All language subtitles for The Ray Bradbury s04e08 The Toynbee Convector

People ask, where do you get your ideas?

Right here.

All this is my magician's toy shop.

I'm Ray Bradbury, and this is...

Sam, I'm on site at Starz's lamissary.

Good. We're getting ready here. I'm just
running the retrospectives, and they

look great.

Roll tape.

Burning rainforests, smog alerts,
gridlocked cities, seabirds caked with

That's how it was, ladies and gentlemen,
as we entered the 90s. And, with few

exceptions, things became even more
bleak. It seemed we were doomed.

Until 100 years ago, in the year 2000.

when Craig Bennett Stiles became the
first and only man to travel through

What he said and showed us upon his
return has changed the history of the

Are you in position, Roger?

Yeah, on the way.

I'll do the intro live at the entrance
to the lamissary. You can cut to the

first retro after that.

Are the international hookups ready?

We're ready.

Tokyo is now online.

There's Moscow now.

New York's on three.

We hear you very clearly.

Standing by.

Mr. Stiles.

What is it? What's wrong? Did something
happen to Stiles?

No, he gave me this. He wanted me to get
it to you right away.

What's up? What is it, Roger?

crew with me. You prepare the feed.

Great. We're ready here.

Rome, do you read me?

There's been a change in plans.

Mr. Stiles.

Roger Shumway.

This is an unexpected honor.

I've waited a long time for this day.

Yes.

Not a minute too soon.

Come along.

Mr. Stiles, you haven't granted any
interviews since just after your trip to

future a hundred years ago.

What made you decide to break your
silence today?

It's a very special day, young man. When
I learned you were here, I knew I

wanted you to tell my story.

I'm flattered. You have a reputation for
telling the truth. That's the way I

want you to report, Craig Bennett style.

Yes, it's true.

It'll be my pleasure, sir.

You're very young, aren't you? I'm 35.

I'm 135.

You don't look a day over 100, do I?

Help yourself.

No, thank you.

Mr. Stiles, can we get you over here?

It'll give us the sea, sky, the air
behind you.

Reflects the legacy you've given us.

Yes, of course.

Tell me, how do you think you're going
to feel at four o 'clock today, when

younger self arrives from the past?

For a brief moment, you're going to
exist as two people.

The man you are...

And the man you were when your time
machine came into the year 2100. All in

time, Mr. Shumway. You shall have your
story all in good time.

Ready camera two.

Cut to Roger's remote.

Good afternoon, ladies and gentlemen.
I'm Roger Shumway, and this is World

Vision News, coming to you direct from
the grounds of the Lamentary, the home

and laboratory of Craig Bennett Stiles.

Today, Mr. Stiles has granted us an
exclusive interview and has promised to

a major announcement to the peoples of
the world.

Mr. Stiles.

It's our pleasure to be with you here
today. Thank you, Mr.

Shumway.

Peoples of the world, I salute you.

Mr. Thiles, your name has been a
household word to all of us since the

2000.

Yet, shortly after your successful trip
into the future, you went into

seclusion. Why?

Not at first, Mr.

Shumway. No, I traveled around the
world. I met with world scientists. I

lectured.

wrote and published my book. But shortly
after that, you went into retirement

here.

Yes, but I've been very busy as an
architect trying to help rebuild the

that I saw as a very young man.

Just about your age, in fact, when I
arrived in that golden tomorrow.

Stay tuned, ladies and gentlemen, as
World Vision News covers the flight of

time machine from New Zealand to Moscow
and back.

And the Craig Bennett Stiles here with
us today watches himself as a young man

who flashed into the future and changed
the world.

Roger Shumway, ladies and gentlemen,
back with the World Vision News

presentation of the 100th anniversary of
Craig Bennett Stiles' trip into the

future.

Craig Bennett Stiles, the man of
mystery.

Mr. Shumway, I'm sure your audience is
eager to see the time machine.

Shall we?

Mr. Stiles, how do you think you will
react when, just moments from now, you

watch yourself, in effect, flash across
the sky in your trip through time?

Gratitude and love.

It is me, isn't it?

We're heading now to Mr. Stiles'
laboratory to become the first people

year 2000 to see the time machine.

But before we do, let's go back to that
moment 100 years ago.

When Craig Bennett Stiles brought back
pictures of the world as it was to be, a

world completely changed.

A world that had conquered the
ecological chaos of the late 20th

There's one thing I've often wondered.

Yes?

Did no one see you as you passed
overhead in the year 2100? Well, today,

actually. Didn't anyone at all happen to
look up in Chicago, New York?

Paris? It wasn't expected, you know.

And if anybody saw, they wouldn't have
known what they were looking at.

I didn't linger. I just had time to
photograph the rebuilt cities and the

-free air.

Unfortified nations, abundance of
wildlife that has been saved from the

extinction. Today, on the other hand,
millions and millions of people are

focusing their eyes upon the sky,
waiting for your time machine to whip

the horizon.

I know, Mr. Shumway, I know.

Oh, I'm sorry.

Gentlemen, forgive me, but only Mr.
Shumway.

Only you.

Roger. What's going on?

I don't know.

I'll give you pictures as soon as I can.

Ten minutes to sighting.

I'm going to get this on the camcorder.

3 .45 and counting, ladies and
gentlemen. Almost time for that great

The arrival of the time machine. And
departure, Mr. Shumway. It's a pass

-through, actually.

You're right.

I'm sorry.

That moment of arrival and departure
when, in the blink of an eye, by

across time, Craig Bennett Stiles
changed our lives forever.

From night to day. From dark to light.

Are you ready, Mr. Stiles?

Let's show our audience the machine that
made it all possible.

Behold.

The Toynbee factory.

Rather nice.

She looked like she could conquer time.

She sure does.

This is it.

Photographic units, multiple rotating
lens systems, laser charts, mapping

devices, vertical rise stabilizers,
horizontal flow forward, regress,

and return.

In short, the Toynbee Conductor.

Why Toynbee?

I named it after Arnold Toynbee, the
great historian.

I'm sorry?

He's not known to you?

No, I'm afraid not.

It was Toynbee who said, if a people, a
civilization, does not rush to meet the

future, the future will plow them under,
kill and bury them.

Well, I saw the future rushing at me.

And it entered my heart and seized my
soul. It didn't frighten me. It obsessed

me.

I had to conquer time, save mankind.

Don't think I understand you, Mr. Todd.

You will, Mr. Shumway, presently.

You will.

Let's go for the world review now.

Roll tape. If only you could have been
there, Mr. Shumway.

When I came back, it was magnificent.

The people's response to my return
and...

To the message I brought, it exceeded my
wildest dreams.

I said, peoples of the earth, I have
traveled to a far place.

I have photographed the years beyond
tomorrow.

And now you will see your future. Here
are the tapes that will show you your

future. What did I see? What is...

My verdict is their hope.

We made it.

You did it.

The future is ours.

We cleaned and made fresh the air we
breathe.

We replanted the forests.

Reclaimed the oceans, the lakes, and the
rivers.

Replenished the dolphins and the whales.

From space, we lit our world.

We colonized the moon.

Made landfall next to the great red
canyon of Mars.

And now we send our rockets to Alpha
Centauri. Thirty seconds to sighting. We

did it.

Brothers and sisters, we did it.

Our future's bright and beauty aspires
arise.

Countdown. Ten. Okay, Roger, the money's
on the sky. Remote one, we'll try and

get a two -shot of you and the old man
on the balcony. We're ready, Samantha.

Three. Two.

One.

Nothing.

Nothing.

Still nothing.

Just the clouds.

You what?

I lied.

I can't believe it.

Really?

No time machine.

Mr. Shumway, just something that looks
like one. And I never went anywhere.

Just made it seem so.

My time has come, Mr. Shumway.

Time for the truth.

See, I was born and raised in the 70s
and the 80s, when people had stopped

believing in themselves.

Everywhere was despair, disillusionment,

rampant skepticism.

And our environment was successful.

We went to bed at night.

Bad news at 11 and woke up in the
morning. Worst news at 7.

Nothing was worth doing.

We wept at the grave of our child.

And our child was us. Our world.

I saw this despair and was moved,
depressed, and then angered by it.

We had dug our own graves and prepared
to lie down on them.

And you couldn't allow that?

No. I was a scientific quiz kid.

My credentials were impeccable. When I
spoke, people listened.

But when I spoke of these things, no one
listened.

So you got the idea of the Toynbee
convector.

Yes, but it took time.

For years I brooded on it.

In complete despair. And then one night,
I was rereading H

.G. Wells and his wonderful time
machine.

And then it struck me.

Eureka, I cried.

I found it.

This is my blueprint.

So you staged the whole thing?

Every step.

But first I had to...

Construct the perfect world.

I actually constructed tiny
architectures against crystal water

I talked to dolphins. I played with
whales.

I faked tapes. I fabricated films.

Until I was sure that it was safe to
publicly announce my...

departure into the perfect future. And
then I invited every important

heads of state, all the news media to
attend.

But how could you fool all those people?

How did you do it?

I simply climbed into the convector.

And...

Smoke

and mirrors, Mr. Shumway, smoke and
mirrors.

And then I returned.

And when I returned, the world was
waiting for me.

And they believed you.

Every word.

They wanted to believe.

They did.

And because they believed, they made it
happen.

A golden age.

Built on a lie.

You don't understand, do you, son?

Every one of us lives our life lying to
ourselves.

We weave dreams and then put brains and
ideas and flesh and reality beneath the

dreams and what seemed at first to be a
lie.

It's just a need wishing to be born.

What were you going to do about the
flyby today?

Press another button.

And a three -dimensional holographic
image on laser beams will flash across

sky.

Simulation of the Toynbee convector. The
final illusion.

Gigantic hoax.

But a triumphant one.

So, why the truth now?

You don't need the lie anymore. It's
become the truth. The people.

People.

did this they have reclaimed their world
and now

anything is possible in the last 100
years we

have crossed many new frontiers because
we saw the wonder that lay in the future

but today is not the end of the journey
it's just the beginning it's the first

few steps of a triumphant march

Many frontiers far beyond.

The universe is ours.

That's your story.

That's it, young man. And here is the
full history of my splendid fraudulence.

Take it, take it all.

Hand it on.

I nominate you as son.

To explain the Father.

Godspeed.

Did you read me?

We've got the goop of the century.

I've got a thousand announcements.

Just... Just give me a moment, huh?

What happened, Roger? I've got Brenner
on saying there's a four -minute shift

every hundred years. Is that what went
wrong?

Just give me 30 seconds.

It's a start.

Ladies and gentlemen, I'm sad to report
that just moments ago,

Craig Bennett Stiles passed away.

But not before leaving his final message
to the world.

In the last 100 years, we have crossed
many new frontiers because we saw the

wonder that lay in the future.

But today is not the journey's end. No,
it's just the beginning.

The first few steps of a triumphant
march, we now lift our eyes to frontiers

beyond the future.

The universe is ours.

Behold, the young man who changed the
world arrived.

Any civilization that does not run to
seize the future and shape it

is doomed to die with the past.