Line #70 Film/TheseAreTheDamned


1	[[quoteright:310:https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/these_are_the_damned.jpeg]]
2
3	->''"I live with one fact. A power has been released that will melt those stones. We must be ready when the time comes."''
4
5	''These Are the Damned'' (UK title: ''The Damned'') is a 1963 Film/{{Hammer\|Horror}} SciFiHorror film directed by Creator/JosephLosey, [[TheFilmOfTheBook based on]] H.L. Lawrence's 1960 novel ''The Children of Light''.
6
7	While on a boating holiday in [[UsefulNotes/TheWestCountry Dorset]], American tourist Simon Wells (Creator/MacdonaldCarey) tries to pick up local girl Joan (Shirley Anne Field), only to get robbed and beaten up by her brother King (Creator/OliverReed) and his gang of Teddy boys. He gets comforted by Swedish {{sculptor\|s}} Freya Neilson (Creator/VivecaLindfors) and her lover Bernard (Alexander Knox), a scientist who is involved in a top secret project involving nine children kept in isolation in an underground facility on a well-guarded military base. Later Joan comes to Simon for help in escaping her overly-controlling brother. While fleeing from King, Simon and Joan enter the base and then inadvertently stumble into the facility, endangering all their lives.
8
9	----
10	!!The movie has the following tropes:
11	* TheArk: Lampshaded when the children wonder if they are on a ColonyShip to another planet. Turns out they're an ark of a different kind.
12	* BadassBiker: Though only for a single scene where Joan outraces the rest of the gang so she can get to Simon's boat. After she dismounts, she removes her boots and puts on her heels, which she's hung around her neck on a length of string.
13	* BecauseISaidSo: Bernard fobs off questions from the children by saying that everything will be explained at the proper time. This works until their carefully structured world is disrupted by the arrival of 'Big People' from the outside.
14	* BigBrotherIsWatchingYou: The children warn about the 'eyes' which are everywhere, except in their hideout. Turns out that Bernard knows about the hideout, but refuses to put a camera there because it's better for their mental health that the children have a place all to themselves. When Bernard orders the children to hand over the intruders, they rebel by [[DestroyTheSecurityCamera smashing or obscuring all of the cameras]].
15	* BlackHelicopter: Military helicopters are shown closely following King's car and Simon's boat, [[spoiler:waiting for the occupants to die of radiation poisoning]].
16	* BleedEmAndWeep: King breaks down in tears after shooting a guard, implying for all his tough guy act he's never actually killed someone before.
17	* CagedBirdMetaphor: {{Lampshade\|Hanging}}d when Freya gives Bernard a bird {{sculpture\|s}} as a gift. At the end of the movie, [[spoiler:Bernard regrets that the children now know they are prisoners and it will affect them accordingly]].
18	* ChildrenAreInnocent: Played for horror [[spoiler:as the children have no idea they are a WalkingWasteland that will kill any living creature they come into contact with]].
19	* CoversAlwaysLie: The children don't have the MonochromaticEyes shown on the poster, and are hardly a "lurking unseen evil!", [[spoiler:though their radiation certainly is]]. Given the title, the poster may have been encouraging confusion with ''Film/VillageOfTheDamned1960.''
20	* CreepyChild: {{Inverted\|Trope}} -- the fact that the children appear normal, but are gradually shown not to be, is what's creepy.
21	* DidNotThinkThisThrough: William plots the [[SecurityBlindspot blind spots on the cameras]], but forgets that the man he's trying to smuggle past them is taller than he is.
22	* DiegeticSwitch: The song "Black Leather Rock" is used to introduce King's gang, who then start whistling the song after the music ends.
23	* DistractedByTheSexy
24	-->'''Joan:''' Whoever I am, I'm not who you think... You never even asked my name!\
25	'''Simon:''' With a figure like that, you don't need a name!
26	* DevelopingDoomedCharacters: The plot about the Teddy boys, and anything that Freya does, is irrelevant to the GovernmentConspiracy except to make the audience care about the unfortunates who stumble across it.
27	* DownerEnding: [[spoiler:Everyone who finds out about the GovernmentConspiracy dies, and the movie ends on the sound of the children calling out for someone to rescue them from a prison they can only escape from if nuclear war breaks out.]]
28	* EasilyForgiven: Simon doesn't take it personally regarding Joan setting him up for a beating at the hands of her brother, and even helps her escape from him. Of course, the fact that she's an attractive DamselInDistress is implied to have a lot to do with this.
29	* EvilWearsBlack:
30	** Except for their leader, the Teddy boys wear black leather jackets.
31	** The children fear the 'Black Death' that comes down the elevator. [[spoiler:They turn out to be soldiers wearing black {{Hazmat Suit}}s.]]
32	* FaceDeathWithDignity: [[spoiler:Freya rejects the idea of joining Bernard in helping raise the children. Knowing he must now kill her, she continues making her sculpture [[StealthInsult rather than waste her last moments talking to him]]. Meanwhile Simon and Joan turn their boat around to rescue the children, even though they're dying of radiation poisoning and are being closely shadowed by a government helicopter.]]
33	* FirstTimeInTheSun: After they escape, the children stare in amazement at the sun they've never seen. [[spoiler:Until the soldiers drag them screaming back to their bunker.]]
34	* {{Foreshadowing}}:
35	** The children mention a rabbit that found its way into their hideout, but got sick and its hair fell out.
36	** Bernard muses that Edgecliff seems to have a fatal attraction for lovers. [[spoiler:He ends up killing Freya there.]]
37	* FutureFoodIsArtificial: Although the film appears to be set in the present day, a boy brings their guests some "lunch" which is implied to be this.
38	-->"It has all the vitamins and minerals. We make it ourselves in a lab."
39	* GreaserDelinquents: King runs a gang of Teddy Boys.
40	* HollywoodMidLifeCrisis: {{Implied\|Trope}} with Simon -- a middle-aged, recently divorced insurance executive who's quit his job to go on a boating holiday, and [[OnTheRebound quickly falls]] for a younger and disreputable woman.
41	* HoneyTrap: Joan acts as TheBait to lure Simon to where her brother's gang is waiting to mug him.
42	* HopeSpot:
43	** After the 'Black Death' guards have been overpowered, Simon says he can now free the children. [[spoiler:Then he realizes the Geiger counter he took off Major Holland starts clicking the closer it gets to the children.]]
44	** Henry escapes in King's car, and Bernard lets Simon and Joan leave on their boat even after what they've seen. [[spoiler:However, he knows they're dying, and he's sent the helicopters after them to retrieve Henry and make sure there's no survivors.]]
45	* HypocriticalHumor: Simon offers to break the window at Freya's house, but Joan tells him he should have more respect for property. She then uses her knife to slip the catch.
46	* IncestSubtext:
47	** Implied with King's behavior towards his sister. Joan calls him out on the fact that [[VirginShaming he's never had a girl of his own]], and [[MySisterIsOffLimits he doesn't want her to be with any other man]], not even members of his own gang.
48	** One of the children asks if it's true that brothers and sisters can't marry. Bernard assures them that none of them are related, but seeing as nine children are not enough for an AdamAndEvePlot...
49	* IronicEcho
50	** Simon is playing tourist when Joan introduces herself by saying, [[HaventYouSeenXBefore "Never seen a clock tower before?"]] When Joan turns up at his yacht looking for sanctuary, Simon sardonically asks if she's never seen a boat before.
51	** King says, "Forward into battle, dear chaps" when lining up his gang to mug Simon. He says the same thing on entering the children's bunker.
52	* InYourNatureToDestroyYourselves: Bernard thinks that nuclear war is inevitable due to the violent nature of humanity, making his actions a necessary evil.
53	* IdTellYouButThenIdHaveToKillYou: Freya isn't happy that Bernard refuses to talk about his work, but he warns her that knowing his secrets could condemn her to death. He is ''not'' exaggerating.
54	* KnowWhenToFoldEm: When King enters the hideout, he and Simon grab clubs and face off... then throw them aside, realising they have other things to worry about.
55	* MadScientist: A more chilling version because Bernard isn't the EvilIsHammy-type you'd expect from a Hammer horror film, but a bureaucratic WellIntentionedExtremist. He didn't create the children, but admits he would create more if he knew how to do so.
56	* MeaningfulName: The children have been named after British royalty.
57	* {{Mutants}}: [[spoiler:The nine children being kept in a secret underground bunker by the British government have skin that's cold to the touch, are immune to radiation yet contaminate any living thing that comes into contact with them. They were created in a freak radiation accident, and are being studied in the hope of creating more such children who can continue the human race if nuclear war breaks out.]]
58	* NoOneCouldHaveSurvivedThat: The soldiers think Joan and Simon died when they fell off the cliff into the sea, but they (and [[{{Determinator}} Kelly, who's crazy enough to follow them down the cliff in the dark]]) are rescued by the children. However Bernard questions Freya the next day, and realizing King is still out there has his men continue the search.
59	* OffTheShelfFX: The teaching machine one girl uses is a hair hood dryer.
60	* OurDoorsAreDifferent: King is disturbed by the door to the facility which whirs open when one of the children waves a hand across a sensor, but doesn't open for him. There is no such sensor on the inside. [[spoiler:It's a radiation detector designed to open the door automatically in the event of a nuclear war.]]
61	* PassingNotesInClass: The children do this to communicate without being seen by the 'eyes'.
62	* PerfectHealth: When Joan asks the children if they catch cold, they have no idea what she's talking about. However Mary is sick and it's mentioned there were actually twelve children at one point, so they are not immortal.
63	* PerpSweating: Major Holland tries this on a Teddy Boy (including the requisite lamps shining in face) but he's not impressed. Although they hold him for hours of questioning, Holland lets the boy go on realizing he's hasn't seen anything.
64	* POVCam: One is shown moving through the children's bunker before the RevealShot of [[spoiler:Major Holland wearing a HazmatSuit]].
65	* PsychopathicManchild: King. One moment he's smashing up Freya's sculpture in a rage, then wrestling her towards the cliff edge... then [[MoodWhiplash he stops and breaks down crying]].
66	* TheReveal: [[spoiler:The nine children are {{mutants}}, created in the womb by a freak radiation accident. It made them immune to radiation, but their bodies are radioactive making them fatal to any normal person. Bernard is keeping them in the bunker for when nuclear war breaks out so they can repopulate the world.]]
67	* RuleOfSymbolism
68	** The plot with the Teddy boys as a commentary on the [[InYourNatureToDestroyYourselves innate violence of humanity]].
69	** Freya's sculptures (especially in the opening panning shot) appear similar to the human remains found in Pompeii, an ancient city destroyed by an overwhelming cataclysm.
70	* SinisterSwitchblade: Joan is introduced with a switchblade tucked into the front of her pants when she picks up Simon, as part of her bad girl look, but when one is actually produced by a Teddy boy, it's just so Sid can lend Freya his knife.
71	* SinisterWhistling: King's gang whistle the tune to "Black Leather Rock" when going to mug Simon, and later for signaling while they're hunting Simon and Joan in the graveyard.
72	* StandInParents: In their hideout the children have images of their 'parents', which are just photos they've removed from books. They live in hope that their real parents will one day come and free them.
73	* SwissCheeseSecurity: {{Averted\|Trope}}; the Edgecliff Establishment is surrounded by an alarmed fence that activates the moment Joan and Simon touch it, with soldiers and guard dogs responding the moment the protagonists break in. The only reason they didn't find the intruders earlier is not due to Major Holland, but because Bernard refused to allow cameras in the children's hideout.
74	* SwordCane: Teddy twirls a cane, and at one point detaches the handle to reveal a knife he uses to threaten Simon.
75	* ThermalDissonance: When Victoria takes Joan by the hand, Joan exclaims that her hand is "cold as ice", while Victoria exclaims, "They're warm!" Joan notes that Victoria's hand doesn't get any warmer even when she's holding it.
76	* TokenGoodTeammate: When Teddy boy Sid turns up at the Birdcage, he gets Freya's help by asking for it instead of insulting her and smashing her sculptures like King did.
77	* TryAndFollow: While being chased by King's gang, Simon and Joan climb over a ChainLinkFence patrolled by {{Angry Guard Dog}}s. While the guards quickly round up the rest of King's gang, he's able to escape by climbing down the cliffs in the dark.
78	* UndeadChild: When King touches the skin of a child and finds out how cold it is, he starts shouting in panic: [[ChillOfUndeath "He's dead! He's dead, I tell you!"]]
79	* VideoPhone: Bernard and the other teachers run the classes by remote video.
80	* WhatTheHellHero:
81	-->'''Bernard:''' My children are the buried seeds of life. When [[WorldWarIII that time comes]], the thing itself will open up the door, and my children will go out to inherit the Earth.
82	-->'''Freya:''' ''What Earth'', Bernard? What Earth will you leave them? [[LookOnMyWorksYeMightyAndDespair After all that Man has made, and still has to make]]! ''[crying]'' Is this the extent of your dream? To set nine ice-cold children free, in the ashes of the universe?

Context Film / TheseAreTheDamned