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asmonet's avatar

Anyone know what this movie is?

Asked by asmonet (21445points) November 23rd, 2008

Based on a short story by a supposedly well known science fiction writer (at least according to my teacher at the time.)

It’s about a little girl and her schoolmates who live on a planet that only gets sunlight once every hundred years or something ridiculously long like that. The little girl is originally from Earth and tells all of her classmates about the sun, the flowers, the moon and the birds and all the things one would normally find outside. None of them believe her and ridicule her constantly. They all grew up on this planet underground or in some sort of compound and they get their light from artificial lamps they have to stand next to for like ten minutes a day. Anyway, the little girl has a stash of things from home, some pressed flowers, pictures, etc. The kids find her hiding place I think and I think they destroy her keepsakes.

Anyway, she goes around telling everyone the sun is coming and they don’t believe her, so they shove her in a closet and lock her in to punish her for being ridiculous. Then the sun comes out for that one hour every hundred years and they all run out and play and frolic and forget how they locked her in. They remember her once the sun sets and let her out, all very ashamed of themselves.

Any ideas? I saw this in my English class in the 7th grade and my teacher form back then won’t respond to my god damn email. Jerk.

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9 Answers

St.George's avatar

It’s a short story by Ray Bradbury, All Summer in a Day.

asmonet's avatar

I fucking lurve you.

St.George's avatar

Gee, thanks (blush).

El_Cadejo's avatar

Wow i read that in elementary school.It was on one of our standardized tests. Flahsback!

MrItty's avatar

Holy crap, I’ve been wondering what that story is for about 15 years now, but could never figure out how to describe it well enough for anyone to know what I’m talking about!! Thanks both for the question and the answer!!

eambos's avatar

I love that story! I remember reading it when I was about 10 years old. I might actually use the public library!

EmpressPixie's avatar

That story almost made me cry when we read it in eighth grade.

wundayatta's avatar

You know, it’s sort of the opposite of Asimov’s story, “Nightfall.” On a planet with multiple suns, there is night only once a millenium, when the suns all line up right. At darkness, the people go crazy.

I wonder… hang on, let me check…. Nightfall is September 1941, and the Bradbury story was published in 1959. I suppose Bradbury could have been working on that story for a long time, but I guess it’s unlikely they decided to do opposite stories.

EmpressPixie's avatar

And there is a Twilight Zone that combines them both, in a way. The main character is on earth after we’ve been knocked off course and are heading into the sun. Everything is so hot and it is day all the time. In actuality, she’s feverish and asleep. We’ve been knocked off course away from the sun and it is dark all the time and getting super cold.

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