![]() Out of spite, the Headmaster activates the machine’s doomsday function and threatens to blow up the world. Their united imaginations are strong enough to make the Headmaster’s machine malfunction. He’s just about to go under when Milo returns. Sam fights the machine with all his mental powers. That’s what “upgrading” means! The Headmaster keeps the imaginations of all the pupils in jars, like trophies – and Sam’s is next. ![]() There, he discovers, the Headmaster – and his vile, PE-teaching henchman Mr Gruntt – have a machine that can actually remove a pupil’s imagination. Oogie distracts the other IFs with a song and dance so that Milo can escape – but he might already be too late! Sam has been captured and sent to the Headmaster’s office. Milo, meanwhile, finds that Big Brenda has locked the doors of Imaginary Land so he can’t get back and help Sam. If the Minister approves his technique, all the children in the country – the world – will be upgraded! He’ll have to hurry: Sam is being hunted! The Minister of Education is going to visit the school and the Headmaster needs Sam so he can demonstrate his upgrading technique. Sam and Milo reconnect, and Milo promises to return to the real world and help Sam. As Sam’s mum encourages Sam to bring Milo back if that’s what will solve his problems, Oogie helps Milo remember Sam. In Imaginary Land, Milo meets Oogie – the only IF who won’t join Big Brenda’s party and forget his human friend. Sam is now alone and he doesn’t know what to do. Just as they’re about to leave, Alice is discovered, captured and upgraded. Sam and Alice hide while the Teachers reminisce about how happy they were in the days before upgrading – when children were still naughty and could be punished. The office is locked, so they sneak into the Staff Room to steal the key but, before they can escape, the Teachers appear. Meanwhile, in the real world, Sam and Alice need to get into the Headmaster’s office so they can find out the truth about his upgrading technique and stop it. ![]() Life there is one long party for the IFs but Milo is still unhappy and won’t join in so Brenda tricks him into forgetting Sam. At first, Milo refuses to believe this, but as the realisation sinks in, he is visited by Big Brenda, an extraordinary-looking creature who has come to take him to Imaginary Land, the place where all “IFs” (imaginary friends) are sent once their human friends no longer believe in them. Milo persists until Sam loses his temper and tells Milo a terrible truth: Milo isn’t real – he’s Sam’s imaginary friend. Milo, meanwhile, has grown jealous of Alice, but when he tells Sam to stop spending time with her, Sam refuses. ![]() It won’t be easy but Sam believes that the code of loyalty he learned when having imaginary adventures with Milo – “never leave a man behind” – will give them the strength to defeat the forces of darkness. Sam vows to help Alice stop the Headmaster and set the upgraded pupils free. Sam has made friends with another pupil, Alice, who knows there’s something sinister behind all this: one of the upgraded pupils is her sister, whose kindness and creativity have been extinguished by the process. The Headmaster explains to the new arrivals that this is the result of his pioneering teaching technique and these “upgraded” pupils are guaranteed exam success.Īs the term goes on, more and more of Sam’s classmates are sent to the Headmaster’s office to be upgraded. Their super-disciplined way of moving and speaking puts Milo in mind of “Martian battle robots”. When Sam and Milo arrive at the school the next morning, they notice something strange about the older pupils. Sam’s mum comes to tell him it’s time to go in: tomorrow is his first day at secondary school and he has to stop playing and grow up. As they play in the small garden of Sam’s new house, they use their imaginations to turn the ordinary world around them into a place of wonder and adventure. Sam and Milo are 11 years old and best friends.
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