History Film / WhenWorldsCollide

** Until the sequel novel, ''After Worlds Collide,'' published a year later, in which we learn that multiple rockets, launched from multiple nations, reached Beta.

* {{Foreshadowing}}: Marsden and Spiro use their age as the reason for helping build the rocket so that the young might live. [[spoiler:Hendron later sacrifices himself and Stanton because "The new world isn't for us, it's for the young.]]

* TheProfessor: Dr. Hendron, Dr. Bronson.

* SceneryGorn: Planet Zyra's close call with Earth causes massive earthquakes, typhoons, tsunamis, volcanic eruptions and all other manner of StockFootage.

** The book's sequel described the fate of the other ships: the French ship crashed in the Alps on takeoff, the British ship landed in a lake on the new planet, and the broad Asian ship lands successfully and tries to claim the new world as its own.

* RomanticFalseLead: Tony

* SpeedSmartsAndStrength: Hendron, Frye, and Stanton are the three heads of the ark project. Hendron is the scientific head and overall leader of the camp, Frye supervises the rocket's construction, and Stanton provides financial backing to make the construction possible.

* WhosLaughingNow: The press initially dubs the ark rocket "Stanton's Folly," as prominent scientists scoff at the data that Bellus and Zyra will destroy the Earth. However, as the months pass and the evidence becomes irrefutable, Stanton laughs at their initial ridicule.

* WhosLaughingNow: The press initially dubs the ark rocket "Stanton's Folley," as prominent scientists scoff at the data that Bellus and Zyra will destroy the Earth. However, as the months pass and the evidence becomes irrefutable, Stanton laughs at their initial ridicule.

* BlatantLies: Tony privately tells David that Dr. Frye has a heart contrition and may not survive the g-force, which makes a backup pilot necessary.

* AtLeastIAdmitIt: Stanton fully admits that he's selfish and willing to pay whatever it takes to stay alive.

* RaygunGothic

* WhosLaughingNow: The press initially dubs the ark rocket "Stanton's Folley," as prominent scientists scoff at the data that Bellus and Zyra will destroy the Earth. However, as the months pass and the evidence becomes irrefutable, Stanton laughs at their ridicule.

* WhoLaughingNow: The press initially dubs the ark rocket "Stanton's Folley," as prominent scientists scoff at the data that Bellus and Zyra will destroy the Earth. However, as the months pass and the evidence becomes irrefutable, Stanton laughs at their ridicule.

** Other than Julie (who is given a place anyway thanks to [[spoiler: Hedron's]] HeroicSacrifice), the female lottery losers completely disappear from the story towards the end. Technically we know ''what'' happened to them in the very end but unlike their male counterparts we don't witness it.

-->'''Dr. Hendron:''' Before you opened your pocketbook, you tried to make this a personal enterprise, a private rocket ship for your own special use. This project was started by real humanitarians, by Marsden and Spiro. They gave their money with no strings attached. You're not here under any special license. You're always shouting for facts, not theories. Well, remember these facts. Our chance of reaching the new world is as thin as your chance of ever becoming a humanitarian. If we do make it, will there be a place to land? Will the air be fit to breathe? Will there be water Vegetable life? Men and women here have been praying for God's help and guidance. Not your kind of hypocritical praying, but the kind that comes from deep inside a man.

* ThrowingOffTheDisability: Stanton gets off his wheelchair and stumbles a few steps away from it [[spoiler:to bid the rocket --that is launching without him-- goodbye]].