Tunnels (film)

Plot

The main influence in fourteen-year-old Will Burrows life is his father, Dr. Burrows, and together they share an interest in archaeology and a fascination for the buried past. When Dr. Burrows begins to notice strange "pallid men" where they live in Highfield, and then promptly goes missing, Will and friend Chester go in search of him. They discover a blocked passageway behind bookshelves in the cellar of the Burrows home and re-excavate it, finding the passage leads to a door set into the rock, and beyond the door is an old lift that takes them down to another set of doors. A cobblestone street lies beyond, lit by a row of orb-like street lamps; houses that appear to be carved out of the walls themselves flank the street.

They are soon captured by the police of the underground community, known as the Colony. In prison, Will is visited by Mr. Jerome, and his son Cal. They reveal Will was actually born in the Colony, and that they are his real family; Mr. Jerome his father and Cal his younger brother. Will is eventually released from the prison and taken to the Jeromes home, where Will and Cals Uncle Tam is delighted to see him and informs Will that his adoptive father, Dr. Burrows, was recently there, and had willingly traveled down into the Deeps — a place even deeper in the Earth than The Colony. Will learns that the Styx, the religious rulers of the Colony, are either going to enslave Chester or banish him to the Deeps to fend for himself. Will refuses to abandon his friend, and Uncle Tam formulates a plan for him to rescue Chester and to take him back to the surface.

Will and Cal attempt to rescue Chester before he is sent to the deeps on the "Miners Train", but the Styx arrive and they are forced to leave Chester behind. During the botched escape attempt, it is revealed that Rebecca, Wills adoptive sister, is actually a Styx implanted in his family to monitor him. The boys head through a series of tunnels to the Eternal City, and old stone city, estimated by Will to be from roman times, where the air is filled which deadly bio-toxins. They avoid the Styx soldiers, who patrol the city with their vicious stalker attack dogs, and eventually emerge on the bank of the Thames. Will makes for his home in Highfield, but there Wills health deteriorates, so Cal helps him to his Auntie Jeans flat where he recovers. Soon they return underground to find Wills adoptive father, and attempt to rescue Chester once again. They encounter another Styx patrol, and Uncle Tam kills a member of the Styx, whom he calls Crawfly, but is mortally wounded in the fight, and the strong willed Uncle Tam chooses to stay behind to give the boys time to escape. With the help of Imago Freebone, a member of Uncle Tams gang, Will and Cal escape to a small hiding place half way between the Colony and the Eternal City. There, they rest and mourn for Uncle Tam; and are told by Imago that Chesters train to the deeps will pass directly under their hiding spot shortly. They jump down into the train through a hole in the floor of the hiding spot, and find Chester. Together they ride down to the Deeps. In the books epilogue, Rebecca kills Imago, who was hiding on the surface, by poison.