Irish Film Institute -FUTURES PAST : THE DAY THE EARTH CAUGHT FIRE

FUTURES PAST : THE DAY THE EARTH CAUGHT FIRE

Director: VAL GUEST

98 mins, UK, 1961, Digital


This film screened 6th April 2016.

A reporter for The Daily Express 
gets the scoop of a lifetime when he uncovers that the Soviet Union and the US have detonated simultaneous nuclear bomb tests, the impact of which alters the orbit of the earth, disrupting climate conditions and sending the planet spiralling towards the sun. The only hope for humanity lies in staging another massive nuclear explosion to rebalance the earth.

A more sober, contemplative film than the premise might suggest, The Day the Earth Caught Fire’s Doomsday scenario speaks to Cold War anxiety over the bomb, while anticipating contemporary concerns around global warming and man’s impact on the planet.

GUEST SPEAKERS : Oisin Coughlan (Friends of
the Earth) and Diarmuid Torney (Lecturer in International Relations at DCU) will discuss this film in the context
of climate change.

Screening as part of Futures Past: How Cinema of the Past Has Imagined Our Future, a season of films with guest speakers, presented in collaboration with Science Gallery Dublin.

Book Tickets

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