Original subtitles

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.