The Ray Bradbury Theater (1985–1992): Season 4, Episode 8 - The Toynbee Convector - full transcript

[music playing]

RAY BRADBURY
(VOICEOVER): People ask,

where do you get your ideas?

My dear, all of this is
my magician's toy shop.

I'm Ray Bradbury.

And this is--

[music playing]

[people chat]

[helicopter whirs]

Sam?

I'm on site at
Stiles's lamisary.



Good.

We're getting ready here.

I'm just running
the retrospectives.

And they look great.

MAN 1: Roll tape

NARRATOR OF FILM
(VOICEOVER): Burning

rainforests, smog alerts,
gridlocked cities, seabirds

caked with oil--

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 time.



[engine starts]

What he said and showed
us upon his return

has changed the
history of the world.

[brass band plays]

Are you in position, Roger?

Yeah, on the way.

I'll do the intro live at
the entrance of the lamisary.

You can cut to the
first retro after that.

Are the international
hookups ready?

We're ready.

WOMAN 1: Tokyo is now online.

[man speaks russian]

There's Moscow now.

New York's on 3.

MAN 2 (INDIAN ACCENT): We
can hear you very clearly.

Standing by.

Mr. Shumway.

It's Mr. Stiles.

What is it?
What's wrong?

Has something
happened to Stiles?

No, he gave me this.

He wanted me to get
it to you right away.

What's happened?
What is it, Roger?

ROGER SHUMWAY (ON
MIC): Sam, you're

not going to believe this.

Stiles has asked to see me.

I've got the Remote
1 crew with me.

You prepare the feed.
- Great.

We are ready here.

Rome, do you read me?

There has been a
change in plans.

Mr. Stiles.

Rogers Shumway.

This is an unexpected honor.

I've waited a long
time for this day.

Yes, and not a
minute too soon.

Come along.

Mr. Stiles, you
haven't granted

any interviews since just
after your trip to the future

100 years ago.

What made you decide to
break your silence today?

You know, it's a very
special day, young man.

When I learned you
were here, I knew

I wanted you to tell my story.

Oh, I'm flattered.

You have a reputation
for telling the truth.

That's they way I want you to
report Craig Bennett Stiles.

That's the truth.

It'll be my pleasure, sir.

You're very young, aren't you?

I'm 35.

[laughs]

I am 135.

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

Help yourself.

Uh, no, thank you.

Mr. Stiles, can we
get you over here?

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

It reflects the legacy
you've given us.

Yes, of course.

Tell me.

How do you think
you're going to feel

at 4:00 today when your 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 good time, Mr. Shumway.

You shall have your
story all in good time.

MAN 1: Ready camera 2.

WOMAN 2: Up 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 lamisary,

the home and laboratory
of Craig Bennett Stiles.

Today, Mr. Stiles has granted
us an exclusive interview

and has promised to make
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. Stiles, your name has been
a household word to all of us

since the year 2000.

Yet shortly after
your successful trip

into the future, you
went into seclusion.

Why?

Well, not at
first, Mr. Shumway.

You know, I traveled
around the world.

I met with world scientists.

I lectured.

I wrote and published my book.

But shortly after that, you
went into retirement here.

[chuckles] Yes, but I'd been
very busy as an architecture

trying to help rebuild the
future that I saw as very young

man, just about your
age, in fact, when I

arrived in the golden tomorrow.

Stay tuned, ladies
and gentlemen,

as "World Vision News" covers
the flight of the 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.

[music playing]

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--

[clears throat] 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 since the 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 century.

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 happened
to look up in Chicago, New York,

Paris?

I 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 smog-free air,
the unfortified nations,

the abundance of wildlife
that had been saved

from the brink of 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 across 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?

ROGER SHUMWAY (ON
MIC): I don't know.

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

MAN 1: 10 minutes to sighting.

OK, Sam, I'm going to
get this on the camcorder.

3:45 and counting,
ladies and gentlemen,

almost time for
that great paradox,

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 stepping 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--

[beep]

--the Toynbee Convector.

It's rather nice.

She looked like she
could conquer time.

She sure does.

[whirring]

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 Convector.

Why Toynbee?

I named it after Arnold
Toynbee, the great historian.

ROGER SHUMWAY: I'm sorry?

He's not known to you?

No, I'm afraid not.

[whirring]

It was Toynbee who said
if a people, a civilization,

does not rush to
meet the future,

the future it 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 to save mankind.

I don't think I
understand you, Mr. Stiles.

You will, Mr.
Shumway, presently.

You will.

ROGER SHUMWAY (ON MIC): Let's
go for the world review now.

MAN 1: Roll tape.

If only you could have been
there, Mr. Shumway, when I came

back.

[chuckles]

It was magnificent.

The people's
response to my return

and to the message I brought--

[chuckles]

--it exceeded my wildest dreams.

CROWD: Stiles, Stiles,
Stiles, Stiles.

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 there 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.

MAN 1: 30 seconds to sighting.

We did it.

Brothers and sisters, we did it.

Our future is bright and
beauteous spires arise.

MAN 1: Countdown.

10--

OK, Roger, the
money's on the sky.

Remote 1 will try and get a
two shot of you and the old man

on the balcony.

WOMAN 1: We're ready, Samantha.

MAN 1: --three, two, one.

[beeps]

[pants]

Nothing.

Nothing.

[seagull calls]

Still nothing.

Just the clouds.

Nothing.

Why?

I lied.

You what?

I lied.

I can't believe it.

There is no time
machine, Mr. Shumway, just

something that looks like one.

And I never went anywhere.

I just made it seem so.

My time has come, Mr.
Shumway, time for the truth.

You 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 a cesspool.

We went to bed at night
to bad news at 11:00

and woke up in the morning
to worst news at 7:00.

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 in them.

And you couldn't allow that.

No.

I was a scientific whiz 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.

I was in complete despair.

And then one night, I was
rereading HG 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.

[beep]

[whirring]

I actually constructed
tiny architectures

against crystal water skies.

I talked to the 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 scientist,

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--

[beep]

[hisses]

Smoke and mirrors, Mr.
Shumway, smoke and mirrors.

And then I returned.

[beep]

[humming]

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.

The 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.

ROGER SHUMWAY:
What were you going

to do about the fly-by today?

Press another button, and a
three-dimensional holographic

image on laser beams will
flash across the sky,

the simulation of the Toynbee
Convector, the final illusion.

A gigantic hoax.

But a triumphant one.

So why the truth now?

I don't need the lie anymore.

It's become the truth.

The people--

[beep]

--the 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.

Today is not the
end of the journey.

It's just the beginning.

It's the first few steps
of a triumphant march

to many frontiers far beyond.

The universe is ours.

[beep]

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.

God speed.

Sam, do you read me?

I got a scoop of the century.

I've got Stiles's announcement.

Just-- just give me a moment.

Huh?

[man on radio]

What happened, Roger?

I've got Brenner on saying
there's a four-minute shift

every 100 years.

Now, is that what went wrong?

Just give me 30 seconds.

[click]

Mr. Stiles?

Mr. Stiles?

Uh, 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.

[beep]

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

far beyond the future.

The universe is ours.

Behold, the young man who
changed the world arrives.

[beep]

[roaring]

[people shout]

Farewell, old time traveler--

--wherever you may be.

CRAIG BENNETT STILES:
Any civilization

that does not run
to seize the future

and shape it is doomed
to die with the past.

[music playing]