The 1961 film that was eerily prescient
Over the last few weeks, record heatwaves have scorched the US, Europe, and China, so much so that the beginning of July had the hottest week the world has ever recorded. Despite the repeated pledges of countries to thwart the impact of climate change, global temperatures continue to rise. It’s hard to know how to respond.
That’s exactly how the characters in The Day the Earth Caught Fire feel, too. The cult 1961 British sci-fi disaster film has several eerie similarities with how the world has reacted to the current climate emergency, and ends in a way that’s both deeply depressing and a call to action.
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While it seemingly has the perfect title for the planet’s current predicament, The Day the Earth Caught Fire’s director Val Guest, who co-wrote it with Wolf Mankowitz, actually created the story to warn against the growing threat of nuclear war.
In the film, the US and Russian governments explode nuclear bombs at the exact same time, which causes the Earth’s axis to drastically alter by 11 degrees. The result is that the planet starts hurtling closer and closer to the Sun. Initially the world reacts positively to the hotter temperatures. But the conditions soon start to wreak havoc.
Temperatures hit 63C (145.6F) in Mexico and 60C (139F) in Rome. Southern France, Sicily, and Libya have to contend with 10 days of torrential rain in the middle of summer. The Nile floods the Egyptian deserts, while cyclones, typhoons, and hurricanes ravage other countries, and a solar eclipse occurs 10 days earlier than planned.
The Day the Earth Caught Fire centres on two journalists who uncover the cause of a crisis facing humanity (Credit: Alamy)
Alcoholic Daily Express journalist Peter Stenning (Edward Judd) and experienced reporter Bill Maguire (Leo McKern) work out that the twin bomb tests are the reason for these incidents. Together with British Met Office typist Jeannie (Janet Munro), they uncover the severity of the situation.
Soon governments have to declare a state of emergency, as water dries up and supplies dwindle, all as they try to figure out how to stop the Earth moving towards the Sun before it is too late.
Clear vision
While The Day the Earth Caught Fire never quite amassed the devoted fanbase of other British sci-fi films of the era – such as The Quatermass Xperiment, The Day of the Triffids, and The Village of the Damned – Guest and Mankowitz did receive the 1962 Bafta Award for best film screenplay. It has only become more prescient as the real world has mimicked the rise in temperatures in the movie.
“The film explores the same issue that Southern Europe and North America have been experiencing over the last few weeks,” remarks Bill McGuire, a climate scientist, activist, and writer who also happens to share a name with one of the leading characters. “The film is a fantastic analogy for how global heating has sped up across the planet today, as the world is getting hotter and hotter.”
While the character of Maguire is immediately concerned by the simultaneous nuclear explosions, concern that only grows with the erratic meteorological conditions, it takes the rest of the ensemble a while to realise just how much trouble the world is in.
“The human nature of the characters is very interesting. I see similarities to what’s going on today, because people are not accepting that this is happening. They can see unprecedented events happening, but they’re not willing to accept we really have a problem,” explains Leroy Dubeck, whose 1994 book Fantastic Voyages: Learning Science Through Science Fiction Film – co-written with Suzanne Moshier and Judith Boss – explored the science behind The Day the Earth Caught Fire. Spoiler: even if two nuclear bombs exploded at the exact same moment, it still wouldn’t come close to creating enough force to propel the planet towards the Sun.
Guest and Mankowitz almost certainly knew that the science behind the film didn’t quite add up, too – but they wanted to use this sensationalist predicament to generate a discussion about Russia and the US’s approach to nuclear bombs. Their storytelling and depiction of the world falling into chaos is so strong that more than 60 years later, The Day the Earth Caught Fire is now stirringly resonant for a completely different reason.
“The nuclear explosion part isn’t relevant now,” says McGuire. “But its scenario of dealing with an overheating planet is spot on and really makes an impact. Obviously it happens on a quicker scale, but the impact on society and the economy is a massive warning.”
The film was critically acclaimed when it was released, garnering a Bafta award for its co-writers (Credit: Alamy)
One of the smartest creative decisions that Guest and Mankowitz made while writing The Day the Earth Caught Fire was to show the film entirely from the perspective of journalists, rather than the politicians that are trying to solve the problem. The result is that Peter, Bill, and Jeannie are all completely powerless as the end of the world looms larger and larger.
“I think the best novels out there on climate change show how people are affected in small communities,” says McGuire, who has written several books and short stories on the subject. “Small personal stories are the best way of getting across to people how bad things are going to be in the future.”
By not even naming the British prime minister, president of the United States, or UN general secretary, the film highlights how powerless they are in a battle against nature.
The Day the Earth Caught Fire also shows governments trying to play down and hide the seriousness of what’s happening. During a radio address to the nation, the prime minister suggests that the only impact the displacement of the Earth will have is that “some of the seasons may be disturbed and changed in their intensity”, before making a joke about the British weather. Within weeks, water is being rationed and the Thames has completely evaporated.
But it’s The Day the Earth Caught Fire’s ending that really enhances the power of its message and story (warning: spoiler). The world’s governments decide that, in order to try and return the planet back to a safe orbit, they will explode numerous nuclear bombs in western Siberia. However, even the prime minister admits that he doesn’t know if they’ll succeed.
Rather than revealing if the Earth is saved or doomed, The Day the Earth Caught Fire just shows that two versions of the next day’s newspaper have been prepared. One that celebrates with the headline “World Saved”, while the other laments “World Doomed”. By ending in this way, the film highlights the problems with passivity in the face of crisis. As Stenning asks, after the prime minister finally reveals that the planet and everyone on it could soon die, “I suppose they’ll do something? They’ve got to do something!”
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