NAME THE FUTURE SUPERSTAR IN THIS VERY ODD 1970 SCI-FI MUSICAL!
The answer is Olivia Newton-John, and the wonderfully strange film is Toomorrow (1970).
Long before she became the beloved Sandy Olsson in Grease, before Xanadu turned her into a global pop-culture icon, and before her music career made her one of the most recognizable voices of her generation, Olivia Newton-John appeared in one of the most unusual films of the early 1970s.
The movie was called Toomorrow, and even by the imaginative standards of 1970, its premise was extraordinary: a group of young students form a pop band, their unusual music attracts the attention of extraterrestrials, and the aliens ultimately decide that the young musicians may possess exactly what their dying civilization needs.
Released theatrically in the United Kingdom on August 27, 1970, the film starred a 21-year-old Newton-John in one of her earliest major screen roles. (Apple TV)
And if you recognize the young woman in the photograph immediately, there’s a good reason. The face is unmistakable.
This was Olivia Newton-John—years before Grease transformed her career.
So, What Exactly Was Toomorrow?
Directed and written by Val Guest, Toomorrow was a peculiar combination of science fiction, musical comedy and youth culture. It featured Newton-John alongside Benny Thomas, Vic Cooper, Karl Chambers and veteran actor Roy Dotrice. The movie was produced by two men whose names could hardly have been more different in their areas of expertise: Don Kirshner, the music producer associated with The Monkees, and Harry Saltzman, one of the major producers behind the James Bond films. (Apple TV)
The concept was essentially an attempt to manufacture a new pop sensation and put that group at the center of a feature film.
The group was also called Toomorrow.
The students are trying to pay their way through college by performing music. Their sound, however, turns out to have a far greater significance than they could possibly imagine.
Their music produces unusual sonic vibrations through a special device known as a “tonaliser.”
Those vibrations are detected by the Alphoids, an extraterrestrial civilization facing extinction.
And suddenly, the young musicians aren’t simply trying to make it through college.
They’re being asked to save an alien race.
Olivia Newton-John Was the Young Star at the Center
Newton-John played a character simply named Olivia, the only woman in the fictional pop group.
At the time, she was nowhere near the superstar status she would eventually achieve.
That is perhaps what makes Toomorrow so fascinating today.
Watching it with hindsight means watching a future international superstar at a remarkably early stage of her career.
She had the voice, the charisma and the camera presence, but the Olivia Newton-John who would eventually become one of the biggest stars in the world was still waiting just around the corner.
The film therefore serves as a kind of time capsule.
It captures Newton-John at 21, when she was still establishing herself as a performer and experimenting with the possibilities of combining music and acting. The movie’s producers clearly saw something special in her.
In fact, according to accounts of the production, casting Newton-John was Harry Saltzman’s idea. (Wikipedia)
That decision turned out to be one of the film’s most enduring contributions to popular culture.
The movie itself became obscure.
Newton-John did not.
The Plot Gets Even Stranger
The story begins with the young musicians navigating student life and trying to establish themselves as a pop group.
Their musical experiments attract the attention of John Williams, an extraterrestrial who has been living on Earth in human form.
Williams discovers that the strange vibrations produced by the group’s music could potentially solve an extraordinary problem confronting his people.
The Alphoids have developed what is essentially a condition of musical and emotional sterility. Their civilization has lost something vital in its relationship with sound.
The Toomorrow musicians, with their youthful energy and emotional musical expression, may have the answer.
The aliens therefore abduct the group and transport them to their world.
The premise sounds like something that could have emerged from a fever dream after someone watched a British pop musical and a science-fiction movie back-to-back.
And that’s precisely part of the film’s charm.
The BFI describes the movie as a story in which a London-based pop group is abducted by aliens because the sonic vibrations from their “tonaliser” could save the Alphoids from extinction. (BFI Player)
It is ridiculous.
It is ambitious.
It is wonderfully 1970.
And somehow, Olivia Newton-John makes it work.
Don Kirshner Wanted Another Pop Phenomenon
One of the most interesting aspects of Toomorrow is the involvement of Don Kirshner.
Kirshner had played an important role in the creation and musical development of The Monkees, a group that demonstrated just how successfully television, pop music and carefully constructed personalities could be combined.
Toomorrow was an attempt to apply a related formula to a new group.
The performers weren’t simply assembled for the movie. They were intended to function as a real musical act as well.
Contemporary coverage described the members as having been selected through talent searches conducted on behalf of Kirshner and Saltzman. The final lineup consisted of Newton-John, Karl Chambers, Vic Cooper and Benny Thomas. (World Radio History)
The plan was bigger than one strange movie.
There was a pop group.
There were recordings.
There was a soundtrack.
And there was the hope that the combination would create a new entertainment sensation.
But the project did not unfold as smoothly as its creators hoped.
Behind the Scenes, Things Were Anything but Smooth
The production reportedly became increasingly troubled.
Kirshner and Saltzman had disagreements, and the complicated relationship between the producers became one of the film’s most talked-about behind-the-scenes stories.
According to later accounts, Kirshner eventually distanced himself from the project. (Wikipedia)
The movie also encountered legal problems.
The BFI notes that Toomorrow was effectively shelved after only a short theatrical run following a lawsuit and then became extraordinarily difficult for the public to see for decades. (BFI Player)
That is an extraordinary fate for a film designed to launch a major new pop group.
Instead of becoming a cultural phenomenon, Toomorrow became a curiosity.
But history had other plans for its leading lady.
The Film Was Strange. Olivia’s Future Was Anything But.
It is almost impossible to discuss Toomorrow without looking ahead.
Because only eight years after the film’s release, Olivia Newton-John would appear in Grease as Sandy, alongside John Travolta.
That role would completely change the scale of her fame.
Suddenly, the young singer from Toomorrow was an international movie star.
Songs such as “You’re the One That I Want” and “Hopelessly Devoted to You” became defining moments of the late 1970s, while Grease became one of the most enduring movie musicals ever made.
Newton-John followed that success with Xanadu in 1980, further cementing her association with music, film and glamorous pop culture.
Seen from that perspective, Toomorrow becomes almost surreal.
Here was the future Sandy, still in her early twenties, standing in a bizarre science-fiction musical about extraterrestrials and sonic vibrations.
Nobody watching it in 1970 could have known what was coming.
A Film That Nearly Disappeared
Another reason Toomorrow has become fascinating to film historians and Olivia Newton-John fans is how difficult it became to see.
For decades, the movie was essentially a lost curiosity for many viewers.
The BFI eventually presented a newly scanned and restored version, giving modern audiences an opportunity to rediscover this unusual piece of British pop culture. (BFI Player)
That restoration helped place the movie in a new context.
Rather than simply being remembered as an unsuccessful attempt to manufacture a pop group, it could be appreciated as a snapshot of an era when filmmakers were fascinated by youth culture, experimental music, student politics, science fiction and the possibilities of pop stardom.
And right in the middle of it was Olivia Newton-John.
More Than Just a Curiosity
It’s easy to dismiss Toomorrow because its plot sounds so absurd.
But doing so misses something important.
Films like this can reveal how popular culture imagined the future.
In 1970, young people were changing music, fashion, politics and entertainment. Science fiction was becoming increasingly adventurous, while pop music was being incorporated into movies in new ways.
Toomorrow attempted to combine all of those trends.
It was part pop concert, part college comedy and part extraterrestrial adventure.
The result wasn’t a blockbuster.
But it became something perhaps more interesting: a time capsule.
And within that time capsule was one of the world’s future superstars.
The Answer to the Quiz
So, if you recognized the young blonde woman in the photograph, you were looking at Olivia Newton-John.
And the film is Toomorrow, the 1970 British science-fiction musical directed by Val Guest.
The movie was released in the UK on August 27, 1970, rather than August 28—a small date distinction that is easy to lose when old films are discussed decades later. (IMDb Pro)
Newton-John was just 21.
Her character was a student and singer.
Her fictional band was discovered by aliens.
Their music was considered the possible salvation of an extraterrestrial civilization.
And yet, the strangest part of the whole story isn’t the aliens.
It’s what happened afterward.
The obscure young woman starring in this wonderfully odd film went on to become Olivia Newton-John, one of the most beloved performers of her generation.
She became Sandy.
She became a Grammy-winning singer.
She became the voice behind unforgettable songs.
She became a movie icon.
And she left behind a career that lasted for decades.
So the next time someone asks you to identify the future superstar in this peculiar 1970 science-fiction musical, there’s only one answer:
Olivia Newton-John.
And the movie?
Toomorrow.
A strange little film about aliens, music and a dying planet—and an unexpectedly perfect time capsule of the moment before one young singer’s career was about to explode into superstardom.
