There Will Come Soft Rains (Russian: Будет Ласковый Доджь) is a 1984 Soviet era Uzbek produced apocalyptic short film created by Uzbekfilm Studio. The short is around 9 minutes and fifty seconds long with a narrative based on Ray Bradbury's short story of the same name.
Plot[]
An egg rolls down a half tube into an iron grip that breaks it open upon a hot pan. Once cooked it is carried by conveyer belt to join five others among cups and a central thermos that is filled by an automated brewer with coffee. The meal is raised up by a podium to take it's place in the center of a circular table. Snow falls outside two broken windows in a metallic dining room. Upon the left wall the time and date are displayed. It is 07:00 December 31st, 2026. A machine descends from the ceiling, folding out into a serpentine robot with bone like metallic fingers below its visual sensors. The robot states that is is now on duty and turns to a door on the right wall, with a wireless interface it opens the door and in a mechanical masculine voice informs the master and mistress that it is 07:00 and time to get up. A pair of full body suits and gas masks line the backwall of the master bedroom, the window like those of the dining room has been broken and in the bed are ashes in the form of the Humans that once rested there. With another wireless pulse the machine raises the beds vertically and the ashes fall to the ground in piles atop slippers that where waiting for the feet of the master and mistress. The machine timidly withdraws from the room and turns to the next door over, opening it to inform the children that they need to get up for school. There the broken window and ashes of the previous room are there among scattered toys- one of which is still on. The machine tells them twice to get up for school before raising the beds as well causing the ashes to fall to the floor. The robot then moves into the room where the eldest of the family was, a monitor displaying an unspoiled landscape with sounds of nature playing next to a wheelchair and table with a lamp, record player, and tea set. Gently the robot moves behind the chair and asks Ms. McClellan how her sleep was. It looks down upon the ashen pile that rests in the chair. After a moment with no response the robot uses it's fingers to grasp the chair and gently pull it to join the beds at the dining table. The Monitor withdraws to reveal snow outside and another broken window. The machine serves breakfast while informing the family that "Today in Allendale, California it is 31st December 2026." After a time passes for breakfast the machine tells the master and mistress and children that it's time to head to work and school. In a hallway with hazard suits on the left wall a door opens out into the snowing landscape. The machine rests it's head on the armrest of the wheelchair informing Ms. McClellan that it's time for morning prayer. A crucifix appears from behind a wall panel and the machine sits in silent respect. The house is shown to be the last one standing in a large snow covered desolated cityscape. The following day with the table set again and all the empty chairs and beds around the machine celebrates New Years Day 2027 with a turkey dinner atop which is a small American flag on a toothpick laid out for the family. A bird wonders onto a window frame and the machine asks for a password, the bird of course doesn't understand and flies in. The machine registers the bird as an intruder and tries to defend the home only to topple chairs and the table over before breaking a wall through which the bird escapes. Pulling back into the home, visual sensors now with ash, rubble, and snow looking like tears obstructing the sensors the machine looks at the destruction it's caused and then turns to look at it's own power source- it stairs for a while contemplating before destroy it's self in an atomic explosion. After a long while the bird returns to the now ruined home and finds the monitor showing the unspoiled landscape- it tries desperately to enter that world hitting its self against the monitor until the record playing music stops and the screen stops with it. The poem, "There Will Come Soft Rains" then starts to be read as the screen pulls back showing the desolate cityscape again.
Production[]
Differences from Source Material[]
The animation's visual representation of the setting and and the protagonist differs from the work of Ray Bradbury. In Ray Bradbury's work the main character is 'the house' and lacks a face. The film provided a face for the character and altered them further by giving them a masculine rather than a feminine voice. The robot of the animation has only just started doing daily routines despite the family's lose, the visuals implying that while it was offline at night an atomic blast hit the city of Allendale with the first morning shown being the morning after. In Ray Bradbury's novel the house has been doing the daily routine for a good while after the blast. The house in which the animation's narrative takes place resembles a concrete bunker in a cityscape of toppled blocky skyscrapers while in the Ray Bradbury's work it was a wooden rural home with a white picket fence. The main character in the animation also differs in the context of its destruction. In the animation the robot destroys its self while in Ray Bradbury's work a fire starts in the home. The house in Ray Bradbury's work desperately tries to save it self after alerting the long dead family of the fire but ultimately fails. As the animation has the protagonist being a robot it lacks the mouse like robots that clean the home in Ray Bradbury's work. The film also lacks the family's dog and the dog's death.
Crew[]
- Director: N. Tulyakhodzhayev