Original subtitles

Excuse me, Mr. Filby!

I say...

- I say, it's outright rude of him! - He's merely been detained.

This is such a waste of time!

If he's not coming, I have more important things to do.

Well, speak up. What is it, woman?

Well, are we or are we not invited for dinner?

Apparently we are.

- How long has he been gone? - I'm not certain, sir. Several days.

I've hardly seen him for some time.

He never leaves the lab. He only comes in and picks at his food.

But he did tell me about dinner, and left those instructions.

Thank you, Mrs. Watchett.

- What's it say, Filby? What's wrong? - Nothing, really.

George says that if he's not here by 8, we're to begin without him.

Oh!

Walter, what time is it?

Dinner is served, gentlemen.

Ah, first sensible thing I've heard all evening.

This is peculiar. He's usually prompt, precise and punctual.

Oh! He's making fools of us by not showing up. It's ungentlemanly.

- To say nothing of a waste of time. - Huh? Yes. A waste of time.

Ah, one thing I like about George, best cellar in England.

And Mrs. Watchett is the finest cook in the world.

Yes, I think I'll drink to that.

- Good Lord! What's happened? - I'm all right.

Some food.

A drink.

- I didn't recognize you. - Mrs. Watchett.

Can't you speak? What happened to you?

- Leave him alone. - It's fine.

- I've got to tell it while I remember. - Relax. Try to relax.

You've all the time in the world.

You're right, David.

That's exactly what I have.

All the time in the world.

Since we were together five days ago...

the last day of 1899.

There in that box rests the result of two years' labor.

I wanted to finish the job before the new century began.

I barely made it.

- Cheers, gentlemen. - Marvelous, old boy.

Mm, yes, but what is it?

Well, it has to do with time.

Oh. I've always maintained that this nation...

needs a reliable timepiece.

Mm, the navy needs one. Heh.

The army needs one for the artillery.

You couldn't do better, George. That's why you've been in hiding?

Very clever of you indeed.

I don't think George is referring to a new timepiece.

No, David.

When I speak of time, I'm referring to the fourth dimension.

Go on, George.

The fourth dimension cannot be seen or felt.

If you don't mind, will you refresh me on the first three dimensions?

Oh, really, Filby. Surely they taught you something in school. Heh-heh.

Suppose you explain it, doctor.

Huh? Oh, certainly.

Heh.

For example, when I move in a line, forward or backward...

that's one dimension.

When I move left or right, two dimensions.

When I move up or down...

three dimensions.

For instance, that box.

That box has three dimensions: length, breadth and height.

What is the fourth dimension?

Oh, well... That's mere theory. No one really knows if it exists.

On the contrary.

The fourth dimension is as real and true as the other three.

In fact, they couldn't exist without it.

What do you mean?

Let's take that box.

It has the first three dimensions.

- What's inside? - I'm coming to that.

Let's consider this first.

Why do we ignore the fourth dimension? Because we can't move within it.

We can move in the other three. Up, down, forward, sideways, backward.

But when it comes to time, we are prisoners.

Do you follow me, Bridey?

No.

George, you've given a lucid explanation, but I'm afraid I don't understand.

There are many things you don't understand, yes?

Quite a number.

Yet you don't refuse to believe in them?

- Not if I can see the proof myself. - Good, Walter.

Gentlemen, all I'm asking you...

is to witness a demonstration of movement...

within the fourth dimension.

- Doctor, can I have your help? - Certainly. Ahem.

Ah, it's beautiful!

- Remarkable. - Very nice, George.

Fascinating.

What is it?

This is only an experimental model.

- To carry a man, I need a larger one. - To carry a man? Where?

Into the past or into the future.

This is a time machine.

Okay, George, you've had your joke. Tell us what this contraption is for.

I've already told you.

The larger model can carry a passenger through time.

Not through space, but through time.

If you go to the future, won't you mess things up for us?

The future's already there. It cannot be changed.

I wonder.

That's the most important question I hope to answer.

Can man control his destiny? Can he change the shape of things to come?

If you've gone mad, I forgive you.

- But if you're wasting our time... - No! You're here as witnesses.

- To see, not to listen. - To see? What?

The experiment I'm about to perform.

Let me tell you how it works. The time traveler sits in the saddle.

In front are the controls.

Let's do this properly. You can spare a cigar, I trust?

Now, let us imagine that this cigar...

is the time traveler.

The lever in front of him controls movement.

Forward pressure sends it into the future...

backward pressure, into the past.

The harder the pressure, the faster it travels.

Our little experiment can be performed only once.

If it succeeds, I lose my model. That's why I need witnesses.

Go ahead, George.

Ready, gentlemen?

Doctor, lend me your hand.

I'll be damned!

It worked.

- Where did it go? - Go?

Nowhere, in the usual sense. It's still here.

But it's no longer in the present.

It's traveling through time. To the future, to be exact.

You expect us to believe that?

Well, you just... Certainly.

- You said it hadn't really moved. - That's correct.

Then why can't we see it?

Because we're in this room on December 31, 1899...

but the model is perhaps a hundred years away by now.

This house may not be here in a hundred years.

But the time machine occupies the same space that it did...

a moment before its journey.

If it's occupying the same space, why can't I feel it?

The space you're putting your hand through is today's space.

You can't put your hand into tomorrow's space.

Space doesn't change!

The same space that's here now should be here forever.

No, Philip, time changes space!

This flat ground could've been at the bottom of the sea long ago.

A million years from now, it could be the interior of a huge mountain.

If all this is true, what do you expect to do with such a contraption?

Contraption?

I intend taking a journey into the future.

Or perhaps the doctor would volunteer to go?

Mm? Hm.

Look here, George...

suppose you do go off and get lost in the 50th century...

- ...how will you get back? - That's a risk I'm ready to take.

Oh. Now, look here, George.

I don't know what you think, but we're not fools!

We're practical businessmen.

What I want to ask you is this:

Even if you had invented a time machine, what of it?

What's its use? Who'd buy it? How much would it cost?

Have you thought of the commercial possibilities?

No, I haven't.

George... There's a war on in South Africa.

The Boers are putting up a fight. The country needs inventors like you.

I can put you in touch with the War Office.

What do you think, David?

Oh, I...

Dr. Hillyer has a good point, George.

Ah. That's more sensible. Ha.

I'll see to it right away.

Good Lord! It's time to go.

Yes, I'm sure we all have plans for tonight.

- Are you all right, George? - Yes, I'm all right.

Coming, Bridewell?

Thanks for coming.

- Good night. - Happy New Year.

- Happy new century, George. - Good night.

Happy New Year!

George.

I thought I'd better stay.

You shouldn't trouble yourself. I'm all right.

No, you're not.

You've been behaving oddly for over a month.

I'll leave, once you tell me what's on your mind.

I appreciate the gesture, David. I just want to be left alone.

You've changed, George. Enormously.

I'm sorry.

Will you answer me one question, honestly?

Yes, I'll try.

Why this preoccupation with time?

Why not?

Don't go simple on me.

The truth is, I don't much care for the time I was born into.

People aren't dying fast enough.

They call upon science to invent...

new, more efficient weapons to depopulate the Earth.

And I agree with you.

I agree, but here we are and we have to make the best of it.

You may have to. I don't.

All right. Take your journey on your contraption.

What would you become?

A Greek? A Roman?

- A pharaoh? - I prefer the future.

You're not seriously saying you can do it?

You saw the experiment, didn't you?

I saw a toy machine vanish.

I'm sure there are any number of ways of doing that trick.

Any magician could probably do it.

It wasn't a trick!

- Would you like to see the full-scale model? - No, I would not.

I have no desire to tempt the laws of Providence.

And I don't think you should.

- It's not for man to trifle with. - You carry on like Hillyer and Kemp.

There's something to say about their common-sense attitude.

George, I speak to you as a friend.

More. As a brother.

If that machine can do what you say it can, destroy it.

Destroy it before it destroys you!

You must have plans for New Year's Eve. Don't let me keep you.

Mary wasn't well. We thought we'd stay home with the baby.

Why not come home with me? You haven't seen Jamey for a while.

I'm sorry, I can't.

What's stopping you?

Well, I just want to see the old century out by myself, that's all.

Have it your way, George.

George?

Will you promise you'll not go out of the house tonight?

I promise I won't walk out the door.

David?

I'm sorry. Please don't think me unkind or unfriendly.

- Come over to dinner Friday. - Very well.

- Fine. Bring the others with you. - As you say, George.

- Happy New Year. - Happy New Year, David.

- Having supper in tonight, sir? - I don't think so.

Why don't you go and celebrate?

Thanks, but if you don't need me, I'll turn in earlier, if I can.

- Good night, sir. - Good night.

Oh, Mrs. Watchett, I invited Mr. Filby and the others to dinner Friday.

- Happy New Year, Mrs. Watchett. - Happy New Year, sir.

Happy New Year!

At first, I pushed the lever forward very slightly...

and the laboratory grew faint around me.

I stopped.

No change.

Everything exactly as before.

No! The clock said 6:31 when I started, and now it was...8:09?

And the candle, shorter by inches.

Yet by my watch, which was with me, only a few seconds had passed.

It was disconcerting to see the sun arc in less than a minute.

To see a snail race by.

Flowers flinging wide their petals to embrace the day.

The hours speeding across my sundial.

Flowers closing their eyes for the night.

It was wonderful!

Changes that normally took hours took seconds.

Dear Mrs. Watchett...

always able to suggest a tie...

but never wearing anything more stylish...

than what she's worn for years.

Yet I was traveling very slowly.

What if I went faster?

It became intoxicating.

I pushed the lever on toward even greater speed.

I gained experience in handling the machine.

I could stop for a day, an hour, or even a second to observe.

Then go ahead a year or two.

I was able to see the changing world in a series of glimpses.

Good heavens. That's a dress?

This was intriguing.

I wondered just how far women would permit this to go.

I began to grow very fond of that mannequin.

Maybe because, like me, she didn't age.

Thirteen years passed. Fourteen, 15, 16...

Suddenly the light was gone. What had happened?

In the year 1917, I stopped.

Filby!

Are you going to a masquerade party?

You look rather silly without your mustache.

- Were you addressing me, sir? - It's George!

I expected a more enthusiastic greeting...

You're confusing me with my father.

Yes. There was quite a resemblance. I'm James Filby.

"Was"?

- Were you a friend of Father's? - Yes.

Yes, I've been away.

He was killed in the war. A year ago.

Oh.

I'm so sorry.

- And the gentleman across the street? - Oh, the inventor chap?

He disappeared around the turn of the century.

If you're interested in that house, you can't buy it.

- You can't even get inside. - Why?

My father was executor of the estate and refused to liquidate it.

I often chided him on that...

but he believed the owner would return some day.

People hereabouts think it's haunted, but, heh-heh...

Who are you, sir?

Just a stranger who once knew your father.

Have you been at the front?

Front? What front?

Why, the war, of course.

What war?

Good heavens!

You don't know we've been at war with Germany since 1914?

I thought you'd just returned from France.

Or perhaps...

Perhaps some tea might make you feel better.

Won't you come in?

No, thank you.

Are you sure you're all right?

Yes, I'm quite all right.

Then goodbye, sir.

Goodbye, Jamey.

In 1940, I began to be buffeted from side to side.

I first thought the machine had a mechanical defect.

The last time I had stopped was in 1917, 23 years ago.

The war was still waging, now in the air with flying machines.

Then I realized the truth. This was a new war.

Uh, I decided to push on into time and see the outcome of this.

My house was hit!

The flames shot up. Instantly, my home was gone.

I was in the open air.

The years rolled by, everything unfamiliar.

Except the, uh, heh, smile of my never-aging friend.

What was this? Weird sounds all around. What could it be?

My curiosity compelled me to stop.

At first I wondered if I was the cause of the panic.

I was soon to find out I wasn't.

Keep it moving! Shove it on!

Come on, into the shelter.

Come on, young man! Come on!

- Filby? - The name is Mr. Filby.

- Didn't you hear the siren? - The horrible screeching?

It wasn't constructed for its aesthetic value...

but to warn young fools to get into the shelter.

- Now, come along. - I'm perfectly comfortable here.

I've got to talk to somebody. This is fantastic!

Your store is magnificent! The achievements!

- The gigantic strides man has taken! - Come along, young man!

The mushrooms will be sprouting!

Mushrooms?

You look familiar. Haven't we met somewhere before?

Indeed we have, Mr. Filby. Right there. Many years ago.

I was sure of that...

but the exact time escapes me.

It was two wars ago, 1917.

Now I recall. The chap who inquired about my father...

and the house that used to stand across the way.

Oh, but no... No, that's impossible!

You haven't changed. You're not a day older.

And your clothes!

Don't worry, Filby. It'll take time to explain, but...

That's the last alert! Hurry! Hurry!

- Listen, this is important. - Look!

An atomic satellite, zeroing in. That's important.

Come on! Come on!

- But I've got to talk to you! - Come on!

Filby?

Filby!

Hurry! Hide till the all-clear!

But, Filby, I've got to talk to you!

The labor of centuries, gone in an instant.

Mother Earth, aroused by man's violence...

responded with volcanic violence of her own.

Only my speed through time saved me from being encased in stone.

The molten rock cooled.

I prayed...

wondering how many eons must pass...

before the wind and rain could wear away the mountain.

Darkness.

Darkness for centuries.

I wondered if there was still a war being waged above me...

if man would still exist when I saw the sun again.

The centuries rolled by.

I put my trust in time...

and waited for the rock to wear down.

I was free again!

Thousands of centuries had passed, but the Earth stayed green.

There was no winter, no wars.

Had man learned to control both the elements and himself?

I had to stop and find out.

But I'd stopped too fast.

Magnificent!

Beautiful flowers everywhere!

Natural splendor beyond compare.

The whole landscape a garden without any weeds or briars.

Trees and vines laden with fruit of strange shapes and colors.

Nature tamed completely...

and more bountiful than ever!

At last I'd found a paradise.

But it would be no paradise if it was mine alone.

Unrepaired for centuries. Maybe unlived-in for as long.

Anybody here?

So this is man's future: to bask in the sun, bathe in the streams...

and eat the fruits of the Earth, work and hardship forgotten.

Well, and why not?

Don't just sit there! Help her!

Are you all right?

Thank you.

- Why did you? - Why did I what?

Come after me.

Sit down.

I did it to save your life.

That doesn't seem to mean much to you, or anybody else.

It doesn't.

Twenty of your friends were watching you drown.

Not one lifted a finger to save you.

That's a very curious attitude.

A very curious world.

Uh, aren't you interested in who I am? Where I come from?

Should I be?

Take me to somebody a little older. Somebody I can talk to.

There is no one older.

Do you mean nobody ages in this land of yours?

- Well, what's your name? - Weena.

Weena.

How do you spell it?

- Spell? - Spell, write. Can't you write?

Look.

Weena.

- What are your people called? - Eloi.

Aha.

Eloi.

Come. We must go now.

- What's wrong? - It's getting dark.

Hello.

I don't mind telling you, I'm quite hungry.

I've come a long, long way.

In my time, a berry that size...

would've been big news all over the world.

Excuse me, sir.

Uh, sir?

Perhaps curiosity has died. Perhaps courtesy too...

but I've come far and I'd like to know things.

Why?

Because I shall return to my time, and my people will ask questions.

Such as:

What kind of government rules your world?

We have no government.

Well, you must have a body of men who pass and enforce laws.

Laws? There are no laws.

Where do you get food and clothing?

Doesn't anybody work?

No.

Well, where does that come from?

- It grows. It always grows. - I know, but it must be...

cultivated and planted and nurtured, um...

Well, unless you...

You have an economy so well-developed that you can spend all your time...

studying and experimenting? Is that right?

You ask many questions.

Well, that is the only way man has learned and developed.

I wish to learn.

I want to learn about your civilization.

Perhaps, you...

Do you have books?

Books?

- Yes, we have books. - Wonderful!

I can learn about you from books. They'll tell me what I want to know.

Could I see the books?

Yes, they do tell me all about you.

What have you done?

Thousands of years of building, rebuilding, creating and re-creating...

so you can let it crumble to dust!

A million years of sensitive men dying for their dreams.

For what?

So you can swim and dance...

and play!

You! All of you!

I'm going back! I won't bother to tell of the useless struggle...

the hopeless future. But at least I'll die among men!

You're... Aah!

- Weena, what are you doing? - I came to warn you.

- How do you open that panel? - No one can. Only the Morlocks.

Who are the Morlocks?

They give us our food and clothes. We must obey.

Why'd they take my machine?

You've got to tell me!

We mustn't be out in the dark.

Only children are frightened by the dark.

You are a child, aren't you?

- I'll light a fire. - Please, let us go.

My machine is inside. I must find a way to get it out.

- No, you mustn't. - Help me gather some wood.

Come on.

That's a girl.

Where are you from?

As a matter of fact, I'm from right here.

That's where my house used to be...

many thousands of years ago.

You see there?

Up to those panels was my laboratory.

Beyond them was where my garden used to be.

And right there...

that was my library.

Where I once sat talking with friends about...

the time machine.

Mm.

You know, Weena...

I'd hoped to learn such a great deal.

I hoped to take back the knowledge and advancement man had made.

Instead, I find vegetables.

The human race reduced to living vegetables.

They're gone. Are you all right?

- Was that a Morlock? - Yes.

Don't you worry. The fire seems to keep them away.

What are you doing? Why did you put your hand there?

- I never saw it before. - You...?

No knowledge of fire.

No books.

I'm terribly sorry.

I had no right to be angry with your people.

No more than if I'd visited the island of Bali in my own time.

But, you know, Weena...

you were safe inside your house, yet came out to warn me.

The characteristic which distinguished man from animals...

was the spirit of self-sacrifice.

And you have that quality.

So do all your people. It just needs someone to reawaken it.

I'd like to try, if you'll let me.

Will you?

I do not understand...

- ...but I believe you. - Heh.

That's as good a start as any.

Try to tell me. The Morlocks... Who or what are they?

Are they animals or people?

Well, what about yourself?

Don't your people ever speak of the past?

There is no past.

Well, do they ever wonder about the future?

There is no future.

The past...

man's past...

is mainly a grim struggle for survival.

But there have been moments when a few voices have spoken up...

and these rare moments have made man's past...

a glorious thing.

I refuse to believe it's dead and gone.

We've had dark ages before. This is just another one.

All it needs is someone to show you the way out.

I'm only a mechanic...

but I'm sure there must be that spark in one of you.

If only I can kindle that spark...

my coming here will have meaning.

My efforts to open the panel were fruitless.

I had to find another way to retrieve my machine.

Listen.

Do you hear that?

Yes.

Machines?

- No, Morlocks. - Wait.

Those animals run machines?

They are Morlocks.

- Have you ever seen the machines? - No, only heard of them.

- Who told you? - The rings.

- What sort of rings? - Rings that talk.

Could you show me these rings?

Come, this way.

- These are the talking rings? - Yes.

They speak?

Of what?

Things no one here understands.

Make it talk.

Now in its 326th year, the war between the East and West...

has at last come to an end.

There's nothing to fight with and few left to fight.

The atmosphere has become so polluted with germs...

that it can no longer be breathed.

There is no place left that is immune.

The last factory for the manufacture of oxygen has been destroyed.

Stockpiles are rapidly diminishing...

and when they are gone, we must die.

My name is of no consequence.

You should know that I am the last who remembers how each of us...

man and woman, made his own decision.

Some chose to take refuge in the great caverns...

and find a new way of life below the Earth's surface.

The rest of us decided to take our chances in the sunlight...

small as those chances might be.

From the rings I learned how the human race divided...

and how the world of the Eloi and the Morlocks began.

By some awful quirk of fate...

the Morlocks became the masters and the Eloi their servants.

The Morlocks maintained them and bred them like...

Like cattle...

only to take them below when they reached maturity.

Which explained why there were no older people.

I knew I must go below. It was the only way to reach my machine...

and discover what happened to the little people.

Don't go!

- You won't come back! - I'll be back.

Weena?

Weena!

Weena?

Weena?

Weena?

Answer me!

Where are you?

What's happening?

What's happening?

What's the matter with you all?

Weena!

Weena?

Weena?

Weena, stop!

Weena?

Stop!

What happens to them?

Don't stand there like fatted cattle! Will you answer me?

- What is wrong? - Nothing is wrong. It is all clear.

- What do you mean, all clear? - All clear.

In the mid-1900s, the bombs, the people calling out, "All clear!"

No!

That's gone! That's passed!

There are no more flying machines! No bombs! No more wars!

The rings have told us that story.

But you didn't listen! You didn't learn!

It was ages ago that men were taught to hide when the sirens blew...

to run from death, but it's over!

Those men and those who slaughtered them are dead!

But there is nothing to fear. It is all clear.

What about the ones who went below? How will they come back?

They never come back.

- Nobody can bring them back. - You can try. You can try!

Won't even one of you try?

Well, I'll try!

So this was the destiny of the Eloi.

They were being bred by the Morlocks...

who had degenerated into the lowest form of human life:

Cannibalism!

Wake up! Come to your senses! All of you!

Burn.

Give me something to burn. It's my last match.

Good, good.

Get up the stairs! That's the way out!

The torch!

Get the torch!

Get up the steps! Hurry up!

Come on, hurry!

Go on, Weena.

Gather all the deadwood! All the wood!

That's fine. Come on, throw it down!

All the deadwood!

Throw it down! Do the same to the other wells!

All the wood down the wells!

All right, to the river! Back to the river!

All right, let's go!

Another night was coming, but this night no Eloi needed to fear.

The underworld of the Morlocks was gone...

and so was the life of leisure for the Eloi.

But then what of me?

I was imprisoned in a world...

in which I just did not belong.

Are you sorry?

- Hm? Sorry? Sorry for what? - That you have to stay?

Yes.

I could tell so much to the people of my time.

I'd let them know...

about the sorrow and happiness that the future holds.

Maybe they could learn from it.

Or could they?

- You don't want to stay, do you? - It isn't that.

It's just that I don't fit here, any more than you would in my time.

I would love to see your time.

Mm-mm. You wouldn't be very happy there.

Do you have someone there? Someone like me?

No one like you.

I have friends who will miss me, of course.

I'm probably late already.

Women?

No.

There is one woman.

She looks after my house for me. She's 62 years old and all wrinkled.

How do they wear their hair?

- Who? - The women of your time.

- Up. - Up?

Up how?

I don't know. Kind of...

up, like that.

Show me!

Would I be pretty?

Yes, you would. Very pretty.

Oh, Weena.

I wish we could go back to my time.

Or even before that, when the world was young.

- We could be so very happy. - Look!

Look!

Look!

My machine!

Come on, Weena!

Weena!

I was going the wrong way! Back! I had to go back!

It's the most ridiculous story I've ever heard. Preposterous!

George, you always could tell a good yarn.

You're a truly great inventor, George.

I think you ought to retire, sir.

Truthfully, George, where have you been the past week?

Don't ask such questions.

It is not hard for a man to lose a week now and again.

I can understand your doubt. Take it as a lie if you wish.

I scarcely believe it myself, now that I'm back...

David, there's the flower Weena gave me.

A present for you. You're interested in botany.

Try to match that with any known species!

I don't think I can.

- Well, time to go, Bridewell. - Mm? Oh.

- Yes, it is getting late. - Good night, George.

Good night, George.

Good night.

You look exhausted, George. You really should get some rest.

Good night. It's grand having you back.

Goodbye, David.

Thanks for being such a good friend. Always.

What do you think, Filby?

One thing is certain.

That flower couldn't bloom in the wintertime.

You don't really believe that story?

Good night.

Go on, driver.

George?

- Mr. Filby, what...? - He's gone!

Why, look!

I think I understand. You see the imprint?

This is where it originally stood.

The Morlocks moved it.

They dragged it across the lawn...

right into the sphinx. Right there.

Weena was standing here when he last saw her.

Right here! The same space in a different time.

So he dragged his heavy machine back in here...

scratching the floor...

so he could appear outside the sphinx again...

and help the Eloi build a new world.

Build a new world for himself.

- Right where he left her. - Yes.

It's not like George to return empty-handed.

To try to rebuild a civilization without a plan.

He must have taken something with him.

Nothing.

- Except three books. - Which three books?

I don't know. Is it important?

Oh, I suppose not.

Only...

which three would you have taken?

Do you think he'll ever return?

One cannot choose but wonder.

You see, he has all the time in the world.