LOLA (2023) Movie Script
- (MYSTERIOUS MUSIC PLAYING)
- (INDISTINCT NEWS BROADCASTS)
(STATIC BUZZING)
(MUSIC PLAYS ON BROADCAST)
(CRACKLING AND WHIRRING)
(STATIC HISSING)
(BROADCASTS FADE)
Thom.
Papa used to say
not to be blinded
by your own brilliance...
because you are...
more brilliant
than even you know,
and also more dangerous.
I want to show you how history
can be made and unmade.
How you created
something miraculous.
(PENSIVE MUSIC PLAYING)
So, I've gathered
together our story
from whatever scraps of
footage I could find,
in the hope that somehow,
some time, this film
will find you...
and stop you.
I'm going to show you
how to see your future.
(UNSETTLING MUSIC PLAYING)
Radio waves never die.
If we can receive
broadcasts from the past,
surely we can receive
them from the future?
MARS: I'll never
forget that day
we switched her on
for the first time.
(ELECTRICITY BUZZING)
1st October, 1938.
(CRACKLING)
We named her in honour of Mama.
LOLA.
(WHIRRING)
(RUSTLING)
(BUZZES)
(SINGING) Ground
control to Major Tom
It works.
Ground control to Major Tom
We've seen the future.
(CRACKLES)
Take your protein pills
And put your helmet on
This is Ground
Control To Major Tom
MARS: LOLA opened a
magical new world.
1938 went into 1939,
but those dates
meant nothing to us.
We were living in another time.
And we finally had a
reliable source of income.
Remember that car I bought you?
Way too small for those legs.
Ground Control to Major Tom
Your circuit's dead
There's something wrong
Can you hear me, Major Tom?
Can you hear me, Major Tom?
Can you hear me, Major Tom?
Can you hear...
MARS: But LOLA didn't just
show us the world's wonders,
she also showed us its horrors.
The Nazis had torn
through Europe,
Paris had fallen, Dunkirk
had been evacuated,
and now Hitler had set
his sights on Britain.
The Blitz would claim
thousands of lives
over the coming months.
LOLA could no
longer be just ours.
The world needed her.
(STATIC BUZZING)
NEWSREADER: (ON LOLA) They
burst out of the clouds
at less than 2,000 feet
and dropped their deadly cargo
on the Isle of Dogs before...
- (BUTTON CLICKS)
- (STATIC HISSING)
This is an urgent warning,
1:35 a.m. Hackney
and 1:45 Islington.
Due to thick cloud,
there will be no warning
from the authorities for
any of these attacks.
Please make yourselves safe.
(SIGHS)
3rd May, 1941,
21st furrow for the
Angel of Portobello.
(CLAPS)
(CHEERFUL MUSIC PLAYING)
MAN: It has become a
nightly occurrence.
After sundown, German
bombers cross the Channel
with their deadly cargo.
No one knows where they
will target or when.
(EXPLOSION)
No one, that is, but
their German commanders
and one mystery
woman in England,
nicknamed the
Angel of Portobello
by those residents
of West London
whose lives have been
among the first saved
by her warnings.
(PLAYING GENTLE MUSIC)
(RADIO FEEDBACK)
THOM: (ON SPEAKER)
Warning, 1:35 a.m. Hackney
and 1:45 Islington, repeat,
1:35 a.m. Hackney
and 1:45 Islington.
Due to thick cloud,
there will be no warning
from the authorities for
any of these attacks.
Please make yourselves safe.
REPORTER: While the warnings
didn't stop the bombings,
they did once again
save dozens of lives.
Last night, at
about half past 12,
we heard the Angel
of Portobello.
We were in a dugout and,
er, thanks to the...
thanks to the Angel
of Portobello,
we are quite safe.
Thanks to the Angel
of Portobello,
my family is all right, but
our house got clobbered.
(CAMERA RUSTLING)
(LOLA WHIRRING)
(WHEN, WHEN, WHEN
PLAYING ON LOLA)
MARS: Oh, God. No,
Thom, not this one.
She has nothing to say
about life or freedom.
Well, we can't get it anyway.
But you are wrong, Mars,
the sentiment is
tediously accurate.
People would rather
buy into fatalism
- than own their own destiny.
- MARS: Hmm.
Don't people just want to know
that everything is
going to be all right?
(CHUCKLES) Come
dance with me, Mars.
MARS: I'm not dancing to this.
(SONG CONTINUES) I
really miss you, honey
When, when...
MARS: Here.
- (ELECTRICITY BUZZING)
- (MARS GIGGLES)
MAN: (ON LOLA) Preparation
of food supplements.
(BUZZING)
NEWSREADER: Perplexed
officials say
that the source of the Angel's
signal remains a mystery,
and the army has been
unable to identify
the mysterious lady broadcaster.
- Normally, we locate...
- MARS: Oh!
A pirate radio within 15
minutes of broadcasting.
You get a signal search
when pointing in the
direction of the source.
Whereas here, the signal is
coming from all around us.
It's like we're sitting
on top of the antenna.
It's extraordinary.
We'd like the people behind this
to stop their game
now and come forward.
We are at war.
NEWSREADER: Our intrepid
officers continue their search
for the Angel of Portobello,
documenting as they go.
THOM: Well, they're never
gonna catch us, anyway.
MARS: No, of course not.
You're much too clever.
(CHUCKLES)
SEBASTIAN: Log of Lieutenant
Sebastian Holloway,
1st June, '41.
I finally traced the signal
source to Shoreham Gasworks.
The Angel of Portobello
is using the gasometer
as a natural transmitter.
The metal
superstructure magnifies
her weak radio signal and
sends it through the mains
into London's pipe networks
which acts as her very
own personal antenna.
It explains why her broadcasts
are omnidirectional in London.
They were coming from
the entire gas grid,
very clever.
2:15, spot what I assume to
be the Angel of Portobello.
Young woman, curly
blonde hair, on bicycle.
2:25, she climbs
the main gasometer.
She spends about 15
minutes making adjustments
to what turns out to be a
battery-operated transmitter
and the signal source.
2:45, she spots me
and Lance Corporal Clark,
who's filming. She flees.
Cycles west toward the coast.
Very few houses on
this stretch of land.
Terrible roads.
She nearly escapes,
but even she finds the
conditions difficult,
and we manage to cut her off.
She denies
everything, of course.
Says she uses the gasometer
for bird watching.
Is extremely rude.
Has no papers.
But does possess radio
transmitting equipment,
plus a map of all the
gasometers in England.
When I ask her to
identify herself,
she makes up some
obviously bogus names.
Eartha Kitt, Maria von
Trapp, Lady Stardust.
Actual name, Martha Hanbury.
After some gentle persuasion,
she finally acquiesces
and agrees to escort
us to her house.
Strange old place,
quite run-down.
Her sister, Thomasina Hanbury,
emerges and is even ruder.
Threatens to do
damage to my privates,
but relents when I suggest
returning with a search warrant.
3:15 p.m., I get my first
look at their machine
which they call LOLA.
It's going to change history.
(CAMERA RUSTLING)
THOM: Come on, then.
You've got 10 minutes,
in and out.
This is... magnificent.
It's beautiful.
(FEEDBACK ECHOES)
How do you...
How does it work?
Why aren't you doing more
to stop people from dying?
Better you tell us how
you predict the future.
We know you do.
Mars, what in God's
earth did you say to him?
That you can catch radio
and television broadcasts
from the future.
I had to tell him. He said we
could be hanged as spies...
- Don't touch it!
- (FEEDBACK ECHOES)
How did you find us?
I was just lucky.
I couldn't understand how
the signal was so dispersed.
But I noticed it was stronger
in houses with piped gas.
Using the copper
piped gas network
as an antenna, that's genius.
I want to help.
(CAMERA WHIRRING)
MARS: You weren't
so easily convinced.
(GENTLE MUSIC PLAYING)
All right, darling?
Do you have to film
us in the bath?
MARS: Wash your face.
- (GROANS)
- You look a mess.
I hate anyone coming here.
He's pushy and cocky
and there are negative
consequences to those defects.
MARS: Well, he could
have had us arrested.
I don't think he wants
to lord it over us.
- Give me the camera.
- MARS: Mm.
(SOFTLY) Give me the camera.
Here's my prognosis.
You, in all probability,
are going to make him
fall in love with you
and then you'll leave with him
- and create jolly offspring.
- (CHUCKLES)
But who's to say I
would love him back?
No, if he falls under my spell,
then we can make him do
exactly what we want.
(GASPS) We can make him
muck out Scarborough.
THOM: True. Don't
be too charming,
I don't think you
know when to stop.
He might like you more.
THOM: Oh, my
clitoris and I do not
- need extra company.
- (CHUCKLES)
(CAMERA RUSTLES)
Well, good morning.
This is Major Cobcroft.
He has authorised
my presence here.
Where do you want us?
I have realised you were
at Cheltenham last year.
Twenty-three wins in a row.
(GRUNTS, EXHALES)
(HORSE SNORTING)
Hello.
Is someone gonna say hello?
MARS: Hello.
Holloway, is this a joke?
Er, Major Cobcroft has
kindly provided you
with some special provisions.
There's tea and
coffee, ham and cheese,
- fancy canned content.
- (HORSE SNORTS)
Friends in high places.
You are most kind.
But my sister will tell
you, for me eating is merely
a distraction, and if you
imagine we would cook for you,
we are not your women.
I think we need to re-establish
who's in charge here.
(LOLA WHIRRING)
MAN 1: (ON LOLA) As the
troops went into Smithfield,
- the porter...
- SEBASTIAN: They've just been
working off material like this.
Future news bulletins.
Can you imagine what
they could achieve
using intel from military radio?
And if they coordinated
the information with us.
No.
(LOLA CRACKLING, BUZZING)
MAN 2: (ON LOLA) What
happens when the human body
is rocketed into space?
A foretaste of the fantastic
ordeal which awaits
the first man to the Moon.
It reminds me of
going home on a bus.
- (CHANNEL SWITCHES)
- COBCROFT: Christ.
(INDISTINCT CHATTER
FROM BROADCASTS)
(ROCK 'N' ROLL MUSIC
PLAYING ON LOLA)
Who on earth are those
diabolical creatures?
Show's over.
COBCROFT: They're con artists.
They're projecting B
movies onto that screen.
SEBASTIAN: How do you
explain their predictions?
COBCROFT: They got lucky.
SEBASTIAN: Just
give me one go, sir.
Let them tune into military
radio under my supervision.
COBCROFT: This is
highly irregular.
SEBASTIAN: I bet a
magnum of champagne
we can make a correct
prediction with that machine.
COBCROFT: All right.
But we keep this between us.
It backfires, I know
nothing, you understand?
SEBASTIAN: Yes, of course.
Why are you filming me?
MARS: You, I'm
keeping an eye on.
God, you don't miss
anything, do you?
Is that thing
recording sound too?
How does it do
that? It's titchy.
MARS: Everything goes onto
the same piece of film.
I use the space between
the sprocket holes
for the soundwave.
You invented this.
MARS: Thom made it for me.
She should patent it.
MARS: Oh, no, no, no, no!
No, that's my dark room.
Out. Shut the door.
- Shut the door.
- Where's your refrigerator?
MARS: We have a pantry.
Erm... It's pretty draughty,
so it's chilly in there.
Well, that's good.
(CHUCKLES) And very in
keeping with the war effort.
MARS: So, Sebastian, are
you handy in the kitchen?
(MID-TEMPO ELECTRONIC
MUSIC PLAYING)
THOM: Here are the
rules of the game.
Each morning, I use LOLA to
tune into tomorrow's report
from the Royal
Signaller's Station.
That way, we will have
advanced knowledge
of all enemy attacks.
Sebastian's job
is to cross-check
the sign-off codes, so we know
the radio report is authentic.
He sends the
intelligence to Cobcroft,
who puts the
information into action.
Mars continues to document
this for prosperity.
And Sebastian needs to stock
us up with better food,
more wine and a pile
more cigarettes.
MARS: Operation Chrono,
11th August, 1941.
8:00 a.m. at 323 Hertz.
MARS: It was
vital that we find
the right piece of intel.
Anything too big would risk
- giving the game away.
- (INDISTINCT BROADCAST)
But something too small
might not be enough
to impress Cobcroft.
We listened to
dozens of reports.
Problems impossible to fix.
We weren't finding
what we needed.
- (BROADCAST STOPS)
- And let's not forget
that you hated
working in a team.
It looked as though our
trial was a failure.
And then...
MAN: (ON LOLA) Morning
report, August 12th.
Richmond RAF base destroyed.
Enemy attacked from
south-easterly bearing.
Cairo, Alpha, Foxtrot,
9, Bravo. Over.
THOM: Okay, that's the one.
Sebastian, check the code.
That's the correct
sign-off code, sir.
COBCROFT: (ON
SPEAKER) Very well.
I'll warn Richmond
anti-air defence.
We could end the war
with this machine.
Ever thought of that?
THOM: (CHUCKLES) You are
a prick. Of course I have.
See how you get on
with that intel.
SEBASTIAN: Sorry.
The enemy can't think we
know everything it's doing.
Papa said to never underestimate
the cunning of the desperate.
MARS: He actually said
to never underestimate
the violence of
the power hungry.
And also, actually, we didn't
have military intelligence.
Well, also, actually
Papa was anti-war
and not only against
taking lives but...
SEBASTIAN: So am I.
(SCOFFS SOFTLY)
For all I know,
you could be a spy
with access to British
military secrets.
Now, Mars says I
should trust you,
so don't fuck it
up by acting cocky.
I'm hungry.
He's invading my creative space.
MARS: I wish he'd invade mine.
You are such a tarting flirt.
MARS: (CHUCKLING) A flirting
tart, don't you mean?
THOM: Er... Oh.
(MARS LAUGHING)
Oh.
MARS: Well, I think
he's the best thing
that's happened to us
since we won enough money
to feed ourselves.
THOM: Well, I will
make it happen
and he will sit there and watch,
and if he gloats,
I will punch him.
(SILENT NIGHT, HOLY
NIGHT PLAYING ON PIANO)
MARS: All that was left
for us to do was wait
until the morning to see
if our plan had worked.
That night, we waited...
- (INDISTINCT BROADCAST)
- and waited...
and waited.
Until...
MAN: (ON SPEAKER) Last
night, the military scored
a major victory against the
Luftwaffe by shooting down
an entire German bomber squadron
over a Richmond RAF base.
This is a great victory for...
(BOTH SNIGGERING)
Oh, God. God, I'm
good. (GRUNTS)
(LAUGHING)
(THOM AND MARS SQUEAL, LAUGH)
MARS: Success.
Our intel had
painted a bull's-eye
over every German
bomber that night.
- (MEN SHOUTING)
- (BOMBS EXPLODING)
The anti-aircraft gunners
took care of the rest.
Our plan had worked.
Wait, wait, wait.
Wait, hold them up.
Hold them up, let me see them.
(GASPS) Oh, you
bake. How cool.
Yeah, I'm afraid the
oven wasn't very hot.
MARS: No, I mean
cool as in groovy.
Groovy? (CHUCKLES)
Is that an adjective?
- (MARS CHUCKLES)
- (TELEPHONE RINGS)
Major.
COBCROFT: Bloody hell,
Holloway. Outstanding.
We should make Miss
Hanbury an Honorary Major.
Open your dispatch bag, the
ladies earned it, not you.
Thank you, sir.
- MARS: Major Thom.
- Very funny.
- (CHUCKLES)
- SEBASTIAN: Oh, very nice.
Oh! Thank you. I think
he said for the ladies.
MARS: Unless you'd like
to join us for a drink.
(UPBEAT ELECTRONIC
MUSIC PLAYING)
MARS: You were brilliant.
You changed the
course of the war.
Cities that would have
been bombed were saved.
People who wouldn't
have been alive
were walking the streets.
(IMPERCEPTIBLE)
(UPBEAT ELECTRONIC
MUSIC CONTINUES)
CHURCHILL: We may
allow ourselves
a brief period of rejoicing.
Advance, Britannia.
Long live the cause of freedom.
(UPBEAT ELECTRONIC
MUSIC CONTINUES)
(PIANO PLAYING ALONG
TO UPBEAT MUSIC)
MARS: Sebastian
was in awe of LOLA
and, it seemed, a
little in love with me.
(MUSIC STOPS)
Stop filming me, I'm peeing!
SEBASTIAN: Girls
don't pee standing up.
No, Mama always peed like this.
She said it's much
healthier to get the urine
as far away from one's
vagina as possible.
- SEBASTIAN: How interesting.
- Hmm.
SEBASTIAN: My mother
made me pee sitting down
to avoid the seat
up/down conundrum.
I think it's really because
she wanted another girl.
MARS: (CHUCKLES) Well,
gender divide is an
artificial construct.
You know, that
was a Papa saying.
(SOFT PIANO MUSIC PLAYING)
(WHISPERING) I
said, stop filming!
(MARS GRUNTS)
(CHUCKLES)
SEBASTIAN: Why do
you film everything?
Well, because we're alone.
SEBASTIAN: And
why are you alone?
MARS: Mm...
Oh, Papa was conscripted.
He lasted two weeks.
- (OBJECT CLATTERS)
- (BOTH CHUCKLE)
He lasted two weeks
at the front and...
"Fighting for peace is like
screwing for virginity."
Or that's what he would have
said if he had lived longer.
SEBASTIAN: Gosh. Right.
- So who did...
- Hmm?
- Oh, I can't remember.
- (BOTH CHUCKLE)
Some dude from the 1960s.
SEBASTIAN: Oh, it's
quite disconcerting
that for you two, history goes
forwards as well as backwards.
- (CHUCKLES)
- Mm.
Now, Mama said Papa was killed
at the altar of war worship.
She fired all the help,
she stopped sending us to school
and she... (SIGHS)
went to her room and
listened to records.
And then she started
going for very long walks.
And then one day, they found her
stuck between two rocks,
halfway down a crag
that plummets into
the nearby cove.
SEBASTIAN: Saving people
for the ones we lost.
(SOFT PIANO MUSIC CONTINUES)
(MUSIC STOPS)
(JAZZ MUSIC PLAYING FAINTLY)
MARS: I was enjoying
my new-found company
while you were busy
defending the country.
Not that you were getting
the credit, of course.
(MILITARY MARCH MUSIC PLAYING)
(JOYFUL MUSIC PLAYING)
(ENGINE WHINING)
(IMPERCEPTIBLE)
It's an honour to have been
made a Knight Commander
of the Order of the Bath.
I am proud of the work I've done
in turning the tide of
war against Adolf Hitler.
But this evening isn't
all about my achievements,
it's about you,
my fellow officers of
the Intelligence Corps,
who've helped me to put
an end to the Blitz.
This is only just the beginning.
By God, we are good.
(MELLOW JAZZ MUSIC PLAYING)
(IMPERCEPTIBLE)
(MUSIC CONCLUDES)
(APPLAUSE)
(MIC FEEDBACK)
This is one of our favourites,
you won't be hearing
it again for some time.
(DISCORDANT NOTES
PLAYING ON PIANO)
(PLAYING RAPID
ASCENDING NOTES)
Thom, that's, erm...
(PLAYING YOU REALLY
GOT ME BY THE KINKS)
(SINGING) Girl You
really got me goin'
You got me now I don't
know What I'm doin' now
- (RHYTHMIC CLAPPING)
- Yeah, you really got me now
You got me So I
can't sleep at night
Yeah, you really got me now
You got me so I don't
know What I'm doin' now
Oh, yeah You really got me now
You got me So I
can't sleep at night
You really got me
You really got me
You really got me
(JAZZ BAND JOINS IN)
(CROWD CHEERING)
See, don't ever set me free
I always wanna be by your side
Girl, you really got me now
You've got me So I
can't sleep at night
Yeah, you really got me now
You've got me so I don't
know What I'm doin' now
Oh, yeah You really got me now
You got me So I
can't sleep at night
You really got me
You really got me
You really got me
Yeah! Whoo! Yeah!
(JAZZ BAND CONTINUES
PLAYING YOU REALLY GOT ME)
(JAZZ RENDITION OF YOU
REALLY GOT ME CONTINUES)
(CLAPS ALONG TO MUSIC)
(SONG ENDING)
(CROWD CHEERING
AND APPLAUDING)
(CAMERA RUSTLING)
No!
My camera.
So, LOLA is so much
more than a war fighter.
This is the true magic.
Erm...
Movies, documentaries.
Newsreels.
Play-outs from LOLA.
- SEBASTIAN: Oh, my God.
- (CHUCKLES)
(SEBASTIAN CHUCKLES)
Is this our future?
MARS: Well, this is the
future I'm interested in.
Mama always said that art was
the weathervane of the soul.
Now, see that wall over here?
There, or over
there. (CHUCKLES)
That wall is our past.
She captured every waking moment
with such attention to detail.
SEBASTIAN: Oh, is that you?
- MARS: (SQUEALS) Maybe, yeah.
- (SEBASTIAN CHUCKLES)
SEBASTIAN: No, I want to look.
No, our children are
going to love this.
At last, a musical rebellion
against the stuffed
shirts that run the world.
- (CHUCKLES)
- SEBASTIAN: Our children?
(MARS CHUCKLES)
And who is this chap?
MARS: (CHUCKLES) Bob Dylan.
He's one of my
all-time favourites.
He speaks of freedom
and heartbreak,
of a nation lost,
and of the joy and pain
of the authentic soul.
SEBASTIAN: Like you.
Come here.
(SEBASTIAN CHUCKLES)
(STATIC CRACKLING)
MARS: Come on.
SEBASTIAN: What?
MARS: Not a word to Thom.
- Promise?
- Promise.
MARS: Right, go over there
to that panel back there,
over there to the left.
See the switches
in the middle row?
- Yeah.
- MARS: Third one in. Flick it.
- (WHIRRING)
- Yes!
Now over to the other side.
Other side, quickly.
And the three silver ones.
- Flick them up.
- Yeah.
MARS: One, two, three. Yes.
We're going to
need a power surge
where we're going.
Oh, that's far out.
Far out of where?
MARS: Now, tune it
to 133 kilohertz.
(BUZZING)
9:03 p.m.,
8th March,
Christ, this thing can see
30 years into the future.
MARS: Not just major
broadcasts, royal weddings,
signals beamed around the world.
The diamonds, though,
are the hit songs.
SINGER: (SINGING) The
sound of marching feet
In the street below
(SEBASTIAN CHUCKLES)
MARS: No, you've
the wrong time.
You... You said
9:03, 8th March...
MARS: 1973.
Let me see.
(SONG CONTINUES) Polish
up your jackboots
Learn to march in time
And fall into line
The sound of marching feet
(STATIC BUZZES)
MAN: (ON LOLA) And
cracking the chart barrier
at number one for the
10th week running,
Reginald Watson's The
Sound of Marching Feet.
It looks like Watson will
be making musical history
as his new hit, Meet
Me at the Gallows,
has just crashed number two.
(MEET ME AT THE GALLOWS BY
REGINALD WATSON PLAYING)
(BREATHES HEAVILY)
I don't understand.
Thom! Thom!
What are you doing?
MARS: He's not there.
SEBASTIAN: Who?
David Bowie.
SEBASTIAN: Who's David Bowie?
MARS: He's gone. Bowie's gone.
Thirty years is
a long time away,
the adjustment of variables
could lead to a new
set of consequences.
MARS: But we've tuned into
him hundreds of times,
why is it suddenly changed?
Mars,
thanks to us, a lot of people
are alive who would be dead.
It also means we
might have erased him.
MARS: No, you can't
kill David Bowie.
Maybe he lives but will
have a different childhood
and become a dentist.
MARS: That is a very severe
negative consequence.
THOM: Mars, negativity is
not emotionally quantifiable.
There will be someone else
as extraordinary as Bowie.
No, there's Reginald
fucking Watson!
THOM: We are trying
to end the war.
You knew this could happen?
(MEET ME AT THE GALLOWS
CONTINUES PLAYING)
I'm not sure it's
moral to erase lives.
What happens to people
whose worlds we erased?
Or is it moral to save lives?
I mean, hypothetically you
can make love with someone
and create life, by
choosing not to do that,
are you erasing potential life?
Fix this Watson car
crash and get Bowie back!
Sometimes you have
to make sacrifices
for the greater good.
(WHIRRING)
MARS: We'd erased
all my heroes.
Bob Dylan. Nina Simone.
David Bowie. Stanley Kubrick.
Now, they were but
memories on my Moviola.
LOLA was profoundly changing
the course of the war.
But we had no way of predicting
how we were meddling
with the future.
What else had we sacrificed?
(FEEDBACK CRACKLES)
COBCROFT: (ON SPEAKER)
Morning, Miss Hanbury.
We've updated the
signature codes.
They'll be in
Holloway's dispatch bag.
THOM: (ON SPEAKER) Why
haven't you managed to hit
any of the U-boat fleet?
I've given you
first-class intel.
COBCROFT: They're
bloody elusive.
Even when we know which
ship they're going to sink,
locating the U-boat's
attack point is impossible.
Trying to spot a sub 50
feet below the Atlantic
is like trying to find
a hymen in a whorehouse.
THOM: So, you need to wait for
them to rise to the surface.
COBCROFT: By which stage,
the subs are in attack mode.
Do that and you risk our ships.
THOM: Do nothing and
the sub will live
to attack another day.
We have to lull them in.
Let them surface and fire,
that way your fighter planes
are sure to spot them.
COBCROFT: Christ.
You're suggesting we
sacrifice a civilian ship.
THOM: A pawn for a queen.
(FEEDBACK CRACKLES)
(GENTLE GUITAR MUSIC PLAYING)
SEBASTIAN: We should go back.
Mm... No. She can do the
next broadcast alone.
You and I are otherwise engaged.
(MARS CHUCKLES)
MAN: (ON RADIO) The war
office has just announced
that the RAF has
destroyed the entire
- German U-boat fleet...
- MARS: Oh, my God.
- In the Atlantic Ocean.
- MARS: Sebastian!
- This marks a huge...
- (MARS LAUGHS)
turning point in the war
against Nazi Germany.
Mr Churchill will
address the nation
on this major development.
MAN 2: This is the moment
when the RAF achieved
what many said was impossible.
The annihilation of
the Nazi U-boat fleet.
But this stunning victory
wasn't without cost.
Tragically, our
forces were unable
to save the American civilian
liner, SS Abraham Lincoln.
Two thousand souls
lost their lives.
MARS: (PANTS) Thom! Thom!
SEBASTIAN: Thom,
you're incredible.
Champagne for Boudicca!
MARS: Darling, are you okay?
SEBASTIAN: Did you enact
the battle right here?
MARS: What happened?
We received a report
of the Abraham Lincoln
being attacked by a
flotilla of U-boats
and once the attack started,
Cobcroft had the subs
bombed from the air.
SEBASTIAN: Hang on.
You allowed the attack to start?
Thom, they sunk the
Abraham Lincoln.
We needed bait to get
the U-boats to rise.
SEBASTIAN: How many
people were on that liner?
Well, army man, it's
the semiotics of combat.
Those U-boats wiped out
40 liners last month.
Now, we're going to
destroy the Kriegsmarine
and then we'll go
after their air force.
SEBASTIAN: Let's
get the shutters.
(LOLA WHIRS)
(RADIO FEEDBACK)
MAN 1: (ON LOLA) Over
2,000 people died...
- THOM: How did you do that?
- On the American liner.
MAN 1: President Roosevelt
is demanding to know
why Britain didn't deploy
its celebrated
early warning system
- to protect the vessel.
- THOM: Mars.
(STATIC BUZZES)
Did you show him
how to work LOLA?
(TRIUMPHANT MUSIC
PLAYING ON LOLA)
MAN 2: (ON LOLA) Churchill's
hopes of persuading
the United States of America
to abandon its neutrality
have been dashed.
Preliminary investigations
have found that the British
deliberately allowed the
Abraham Lincoln to be sunk
as a means to entice
the German U-boat fleet
- to the surface.
- (BROADCAST STOPS)
SEBASTIAN: What have you done?
What have you been doing?
You are a child.
A lustful, suggestible child.
The pair of you.
- MARS: Thom, I...
- Get out.
MARS: I shouldn't have...
- Thom, I'm...
- Get out!
(CAMERA RUSTLING)
(RADETZKY MARCH, OP. 228 BY
JOHANN STRAUSS SR. PLAYING)
NEWSREADER: Anger spilled
onto the streets today
when State Department
investigators made
the sensational discovery
that Britain had prior knowledge
of the attack on
the Abraham Lincoln.
According to the investigators,
British fighter pilots
circled overhead and looked on
as dozens of Nazi subs
attacked the defenceless liner.
Within minutes,
the doomed vessel
lay at the bottom
of the Atlantic
along with 2,000 men,
women and children.
President Roosevelt
said it was clear
that the British had
sacrificed the liner
to draw the U-boats
to the surface.
He immediately recalled
Ambassador Joseph
Kennedy from London.
I leave England at this
time with real regret.
NEWSREADER: But England
remains defiant.
Churchill strenuously
rejected the allegations
and proclaimed that Britain
shall prevail without the aid
of the United States of America.
(CAMERA RUSTLING)
(INDISTINCT BROADCAST PLAYING)
Thom, come on, open up.
(LOLA BUZZING RHYTHMICALLY)
(INDISTINCT BROADCASPLAYING ON LOLA)
(OBJECTS CLATTERING)
She's mad.
Fucking mad.
MARS: LOLA had just received
the perfect piece of intel.
It was irresistible.
MAN: (ON LOLA) This
is Southampton.
We are under sustained attack,
six German destroyers...
MARS: You had Cobcroft deploy
the entire navy to intercept
an all-out German
attack on Southampton.
This intel could wipe
out the German navy.
SEBASTIAN: This is
fucking pathetic.
It's petty. Come on, open up.
MARS: But it was
too good to be true.
THOM: I need your help.
(FEEDBACK ECHOES)
COBCROFT: (ON SPEAKER) What
the hell have you done?
The Kriegsmarine is three
miles off the coast of Dover,
our entire fleet is 100
miles away in Southampton.
The Kriegsmarine
should have arrived
at Southampton one minute ago.
Did you check the
signature code?
Can you replay it?
(REWINDING)
(EXPLOSIONS ON LOLA)
MAN 1: (ON LOLA)
This is Southampton.
We are under sustained
attack, six German destroyers
supported by a heavy
air bombardment. Over.
SEBASTIAN: There's
no signature code.
THOM: It was a bogus signal,
there was never an
attack on Southampton.
The Germans know
we've got something.
They must have sent that signal.
Oldest trick in the
book. (BREATHING HEAVILY)
COBCROFT: You've left
us completely exposed.
You fucking bitch.
You've fucked me.
(CONNECTION ENDS)
(WHIRRING)
MAN: (ON LOLA) Authorities
are not revealing
the extent of the attack,
except to say that
the coast around Dover
is now under German occupation.
- THOM: No, no, no, no, no.
- (CLICKING)
MAN 2: (ON SPEAKER) Hello?
There is going to be
an attack at Hastings.
- MAN 2: Who is this?
- Cobcroft?
MAN 2: Major Henry
Cobcroft is unavailable.
No, I need to speak to him
now. Where the fuck is he?
This is Lieutenant Holloway.
I report directly
to Major Cobcroft.
I need him on the
line immediately.
MAN 2: Major Cobcroft
is not available.
Then you... Go get him,
we're being invaded!
- MARS: Where are you going?
- To...
warn the army.
(BREATHING HEAVILY)
- MARS: Hold on.
- Look, I'll be right back.
And... try and connect
to someone on intel.
(DIALLING TELEPHONE)
to move defences away from...
(LINE DISCONNECTS)
MARS: Can we undo this?
(SLAMS RECEIVER)
(YELLS) Can I unbreak
that telephone?
(OBJECTS RATTLING)
(ROAR OF AIRCRAFT ENGINES)
MARS: What the
hell had we done?
(DRAMATIC CLASSICAL
MUSIC PLAYING)
NEWSREADER: Early
this morning,
catastrophe struck Britain.
German forces breached
coastal defences
following a major
intelligence blunder.
Commanding officers
had diverted the RAF
and the Royal Navy to
Southampton, leaving Dover
and the Southeast of
England gravely exposed.
The enemy launched a
full-scale invasion,
landing effectively unopposed.
Town after town fell to
the merciless attackers.
Christening the
invasion Black Sunday,
the Prime Minister issued
a full call to arms.
CHURCHILL: The Battle of
Britain is about to begin.
On this battle depends
the survival of
Christian civilisation.
If we fail,
then the whole world will sink
into the abyss of
a new Dark Age.
NEWSREADER: With the
Nazis advancing inland,
Head of Army Intelligence,
Major Sir Henry Cobcroft,
was summoned to explain
the disastrous breach
in Britain's defences.
Major Cobcroft said that
after an investigation,
he had discovered that
two Nazi double agents
had infiltrated his department.
COBCROFT: Lieutenant
Holloway and I
were receiving intelligence
from two agents,
Thomasina and Martha Hanbury.
They were double-crossing us.
Taking orders from Berlin.
Their maliciously false intel
resulted in this
country being invaded.
These loathsome
creatures will be found
and hanged for treason.
MARS: What do we do?
NEWSREADER: On
bidding farewell
to the King, who was
evacuated to Canada,
Mr Churchill
addressed the nation.
CHURCHILL: Despite the
traitresses in our midst...
MARS: Shit!
The Nazi forces
shall not prevail
in their attempts to
break the spirit of...
MARS: Thom, we
have to leave now.
THOM: I'm not leaving LOLA.
MARS: For God's sake, Thom,
what are you going to
do, put it in a suitcase?
THOM: I'm staying. I
can still fight this,
tell the army what the
Germans are going to do next.
MARS: Never mind the Germans,
it's Cobcroft that's
going to hang us.
THOM: Then get your boyfriend
to tell them the truth.
MARS: What?
THOM: He's left you, Mars.
He's saving his own skin.
MARS: Horseshit.
He would have saved
you from yourself
if you'd let him
check the codes.
THOM: He was too busy
bonking you in the woods.
MARS: You locked us out.
THOM: You were
compromising my work
with your sentimentality.
MARS: I'd rather be
sentimental than psychotic.
THOM: You are mawkish
and weak, just like Mama.
- (VEHICLE APPROACHING)
- MARS: And you're every bit
as selfish as she was.
THOM: Shit.
(VEHICLE DOORS CLOSE)
Mars, let's just go.
(BANGING ON DOOR)
(MARS BREATHING HEAVILY)
(DOOR CRASHES OPEN)
(SOLEMN CHORAL MUSIC PLAYING)
(IMPERCEPTIBLE)
(IMPERCEPTIBLE)
(SOLEMN CHORAL
MUSIC CONTINUES)
(EXPLOSION)
(CLAMOURING)
(SOLEMN CHORAL
MUSIC CONTINUES)
(SOLEMN CHORAL
MUSIC CONTINUES)
(MUSIC ENDING)
(SOMBRE PIANO MUSIC PLAYING)
(CAR DOOR OPENS)
SEBASTIAN: (WHISPERING)
For fuck's sake.
Pigs.
Stop. Put the camera down.
Mars, put it down.
If they ask us, we're farmers.
(GERMAN ACCENT)
Where are you going?
Home. We live just
down the coast.
Papers.
They're at home.
If you allow us through,
I can get them for you.
You will have to turn back.
MARS: Please, we're
looking for my sister.
(SOLDIER SPEAKING GERMAN)
Excuse me?
You can't proceed.
- (GUN COCKS)
- I said, turn back.
(WHISPERS) For
fuck's sake. Pigs.
NEWSREADER: (ON RADIO)
British Fascist leader,
Sir Oswald Mosley,
said it was folly
to have gone to
war with Germany.
MARS: Dissidents
of the new regime
had set up a refuge
in an old warehouse.
We were happy just to be safe.
ENOCH: Oh, this is the
tip of the iceberg.
The unseen face of Fascism.
If you can get these
pictures out to America,
it might help counter
all the propaganda.
Hey! Stop that!
- (BABY CRYING)
- WOMAN: What's wrong?
You know, like the
colour of the sky
- before it goes to night time.
- ENOCH: Nice.
- It's that kind of thing.
- ENOCH: Nice.
MARS: Indigo. ENOCH: Yeah.
Oy! (CHUCKLES)
(MARS LAUGHS)
Oy!
MARS: You need
something to do.
Little rascal.
So, Leo, here is how we put
the bits of film together
to make the images
become a story.
So, erm, hold it still.
Still.
And allow the camera
to become your eye.
Try to figure out where
you should be looking next.
Yeah, so maybe down to my hands
if I'm playing
with these things.
Onto my hands, like this.
Or maybe over to there
where I'm talking to you
and then back to my face again.
That's it.
(CHUCKLES) And a
bit more upright.
I think you're a natural.
(CAMERA RUSTLING)
(CHILD COUGHING)
(BABY CRYING)
NEWSREADER: (ON RADIO)
Mosley to lead Britain
to a new prosperity and
friendship with Germany.
MOSLEY: (ON RADIO) I
claim that in the ranks
of our Blackshirt legions,
march the mighty ghosts
of England's past.
NEWSREADER: (ON RADIO) Today,
our new German liberators
freed more political prisoners
detained under the old regime.
- There's Leo.
- Amongst those released
were scientist Thomasina
Hanbury, falsely accused...
(RADIO CRACKLING)
by the previous government.
Miss Hanbury's research
is of great interest
to the Third Reich.
(CAMERA RUSTLES)
(WHIRRING)
(TRIUMPHANT MUSIC
PLAYING ON SCREEN)
MARS: Try to keep
the camera still.
This evening, we are joined
by a very special guest,
Miss Thomasina Hanbury,
a self-educated orphan
who was condemned to death
by the old regime
three months ago,
only to be dramatically rescued
by our liberators mere
hours before her execution.
Since then, she has transformed
the nation's fortunes
in the field of
strategic forecasting.
Of particular note is her
mysterious invention, LOLA.
Miss Hanbury, may I ask,
how does your machine work?
It consists of a system
of electrical processors
which filter and amplify
even the faintest
electromagnetic wave
into a coherent signal.
And when combined
with an understanding
of quantum mechanics,
LOLA allows us
to observe broadcasts
from the future.
How impressive.
I hear the machine has baffled
the greatest engineering minds
of both Britain and Germany.
The men they sent
to examine LOLA
were limited by their
lack of imagination
as much as their formal
scientific training.
Thankfully, I prefer
to work alone.
My home laboratory
is everything I need.
What inspired you to
build this machine?
My father was an
inventor, an idealist.
And he believed
humankind was being
transformed for the better
by technological advances.
The work I do today
strives to this ideal.
To what end?
To create the perfect society.
A society in which
we all prosper.
No government blunders that
send people into poverty.
No more murders on the streets.
No conflicts and no war.
You've personally experienced
your fair share of adversity.
After the tragic
death of your parents,
you were left alone to
raise your sister, Martha,
while still very much
a child yourself.
That must have been difficult.
We managed.
Your current standing must
be all the more gratifying
considering the disgraceful way
Churchill's government
treated you and your sister,
who was sadly executed
before the liberators
could reach her.
There was nothing gratifying
about my sister's death.
When I received
the news, it was...
a horrible blow.
She deserved better.
It is a shame that LOLA
can't fix the past.
If Martha were alive today,
what would you say to her?
I would tell her
to live her life...
and to leave me behind.
(BABY CRYING)
We need to get her out of there.
It's too dangerous.
She'll get killed.
Well, she never goes a
day without swimming,
- so we can go and get her.
- Martha.
Look at me. We're safe here.
Let go of me.
I'm going to get her. I'm
going to find her now.
SEBASTIAN: How are
you gonna get there?
MARS: Are you gonna
come with me or not?
Fine, just let me go...
SEBASTIAN: They're
looking for you...
MARS: Just let me go
on my own. I'm fine.
SEBASTIAN: You're not safe.
MARS: I don't need you.
(INDISTINCT CHATTER)
SEBASTIAN: Mars,
get out of here.
MARS: Wait.
SEBASTIAN: Look. MARS:
What are you doing here?
SEBASTIAN: Get out of
there. SOLDIER: Intruder!
- (GUN FIRES)
- SEBASTIAN: Mars! Go on, go!
- (MARS WHIMPERS)
- (SOLDIER SHOUTS)
- (MARS PANTING)
- (GUN FIRES)
- (SEBASTIAN GROANS)
- MARS: Sebastian!
(MARS WHIMPERS)
(GENTLE GUITAR MUSIC PLAYING)
MARS: (SINGING) I drew a
line In the sands of time
Dared you to step over it
And you did
Saw your visage In
the looking glass
Such a pretty face
But such a bitter taste
Do you remember tomorrow?
The roads that we followed
To a life that might
Never come to be
The future is a distant memory
To me now
SEBASTIAN: Let me guess.
Bob Dylan?
No. That was me.
(BABY CRYING)
(FAINT CHATTERING)
MARS: My world became
empty and cold.
You, on the other hand,
were soaring to new heights.
(THE SOUND OF MARCHING FEEBY REGINALD WATSON PLAYING)
The sound of marching feet
Can you hear it?
The sound of marching feet
In the street below
Together we are strong
Crush the weaklings
So sing our fascist song
In the street below
Send to all the world a message.
England lives and marches on!
(SONG CONTINUES)
Learn to march in time
And fall into line
The sound of marching feet
Can you feel it?
The sound of marching feet
See the torches glow
-Put this record
on -(CLAMOURING)
Learn all of the lyrics
If your friends Don't sing along
Call the police
(SIREN WAILING)
The sound of marching feet
Left, right, left, left,
left Left, right, left
Left, left, left, right, left
Left, left
The sound of marching feet
Left, left, left, right, left
Left, left, left, right, left
-The sound of marching feet
-The sound of marching feet
-The sound of marching feet
-The sound of marching feet
-The sound of marching feet
-The sound of marching feet
Do not fraternise
With radicals and perverts
Learn to march in time
And fall into line
(PENSIVE MUSIC PLAYING)
(DEEP BREATHING)
MARS: There was only one
thing left for me to do.
(TRIUMPHANT MUSIC PLAYING)
Today, the Prime Minister
announced that Adolf Hitler
will be making his first
state visit to England.
The Fhrer will be dropping
in on a very special house
on the Sussex Coast,
where government scientist
Thomasina Hanbury has been
conducting pioneering work.
Because of this
remarkable woman,
rescued and championed
by the Fhrer,
we say to our enemies,
"Watch out, we know
what you're going to do
"before you even think of it."
And now, it is my
pleasure to introduce you
to Master Reginald Watson,
the voice of the future.
(SINGING) Land of Hope
Thy hope is crowned
God make thee mightier yet
(CAMERA WHIRRING)
On sovereign brows
Beloved
Once more thy crown is set
(CAMERA WHIRRING)
(WHISPERS) Leo, stop filming.
God, who made thee mighty
(CROWD CHEERING)
Make thee mightier yet
God, who made thee mighty
Make thee mightier yet
(PATRIOTIC MUSIC PLAYING)
(NEWSREADER SPEAKING GERMAN)
(NEWSREADER CONTINUES
SPEAKING GERMAN)
(ELECTRICITY BUZZING)
(FEEDBACK ECHOES)
NEWSREADER: (ON
LOLA) At the rally,
President Lindbergh celebrated
how National Socialism
had brought the American
people together and...
(BUZZING)
NEWSREADER 2:
developed by British
and German scientists,
this is the ultimate weapon
against the Bolshevik.
- (EXPLOSION)
- (CLAMOURING)
NEWSREADER 3: Martha Hanbury
had entered the house
with the intention of
assassinating the Fhrer
but, fortuitously, her
bomb went off prematurely
in an adjoining room,
and the deranged
woman was captured.
The shocked Fhrer
- escaped unscathed...
- THOM: Mars.
And issued an order for
the female terrorist
to be put to death immediately.
- (BUZZING)
- (DISTANT CLAMOURING)
(CRYING)
(MEET ME AT THE GALLOWS BY
REGINALD WATSON PLAYING)
REGINALD: (SINGING) There is
Nothing so gladdens the heart
Than to watch a traitor march
To the gallows
-To the gallows
-(BREATHING HEAVILY)
MAN: Hold!
Like a gardener pulling weeds
The path of treason only leads
To the gallows
(SONG STOPS)
MARS: I'm so glad I
bought you that car.
(SONG RESUMES) To the gallows
- (ENGINE RUMBLES)
- (GUNS FIRING)
(ENGINE REVVING)
(GRUNTS)
(MEET ME AT THE GALLOWS
CONTINUES PLAYING)
(GROANS)
(GUNS FIRING)
(SONG STOPS)
(MELANCHOLY MUSIC PLAYING)
MARS: I hid for days.
(CAMERA RUSTLING)
When the Nazis
left, I returned...
and found this.
THOM: (ON PHONOGRAPH)
April 12th, '42.
Preparations for LOLA's
demonstration are complete.
It's hard to believe I
am saying these words.
Adolf Hitler will
be here tomorrow.
(SIGHS) How's it come to this?
Fascism has truly won.
I was a fool to believe
I could work with these people.
What would Papa
think? Or Mars?
I'm almost glad
they're not alive
to witness this spectacle.
I don't know when it
started to go wrong,
but I fear it was long ago.
LOLA was never meant to be
an instrument of violence.
Mars was right.
The magic of LOLA was the beauty
of the world she opened for us,
those sounds and images
from another time.
Her power lay in what
we could learn from her.
Mars understood that.
But perhaps because
she was a dreamer,
she was the one with
the real imagination.
I can see that now.
Maybe if she were here,
we could find a way to
undo all of this together.
I miss her.
MARS: I miss you too, Thom.
But maybe there is a way
we can undo this together.
I've made this film for you.
It's the last broadcast of
the Angel of Portobello.
It's a shot in the dark.
And I'm sorry, Thom,
because if this film
doesn't find its way to you,
then you will have died
pointlessly and stupidly,
and I will truly
have lost everything.
We will all have lost
more than is bearable.
This film is for us, Thom.
And if we're lucky,
you'll be watching it long
before this horror unfolds.
Then perhaps you can turn
these words and images
into shadows of something
that could have happened.
Even though I'll
have to say goodbye
to the man I'll never meet.
Darling Thom...
can you save us after all?
(MELANCHOLY MUSIC CONTINUES)
(WHEN, WHEN, WHEN PLAYING)
When, when, when
Will we be together again?
I want to spend
My life with you
I really miss you, honey
When, when, when
Will your arms enfold me?
And hold me like Your
life on it depends
When, when
Will I see you again?
I really miss you
(SOMBRE PIANO MUSIC PLAYING)
- (INDISTINCT NEWS BROADCASTS)
(STATIC BUZZING)
(MUSIC PLAYS ON BROADCAST)
(CRACKLING AND WHIRRING)
(STATIC HISSING)
(BROADCASTS FADE)
Thom.
Papa used to say
not to be blinded
by your own brilliance...
because you are...
more brilliant
than even you know,
and also more dangerous.
I want to show you how history
can be made and unmade.
How you created
something miraculous.
(PENSIVE MUSIC PLAYING)
So, I've gathered
together our story
from whatever scraps of
footage I could find,
in the hope that somehow,
some time, this film
will find you...
and stop you.
I'm going to show you
how to see your future.
(UNSETTLING MUSIC PLAYING)
Radio waves never die.
If we can receive
broadcasts from the past,
surely we can receive
them from the future?
MARS: I'll never
forget that day
we switched her on
for the first time.
(ELECTRICITY BUZZING)
1st October, 1938.
(CRACKLING)
We named her in honour of Mama.
LOLA.
(WHIRRING)
(RUSTLING)
(BUZZES)
(SINGING) Ground
control to Major Tom
It works.
Ground control to Major Tom
We've seen the future.
(CRACKLES)
Take your protein pills
And put your helmet on
This is Ground
Control To Major Tom
MARS: LOLA opened a
magical new world.
1938 went into 1939,
but those dates
meant nothing to us.
We were living in another time.
And we finally had a
reliable source of income.
Remember that car I bought you?
Way too small for those legs.
Ground Control to Major Tom
Your circuit's dead
There's something wrong
Can you hear me, Major Tom?
Can you hear me, Major Tom?
Can you hear me, Major Tom?
Can you hear...
MARS: But LOLA didn't just
show us the world's wonders,
she also showed us its horrors.
The Nazis had torn
through Europe,
Paris had fallen, Dunkirk
had been evacuated,
and now Hitler had set
his sights on Britain.
The Blitz would claim
thousands of lives
over the coming months.
LOLA could no
longer be just ours.
The world needed her.
(STATIC BUZZING)
NEWSREADER: (ON LOLA) They
burst out of the clouds
at less than 2,000 feet
and dropped their deadly cargo
on the Isle of Dogs before...
- (BUTTON CLICKS)
- (STATIC HISSING)
This is an urgent warning,
1:35 a.m. Hackney
and 1:45 Islington.
Due to thick cloud,
there will be no warning
from the authorities for
any of these attacks.
Please make yourselves safe.
(SIGHS)
3rd May, 1941,
21st furrow for the
Angel of Portobello.
(CLAPS)
(CHEERFUL MUSIC PLAYING)
MAN: It has become a
nightly occurrence.
After sundown, German
bombers cross the Channel
with their deadly cargo.
No one knows where they
will target or when.
(EXPLOSION)
No one, that is, but
their German commanders
and one mystery
woman in England,
nicknamed the
Angel of Portobello
by those residents
of West London
whose lives have been
among the first saved
by her warnings.
(PLAYING GENTLE MUSIC)
(RADIO FEEDBACK)
THOM: (ON SPEAKER)
Warning, 1:35 a.m. Hackney
and 1:45 Islington, repeat,
1:35 a.m. Hackney
and 1:45 Islington.
Due to thick cloud,
there will be no warning
from the authorities for
any of these attacks.
Please make yourselves safe.
REPORTER: While the warnings
didn't stop the bombings,
they did once again
save dozens of lives.
Last night, at
about half past 12,
we heard the Angel
of Portobello.
We were in a dugout and,
er, thanks to the...
thanks to the Angel
of Portobello,
we are quite safe.
Thanks to the Angel
of Portobello,
my family is all right, but
our house got clobbered.
(CAMERA RUSTLING)
(LOLA WHIRRING)
(WHEN, WHEN, WHEN
PLAYING ON LOLA)
MARS: Oh, God. No,
Thom, not this one.
She has nothing to say
about life or freedom.
Well, we can't get it anyway.
But you are wrong, Mars,
the sentiment is
tediously accurate.
People would rather
buy into fatalism
- than own their own destiny.
- MARS: Hmm.
Don't people just want to know
that everything is
going to be all right?
(CHUCKLES) Come
dance with me, Mars.
MARS: I'm not dancing to this.
(SONG CONTINUES) I
really miss you, honey
When, when...
MARS: Here.
- (ELECTRICITY BUZZING)
- (MARS GIGGLES)
MAN: (ON LOLA) Preparation
of food supplements.
(BUZZING)
NEWSREADER: Perplexed
officials say
that the source of the Angel's
signal remains a mystery,
and the army has been
unable to identify
the mysterious lady broadcaster.
- Normally, we locate...
- MARS: Oh!
A pirate radio within 15
minutes of broadcasting.
You get a signal search
when pointing in the
direction of the source.
Whereas here, the signal is
coming from all around us.
It's like we're sitting
on top of the antenna.
It's extraordinary.
We'd like the people behind this
to stop their game
now and come forward.
We are at war.
NEWSREADER: Our intrepid
officers continue their search
for the Angel of Portobello,
documenting as they go.
THOM: Well, they're never
gonna catch us, anyway.
MARS: No, of course not.
You're much too clever.
(CHUCKLES)
SEBASTIAN: Log of Lieutenant
Sebastian Holloway,
1st June, '41.
I finally traced the signal
source to Shoreham Gasworks.
The Angel of Portobello
is using the gasometer
as a natural transmitter.
The metal
superstructure magnifies
her weak radio signal and
sends it through the mains
into London's pipe networks
which acts as her very
own personal antenna.
It explains why her broadcasts
are omnidirectional in London.
They were coming from
the entire gas grid,
very clever.
2:15, spot what I assume to
be the Angel of Portobello.
Young woman, curly
blonde hair, on bicycle.
2:25, she climbs
the main gasometer.
She spends about 15
minutes making adjustments
to what turns out to be a
battery-operated transmitter
and the signal source.
2:45, she spots me
and Lance Corporal Clark,
who's filming. She flees.
Cycles west toward the coast.
Very few houses on
this stretch of land.
Terrible roads.
She nearly escapes,
but even she finds the
conditions difficult,
and we manage to cut her off.
She denies
everything, of course.
Says she uses the gasometer
for bird watching.
Is extremely rude.
Has no papers.
But does possess radio
transmitting equipment,
plus a map of all the
gasometers in England.
When I ask her to
identify herself,
she makes up some
obviously bogus names.
Eartha Kitt, Maria von
Trapp, Lady Stardust.
Actual name, Martha Hanbury.
After some gentle persuasion,
she finally acquiesces
and agrees to escort
us to her house.
Strange old place,
quite run-down.
Her sister, Thomasina Hanbury,
emerges and is even ruder.
Threatens to do
damage to my privates,
but relents when I suggest
returning with a search warrant.
3:15 p.m., I get my first
look at their machine
which they call LOLA.
It's going to change history.
(CAMERA RUSTLING)
THOM: Come on, then.
You've got 10 minutes,
in and out.
This is... magnificent.
It's beautiful.
(FEEDBACK ECHOES)
How do you...
How does it work?
Why aren't you doing more
to stop people from dying?
Better you tell us how
you predict the future.
We know you do.
Mars, what in God's
earth did you say to him?
That you can catch radio
and television broadcasts
from the future.
I had to tell him. He said we
could be hanged as spies...
- Don't touch it!
- (FEEDBACK ECHOES)
How did you find us?
I was just lucky.
I couldn't understand how
the signal was so dispersed.
But I noticed it was stronger
in houses with piped gas.
Using the copper
piped gas network
as an antenna, that's genius.
I want to help.
(CAMERA WHIRRING)
MARS: You weren't
so easily convinced.
(GENTLE MUSIC PLAYING)
All right, darling?
Do you have to film
us in the bath?
MARS: Wash your face.
- (GROANS)
- You look a mess.
I hate anyone coming here.
He's pushy and cocky
and there are negative
consequences to those defects.
MARS: Well, he could
have had us arrested.
I don't think he wants
to lord it over us.
- Give me the camera.
- MARS: Mm.
(SOFTLY) Give me the camera.
Here's my prognosis.
You, in all probability,
are going to make him
fall in love with you
and then you'll leave with him
- and create jolly offspring.
- (CHUCKLES)
But who's to say I
would love him back?
No, if he falls under my spell,
then we can make him do
exactly what we want.
(GASPS) We can make him
muck out Scarborough.
THOM: True. Don't
be too charming,
I don't think you
know when to stop.
He might like you more.
THOM: Oh, my
clitoris and I do not
- need extra company.
- (CHUCKLES)
(CAMERA RUSTLES)
Well, good morning.
This is Major Cobcroft.
He has authorised
my presence here.
Where do you want us?
I have realised you were
at Cheltenham last year.
Twenty-three wins in a row.
(GRUNTS, EXHALES)
(HORSE SNORTING)
Hello.
Is someone gonna say hello?
MARS: Hello.
Holloway, is this a joke?
Er, Major Cobcroft has
kindly provided you
with some special provisions.
There's tea and
coffee, ham and cheese,
- fancy canned content.
- (HORSE SNORTS)
Friends in high places.
You are most kind.
But my sister will tell
you, for me eating is merely
a distraction, and if you
imagine we would cook for you,
we are not your women.
I think we need to re-establish
who's in charge here.
(LOLA WHIRRING)
MAN 1: (ON LOLA) As the
troops went into Smithfield,
- the porter...
- SEBASTIAN: They've just been
working off material like this.
Future news bulletins.
Can you imagine what
they could achieve
using intel from military radio?
And if they coordinated
the information with us.
No.
(LOLA CRACKLING, BUZZING)
MAN 2: (ON LOLA) What
happens when the human body
is rocketed into space?
A foretaste of the fantastic
ordeal which awaits
the first man to the Moon.
It reminds me of
going home on a bus.
- (CHANNEL SWITCHES)
- COBCROFT: Christ.
(INDISTINCT CHATTER
FROM BROADCASTS)
(ROCK 'N' ROLL MUSIC
PLAYING ON LOLA)
Who on earth are those
diabolical creatures?
Show's over.
COBCROFT: They're con artists.
They're projecting B
movies onto that screen.
SEBASTIAN: How do you
explain their predictions?
COBCROFT: They got lucky.
SEBASTIAN: Just
give me one go, sir.
Let them tune into military
radio under my supervision.
COBCROFT: This is
highly irregular.
SEBASTIAN: I bet a
magnum of champagne
we can make a correct
prediction with that machine.
COBCROFT: All right.
But we keep this between us.
It backfires, I know
nothing, you understand?
SEBASTIAN: Yes, of course.
Why are you filming me?
MARS: You, I'm
keeping an eye on.
God, you don't miss
anything, do you?
Is that thing
recording sound too?
How does it do
that? It's titchy.
MARS: Everything goes onto
the same piece of film.
I use the space between
the sprocket holes
for the soundwave.
You invented this.
MARS: Thom made it for me.
She should patent it.
MARS: Oh, no, no, no, no!
No, that's my dark room.
Out. Shut the door.
- Shut the door.
- Where's your refrigerator?
MARS: We have a pantry.
Erm... It's pretty draughty,
so it's chilly in there.
Well, that's good.
(CHUCKLES) And very in
keeping with the war effort.
MARS: So, Sebastian, are
you handy in the kitchen?
(MID-TEMPO ELECTRONIC
MUSIC PLAYING)
THOM: Here are the
rules of the game.
Each morning, I use LOLA to
tune into tomorrow's report
from the Royal
Signaller's Station.
That way, we will have
advanced knowledge
of all enemy attacks.
Sebastian's job
is to cross-check
the sign-off codes, so we know
the radio report is authentic.
He sends the
intelligence to Cobcroft,
who puts the
information into action.
Mars continues to document
this for prosperity.
And Sebastian needs to stock
us up with better food,
more wine and a pile
more cigarettes.
MARS: Operation Chrono,
11th August, 1941.
8:00 a.m. at 323 Hertz.
MARS: It was
vital that we find
the right piece of intel.
Anything too big would risk
- giving the game away.
- (INDISTINCT BROADCAST)
But something too small
might not be enough
to impress Cobcroft.
We listened to
dozens of reports.
Problems impossible to fix.
We weren't finding
what we needed.
- (BROADCAST STOPS)
- And let's not forget
that you hated
working in a team.
It looked as though our
trial was a failure.
And then...
MAN: (ON LOLA) Morning
report, August 12th.
Richmond RAF base destroyed.
Enemy attacked from
south-easterly bearing.
Cairo, Alpha, Foxtrot,
9, Bravo. Over.
THOM: Okay, that's the one.
Sebastian, check the code.
That's the correct
sign-off code, sir.
COBCROFT: (ON
SPEAKER) Very well.
I'll warn Richmond
anti-air defence.
We could end the war
with this machine.
Ever thought of that?
THOM: (CHUCKLES) You are
a prick. Of course I have.
See how you get on
with that intel.
SEBASTIAN: Sorry.
The enemy can't think we
know everything it's doing.
Papa said to never underestimate
the cunning of the desperate.
MARS: He actually said
to never underestimate
the violence of
the power hungry.
And also, actually, we didn't
have military intelligence.
Well, also, actually
Papa was anti-war
and not only against
taking lives but...
SEBASTIAN: So am I.
(SCOFFS SOFTLY)
For all I know,
you could be a spy
with access to British
military secrets.
Now, Mars says I
should trust you,
so don't fuck it
up by acting cocky.
I'm hungry.
He's invading my creative space.
MARS: I wish he'd invade mine.
You are such a tarting flirt.
MARS: (CHUCKLING) A flirting
tart, don't you mean?
THOM: Er... Oh.
(MARS LAUGHING)
Oh.
MARS: Well, I think
he's the best thing
that's happened to us
since we won enough money
to feed ourselves.
THOM: Well, I will
make it happen
and he will sit there and watch,
and if he gloats,
I will punch him.
(SILENT NIGHT, HOLY
NIGHT PLAYING ON PIANO)
MARS: All that was left
for us to do was wait
until the morning to see
if our plan had worked.
That night, we waited...
- (INDISTINCT BROADCAST)
- and waited...
and waited.
Until...
MAN: (ON SPEAKER) Last
night, the military scored
a major victory against the
Luftwaffe by shooting down
an entire German bomber squadron
over a Richmond RAF base.
This is a great victory for...
(BOTH SNIGGERING)
Oh, God. God, I'm
good. (GRUNTS)
(LAUGHING)
(THOM AND MARS SQUEAL, LAUGH)
MARS: Success.
Our intel had
painted a bull's-eye
over every German
bomber that night.
- (MEN SHOUTING)
- (BOMBS EXPLODING)
The anti-aircraft gunners
took care of the rest.
Our plan had worked.
Wait, wait, wait.
Wait, hold them up.
Hold them up, let me see them.
(GASPS) Oh, you
bake. How cool.
Yeah, I'm afraid the
oven wasn't very hot.
MARS: No, I mean
cool as in groovy.
Groovy? (CHUCKLES)
Is that an adjective?
- (MARS CHUCKLES)
- (TELEPHONE RINGS)
Major.
COBCROFT: Bloody hell,
Holloway. Outstanding.
We should make Miss
Hanbury an Honorary Major.
Open your dispatch bag, the
ladies earned it, not you.
Thank you, sir.
- MARS: Major Thom.
- Very funny.
- (CHUCKLES)
- SEBASTIAN: Oh, very nice.
Oh! Thank you. I think
he said for the ladies.
MARS: Unless you'd like
to join us for a drink.
(UPBEAT ELECTRONIC
MUSIC PLAYING)
MARS: You were brilliant.
You changed the
course of the war.
Cities that would have
been bombed were saved.
People who wouldn't
have been alive
were walking the streets.
(IMPERCEPTIBLE)
(UPBEAT ELECTRONIC
MUSIC CONTINUES)
CHURCHILL: We may
allow ourselves
a brief period of rejoicing.
Advance, Britannia.
Long live the cause of freedom.
(UPBEAT ELECTRONIC
MUSIC CONTINUES)
(PIANO PLAYING ALONG
TO UPBEAT MUSIC)
MARS: Sebastian
was in awe of LOLA
and, it seemed, a
little in love with me.
(MUSIC STOPS)
Stop filming me, I'm peeing!
SEBASTIAN: Girls
don't pee standing up.
No, Mama always peed like this.
She said it's much
healthier to get the urine
as far away from one's
vagina as possible.
- SEBASTIAN: How interesting.
- Hmm.
SEBASTIAN: My mother
made me pee sitting down
to avoid the seat
up/down conundrum.
I think it's really because
she wanted another girl.
MARS: (CHUCKLES) Well,
gender divide is an
artificial construct.
You know, that
was a Papa saying.
(SOFT PIANO MUSIC PLAYING)
(WHISPERING) I
said, stop filming!
(MARS GRUNTS)
(CHUCKLES)
SEBASTIAN: Why do
you film everything?
Well, because we're alone.
SEBASTIAN: And
why are you alone?
MARS: Mm...
Oh, Papa was conscripted.
He lasted two weeks.
- (OBJECT CLATTERS)
- (BOTH CHUCKLE)
He lasted two weeks
at the front and...
"Fighting for peace is like
screwing for virginity."
Or that's what he would have
said if he had lived longer.
SEBASTIAN: Gosh. Right.
- So who did...
- Hmm?
- Oh, I can't remember.
- (BOTH CHUCKLE)
Some dude from the 1960s.
SEBASTIAN: Oh, it's
quite disconcerting
that for you two, history goes
forwards as well as backwards.
- (CHUCKLES)
- Mm.
Now, Mama said Papa was killed
at the altar of war worship.
She fired all the help,
she stopped sending us to school
and she... (SIGHS)
went to her room and
listened to records.
And then she started
going for very long walks.
And then one day, they found her
stuck between two rocks,
halfway down a crag
that plummets into
the nearby cove.
SEBASTIAN: Saving people
for the ones we lost.
(SOFT PIANO MUSIC CONTINUES)
(MUSIC STOPS)
(JAZZ MUSIC PLAYING FAINTLY)
MARS: I was enjoying
my new-found company
while you were busy
defending the country.
Not that you were getting
the credit, of course.
(MILITARY MARCH MUSIC PLAYING)
(JOYFUL MUSIC PLAYING)
(ENGINE WHINING)
(IMPERCEPTIBLE)
It's an honour to have been
made a Knight Commander
of the Order of the Bath.
I am proud of the work I've done
in turning the tide of
war against Adolf Hitler.
But this evening isn't
all about my achievements,
it's about you,
my fellow officers of
the Intelligence Corps,
who've helped me to put
an end to the Blitz.
This is only just the beginning.
By God, we are good.
(MELLOW JAZZ MUSIC PLAYING)
(IMPERCEPTIBLE)
(MUSIC CONCLUDES)
(APPLAUSE)
(MIC FEEDBACK)
This is one of our favourites,
you won't be hearing
it again for some time.
(DISCORDANT NOTES
PLAYING ON PIANO)
(PLAYING RAPID
ASCENDING NOTES)
Thom, that's, erm...
(PLAYING YOU REALLY
GOT ME BY THE KINKS)
(SINGING) Girl You
really got me goin'
You got me now I don't
know What I'm doin' now
- (RHYTHMIC CLAPPING)
- Yeah, you really got me now
You got me So I
can't sleep at night
Yeah, you really got me now
You got me so I don't
know What I'm doin' now
Oh, yeah You really got me now
You got me So I
can't sleep at night
You really got me
You really got me
You really got me
(JAZZ BAND JOINS IN)
(CROWD CHEERING)
See, don't ever set me free
I always wanna be by your side
Girl, you really got me now
You've got me So I
can't sleep at night
Yeah, you really got me now
You've got me so I don't
know What I'm doin' now
Oh, yeah You really got me now
You got me So I
can't sleep at night
You really got me
You really got me
You really got me
Yeah! Whoo! Yeah!
(JAZZ BAND CONTINUES
PLAYING YOU REALLY GOT ME)
(JAZZ RENDITION OF YOU
REALLY GOT ME CONTINUES)
(CLAPS ALONG TO MUSIC)
(SONG ENDING)
(CROWD CHEERING
AND APPLAUDING)
(CAMERA RUSTLING)
No!
My camera.
So, LOLA is so much
more than a war fighter.
This is the true magic.
Erm...
Movies, documentaries.
Newsreels.
Play-outs from LOLA.
- SEBASTIAN: Oh, my God.
- (CHUCKLES)
(SEBASTIAN CHUCKLES)
Is this our future?
MARS: Well, this is the
future I'm interested in.
Mama always said that art was
the weathervane of the soul.
Now, see that wall over here?
There, or over
there. (CHUCKLES)
That wall is our past.
She captured every waking moment
with such attention to detail.
SEBASTIAN: Oh, is that you?
- MARS: (SQUEALS) Maybe, yeah.
- (SEBASTIAN CHUCKLES)
SEBASTIAN: No, I want to look.
No, our children are
going to love this.
At last, a musical rebellion
against the stuffed
shirts that run the world.
- (CHUCKLES)
- SEBASTIAN: Our children?
(MARS CHUCKLES)
And who is this chap?
MARS: (CHUCKLES) Bob Dylan.
He's one of my
all-time favourites.
He speaks of freedom
and heartbreak,
of a nation lost,
and of the joy and pain
of the authentic soul.
SEBASTIAN: Like you.
Come here.
(SEBASTIAN CHUCKLES)
(STATIC CRACKLING)
MARS: Come on.
SEBASTIAN: What?
MARS: Not a word to Thom.
- Promise?
- Promise.
MARS: Right, go over there
to that panel back there,
over there to the left.
See the switches
in the middle row?
- Yeah.
- MARS: Third one in. Flick it.
- (WHIRRING)
- Yes!
Now over to the other side.
Other side, quickly.
And the three silver ones.
- Flick them up.
- Yeah.
MARS: One, two, three. Yes.
We're going to
need a power surge
where we're going.
Oh, that's far out.
Far out of where?
MARS: Now, tune it
to 133 kilohertz.
(BUZZING)
9:03 p.m.,
8th March,
Christ, this thing can see
30 years into the future.
MARS: Not just major
broadcasts, royal weddings,
signals beamed around the world.
The diamonds, though,
are the hit songs.
SINGER: (SINGING) The
sound of marching feet
In the street below
(SEBASTIAN CHUCKLES)
MARS: No, you've
the wrong time.
You... You said
9:03, 8th March...
MARS: 1973.
Let me see.
(SONG CONTINUES) Polish
up your jackboots
Learn to march in time
And fall into line
The sound of marching feet
(STATIC BUZZES)
MAN: (ON LOLA) And
cracking the chart barrier
at number one for the
10th week running,
Reginald Watson's The
Sound of Marching Feet.
It looks like Watson will
be making musical history
as his new hit, Meet
Me at the Gallows,
has just crashed number two.
(MEET ME AT THE GALLOWS BY
REGINALD WATSON PLAYING)
(BREATHES HEAVILY)
I don't understand.
Thom! Thom!
What are you doing?
MARS: He's not there.
SEBASTIAN: Who?
David Bowie.
SEBASTIAN: Who's David Bowie?
MARS: He's gone. Bowie's gone.
Thirty years is
a long time away,
the adjustment of variables
could lead to a new
set of consequences.
MARS: But we've tuned into
him hundreds of times,
why is it suddenly changed?
Mars,
thanks to us, a lot of people
are alive who would be dead.
It also means we
might have erased him.
MARS: No, you can't
kill David Bowie.
Maybe he lives but will
have a different childhood
and become a dentist.
MARS: That is a very severe
negative consequence.
THOM: Mars, negativity is
not emotionally quantifiable.
There will be someone else
as extraordinary as Bowie.
No, there's Reginald
fucking Watson!
THOM: We are trying
to end the war.
You knew this could happen?
(MEET ME AT THE GALLOWS
CONTINUES PLAYING)
I'm not sure it's
moral to erase lives.
What happens to people
whose worlds we erased?
Or is it moral to save lives?
I mean, hypothetically you
can make love with someone
and create life, by
choosing not to do that,
are you erasing potential life?
Fix this Watson car
crash and get Bowie back!
Sometimes you have
to make sacrifices
for the greater good.
(WHIRRING)
MARS: We'd erased
all my heroes.
Bob Dylan. Nina Simone.
David Bowie. Stanley Kubrick.
Now, they were but
memories on my Moviola.
LOLA was profoundly changing
the course of the war.
But we had no way of predicting
how we were meddling
with the future.
What else had we sacrificed?
(FEEDBACK CRACKLES)
COBCROFT: (ON SPEAKER)
Morning, Miss Hanbury.
We've updated the
signature codes.
They'll be in
Holloway's dispatch bag.
THOM: (ON SPEAKER) Why
haven't you managed to hit
any of the U-boat fleet?
I've given you
first-class intel.
COBCROFT: They're
bloody elusive.
Even when we know which
ship they're going to sink,
locating the U-boat's
attack point is impossible.
Trying to spot a sub 50
feet below the Atlantic
is like trying to find
a hymen in a whorehouse.
THOM: So, you need to wait for
them to rise to the surface.
COBCROFT: By which stage,
the subs are in attack mode.
Do that and you risk our ships.
THOM: Do nothing and
the sub will live
to attack another day.
We have to lull them in.
Let them surface and fire,
that way your fighter planes
are sure to spot them.
COBCROFT: Christ.
You're suggesting we
sacrifice a civilian ship.
THOM: A pawn for a queen.
(FEEDBACK CRACKLES)
(GENTLE GUITAR MUSIC PLAYING)
SEBASTIAN: We should go back.
Mm... No. She can do the
next broadcast alone.
You and I are otherwise engaged.
(MARS CHUCKLES)
MAN: (ON RADIO) The war
office has just announced
that the RAF has
destroyed the entire
- German U-boat fleet...
- MARS: Oh, my God.
- In the Atlantic Ocean.
- MARS: Sebastian!
- This marks a huge...
- (MARS LAUGHS)
turning point in the war
against Nazi Germany.
Mr Churchill will
address the nation
on this major development.
MAN 2: This is the moment
when the RAF achieved
what many said was impossible.
The annihilation of
the Nazi U-boat fleet.
But this stunning victory
wasn't without cost.
Tragically, our
forces were unable
to save the American civilian
liner, SS Abraham Lincoln.
Two thousand souls
lost their lives.
MARS: (PANTS) Thom! Thom!
SEBASTIAN: Thom,
you're incredible.
Champagne for Boudicca!
MARS: Darling, are you okay?
SEBASTIAN: Did you enact
the battle right here?
MARS: What happened?
We received a report
of the Abraham Lincoln
being attacked by a
flotilla of U-boats
and once the attack started,
Cobcroft had the subs
bombed from the air.
SEBASTIAN: Hang on.
You allowed the attack to start?
Thom, they sunk the
Abraham Lincoln.
We needed bait to get
the U-boats to rise.
SEBASTIAN: How many
people were on that liner?
Well, army man, it's
the semiotics of combat.
Those U-boats wiped out
40 liners last month.
Now, we're going to
destroy the Kriegsmarine
and then we'll go
after their air force.
SEBASTIAN: Let's
get the shutters.
(LOLA WHIRS)
(RADIO FEEDBACK)
MAN 1: (ON LOLA) Over
2,000 people died...
- THOM: How did you do that?
- On the American liner.
MAN 1: President Roosevelt
is demanding to know
why Britain didn't deploy
its celebrated
early warning system
- to protect the vessel.
- THOM: Mars.
(STATIC BUZZES)
Did you show him
how to work LOLA?
(TRIUMPHANT MUSIC
PLAYING ON LOLA)
MAN 2: (ON LOLA) Churchill's
hopes of persuading
the United States of America
to abandon its neutrality
have been dashed.
Preliminary investigations
have found that the British
deliberately allowed the
Abraham Lincoln to be sunk
as a means to entice
the German U-boat fleet
- to the surface.
- (BROADCAST STOPS)
SEBASTIAN: What have you done?
What have you been doing?
You are a child.
A lustful, suggestible child.
The pair of you.
- MARS: Thom, I...
- Get out.
MARS: I shouldn't have...
- Thom, I'm...
- Get out!
(CAMERA RUSTLING)
(RADETZKY MARCH, OP. 228 BY
JOHANN STRAUSS SR. PLAYING)
NEWSREADER: Anger spilled
onto the streets today
when State Department
investigators made
the sensational discovery
that Britain had prior knowledge
of the attack on
the Abraham Lincoln.
According to the investigators,
British fighter pilots
circled overhead and looked on
as dozens of Nazi subs
attacked the defenceless liner.
Within minutes,
the doomed vessel
lay at the bottom
of the Atlantic
along with 2,000 men,
women and children.
President Roosevelt
said it was clear
that the British had
sacrificed the liner
to draw the U-boats
to the surface.
He immediately recalled
Ambassador Joseph
Kennedy from London.
I leave England at this
time with real regret.
NEWSREADER: But England
remains defiant.
Churchill strenuously
rejected the allegations
and proclaimed that Britain
shall prevail without the aid
of the United States of America.
(CAMERA RUSTLING)
(INDISTINCT BROADCAST PLAYING)
Thom, come on, open up.
(LOLA BUZZING RHYTHMICALLY)
(INDISTINCT BROADCASPLAYING ON LOLA)
(OBJECTS CLATTERING)
She's mad.
Fucking mad.
MARS: LOLA had just received
the perfect piece of intel.
It was irresistible.
MAN: (ON LOLA) This
is Southampton.
We are under sustained attack,
six German destroyers...
MARS: You had Cobcroft deploy
the entire navy to intercept
an all-out German
attack on Southampton.
This intel could wipe
out the German navy.
SEBASTIAN: This is
fucking pathetic.
It's petty. Come on, open up.
MARS: But it was
too good to be true.
THOM: I need your help.
(FEEDBACK ECHOES)
COBCROFT: (ON SPEAKER) What
the hell have you done?
The Kriegsmarine is three
miles off the coast of Dover,
our entire fleet is 100
miles away in Southampton.
The Kriegsmarine
should have arrived
at Southampton one minute ago.
Did you check the
signature code?
Can you replay it?
(REWINDING)
(EXPLOSIONS ON LOLA)
MAN 1: (ON LOLA)
This is Southampton.
We are under sustained
attack, six German destroyers
supported by a heavy
air bombardment. Over.
SEBASTIAN: There's
no signature code.
THOM: It was a bogus signal,
there was never an
attack on Southampton.
The Germans know
we've got something.
They must have sent that signal.
Oldest trick in the
book. (BREATHING HEAVILY)
COBCROFT: You've left
us completely exposed.
You fucking bitch.
You've fucked me.
(CONNECTION ENDS)
(WHIRRING)
MAN: (ON LOLA) Authorities
are not revealing
the extent of the attack,
except to say that
the coast around Dover
is now under German occupation.
- THOM: No, no, no, no, no.
- (CLICKING)
MAN 2: (ON SPEAKER) Hello?
There is going to be
an attack at Hastings.
- MAN 2: Who is this?
- Cobcroft?
MAN 2: Major Henry
Cobcroft is unavailable.
No, I need to speak to him
now. Where the fuck is he?
This is Lieutenant Holloway.
I report directly
to Major Cobcroft.
I need him on the
line immediately.
MAN 2: Major Cobcroft
is not available.
Then you... Go get him,
we're being invaded!
- MARS: Where are you going?
- To...
warn the army.
(BREATHING HEAVILY)
- MARS: Hold on.
- Look, I'll be right back.
And... try and connect
to someone on intel.
(DIALLING TELEPHONE)
to move defences away from...
(LINE DISCONNECTS)
MARS: Can we undo this?
(SLAMS RECEIVER)
(YELLS) Can I unbreak
that telephone?
(OBJECTS RATTLING)
(ROAR OF AIRCRAFT ENGINES)
MARS: What the
hell had we done?
(DRAMATIC CLASSICAL
MUSIC PLAYING)
NEWSREADER: Early
this morning,
catastrophe struck Britain.
German forces breached
coastal defences
following a major
intelligence blunder.
Commanding officers
had diverted the RAF
and the Royal Navy to
Southampton, leaving Dover
and the Southeast of
England gravely exposed.
The enemy launched a
full-scale invasion,
landing effectively unopposed.
Town after town fell to
the merciless attackers.
Christening the
invasion Black Sunday,
the Prime Minister issued
a full call to arms.
CHURCHILL: The Battle of
Britain is about to begin.
On this battle depends
the survival of
Christian civilisation.
If we fail,
then the whole world will sink
into the abyss of
a new Dark Age.
NEWSREADER: With the
Nazis advancing inland,
Head of Army Intelligence,
Major Sir Henry Cobcroft,
was summoned to explain
the disastrous breach
in Britain's defences.
Major Cobcroft said that
after an investigation,
he had discovered that
two Nazi double agents
had infiltrated his department.
COBCROFT: Lieutenant
Holloway and I
were receiving intelligence
from two agents,
Thomasina and Martha Hanbury.
They were double-crossing us.
Taking orders from Berlin.
Their maliciously false intel
resulted in this
country being invaded.
These loathsome
creatures will be found
and hanged for treason.
MARS: What do we do?
NEWSREADER: On
bidding farewell
to the King, who was
evacuated to Canada,
Mr Churchill
addressed the nation.
CHURCHILL: Despite the
traitresses in our midst...
MARS: Shit!
The Nazi forces
shall not prevail
in their attempts to
break the spirit of...
MARS: Thom, we
have to leave now.
THOM: I'm not leaving LOLA.
MARS: For God's sake, Thom,
what are you going to
do, put it in a suitcase?
THOM: I'm staying. I
can still fight this,
tell the army what the
Germans are going to do next.
MARS: Never mind the Germans,
it's Cobcroft that's
going to hang us.
THOM: Then get your boyfriend
to tell them the truth.
MARS: What?
THOM: He's left you, Mars.
He's saving his own skin.
MARS: Horseshit.
He would have saved
you from yourself
if you'd let him
check the codes.
THOM: He was too busy
bonking you in the woods.
MARS: You locked us out.
THOM: You were
compromising my work
with your sentimentality.
MARS: I'd rather be
sentimental than psychotic.
THOM: You are mawkish
and weak, just like Mama.
- (VEHICLE APPROACHING)
- MARS: And you're every bit
as selfish as she was.
THOM: Shit.
(VEHICLE DOORS CLOSE)
Mars, let's just go.
(BANGING ON DOOR)
(MARS BREATHING HEAVILY)
(DOOR CRASHES OPEN)
(SOLEMN CHORAL MUSIC PLAYING)
(IMPERCEPTIBLE)
(IMPERCEPTIBLE)
(SOLEMN CHORAL
MUSIC CONTINUES)
(EXPLOSION)
(CLAMOURING)
(SOLEMN CHORAL
MUSIC CONTINUES)
(SOLEMN CHORAL
MUSIC CONTINUES)
(MUSIC ENDING)
(SOMBRE PIANO MUSIC PLAYING)
(CAR DOOR OPENS)
SEBASTIAN: (WHISPERING)
For fuck's sake.
Pigs.
Stop. Put the camera down.
Mars, put it down.
If they ask us, we're farmers.
(GERMAN ACCENT)
Where are you going?
Home. We live just
down the coast.
Papers.
They're at home.
If you allow us through,
I can get them for you.
You will have to turn back.
MARS: Please, we're
looking for my sister.
(SOLDIER SPEAKING GERMAN)
Excuse me?
You can't proceed.
- (GUN COCKS)
- I said, turn back.
(WHISPERS) For
fuck's sake. Pigs.
NEWSREADER: (ON RADIO)
British Fascist leader,
Sir Oswald Mosley,
said it was folly
to have gone to
war with Germany.
MARS: Dissidents
of the new regime
had set up a refuge
in an old warehouse.
We were happy just to be safe.
ENOCH: Oh, this is the
tip of the iceberg.
The unseen face of Fascism.
If you can get these
pictures out to America,
it might help counter
all the propaganda.
Hey! Stop that!
- (BABY CRYING)
- WOMAN: What's wrong?
You know, like the
colour of the sky
- before it goes to night time.
- ENOCH: Nice.
- It's that kind of thing.
- ENOCH: Nice.
MARS: Indigo. ENOCH: Yeah.
Oy! (CHUCKLES)
(MARS LAUGHS)
Oy!
MARS: You need
something to do.
Little rascal.
So, Leo, here is how we put
the bits of film together
to make the images
become a story.
So, erm, hold it still.
Still.
And allow the camera
to become your eye.
Try to figure out where
you should be looking next.
Yeah, so maybe down to my hands
if I'm playing
with these things.
Onto my hands, like this.
Or maybe over to there
where I'm talking to you
and then back to my face again.
That's it.
(CHUCKLES) And a
bit more upright.
I think you're a natural.
(CAMERA RUSTLING)
(CHILD COUGHING)
(BABY CRYING)
NEWSREADER: (ON RADIO)
Mosley to lead Britain
to a new prosperity and
friendship with Germany.
MOSLEY: (ON RADIO) I
claim that in the ranks
of our Blackshirt legions,
march the mighty ghosts
of England's past.
NEWSREADER: (ON RADIO) Today,
our new German liberators
freed more political prisoners
detained under the old regime.
- There's Leo.
- Amongst those released
were scientist Thomasina
Hanbury, falsely accused...
(RADIO CRACKLING)
by the previous government.
Miss Hanbury's research
is of great interest
to the Third Reich.
(CAMERA RUSTLES)
(WHIRRING)
(TRIUMPHANT MUSIC
PLAYING ON SCREEN)
MARS: Try to keep
the camera still.
This evening, we are joined
by a very special guest,
Miss Thomasina Hanbury,
a self-educated orphan
who was condemned to death
by the old regime
three months ago,
only to be dramatically rescued
by our liberators mere
hours before her execution.
Since then, she has transformed
the nation's fortunes
in the field of
strategic forecasting.
Of particular note is her
mysterious invention, LOLA.
Miss Hanbury, may I ask,
how does your machine work?
It consists of a system
of electrical processors
which filter and amplify
even the faintest
electromagnetic wave
into a coherent signal.
And when combined
with an understanding
of quantum mechanics,
LOLA allows us
to observe broadcasts
from the future.
How impressive.
I hear the machine has baffled
the greatest engineering minds
of both Britain and Germany.
The men they sent
to examine LOLA
were limited by their
lack of imagination
as much as their formal
scientific training.
Thankfully, I prefer
to work alone.
My home laboratory
is everything I need.
What inspired you to
build this machine?
My father was an
inventor, an idealist.
And he believed
humankind was being
transformed for the better
by technological advances.
The work I do today
strives to this ideal.
To what end?
To create the perfect society.
A society in which
we all prosper.
No government blunders that
send people into poverty.
No more murders on the streets.
No conflicts and no war.
You've personally experienced
your fair share of adversity.
After the tragic
death of your parents,
you were left alone to
raise your sister, Martha,
while still very much
a child yourself.
That must have been difficult.
We managed.
Your current standing must
be all the more gratifying
considering the disgraceful way
Churchill's government
treated you and your sister,
who was sadly executed
before the liberators
could reach her.
There was nothing gratifying
about my sister's death.
When I received
the news, it was...
a horrible blow.
She deserved better.
It is a shame that LOLA
can't fix the past.
If Martha were alive today,
what would you say to her?
I would tell her
to live her life...
and to leave me behind.
(BABY CRYING)
We need to get her out of there.
It's too dangerous.
She'll get killed.
Well, she never goes a
day without swimming,
- so we can go and get her.
- Martha.
Look at me. We're safe here.
Let go of me.
I'm going to get her. I'm
going to find her now.
SEBASTIAN: How are
you gonna get there?
MARS: Are you gonna
come with me or not?
Fine, just let me go...
SEBASTIAN: They're
looking for you...
MARS: Just let me go
on my own. I'm fine.
SEBASTIAN: You're not safe.
MARS: I don't need you.
(INDISTINCT CHATTER)
SEBASTIAN: Mars,
get out of here.
MARS: Wait.
SEBASTIAN: Look. MARS:
What are you doing here?
SEBASTIAN: Get out of
there. SOLDIER: Intruder!
- (GUN FIRES)
- SEBASTIAN: Mars! Go on, go!
- (MARS WHIMPERS)
- (SOLDIER SHOUTS)
- (MARS PANTING)
- (GUN FIRES)
- (SEBASTIAN GROANS)
- MARS: Sebastian!
(MARS WHIMPERS)
(GENTLE GUITAR MUSIC PLAYING)
MARS: (SINGING) I drew a
line In the sands of time
Dared you to step over it
And you did
Saw your visage In
the looking glass
Such a pretty face
But such a bitter taste
Do you remember tomorrow?
The roads that we followed
To a life that might
Never come to be
The future is a distant memory
To me now
SEBASTIAN: Let me guess.
Bob Dylan?
No. That was me.
(BABY CRYING)
(FAINT CHATTERING)
MARS: My world became
empty and cold.
You, on the other hand,
were soaring to new heights.
(THE SOUND OF MARCHING FEEBY REGINALD WATSON PLAYING)
The sound of marching feet
Can you hear it?
The sound of marching feet
In the street below
Together we are strong
Crush the weaklings
So sing our fascist song
In the street below
Send to all the world a message.
England lives and marches on!
(SONG CONTINUES)
Learn to march in time
And fall into line
The sound of marching feet
Can you feel it?
The sound of marching feet
See the torches glow
-Put this record
on -(CLAMOURING)
Learn all of the lyrics
If your friends Don't sing along
Call the police
(SIREN WAILING)
The sound of marching feet
Left, right, left, left,
left Left, right, left
Left, left, left, right, left
Left, left
The sound of marching feet
Left, left, left, right, left
Left, left, left, right, left
-The sound of marching feet
-The sound of marching feet
-The sound of marching feet
-The sound of marching feet
-The sound of marching feet
-The sound of marching feet
Do not fraternise
With radicals and perverts
Learn to march in time
And fall into line
(PENSIVE MUSIC PLAYING)
(DEEP BREATHING)
MARS: There was only one
thing left for me to do.
(TRIUMPHANT MUSIC PLAYING)
Today, the Prime Minister
announced that Adolf Hitler
will be making his first
state visit to England.
The Fhrer will be dropping
in on a very special house
on the Sussex Coast,
where government scientist
Thomasina Hanbury has been
conducting pioneering work.
Because of this
remarkable woman,
rescued and championed
by the Fhrer,
we say to our enemies,
"Watch out, we know
what you're going to do
"before you even think of it."
And now, it is my
pleasure to introduce you
to Master Reginald Watson,
the voice of the future.
(SINGING) Land of Hope
Thy hope is crowned
God make thee mightier yet
(CAMERA WHIRRING)
On sovereign brows
Beloved
Once more thy crown is set
(CAMERA WHIRRING)
(WHISPERS) Leo, stop filming.
God, who made thee mighty
(CROWD CHEERING)
Make thee mightier yet
God, who made thee mighty
Make thee mightier yet
(PATRIOTIC MUSIC PLAYING)
(NEWSREADER SPEAKING GERMAN)
(NEWSREADER CONTINUES
SPEAKING GERMAN)
(ELECTRICITY BUZZING)
(FEEDBACK ECHOES)
NEWSREADER: (ON
LOLA) At the rally,
President Lindbergh celebrated
how National Socialism
had brought the American
people together and...
(BUZZING)
NEWSREADER 2:
developed by British
and German scientists,
this is the ultimate weapon
against the Bolshevik.
- (EXPLOSION)
- (CLAMOURING)
NEWSREADER 3: Martha Hanbury
had entered the house
with the intention of
assassinating the Fhrer
but, fortuitously, her
bomb went off prematurely
in an adjoining room,
and the deranged
woman was captured.
The shocked Fhrer
- escaped unscathed...
- THOM: Mars.
And issued an order for
the female terrorist
to be put to death immediately.
- (BUZZING)
- (DISTANT CLAMOURING)
(CRYING)
(MEET ME AT THE GALLOWS BY
REGINALD WATSON PLAYING)
REGINALD: (SINGING) There is
Nothing so gladdens the heart
Than to watch a traitor march
To the gallows
-To the gallows
-(BREATHING HEAVILY)
MAN: Hold!
Like a gardener pulling weeds
The path of treason only leads
To the gallows
(SONG STOPS)
MARS: I'm so glad I
bought you that car.
(SONG RESUMES) To the gallows
- (ENGINE RUMBLES)
- (GUNS FIRING)
(ENGINE REVVING)
(GRUNTS)
(MEET ME AT THE GALLOWS
CONTINUES PLAYING)
(GROANS)
(GUNS FIRING)
(SONG STOPS)
(MELANCHOLY MUSIC PLAYING)
MARS: I hid for days.
(CAMERA RUSTLING)
When the Nazis
left, I returned...
and found this.
THOM: (ON PHONOGRAPH)
April 12th, '42.
Preparations for LOLA's
demonstration are complete.
It's hard to believe I
am saying these words.
Adolf Hitler will
be here tomorrow.
(SIGHS) How's it come to this?
Fascism has truly won.
I was a fool to believe
I could work with these people.
What would Papa
think? Or Mars?
I'm almost glad
they're not alive
to witness this spectacle.
I don't know when it
started to go wrong,
but I fear it was long ago.
LOLA was never meant to be
an instrument of violence.
Mars was right.
The magic of LOLA was the beauty
of the world she opened for us,
those sounds and images
from another time.
Her power lay in what
we could learn from her.
Mars understood that.
But perhaps because
she was a dreamer,
she was the one with
the real imagination.
I can see that now.
Maybe if she were here,
we could find a way to
undo all of this together.
I miss her.
MARS: I miss you too, Thom.
But maybe there is a way
we can undo this together.
I've made this film for you.
It's the last broadcast of
the Angel of Portobello.
It's a shot in the dark.
And I'm sorry, Thom,
because if this film
doesn't find its way to you,
then you will have died
pointlessly and stupidly,
and I will truly
have lost everything.
We will all have lost
more than is bearable.
This film is for us, Thom.
And if we're lucky,
you'll be watching it long
before this horror unfolds.
Then perhaps you can turn
these words and images
into shadows of something
that could have happened.
Even though I'll
have to say goodbye
to the man I'll never meet.
Darling Thom...
can you save us after all?
(MELANCHOLY MUSIC CONTINUES)
(WHEN, WHEN, WHEN PLAYING)
When, when, when
Will we be together again?
I want to spend
My life with you
I really miss you, honey
When, when, when
Will your arms enfold me?
And hold me like Your
life on it depends
When, when
Will I see you again?
I really miss you
(SOMBRE PIANO MUSIC PLAYING)