Simon and Eugene look at the fourth and final Quatermass adventure. One could almost call it, “The Quatermass Conclusion.” Almost.
Chapter 1 – Ringstone Round
Aged Bernard Quatermass has been invited to London to appear on a BTV program about the hands of friendship space hookup between the USA and the USSR. He’s not been in London in a long time and didn’t expect dead bodies on the streets and vicious youth gangs who collect old men’s teeth. He is waylaid by one such gang.
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He’s rescued by Joe Kapp and Puppy. Joe Kapp is a radio astronomer of Quatermass’ acquaintance, by reputation, at least, and puppy is a dog.
Quatermass is appalled by the spectacle of the space hookup, and he’s really just there to find his mission granddaughter, who has run away. After he chastises the farcical show in space, he tries to use the worldwide audience to find his granddaughter. It’s all he really cares about.
His admonition that the space venture is doomed to failure proves a little too prophetic, though, and within moments the space craft fail live on camera, killing everyone.
Worried that Quatermass has fallen under suspicion, Joe takes him back to his home in the country, where he and a small team of young scientists run a small, lashed-together radio telescope.
Quatermass is introduced to Joe’s wife, Clare, an archaeologist-turned-homemaker, and his two small daughters.
Quatermass is puzzled by, and Joe is outraged by, the Planet People: gangs of youths who reject knowledge, science and learning and claim to feel the call of The Planet, which is going to take them away to a world that hasn’t been ruined by the old folks. They are drawn by so-called mystical forces towards a nearby neolithic stone circle, Ringstone Round.
At Clare’s suggestion, Joe takes Quatermass to see the megaliths, and they are there when hundreds of Planet People storm the circle, and a great beam of light comes down from the sky, breaking up the stones and leaving nothing but ash in place of the Planet People.
Chapter 2 – Lovely Lightning
Kickalong, leader of the Planet People who were storming Ringstone Round, and a few of his followers were involved in altercation with the police and were away from the stone circle when the “lovely lightning” came from the sky, and therefore they survived, but they are convinced the others were taken to the Planet. One young woman, Isabel, was close enough to have been affected by the lightning, but survived, badly injured, blind, and almost completely deaf. Quatermass, Joe and Clare must rest her away from the other Planet People, who are increasingly hostile towards scientists.
At Joe’s home, Clare, badly shaken by what she’d seen, desperately cares for the girl, but she is also showing signs of cracking up. Even Joe’s children seem increasingly entranced with the nursery rhyme about Ringstone Round.
Annie, district commissioner arrives looking for Quatermass. They need him. Using Joe’s telescopes they are able to get a signal to the Americans. Ringstone Round isn’t the first such event, the first happened in Brazil at exactly the same time the American-Soviet spacecraft failed. Communications are spotty, but Quatermass, with Annie’s help, heads towards London with Isabel so that she can be studied.
On the way, Quatermass begins to formulate a hypothesis. The stones were put there to remember some horrible event that happened 5,000 years ago. What if, something was here 5,000 years ago and now it is returning? Huge gatherings of people are a relatively recent occurrence. Society and young people in particular have been increasingly rejecting science and adopting magical thinking. What if it is somehow sensing the long approach of something that is here now that is drawing them to these circles?
Joe, thinking they need more telescope power, heads towards a remote satellite receiver to see if he can repair it to add to their array. While he’s gone, the Planet People start to descend on a small stone circle near Joe’s house. Clare, the children, and even one of the scientists fall under the spell of the crowd, while the other scientists fight to save them from the crowd.
At the satellite facility, Joe seems a bolt of lightning coming for the direction of his home and her rushes to return.
In London, Annie and Quatermass run afoul of a gang war gun battle between two rival youth gangs. Annie and Isabel manage to drive off, but Quatermass falls from the car.
Back at Joe’s house, the stone circle, like Ringstone Round, is shattered, the ground covered in ash, the charred body of puppy is there, too. His nearby house has been destroyed. There is no sign of Clare, the children, or the remaining scientists. There is not doubt of their fate.
Chapter 3 – What Lies Beneath
Quatermass finds himself hiding in an automobile graveyard, where he encounters a group of old people who have made their home underneath it. They take him in and treat his injuries. Even here he has a bit of name recognition and he tells them what has been happening and how the Planet People think they’re being taken to another planet. The whole idea is nonsense of course, but now the oldies are starting to think it sounds like a good idea. I mean, the kids broke the world, we deserve a better place, too.
Meanwhile, Annie has gotten Isabel to a hospital, and is desperately trying to get people in power to listen to her, with some limited success. She and the hospital staff watch in horror as Annie levitates off the hospital bed and explodes in a cloud of ash. So much for their lab rat.
The military raid the underground hovel and find Quatermass, rescuing him, more or less, and take him to BTV, where they interrupt the only television program worth watching, Tittupy Bumpity, to use the facilities to communicate with the Americans. He postulates that there is a gigantic bubble surrounding the earth that the beams fire from. The Americans and the Russians have decided to send a space shuttle out to communicate with the aliens, but Quatermass warns against it, saying this is a harvest, not an attempt to establish a dialog. They disregard his advice.
Next Quatermass meets with the PM and the cabinet. He explains his theory that this is probably a machine harvester. Most of the cabinet are old, but the younger Deputy Prime Minister is just young enough that he can “sense” that the Planet People are probably right. Luckily, older and clearer heads are in charge. Already thousands are converging on Wembley Stadium, and this time it’s not just Planet People, the gangs are dropping their weapons and joining the crowds, as are the soldiers. Tens of thousands are converging there.
The US space craft is destroyed without making any contact. At the same time, the Prime Minister drops dead of a heart attack, leaving his Deputy in charge. Quatermass tries to convince him to do something about Wembley stadium and, at least, they all go out there together, but when they get there, the new PM orders Quatermass and Annie shot. They escape into the car park, but Annie is killed in a car crash, just as the lightning strikes Wembley.
Chapter 4 – Endangered Species
70,000 or more people were in Wembley stadium, now only Quatermass survives. Even Annie’s body was burned away. As the sun comes up, the sky is now green from all the particles of dead people in the air.
Back at the much diminished cabinet, Quatermass meets with Gurov, the Russian Scientist that wanted to communicate with the aliens. He now believes as Quatermass does that it is a harvesting machine, devoid of intelligence, and he has come to England to work with Quatermass; however, others in the Soviet Union plan to launch all their nuclear weapons at it. Quatermass and Gurov know that plan is doomed to fail as there is no target.
Quatermass and Gurov form a plan, with a crack team of aging sciences and extras from the Last of the Summer Wine, they set about analyzing everything they know about the situation, in an effort to build a trap. The believe that it is something unique to the young and their energy. It could be the chanting, hormones, pheromones, the aggression – something. They aim to create a digital synthesis to lure the beam to a place of their choosing.
That place is Joe’s radio telescope. When they go there, they discover Joe, crazed with grief, futilely trying to repair his equipment. They leave him but promise to return back.
Soon, Kickalong, the one Planet Person who just can’t seem to catch a ride on a beam of light, shows up with his group, which includes Quatermass’ granddaughter. Knowledge and science are bad, so they destroy what’s left of Joe’s equipment. So despondent is Joe that he even tries to join them, but he cannot bring himself to abandon who he is – a learned Jew.
The Soviet plan to destroy it came to nothing and now the Soviet Union has collapsed.
The trap is ready to be setup and sprung, and Quatermass and team return. This time, Joe is back to being himself, more or less. Quatermass’ plan will simulate a gathering of a million people, when the beam descends, a nuclear device will be detonated. They can’t hope to destroy it, but they hope that, like a man stepping on a wasp, a warning signal will be sent and the machine will leave. The simplest, most foolproof way to detonate the bomb is a big, bright, shiny red button wired straight to the nuke. Quatermass and Joe will remain to push the button.
At first, it looks as if it won’t work, but then Kickalong and the gang arrive. They see sciencey stuff and aim to destroy it. Kickalong goes straight for the nuke. Joe tries to warn him off, but Kickalong guns him down. At that moment three things happen: The light starts to descend, Quatermass and his granddaughter see each other, and Quatermass suffers a heart attack.
As he struggles against death to reach the button, wordlessly, his granddaughter joins him and lifts his hand onto the button and pushes it.
Epilogue. The world is nice again and Gurov tells us, “The message was taken, it has not come again, we pray it will not come again.”
