313:(taking his name from a poem he frequently recites) prompts him to discover a world beyond the Tripods' control. Together with his cousin Henry and later a French teenager named Jean-Paul Deliet, nicknamed "Beanpole", they move off towards the White Mountains to avoid being Capped. On the way, they encounter a girl who is a possible romantic interest for Will, but when she is Capped (earlier than expected) they move on. The novel climaxes with Henry and Beanpole discovering that earlier, when Will was captured by a Tripod, he was unknowingly implanted with a tracking device. When Henry and Beanpole remove the device, a nearby Tripod attacks them, but the boys defeat the Tripod and elude subsequent efforts to find them. The story ends with them joining the resistance, located in the eponymous White Mountains. The White Mountains also are free from the tripods.
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653:, than purely eccentric vehicles. In the BBC serial, the Masters did not need to eat, sleep or drink as humans do. Additionally, they were not the rulers of the city, but were, in turn, under the rule of higher beings made of pure energy, known as Cognoscs. The Masters came from a planet named Trion that was in the center of a
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Junior
Television Magazine, and started to present in picture strip form additional adventures of Will, Henry, and Beanpole on their way to the White Mountains, starting at some unspecified point during the fourth episode of the first BBC serial as the trio pass through ruined Paris, and then heading
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The saga ends with the
Resistance leader Julius being deposed at a summit of nations. In contrast to Julius' efforts to unite the world, the alliance built during the resistance falls apart, with nationalistic hostilities appearing and each country going their separate ways. Will, Beanpole, and Fritz
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The winners are taken to the Tripod city in a pressurized dome astride a river. Inside the city, the boys encounter the
Tripods' operators, whom they refer to as the "Masters". Human males are slaves inside the cities, while beautiful females are killed and preserved for the Masters to admire. Slaves
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is a variation on post-apocalyptic literature, wherein humanity has been enslaved by "Tripods" — gigantic three-legged walking machines, piloted by unseen alien entities (later identified as "Masters"). Human society is largely pastoral, with few habitations larger than villages, and what little
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The
Masters in the BBC production enjoyed a hotter living environment. It was also established that the rigors of the Master's environment cause premature aging in humans. Treatment of humans slaves varied - ranging from the harsh and thoughtless abuse of "miner" slaves to the relatively luxurious
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While Fritz is abused by his Master, Will is treated as a privileged pet by his. Eventually, Will's Master reveals a plan to replace the Earth's atmosphere with the
Masters' toxic air to enable full control of the Earth. When the Master finds Will's diary, Will accidentally kills him to maintain the
309:, except that all adolescent and adult humans are subject to Tripod control. Protagonist Will Parker, a thirteen-year-old boy living in the fictional English village of Wherton, is looking forward to being Capped at the next Capping Day, until a chance meeting with a mysterious fake-Capped man named
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effect on them, and use this knowledge to simultaneously attack their cities. Having introduced alcohol into the aliens' city water systems, raiding groups kill the
Masters in two of the three cities by forcing open airlocks and exposing the unconscious aliens to Earth's atmosphere. However, the
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After a year in the White
Mountains, the resistance charges Will, Beanpole, and a German boy, Fritz, who are equipped with fake Caps, to infiltrate a Tripod city by competing in a regional sporting exhibition where the winners will be taken by the Tripods. Will, a boxer, and Fritz, a runner, win
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also fails, another attack is undertaken using hot air balloons developed by
Beanpole. After most bombs detonate either before making contact with the dome of the city, or after the bomb has bounced clear, Henry jumps from his balloon onto the city's domed roof and holds the bomb in place,
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To avoid an overuse of the mechanical
Tripods, the producers invented a new faction, the "Black Guards," as a human police force with the task to enforce the will of the Masters. They served as a more immediate threat for Will, his friends and the resistance.
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Sometime later, the
Masters' atmosphere-seeding spaceship arrives and destroys the remains of their cities, then leaves – presumably since the cities contained "star maps" which showed the location of the Masters' home world, also to prevent the humans from
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When the BBC made the television series of The Tripods in the 1980s, they departed from Christopher's description of the Masters. In the television series, the Masters somewhat resemble the Tripods they drive. This makes the Tripods seem much more like
456:, which has managed to restrict its hypnotized population better than other European nations. When the Swiss are eventually invaded and enslaved, the narrator and his family establish the "White Mountains" resistance movement of the original trilogy.
285:, Masters begin to believe that humans should be capped at an earlier age "because some humans, in the year or two before they are Capped, become rebellious and act against the masters", but this cannot be done, because Capping must wait until the
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their technology – although Beanpole notes that they have already learned much from the cities. Modern human technology, which was halted during the Masters' rule is rediscovered rapidly, including the theory of space travel.
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Humans are controlled from age 14 by implants called "Caps," which suppress individuality and free will and make them docile. Some people's minds are broken by the Caps; they become so-called vagrants. According to
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secret. With the assistance of Fritz (who temporarily stays behind to maintain Will's alibi), Will escapes. The story ends with Will and Beanpole giving Fritz up for dead and returning to the White Mountains.
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The method by which the Masters name themselves is also different. Rather than having names, they are simply called by their addresses. Will's Master is called West Avenue 4, Sector 6, Level 8, or West 468.
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begins broadcasting, and engenders in some viewers an enthusiasm that gradually becomes a mania. As an increasingly hypnotized society falls under the control of the Masters, he and his family escape to
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off at a tangent to the television version. From Issue 6, the boys were accompanied on their journey by a young woman named Fizzio, a character original to the strip. The strips were drawn by
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world where humanity is enslaved by "Tripods" — gigantic three-legged walking machines piloted by an alien race later identified as the "Masters". The first two books were the basis of a
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is a young English boy. He and a friend bear witness to a botched initial invasion by a single Tripod in the British countryside. After the event is old news,
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to organize resistance against the Tripods. The resistance, having ambushed a Tripod and captured a Master, accidentally discover that alcohol has a strong
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The series has been translated into Arabic, Dutch, Danish, Finnish, French, German, Hebrew, Persian, Spanish, Greek, and Mandarin Chinese (Taiwan).
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and in each issue, they consisted of three pages; the first two in colour and the third in black and white. The storyline was never concluded as
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is a prequel written twenty years after the publication of the original trilogy. The plot follows the description of the conquest given in
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On January 4, 2005, Gregor Johnson was hired to direct a feature film adaptation of The Tripods and rewrite the screenplay for
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sacrificing himself and shattering the dome. Earth's atmosphere kills the Masters, and Henry is remembered as a hero.
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are furnished with breathing masks to survive the aliens' atmosphere but are rapidly exhausted by the stronger
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industry exists is conducted under the watchful presence of the Tripods. Lifestyle is reminiscent of the
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by boat. When they find it is also controlled by the Capped, they hijack a plane to
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their respective contests, while Beanpole fails to win in the jumping events.
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reunite as a tribute to Julius, to work towards establishing a better world.
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The first series was released on both VHS and DVD. The BBC released
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Multiple graphic adaptations have been produced, notably including:
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was hired to direct a feature film adaptation of The Tripods and
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would write the screenplay starting with "The White Mountain."
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This article is about the novel series. For other uses, see
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793:"Tripods — The Complete Series 1 & 2 DVD"
600:in Australia. The music soundtrack was written by
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1263:Adaptations
1236:Empty World
1100:Other books
975:The Tripods
922:The Tripods
883:Digital Spy
742:"Boys Life"
718:Simon Pulse
687:Alex Proyas
685:. In 2009,
609:The Tripods
602:Ken Freeman
589:The Tripods
538:Frank Bolle
519:Comic books
454:Switzerland
378:Middle East
267:Middle Ages
262:The Tripods
231:The Tripods
179:Young adult
140:The Tripods
1296:Categories
1220:Dom and Va
918:Blue Peter
748:. May 1981
697:References
679:Don Murphy
613:Alick Rowe
529:Boys' Life
376:, and the
311:Ozymandias
271:Modern Age
238:novels by
87:newspapers
1252:Bad Dream
1228:Wild Jack
964:Books by
509:audiobook
382:soporific
287:braincase
212:Published
189:Publisher
1196:Pendulum
1073:Fireball
1063:Fireball
752:19 April
460:Editions
450:Guernsey
374:Caucasus
256:Synopsis
165:Language
117:May 2015
1065:trilogy
1026:trilogy
929:YouTube
889:8 March
861:8 March
835:8 March
825:Variety
803:18 June
777:18 July
169:English
155:Country
101:scholar
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1005:(1968)
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978:series
909:Tripod
724:
681:&
549:, the
418:(1988)
387:Panama
372:, the
364:(1968)
324:(1967)
301:(1967)
293:Series
204:(U.S.)
198:(U.K.)
145:Author
103:
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645:mecha
275:watch
175:Genre
108:JSTOR
94:books
1061:The
891:2024
863:2024
837:2024
805:2010
779:2020
754:2023
722:ISBN
560:BEEB
546:BEEB
347:lead
345:and
343:gold
339:gold
215:1967
80:news
927:on
594:BBC
551:BBC
63:by
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