An inventor uses a wireless controlled flying torpedo to destroy enemy airships.An inventor uses a wireless controlled flying torpedo to destroy enemy airships.An inventor uses a wireless controlled flying torpedo to destroy enemy airships.
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Did you know
- TriviaReleased in the US as a split reel along with The Park of Caserta (1909).
- GoofsThe burning fuse of one of the explosions near the armored car can be seen on the ground, before we see the streak that is supposed to be the aerial bomb hitting the ground.
- ConnectionsFeatured in Cinema Europe: The Other Hollywood: Where It All Began (1995)
Featured review
The first 'future wars' film
An inventor is working on a novel weapon when a fleet of enemy airships are sighted. An armoured car equipped with an anti-aircraft gun is dispatched but is destroyed, as is the biplane that attempts to shoot down one of the marauding airships. After the home of the inventor's girlfriend is bombed and the local cathedral goes up in flames, the inventor finally launches his 'aerial torpedo', a rocket-assisted, propeller-driven, surface-to-air UAV that damages the gas bag of the enemy ship, causing it to crash in pieces into a lake. For a short, the film has a strong narrative flow and a lot happens in seven minutes. The first science fiction film made in England, 'The Airship Destroyer' is also the first film in the 'military science-fiction' sub-genre and is remarkably prescient. Although military use of airships had been predicted by H.G. Wells (among others), Booth's film predates the first actual aerial attack by two years (a bomb was dropped on Turkish troops from an Italian airplane in Libya on November 1, 1911). Although surface-to-air missiles came much later and were dramatically different from Booth's contraption, the basic concept was correct and ahead of its time. The film's special effects, a mix of models, full-size props, cut-outs, and background paintings, are quite novel and effective for the era. There were few intertitles on the version I watched (on-line) but the story was not difficult to follow, and the score, although clearly not original, was fine. Typical of silent films, the acting is overly-dramatic and stagy, but the film is still entertaining and well-worth watching. The following year Booth directed another 'future weapon' story 'The Aerial Submarine', then returned to the future of strategic bombing in 'The Aerial Anarchists' (1911), which sadly has been lost.
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- jamesrupert2014
- Dec 23, 2019
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- Also known as
- The Airship Destroyer
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- See more company credits at IMDbPro
- Runtime20 minutes
- Color
- Sound mix
- Aspect ratio
- 1.33 : 1
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Top Gap
By what name was The Battle in the Clouds (1909) officially released in Canada in English?
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