It's an ordinary day at Columbia University in New York, with all the students feeling
the presence of Dr. Alexander Hartdegen in the hallways.
However, the doctor’s preoccupation with his work causes him to forget a date with
Emma, his girlfriend.
Hartdegen is a dreamer, and although it is his first year as an associate professor at
the university, he wants the best for his students, not to be pawns in society, following
the same patterns and wearing the same top hats as everyone else.
Back home, he gets ready in his lab for his appointment with his colleague David Philby,
who urges Hartdegen to be a little more conservative and not obsess over his inventions and scientific
fantasies.
Just before arriving for their appointment, Hartdegen is distracted by a malfunctioning
automobile prototype, whose owner offers him a ride, but he prefers going on with his date,
not without some hesitation.
Now at Emma's side, Hartdegen trembles with nervousness at wanting to express his desire
for engagement, but manages to move forward and offers Emma a ring, which she happily
accepts.
However, their evening is quickly interrupted by a mugger that appears out of the forest,
demanding all their valuables.
Emma tries to keep her ring, but the robber asks for it.
After a brief struggle, the most tragic outcome occurs, as Emma is shot at point-blank range,
dying at the hands of her fiancé.
Four years later, Alexander Hartdegen is more obsessed with science than ever, which worries
the housekeeper, Mrs. Watchit, and Philby, who asks him to come out of his stupor and
move on with his life.
The doctor's depression drives Philby away, only to later reveal his greatest invention,
a time machine, which he will use to get his beloved back.
The machine ends up working perfectly, going back to the night he lost Emma.
Hartdegen is thrilled to find her alive in front of him again but remembers the first
night's events, so instead of going through the forest, he decides to go to the city immediately.
On his walk, Hartdegen completely ignores the prototype car that passes around him again,
as he only has eyes for Emma.
She senses something odd about him, but he only tells her to go home and stay there.
He professes a few last loving words to her, sparing her death that night and leaving the
rest to his past self.
Just before leaving, Hartdegen heads off to buy Emma the flowers he promised but could
never give, but as he enters the florist, a car accident occurs, running Emma over.
The dejected doctor, far from being sad, is confused, knowing that fate does not want
him to be with Emma, so he plans another trip in the time machine to find out how to solve
his dilemma, this time to New York in 2030, where humans have even been able to colonize
and settle on the moon.
Hartdegen goes to the Public Library, where he meets Vox, a holographic assistant who
claims to have all the knowledge in the world.
Amazed by this, Hartdegen asks him for access to information about time travel, but this
is taken as science fiction.
Even himself is listed among the names of people connected with time travel, primarily
novelists.
Frustrated, the doctor decides to travel further into the future, to the year 2037, where a
catastrophe has struck the world, leaving it in ashes.
Rescuers try to help the confused man, who asks them what happened.
Apparently, the moon broke apart after the moon colony’s demolitions, having massive
repercussions on Earth.
The doctor flees back to the time machine out of panic, hurting and bumping himself
along the way, accidentally charting a course into the distant future, where ages pass and
the world changes radically.
His journey ends in the year 802.701, where he is rescued by a group of indigenous people
who heal, clean, and feed him.
Upon regaining consciousness, he dresses and has his first encounter with one of his rescuers,
an aboriginal boy.
Hartdegen discovers that they live in a community of huts clinging to the mountains’ edges,
and the whole tribe is surprised by his appearance.
One of them, a girl, manages to communicate with him, claiming to know the ‘stone language.’
According to her, everyone learns it during childhood, but they tend to forget it over
time.
The village chief thinks they should get rid of the stranger by throwing him out of the
river, but the girl thinks otherwise.
Hartdegen explains that he comes from the past, something the girl can't quite understand.
She introduces herself as Mara and convinces the others that the stranger is a 'wandering
idiot,' and that he hit his head on his journey, so he manages to get out of the situation
in an airy way.
Hartdegen explains the customs of his past world at night, something Mara's brother,
Kalen, finds fascinating.
They let them stay with them as they sleep, and Mara tells him that their parents left
the place, with Hartdegen fascinated by how much the world has changed to that point in
history.
Looking up at the sky, he notices the moon destroyed, with a small belt of space fragments
around it.
The doctor asks her why they take their boats out of the water at night, believing it is
for fear of being stolen.
Mara doesn't know that word, and offers to go looking for flowers the next day.
In the forest, an evil presence advances, concluding in a skull monument, but it ends
up being Hartdegen's nightmare, causing him to wake up.
Kalen had a nightmare too, but his sister comforts him.
When Hartdegen explains the dream to Mara, she understands it in detail, as she says
that everyone there has experienced the same nightmare before.
He asks about the word 'Morlock,' but Mara claims it is just a children's story.
The next day, Hartdegen witnesses the changes to the society of the past, with the tribe
keeping remnants of the cities as memorabilia.
Mara asks him why he decided to travel back in time, and he explains that it was to understand
why the past cannot be changed.
She doesn't understand these reasons, wondering why anyone would want to do this, but soon
understands it is to get someone back.
On a canoe ride, Hartdegen wonders why there are no older people in the village, but Mara
only replies that they set out from that place so as not to stay in the past.
They arrive at a field of mills, where Kalen welcomes them excitedly, wanting to know more
stories about New York and the people of the past.
Mara and Hartdegen make it to the time machine, and out of nowhere, she asks the doctor to
take her little brother into the past, changing to a fearful stance.
He’s puzzled by that, but shouts and roars in the distance tell them that the village
is in danger.
cThe screams intensify, and they find the entire village evacuating the place.
Upon arrival, Hartdegen encounters a humanoid monkey-like creature and runs for safety.
Soon more creatures arrive, throwing darts at the villagers, and one of them manages
to hit Mara.
On close inspection, Hartdegen notices a black, viscous liquid on the dart, but before he
can analyze it, he and the other villagers end up surrounded by the creatures coming
out from under the ground.
They gag and capture several village members using superhuman strength and primitive hunting
tactics.
One of the beings comes upon Kalen, and Hartdegen goes to his rescue.
A chase begins, and follows the doctor hanging from one of the mills, with the creature grabbing
him by the feet.
After some struggle, the beast falls to the ground from several meters away, dropping
unconscious for a few moments.
Upon awakening, it climbs back up to lunge at the doctor and succeeds in bringing him
down, next to it.
Kalen comes to the rescue, using fire to drive the creature away, escaping through subway
conduits hidden in the sand.
When Hartdegen arrives in the area, he sees how Mara is captured and taken to the creatures'
hideout.
The doctor proposes to go to the rescue of the captured, but the people don’t understand
his proposal since, according to them, this is how life in their village works.
When Hartdegen reproaches the villagers' lack of defense, the leader tells him that those
who fight are the first to be captured.
He then goes to talk to Kalen, telling him that they must do something about it, but
the boy only comments that once the creatures capture others, there’s nothing else to
discuss, confirming that they were the Morlocks.
Despite this, he learns of a place where the "ghosts dwell," and goes there with Hartdengen
at night.
The place ends up being a space with paraphernalia from the past, including several holograms
of Vox, which Hartdegen remembers from his visit to the museum.
Although Vox's software no longer updates automatically, his collected information tells
him that there are now two dominant species on Earth, one living on the surface and the
other living in the depths.
Vox has generated a pessimistic consciousness over the years, and talks about how overwhelming
it is to have all the knowledge of the world available, but not be able to do anything
about it.
He even remembers his earlier encounter with Hartdegen and tells him that he knows about
the Morlocks from a member of the village who managed to escape and stayed there with
him, talking.
The doctor asks the hologram for the truth, but the hologram warns him about how crude
the truth can be.
Vox tells him that his former friend came from the east of the forest and that he could
find answers there.
As he goes, he encounters the same skull monument from his nightmares.
Hartdegen says he will go alone to rescue Mara, and Kalen tells him that the Morlocks
also took his watch with them, something the doctor doesn’t understand.
He goes down a cliff, until finding the entrance to a cave.
Inside, he finds complex mechanisms, unbefitting a tribe like the people on the surface.
He follows a pair of them through a system of tunnels, and sees how the beings have their
own metallurgical society underground.
Hartdegen ends up in a butcher's room, where there are various torture tools and a pile
of clothes, with Mara's necklace on it.
After accidentally pulling a lever, he falls into a water well with human remains, and
is found by the Morlocks, who take him prisoner and lock him in a basement.
The basement turns out to be more spacious than expected, and after descending some stairs,
Mara is found in a cage with a figure on a throne in front of them.
The figure is the Über-Morlock, the leader of the tribe, and he explains that since the
moon’s destruction, the human race was divided into two sections, those above and those below.
The Morlocks reproduced in castes, some being the brain and others the muscle, easy to manipulate
telepathically.
They capture humans on the surface to use as food, and only a few, the most optimal,
are spared to serve as receptacles for new Morlocks.
He also explains that he is using his telepathic powers at that moment just to keep the Morlocks
at bay, for without it, they would deplete the food reserves in a matter of months.
The Über-Morlock reviews Hartdegen's memories and calls him a hypocrite for criticizing
their lifestyle, when his time travelling is equally unnatural.
Hartdegen sees at the back of the room his old watch box, and is transported to his old
laboratory with the blueprints for the time machine.
He finds Emma with their dreamy children, the life he never had.
The Über-Morlock tells him the reason why he can't change the past, and it's because
Emma's death caused him to create the time machine, so he would use it to rescue her.
With Emma alive, there would be no machine, creating a time paradox.
The creature reveals the time machine to Hartdegen, offering it to him.
The doctor asks for his watch as well, and the Über-Morlock hands it over, but just
at that, Hartdegen pulls him towards, starting a struggle.
He activates the time machine in the middle of the fight, but it is no match for the leader's
physical superiority.
Hartdegen destroys a valve, distracting the Über-Morlock and causing him to hang by the
man’s neck outside the machine's range.
Time passes outside the machine, with the leader rapidly aging to dust.
Once safe, Hartdegen sees how the machine's year now reads over 635 millions, with the
world now destroyed and ruled by the Morlocks, so he makes a final decision.
He travels back to the year 800,000 to rescue Mara, using his own watch to jam the time
travel process, managing to escape.
He and Mara confront the remaining Morlocks, and try to get out of the tunnels.
The machine launches a time wave, aging the creatures and turning them to dust, with the
pair escaping just in time.
Mara regrets that Hartdegen has lost his machine, but he no longer cares, as he has put his
past behind him.
Time passes, and the tribe now entertains themselves by listening the past’s tales
from Vox, enjoying their newfound peace.
Hartdegen tells Mara and Kalen about what his old lab was like, and about Philby and
Mrs. Watchit, who in a parallel memory, are glad that their friend is finally in a happier
place.
Philby tells Mrs. Watchit about how he and his wife are going to need a new housekeeper,
offering the job to her.
She accepts it, at least until Mr. Hartdegen returns.
Philby leaves the house, throwing off his top hat, honoring his friend.