History Film / Terminus

* ContrastMontage: 2 commuters are shown arriving on the same train; one has a leisurely stroll to a florist's where he buys a flower for his lapel, and then walks out the front doors to a waiting car where he starts a crossword puzzle. The other commuter has a frenzied run to the Underground station, drops his umbrella and has to go back for it, and then misses his (overcrowded) tube train.

* NiceHat: Seen being worn by many passengers and station staff. Not surprising, considering it's a film made in London in 1961.

* AdultFear: At one point, a 5-year-old boy is separated from his mother until a police officer finds him and takes him to the stationmanster's office, where an announcement is given over the station loudspeakers and the boy's mother is reunited with him. What really makes this scene a TearJerker is that they used EnforcedMethodActing on the child; he wasn't told that this was a staged scene, and really did burst into tears thinking he had been abandoned.

[[quoteright:230:https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/terminus_5.jpg]]

A 1961 SliceOfLife BAFTA-winning short (32-minute) film by Creator/JohnSchlesinger, ''Terminus'' follows ADayInTheLife of London's busy Waterloo Station, showing scenes of the staff and passengers arriving and departing, as well as what goes on behind the scenes for the station staff.

* NiceHat: Seen being worn by many passengers and station staff. Not surprising, considering it's a film made in London in 1961.

* UsefulNotes/ATouchOfClassEthnicityAndReligion: Passengers and staff of all backgrounds, from extremely wealthy to beggars, are seen in the station. Justified, as Waterloo station was (and still is) the arrival and departure point for a wide variety of passenger trains, from high-end luxury express trains to everyday local and commuter trains. One notable sequence shows a boat train of Jamaican immigrants arriving.

* UsefulNotes/BritsWithBattleships: One of the trains arriving is a troop train, and later on some Royal Navy sailors are seen waiting for a train.

* MostAnnoyingSound: A group of UpperClassTwit passengers are on a platform waiting for a train, drinking; one passenger in particular has an ''incredibly'' annoying laugh.

* CrowningMusicOfAwesome: A smooth jazz score highlights the on-screen action.

* ContrastMontage: 2 commuters are shown arriving on the same train; one has a leisurely stroll to a florist's where he buys a flower for his lapel, and then walks out the front doors to a waiting car where he starts a crossword puzzle. The other commuter has a frenzied run to the Underground station, drops something and has to go back for it, and then misses his (overcrowded) tube train.

A 1961 SliceOfLife BAFTA-winning short (32-minute) film by Creator/JohnSchlesinger, ''Terminus'' follows ADayInTheLife of London's busy Waterloo Station, showing scenes of the staff and passengers arriving and departing.

* BritsWithBattleships: One of the trains arriving is a troop train, and later on some Royal Navy sailors are seen waiting for a train.

* MundaneMadeAwesome: The music, cinematography, and editing make the film a compelling and fascinating look into what at first glance seems like it would be a boring premise.

A 1961 SliceOfLife BAFTA-nominated short (32-minute) film by Creator/JohnSchlesinger, ''Terminus'' follows ADayInTheLife of London's busy Waterloo Station, showing scenes of the staff and passengers arriving and departing.

* UsefulNotes/ATouchOfClassEthnicityAndReligion: Passengers and staff of all backgrounds, from extremely wealthy to beggars, are seen in the station. One notable sequence shows a boat train of Jamaican immigrants arriving.

* MatchCut: In addition to the ContrastMontage listed above, there are many scenes showing how varied the passengers using the trains are; In one scene, a Jewish family and a group of nuns take the same train, while another sequence shows a newlywed couple being showered with confetti by their cheering friends, and then cuts to a body in a coffin being solemnly placed on a different train. Another scene shows several steam locomotives shooting off clouds of smoke and steam, children looking at them and writing down their numbers, and then cuts to a child having his eye washed out by a nurse. Yet another sequence shows a passenger, a station employee, and the station cat all having something to eat or drink.

A 1961 SliceOfLife short film by Creator/JohnSchlesinger, ''Terminus'' follows ADayInTheLife of London's busy Waterloo Station, showing scenes of the staff and passengers arriving and departing.

* ATouchOfClassEthnicityAndReligion: Passengers and staff of all backgrounds, from extremely wealthy to beggars, are seen in the station. One notable sequence shows a boat train of Jamaican immigrants arriving.

* AdultFear: At one point, a 5-year-old boy is separated from his mother until a police officer finds him and takes him to the stationmanster's office, where an announcement is given over the station loudspeakers and the boy's mother is reunited with him. What really makes this scene a TearJerker is that they used EnforcedMethodActing on the child; he wasn't told that this was for a film.

* HereWeGoAgain: The film ends with the sun rising over the roofs of the surrounding London area, just like the opening shots, giving the sense that another day as varied and hectic as the one just shown is about to begin.