Film

The Tunnel

Other titles called The Tunnel: the 2011 film, the 2013 series (Sky Go), the 2016 film.

A 1935 British sci-fi epic about engineering a tunnel beneath the Atlantic. It's earnest, technically minded, and fascinated by the machinery of ambition—less interested in drama than in the sheer audacity of connecting continents. A period piece that wears its optimism like armor, for those who love vintage visions of the future.

TMDb rating2.8

Should you watch it?

Watch it if you love old-fashioned big-idea science fiction, where the thrill is watching engineers argue over blueprints and budgets while the impossible scheme takes shape, and the period sets do the heavy lifting.

Skip it if you need brisk pacing or modern effects, since this is a stately 1930s picture where the ambition runs well ahead of the drama and the characters sometimes feel like diagrams.

What it asks of you: Settle in for ninety-four minutes of mostly talk, with patience for stiff stagecraft and earnest speeches rather than sustained suspense.

Not sure? Find tonight's pick in a minute.

If you liked this

Things to Come1936

Written by H.G. Wells himself, this is the gold standard of 1930s utopian sci-fi. It shares The Tunnel's faith in engineering and progress, but spans centuries with even grander ambition and visual spectacle.

But The dialogue is stiff and philosophical rather than dramatically urgent. Long stretches prioritize ideas over character, which can feel airless to modern viewers.

Things to Come poster

Just Imagine1930

A genuinely weird musical comedy set in a futuristic New York. Like The Tunnel, it's fascinated by impossible infrastructure and the comedy of taking technological dreams seriously in an old-fashioned way.

But The pacing is chaotic and the humor lands inconsistently. Some of it plays as unintentionally offensive by today's standards.

Just Imagine poster

Metropolis1927

Fritz Lang's masterpiece about a future city divided by class, built on monumental scale and practical effects. It shares The Tunnel's confidence that cinema can make the impossible feel real and present it as spectacle.

But Even the restored version runs long and the plot can feel melodramatic. The underlying politics are complicated and sometimes troubling.

Metropolis poster

Not sure tonight? Get a pick in a minute, starting from The Tunnel

The wildcard

Something you would not have found on your own.

No Blade of Grass1970

Both are British films obsessed with large-scale engineering projects and their consequences for humanity; The Tunnel celebrates what humans can build, No Blade of Grass shows what can break.

A 1970 British eco-disaster film that asks what happens when humanity's greatest engineering feat—feeding itself through technology—fails catastrophically. It's a direct moral inversion of The Tunnel's faith in progress: same medium, opposite sermon. Genuinely unsettling.

But It's brutal and deeply pessimistic. The sexual violence is handled without nuance and feels gratuitous rather than purposeful. Uncomfortable in ways that don't feel accidental.

No Blade of Grass poster
More like this (1)

The Shape of Things to Come1979

Another adaptation of Wells, but a wildly campy 1979 take with a ridiculous robot and genuinely fun action sequences. For when you want utopian sci-fi but need something that doesn't take itself quite so seriously.

But It's aggressively silly and some of the design choices are risible. If you want earnestness, this will feel like mockery.

The Shape of Things to Come poster

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