Director: Simon Wells. 094
Writing Credits: H. G. Wells (novel), David Duncan.
Production Company: Warner Bros. Pictures, DreamWorks SKG, Parkes/MacDonald Productions, Arnold Leibovit Entertainment.
Distributor: DreamWorks Distribution.
Actors: Guy Pearce (Alexander Hartdegen), Samantha Mumba (Mara), Mark Addy (David Filby), Sienna Guillory (Emma), Jeremy Irons (Über-Morlock).
Runtime: 96 minutes.
The Internet Movie Database User Rating: 5.6/10 25,452 votes
Overview: A scientist builds a time machine and finds he can change events in the past, but not change destiny. He then travels to the near future to find answers about time, but gets trapped 800,000 years in the future.
Plot Synopsis: Alexander is driven to get his time machine working so that he can go back in time to prevent his fiancée, Emma, from being shot. Four years later, he finally gets it working and uses it to avert her murder, only to witness her being shot later that day by another person. He concludes that although he is able to change events in the past, he is unable to change her destiny. He takes off in his machine to the future to find the answers about time. He visits the year 2030, and then 2037. After an accident with his controls, he ends up in 802,701, where he falls in love with Mara, a female Eloi. He meets the Über-Morlock, who explains that a temporal paradox prevented Alexander from saving Emma because if she had not died, he would never have built the time machine - so as soon as he saved her, she had to die again, so that he could have come back and be there. Alexander and the Über-Morlock fight and end up in the time
machine, as it takes off into the future. They continue to fight and eventually Alexander throws him out of the time bubble surrounding the machine, where he observes him ageing rapidly until his death. The time machine stops in 635,427,810 AD, but not liking what he sees, Alexander travels back to save his love, Mara. Alexander's time machine gets destroyed, so that he cannot return, but he is happy to stay in the future and help build a new civilisation.
Genre: Science Fiction – Time Travel Vehicle.
My Comments: This movie, like the original is based on the H.G. Wells novel of the same title, but his great grandson directs it this time. The protagonist, George is now called Alexander and in this adaptation, he does go back and change past events, but he is unable to change destiny. Note that a temporal paradox is explained in the movie dialogue. There is one problem with the time machine: In order to travel into the future, it would be moving through the dimension of time at a slower rate, so it would have to move through space at a faster rate, not sit still like in both the movies. Einstein showed that to travel to the future using time dilation, the time machine would have to travel at a very high speed relative to the Earth.
Time Travel Summary: Alexander goes back in time and is able to prevent Emma from being shot, so he could change the past, however she died the following day, so the timeline converged before his time travel began. He then travels into the future and helps the Eloi to change their destiny.
Model of Time:
Open past, open future Converging timeline
Timecop (1994)
Director: Peter Hyams. 095
Writing Credits: Mike Richardson, Mark Verheiden
Production Companies: Dark Horse Entertainment, JVC Entertainment, Largo Entertainment, Renaissance Pictures, Signature Pictures, Universal Pictures. Distribution: Universal Pictures.
Actors: Jean-Claude Van Damme (Max Walker), Mia Sara (Melissa Walker), Ron Silver (Senator Aaron McComb).
Runtime: 98 minutes.
The Internet Movie Database User Rating: 5.4/10 12,704 votes
Overview: Senator McComb is stealing money from the past using time travel technology. Max is the time cop, who is sent back in time to catch him. The senator touches his past self, which causes both versions of him to disintegrate.
Plot Synopsis: Using time travel technology, Senator McComb is raiding money from the past to finance his corrupt presidential campaign. A special police force (T.E.C.) is set up to prevent the abuse of this new technology. They send Max Walker, a time cop, back in time and he manages to prevent the corrupt senator. In return, McComb sends men back in time to kill Walker and his wife, before he joins the force, but they only manage to kill his wife. Walker then goes back in time before the killing to prevent his wife’s death, which he manages to do. He also tricks McComb into touching his past self, which causes them both to disintegrate. Walker returns to his original time to find life has continued without McComb, who mysteriously disappeared.
Genre: Science Fiction - Transporting Body Through Time.
My Comments: There is no theoretical evidence to suggest that touching your other self would cause you any harm. It is not as if matter is coming into contact with anti- matter. The time traveller is merely meeting a younger version of himself. McComb goes back in time and dies whilst there, which means that with either model of time, he would just disappear from the timeline the day he went back in time and life would carry on without him. This of course would most certainly create a new future from that point on, but maybe he was always going to disappear on that day, so nothing has changed.
Time Travel Summary: Senator McComb makes several trips back in time to steal money and when he returns to the present, the timeline has converged back each time. However when someone is killed in the past, this is a large enough change to cause the timeline to continue diverging.
Model of Time:
Open past, open future Double-well timeline
Timeline (2003)
Director: Richard Donner. 096
Writing Credits: Michael Crichton (novel), Jeff Maguire (screenplay).
Production Companies: Paramount Pictures, Mutual Film Company, Donners' Company, Cobalt Media Group, Artists Production Group.
Distribution: Paramount Pictures.
Actors: Paul Walker (Chris Johnston), Frances O'Connor (Kate Ericson), Gerard Butler (André Marek), Billy Connolly (Professor Edward A. Johnston), David Thewlis (Robert Doniger), Anna Friel (Lady Claire).
Runtime: 116 minutes.
The Internet Movie Database User Rating: 5.3/10 15,005 votes
Overview: A group of archaeological students travel through a wormhole to
Castleguard, France in 1357 to retrieve their professor, who has already gone through, but is having problems getting back.
Plot Synopsis: International Technology Corporation (ITC) tries to send an object from their New Mexico lab to New York. It does not arrive there, but instead shows up in New Mexico a few hours later. In between, it had been in Castleguard, France in 1357, so they had accidentally discovered a wormhole, which was locked to a single time and place in the Middle Ages. Further experimentation shows that each object is broken into a stream of electrons in order to pass through the wormhole and that each trip has a time limit of six hours, or the object will be stuck there forever. A group of archaeological students go through this wormhole to retrieve their professor, who has already gone through it, but is having problems getting back. They all wear a watch, which shows how long they have left, and it has a button that will take them home if squeezed. Some of them end up in prison and they work out a plan to escape, based on what they already know from history about what will happen on that day. However, it fails, as their
presence has already changed the timeline. They get involved in a famous battle during the Hundred Years War and dramatically change the timeline by saving the life of Lady Claire. Some of the group are killed there, some choose to remain and three make it back to their own time.
Genre: Science Fiction - Transporting Body Through Time.
My Comments: The group works out a plan to escape from prison, based on what they already know from history about what will happen on that day. What they do not realise is that their presence has already changed the timeline.
Time Travel Summary: History is changed by their actions in the past, so it is open. However, the existence of the professor in the past had caused no change to their present before they left, so the timeline must have converged.
Model of Time:
Open past, open future Converging timeline
TimeQuest (2002)
Director: Robert Dyke. 097
Writing Credits: Robert Dyke.
Production Companies: Destination Earth LLC. Distribution: Ardustry Home Entertainment.
Actors: Victor Slezak (John F. Kennedy), Caprice Benedetti (Jacqueline Kennedy), Vince Grant (Robert F. Kennedy), Bruce Campbell (William Roberts), Barry Corbin (Lyndon Johnson), Larry Drake (J. Edgar Hoover), Ralph Waite (The Time Traveler). Runtime: 92 minutes.
The Internet Movie Database User Rating: 5.0/10 301 votes
Overview: On 22nd November 1963, a man tells J. F. Kennedy that he has time- travelled back from the future and says he is the first to have done so. He warns him about his imminent assassination.
Plot Synopsis: On 22nd November 1963, a man wearing a space suit appears in Fort Worth, Texas in the hotel suite of John and Jackie Kennedy. He has time-travelled back from the future and says he is the first to have done so. He has come to warn JFK of his imminent assassination. He says, “History is primed to go down a path I won’t allow.” As the time of the murder approaches, he says, “I won’t be here much longer. There is no future [for me]. The drift of time has been diverted and a new timeline has been created. The time I am from will disappear ... History has changed, but it has not solidified. When that defining moment takes place, new history will truly begin.” He continues, “When that time passes ... I am the one who will be history ... I will survive, or at least another version of me will.” JFK survives, the man in the spacesuit
disappears into thin air and the world continues on an alternate timeline. The Kennedys get a copy of his fingerprints, which enables them to eventually find this man by the time he becomes an adult. They are afraid he will again invent a time machine and travel back and change history again, but maybe this time for the worse. Jackie becomes an anonymous benefactor of his artwork and he goes on to have a career as an artist, not a scientist.
Genre: Science Fiction - Transporting Body Through Time.
My Comments: By continually cutting from one time and story to another, this film tries to be art house, which becomes very confusing for a mainstream audience and quite annoying.
Time Travel Summary: History is changed and the timeline diverges forever.
Model of Time:
Open past, open future Diverging timeline