Time Machine 2002: When the Good Guy Somehow Becomes the Bad Guy

In this final part of my six-part review, I look at a basic problem: The movie is pretentious without ultimately having anything to say

Photo by Ali Bokhari on Unsplash

Last time, we saw that the time traveler met the Uber-Morlock, who is the highlight of this movie — and a surprisingly charitable host, all things considered. The Uber-Morlock has just finished showing the traveler a vision of a possible life he could’ve had with Emma, his deceased fiancé. He then explained why it was impossible for the traveler to save Emma. It was due to a time paradox.

Thus the answer to the movie’s primary story question was revealed in a very frustrating manner — that is, a single sentence — but I mentioned this last Saturday.

With the question of whether time travel could save Emma resolved, the Uber-Morlock summons the traveler’s time machine. It descends to the Uber-Morlock’s chamber on a stone platform. How this creature was able to get hold of that machine and bring it underground, I have no idea. Did he send other Morlocks to grab it after their attack on the Eloi, using his psychic powers? I don’t know. And I have no idea how he knew that the time traveler was going to show up in his lair. But, somehow, he’s able to produce the time machine, and he tells the traveler it’s time to go.

The story problem around Mara

Remember, the Uber-Morlock could’ve just tried to eat the traveler. There was no practical reason for him to move the machine to a more convenient location and then offer it to his potential adversary. Producing the time machine for the traveler was an act of kindness, pure and simple. On the other hand, Mara is still trapped in a cage, and a very unpleasant fate awaits her. Mara seems to be caught up in a trance, but even so, both characters are under the impression that this is just the way things are, and they can’t change it. It’s unclear how much resistance Mara would put up if she weren’t in the trance. But, presumably, she’s in the trance to keep her from resisting, so she is, on some level, not happy about her fate. Therefore, the time traveler does have an obligation to save her.

Given the circumstances — this Uber-Morock has been surprisingly polite despite his cannibalistic palate — the time traveler could simply ask to take Mara with him. The Uber-Morlock has no attachment to her, so for all the traveler knows, his host might agree.

But suppose the traveler thought this approach too risky. What else could he have done, you know? . . . since he has a time machine! The traveler knows the precise date. He could just travel back a few hours and save Mara and Kalen, her younger brother, before the Morlocks began their raid.

In short, the time traveler had a number of options, but the way the writers play out the resulting fight makes the traveler seem like a dubious character at best. This fight was entirely unnecessary, but I think the writers were so eager for their climax that they had him do the stupidest thing possible. His actions also made him seem like a slim ball overall.

How the fight starts

The traveler sits in his machine and says that the Uber-Morlock has something that belongs to him. Earlier in the film, one of the Morlocks had stolen his watch. I have no idea why, and, for some reason, the Uber-Morlock has it. The Uber-Morlock could’ve simply said, “I’ve given you enough,” and the time traveler would’ve been out of luck. But in yet another surprising act of charity, the Uber-Morlock gives back the traveler’s watch.

How does the traveler repay this bizarre act of magnanimity? Just before starting the machine, the time traveler wraps the watch chain around the Uber-Morlock’s wrist and pulls the merciful monster towards him so he’ll be trapped in the time bubble. Then he starts the machine, and the fight begins. I’m sorry, but this was just a dirty move!

Anyway, the Uber-Morlock is killed when the traveler forces him out of the time bubble and moves the machine into the future. The Uber-Morlock rots to death, and that’s the end of him. Such a waste of a truly interesting character.

And after that…

After killing the highlight of the film, the time traveler stops even further into the future and sees that the Morlocks have taken over the world. He then decides to go back to the cave, frees Mara, and sabotages his own machine, jamming his watch into a gear so it will explode.

This too was an entirely unnecessary move. If he wanted to stop the Morlocks from taking over the planet, it might’ve been easier and less costly just to show back up in the 2030s and keep humanity from tunneling into the moon. But if he’d done that, the writers wouldn’t have been able to write about a pretty explosion that makes the Morlock rot.

Mara and the traveler escape just as the time machine explodes, killing all the Morlocks. The Uber-Morlock made it abundantly clear that he was not the only one and that there were other lairs out there, but, apparently, killing this particular lair saved the Eloi’s future.

So where are we now?

I think the writers wanted the traveler’s arc to be that while he couldn’t save Emma, he could save the Eloi. Really, he should’ve taken the whole experience as a lesson against accepting fate and tried even harder to save Emma. Instead, the traveler finds himself stuck in the future. Mara says she’s sorry that he lost his machine, but he smiles and says it was only a machine, repeating a line he’d told Emma in the past, implying that he’s accepted Emma’s loss and his fate.

After this, the movie briefly shows Vox, the snarky AI, educating the Eloi, then switches to a pretty shot of the maid, Filby, and the traveler walking around the same area in a future time. Filby tells the maid that he hopes the traveler has found a home, then the movie ends with him throwing away his bowler hat because he’s now concluded that the traveler was right. Bowler hats are dumb. Filby’s character arc is that he finally decides to become hip.

My summation

I hated this movie. It was pretentious without having anything to say. What really bothers me is that it took H.G. Wells’s story and gutted it, hoping to use name recognition to sell something completely different, a trick almost as dirty as the traveler wrapping that chain around the Uber-Morlock’s wrist. This movie is a bait and switch. Such bad behavior should not be rewarded with anyone’s time, except to illustrate the perils of taking this path in storytelling.