Last Saturday, we saw that Mara had taken the time traveler back to his machine. The traveler inspects the machine and finds everything to be in working order. But as he’s debating about leaving the future and returning to his own time, Mara asks him to take Kalen, her younger brother, with him.

We meet the Eloi

Before the traveler can learn more about the situation, he hears a strange noise. Mara rushes off to find Kalen, saying that “they” are early. The traveler rushes after her and finds the Morlocks attacking the Eloi.

These creatures look similar to their 1960s counterparts. The only difference is that they’re bigger. Their method of hunting is simple. They carry blowguns that have a dart inside of them filled with a black ink. The ink is meant to tag the Eloi — I believe the ink also carries a scent that makes the Eloi easier for them to track. The Morlocks shoot the Eloi with the blowguns, find their tagged victims, and take them underground.

Last Saturday, I mentioned that both Kalen and the traveler have a strange dream where they see the sphinx-like structure from both the book and the 1960s film. We later learn that a creature called the Uber-Morlock sends this dream to the Eloi (more on that later). The reason I’m bringing this up now is that, after we see the Morlocks’ hunting method, it becomes apparent that the dream serves no purpose whatsoever in advancing the story. It is simply fanservice. That is, the writers wanted a reason to include the sphinx-like structure, so they made one up.

At first, I assumed that this dream was some kind of siren song for the Eloi, much like the air raid siren from the 1960 film, where the Eloi turned into zombies the moment they heard the haunting wail. Or perhaps, it was meant to create a sense of fear among the Eloi, making them less likely to challenge the Morlocks. But later, the traveler supposes that the dream was meant to scare the Eloi off. And since the traveler is the one who makes this assumption, I believe that this was the theory the writers wanted the audience to believe. Even this doesn’t make any sense. I shall have to move on to explain why.

We meet someone we remember from earlier in the film

During the raid, Mara is taken by the Morlocks. As in the 1960 version, the time traveler tries to convince the Eloi to help him save her, but they refuse. So, the traveler asks for Kalen’s help. Mara’s younger brother is hesitant because his culture has taught him to never speak of someone who has been captured. But he does agree to take the traveler to a “ghost.” This ghost turns out to be Vox, the snarky AI the traveler met just before mankind destroyed the moon.

What to make of this development logically? First of all, there is no way this robot should’ve survived for hundreds of thousands of years. New York City was destroyed when the moon broke up. That’s why the time traveler was knocked out of there in the first place. It’s one thing for some signs with a few words on them to be dug out of a pile of rubble. But the idea that a complex AI hologram — one dependent on two rows of glass panes to manifest — could survive hundreds of thousands of years after a cataclysm is ridiculous. And even after thousands of years, the AI has lost none of its snark, nor its contempt for the time traveler.

How to make sense of the know-it-all hologram?

The writers were clearly playing for laughs the first time we met the hologram but I don’t know why they chose to keep it so angry. Set aside the fact that an AI hologram shouldn’t feel emotions. If we do grant it emotions, it should be both excited to see a new face and astounded when it remembers the traveler. After all, it turns out that the man wasn’t just a science fiction enthusiast; he was an actual time traveler. The hologram should be filled with questions. And, if the writers were going to bother having the equivalent of a toaster feel, it should be apologetic for its behavior thousands of years ago. Instead, the hologram is condescending, mocking Kalen for his designated status as livestock, and glowering at the traveler as it admits that it remembers him.

The traveler, good-natured gentleman that he is, ignores the hologram’s unpleasant demeanor and continues asking questions. The hologram tells him that one of the Eloi survived his encounter with the Morlocks and hid with him. For a moment, it ceases to be quite so anti-social and admits that, during the time that the Eloi was alive, it was good to have a friend.

Given the fact that that Eloi would’ve had all sorts of information about the Morlocks, I wish the writers had given the audience more information during this scene. But for all the buildup, nothing is learned. When the traveler asks the robot how to find the Morlocks, it tells him to follow their breathing. This is in reference to the dream, although I have no idea how the traveler or the audience is supposed to put that together. However, by “following the breathing,” Kalen and the traveler do find the Morlocks’ lair.

Why the dream doesn’t work as a plot device

Returning to the problematic dream, the traveler’s view that the dream was meant to keep the Eloi away doesn’t work. After all, the traveler and Kalen were somehow able to use the dream to find the Morlocks! Therefore, the Uber-Morlock would have been better off not to use the dream in the first place. The dream is yet another plot hole in this movie. It isn’t being used as a way to bait or pacify the Eloi, but it doesn’t work as a means to keep them away either.

This is so frustrating to me because it is such an unforced error. Since this story is so driven by contrivance and convenience anyway, why not have the time machine appear in front of the sphinx-like building? This would’ve been consistent with both the book and the prior film; it would’ve made Mara seem exceptionally brave because she’d dared to go near the building to help the traveler. Plus the writers wouldn’t need to come up with such a lazy way to help the traveler find the lair.

The time traveler tells Kalen to stay behind and enters the Morlock’s dwelling to find Mara.

I’ll cover what happens then next Saturday.

Here are the earlier portions of my extended review of the 2002 film:

Part 1: Review: Time Machine 2002 – Wells’s tale gets an unneeded makeover. This doesn’t even seem like the same story as H.G. Wells’s nineteenth-century tale! But there’s still a time machine, Eloi and Morlocks here, so let’s look at it anyway. In this film, the time traveler has a girlfriend whom he is trying to save from death. But can time travel really alter the course of events?

Part 2: Review: Time Machine 2002 — Hold on. Someone’s destroyed the Moon. Part 2: The Eloi we meet in this film are radically different from H.G. Wells’s Eloi and that of the 1960 film version. By making the Eloi more hearty and capable of surviving on their own, the writers destroy the seriousness of the threat the Morlocks represent.

and

Time Machine (2002) — A Gordian knot of freshman philosophy. In Part 3 of my extended review, I look at the film’s effort to tease apart the philosophy of fighting vs, accepting one’s fate. Good and bad writing are on a spectrum. Underlying this spectrum is the suspension of disbelief. That is, viewers should forget where they are while watching.