Time Machine (1960) Back to the Past, and Then Fast Forward Again
In Part 4, we look at why the movie was, in many ways, better than the book
Last time, we left the time traveler in the middle of a desperate struggle to save Weena and the other Eloi from the cannibalistic Morlocks. The traveler is pinned to the ground by one of the Morlocks. It has overpowered him and has him by the throat.
An Eloi rises to the occasion
It looks like all is lost for the hero, but then one of the Eloi strikes the Morlock from behind. This was an oddly goofy development because the Eloi are supposed to be very weak. That’s one of their defining characteristics, and yet this little Eloi’s blow is so powerful it kills the Morlock:
Goofy or not, this is a big moment in the film. One of the reasons the traveler had decided to stay and try to help the Eloi is that he believes that their human spirit could be reawakened. The brave little Eloi’s heroic act proves he is right. The traveler rises to his feet and retrieves his torch, and the fight continues.
Meanwhile, a pipe connected to a rock wall is shooting out petroleum to power the machines. As the traveler and the Eloi fight their way out of the cave, the traveler throws his torch into the petroleum spilling out from the pipe and running into a pool. The petroleum ignites, and the Morlocks’ lair begins to burn. The traveler and the Eloi climb out of the cave through one of the wells — it turns out that they are actually buried smokestacks.
Once on the surface, the traveler and the Eloi begin throwing sticks down smokestacks to fuel the fire. That was a little silly but it doesn’t matter. the traveler and the Eloi clear the area just as the machines below explode, and the sand-covered plain collapses on top of the Morlocks’ lair.
And then the return becomes possible
It looks like the day is saved, so Weena and the traveler spend some quality time together. They flirt for a while, then the Eloi begin making a fuss, so they return to the sphinx-like building to see what’s going on. The doors to the building are open — and the time machine is sitting inside the structure.
Overjoyed, the time traveler rushes to the machine and beckons Weena to join him, but she hesitates. That is a good thing because the doors close behind the traveler, and the Morlocks attack. The traveler climbs into the machine, fights off a few Morlocks, killing one of them.
Then the traveler begins traveling through time again. However, he starts by going mistakenly into the future.
I remember being forced to sit through this movie in school. The one moment I remembered from the film was the scene where the Morlock the traveler had killed underwent a fast forward process of decay as the futurebound traveler watched. I must’ve thought it was pretty cool.
Anyway, the traveler realizes his mistake and begins traveling into the past. He finds himself back at home just in time for the meeting he’d scheduled with Filby. With the flashback finished, the movie returns to where it began.
Of course, none of his friends believe his tale, but the traveler pulls out a flower Weena had given to him and shows it to Filby. Filby is baffled because, even though he is interested in botany, he can’t identify the flower. Once again, the traveler’s friends decide to leave.
Filby begins to leave as well, but the traveler, knowing that Filby will be killed during World War 1, tells Filby goodbye in a way that suggests he’ll never see him again. This confuses Filby, and he wants to inquire further about the flower because — aside from the fact that he can’t identify it — there’s no way such a flower could bloom during the wintertime, so he returns to the traveler’s house. However, when Filby enters the traveler’s lab, he sees that the traveler is gone. All that remains are the skid marks from the machine. The maid, who is also baffled by all of this, is standing beside Filby, so Filby tells her that since the Morlocks had moved the machine, the traveler had returned the machine to its original position. That way he could reappear near Weena, who would be terrified for him since he’d been caught in the Morlocks’ trap. After Filby gives his conjecture, the maid asks him if the traveler will return. Filby says he might because the traveler has all the time in the world. Then the movie ends.
The movie vs. the novel
I liked the movie’s ending better than that of the novel. For one thing, Weena’s fate in the novel is far more tragic and yet almost dismissive, which really annoyed me. For another thing, at the end of the book, the traveler is seen going to his machine with a camera, but he never returns, which implies that he probably met a horrible fate.
Ultimately, the traveler couldn’t return to the present forever. If he had, then the author would have to explain how nobody else wound up with a time machine. But the idea of him leaving for love is far more appealing than the thought of him just leaving for pictures, only to be eaten by a Morlock. Sue me for being sentimental.
But I must also say that overall I enjoyed the film better than the book. I found the book’s affirmation of communism unsettling and humans without their humanity are not easy to root for. Given H.G. Wells’s treatment of Weena, I don’t think he was really rooting for the Eloi any more than the Morlocks. Part of the film’s charm — which I think makes it a staple in sci-fi — is the idyllic people and scenery juxtaposed with the horrific creatures living underground. The contrast makes the story interesting. By contrast and Wells’s contemptuous description of the Eloi undermines that.
The novel is less captivating for two other reasons. One: the reader knows that the time traveler will return, which reduces suspense. Two: because the Eloi are really those “awful” bourgeoisie who have finally come to manifest their delicate dispositions, the reader has no reason to be invested in their fate. The movie avoids these pitfalls. It drops the communist analysis and gives the Eloi a humanity that can be rekindled. This was an astute move on the part of the film’s writers. It gives the audience something to hope for, a story question — again, stakes, as I like to put it. Thus, the movie is a classic, and for good reason.
Why timeless?
As to why H. G. Wells’s tale is timeless, I think it is simply because of the premise. The idea of traveling through time has captivated — and will continue to captivate — audiences around the globe. The film demonstrates that the writers of these sci-fi tales need to avoid goofy paradoxes that are meant to confuse audiences and focus on story premises that captivate them.
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"By contrast and Wells’s contemptuous description of the Eloi undermines that."
One of Wells' biggest flaws as a science fiction writer was that he never gave any of his characters, even the leads, much depth. In his view they served the story's central idea rather than vice versa.
And, unfortunately, because his influence on the genre was massive, a lot of the later generation of SF writers, though not all, tended to develop their characters in the same way.
But when he moved into writing more realistic books like "Kipps" (which was semi-autobiographical) and "Ann Veronica" in the early 20th century, he was forced to treat his people more realistically, for once.