In the upstairs theatre audience was a young music student named Julian Craster (Marius Goring) who was present to hear the ballet""s score forHeart of Fire, composed by his teacher Professor Andrew Palmer (Austin Trevor).Only one of the three survives physically intact, but all of them emerge irrevocably changed.This ambitious drama displays the reasons for the protagonists, all believers in the American dream, to leave home for the conflict overseas: to test and prove their manhood, to show their friendship-solidarity, and to demonstrate their patriotism, etc.In the ship""s mess hall, the crew discussed the fate of Zion.Supposedly, "someone screwed it up" - an EMP was triggered before Commander Lock""s pre-emptive, counter-attacking resistance ships could get into position, and five ships instantly went down.The remainder of the film""s narrative is set in Paris.In the next scene, a clever transitionary scene from Venice to Paris, a Morse-Code like radio-transmitted signal is beamed from the top of a technology-transformed Eiffel Tower (viewed at night) - the signals shoot out like bolts of lightning (similar to the RKO Pictures opening trademark).