Time Machine Experience (2002)

Description

The Time Machine is a 2002 American post-apocalyptic science fiction action adventure film loosely adapted by John Logan from the 1895 novel of the same name by H. G. Wells and the screenplay of the 1960 film of the same name by David Duncan. Arnold Leibovit served as executive producer, and Simon Wells, the great-grandson of the original author, served as director.

The film stars Guy Pearce, Orlando Jones, Samantha Mumba, Mark Addy, and Jeremy Irons, and includes a cameo by Alan Young, who also appeared in the 1960 film adaptation. The film is set in New York City instead of London. It contains new story elements not present in the original novel nor the 1960 film adaptation, including a romantic subplot, a new scenario about how civilization was destroyed, and several new characters, such as an artificially intelligent hologram and a Morlock leader.

The film received generally negative reviews from critics and grossed $123 million worldwide. It was nominated for the Academy Award for Best Makeup (John M. Elliot Jr. and Barbara Lorenz) at the 75th Academy Awards, but lost to Frida.

In 1899, Dr. Alexander Hartdegen is an inventor teaching at Columbia University in New York. Unlike his friend David Philby, Alexander would rather do pure research than work in the business world. After a mugger kills his fiancée Emma, he devotes himself to building a time machine that will allow him to travel back in time to save her. After completing the machine in 1903, he travels back to 1899 and prevents her murder, only to see her killed again when a carriage frightens the horses of another vehicle.

Alexander realizes that any attempt to save Emma will result in her death through other circumstances. He travels to 2030 to discover whether science has discovered how to change the past. At the New York Public Library, holographic librarian Vox 114 insists time travel to the past is impossible. Alexander travels to 2037 when the accidental destruction of the Moon by lunar colonists has begun rendering the Earth virtually uninhabitable. While restarting the machine, he is knocked unconscious by debris and travels forward 800,000 years to 16 July 802,701 before reawakening.

The Earth has healed, and the human race has reverted to a Stone Age-like primitive lifestyle. Some survivors, called « Eloi », live on the sides of cliffs of what was once Manhattan. Alexander is nursed back to health by a woman named Mara, one of the few Eloi who speaks English. He observes the broken moon and realizes that maybe his teachings led to this future, just like Philby said. The same night, Alexander and Mara’s younger brother, Kalen, dream of a jagged-toothed face and a creature calling their name. Alexander informs Mara of the dream, and she tells him they all have that dream. She then notices that his watch is missing.

The next day, the Eloi are attacked, and Mara is dragged underground by ape-like creatures. They are called « Morlocks, » and they hunt the Eloi. To rescue Mara, Kalen leads Alexander to Vox 114, which is still functional after 800,000 years.

After learning from Vox how to find the Morlocks, Alexander enters their underground lair through an opening that resembles the face in his nightmare.

He is captured and thrown into an area where Mara sits in a cage. Alexander meets an intelligent, humanoid Über-Morlock, who explains that Morlocks descend from the humans who went underground after the Moon broke apart, while the Eloi evolved from those who remained on the surface. The Über-Morlocks are a group of telepaths who rule the other Morlocks, who use the Eloi as food and breeding vessels.

The Über-Morlock explains that Alexander cannot alter Emma’s fate; her death drove him to build the time machine in the first place; therefore, saving her would be a grandfather paradox. The Über-Morlock shows Alexander the time machine and tells him to go home. Alexander gets into the machine but pulls the Über-Morlock in, carrying them into the future as they fight.

Accepting that he cannot save Emma, Alexander travels back to rescue Mara. After freeing her, he starts the machine and jams its gears, distorting time. Pursued by the Morlocks, Alexander and Mara escape to the surface as the time distortion explodes, killing the Morlocks and destroying their caves and the time machine. Alexander begins a new life with Mara and the Eloi, while Vox 114 helps him educate them.

In 1903, Philby and Mrs. Watchit, Alexander’s housekeeper, discuss his absence in his laboratory. Philby tells Mrs. Watchit he is glad Alexander has gone to a place where he can find peace and would like to hire her as a housekeeper. She accepts until Alexander returns. Mrs. Watchit bids Alexander farewell, and Philby leaves, looking toward the laboratory affectionately, then proudly throws his bowler hat away in tribute to Alexander’s objection to blind conformity.