The Time Machine story
The Time Machine is a 2002 American science fiction 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. Synopsis: A 19th century New York inventor constructs a machine that enables him to travel into the distant future; once there, he discovers that mankind's descendants have divided into two species, the primitive and passive Eloi and the underground-dwelling Morlocks, who feed on the Eloi.
27 total · 2 choice · 5 major · 19 minor
| Theme | Level | Motivation |
|---|---|---|
| the future of human evolution | choice | Alexander traveled 800,000 years into Earth's future to find that humankind had divided into two distinct species: the primitive and passive Eloi and the underground-dwelling Morlocks, who feed on the Eloi. |
| time machine | choice | A main novelty of the story is Alexander's inventing of a time machine contraption that he uses to travel into Earth's distant future. |
| coping with the death of a lover | major | Alexander couldn't accept that his fiancée Emma had died, and resolved to go back in time to save her. |
| it's the future that matters not the past | major | In the end, Alexander came to accept that he could not go back in time and save his fiancée Emma, instead resolved reshape the future by destroying the Morlocks, and in so doing give the Eloi hope for a bright future. |
| mole people | major | The Morlocks were quasi-nocturnal human offshoots that lived underground and feared fire. |
| romantic love | major | Alexander beloved his departed fiancée Emma and spend a considerable portion of the film trying to figure out a way to go back in time and save her. Mara became Alexander's new love interest in the end. |
| subterranean civilization | major | The Morlocks lived entirely underground, save for their expeditions to hunt the Eloi. |
| academic occupation | minor | Alexander, an associate professor of applied mechanics and engineering at Columbia University, was shown teaching a class. |
| anthropogenic existential risk to civilization | minor | The accidental destruction of the Moon by lunar colonists had render the Earth virtually uninhabitable at some point in the near future. |
| atrophied civilization | minor | Vox 114 explained how the complacent Eloi had no knowledge of the past and no ambition for the future. |