The Escape of Mr. McKinley– a Soviet science fiction film from 1975. Starring: Donatas Banionis, Zhanna Bolotova
Production: Mosfilm Studio, 1975
Filmmaker:Mikhail Schweitzer
Scriptwriter:Leonid Leonov
Starring:Angelina Stepanova, Boris Babochkin, Alla Demidova, Vladimir Vysotsky, Alexander Vokach, Viktor Sergachev, Sofia Garrel, Leonid Kuravlev, Tatyana Lavrova, Vladimir Kenigson, Olga Barnet, Yuri Volyntsev, Igor Kvasha, Igor Kashintsev, Alexey Safonov
Duration:2 episodes 166 minutes
Plot of the film The Escape of Mr. McKinley:
В 1970-е годы некий талантливый ученый изобретает «коллоидный газ» для длительного сна. А проворный бизнесмен Сэм Боулдер использует его в коммерческих целях, создав сеть сальваториев – подземных хранилищ для тех, кто хочет «убежать» в будущее от болезней, скуки или ядерной войны.
A simple clerk from the McKinley Advertising Bureau dreams of starting a family with a bunch of kids, but internal fears of possible disasters prevent him from realizing these plans. To immerse himself in a sleep for hundreds of years in order to avoid all sorts of troubles seemed to be the ideal solution for such an anxious person as Mr. McKinley.
And so, the hero, suffering from an inferiority complex and afraid of a nuclear war, desperately tries to get into the salvatorium. He makes various attempts: he plans to kill a rich old lady, looks for ways to make money. In the end, he wins the lottery and gets the opportunity to make his dream come true.
The hallucinatory dream shows McKinley in an apocalyptic future. However, the real ending is optimistic: the hero remains in his time, proposes to his beloved and begins to overcome his inner fears...