:22A white cloud, sir?
21:25I don't know.
21:26I suppose so.
21:27And then?
21:30Well, then, out of nowhere, it seemed,
21:33Terry came diving down,
21:35his gun chattering away.
21:38He got three of the blighters
21:40before they got him.
21:44Saved my life.
21:46And he did get back.
21:48What?
21:50Look, didn't the Germans usually
21:52bring back the personal effects of pilots
21:54who have been shot down?
21:55Where do you live?
21:57I see.
21:58What is this all about?
22:00They brought back his.
22:03No.
22:06No.
22:06No.
22:06Where in heaven's name did you get these?
22:31They're his?
22:35Yeah.
22:35Now, what the devil is this all about?
22:40Maybe you'd better sit down,
22:43old lead bottom.
22:44Oh.
22:49What did you call me?
22:50Dialogue from a play,
23:01Hamlet to Horatio.
23:03There are more things in heaven and earth
23:05than are dreamt of in your philosophy.
23:09Dialogue from a play written long before
23:11men took to the sky.
23:13There are more things in heaven and earth
23:15and in the sky
23:17that perhaps can be dreamt of.
23:20And somewhere in between
23:21heaven and the sky
23:22and the sky
23:23and the earth
23:23lies the twilight song.
23:25You
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