John and Eugene look at the 1960 George Pal film, The Time Machine. John and Eugene discuss if eating Eloi is really such a bad thing, and what three books we’d take to start a new civilization.

Synopsis
It is January 5th, 1900, and four men arrive at the home of their friend, George, for dinner, but George is not there.  Being busy industrialists on a Friday evening, they have more important things to do, like building weapons and putting down labor unrest.  Time is money, dammit, and he’s looking like he might almost be a minute late, and he left food for them – the bounder!

Just as they sit down to each his food and bitch about his outrageous manners, George stumbles in the door, filthy and disheveled.  It’s just the sort of thing you’d expect from someone who had the gall to invite you to dinner and then be a minute late.

He tells them a tale. A tale that started with this very same group of men a week before, December 31, 1899.

George, an inventor, demonstrated to them what he claimed was a prototype time machine, which he launched into the future, never to be seen again. His friends, of course, completely dismissed the idea for two good reasons: (1) It’s absurd, and (2) What’s the point? You can’t fight wars with it, and nobody will buy something like that.

Angered that their friend would confide in them such an obvious BS story, they all leave for their New Year’s plans… all but David Filby.  He’s worried about his friend.  What is this obsession about time?

George explains: I don’t feel I belong in this time. There has to be a world where man isn’t spending all his effort on making new ways to kill. George tells Filby he has a full-sized version of the machine and plans to use it.

Filby is even more worried now, but George tells him it’ll be alright, and arranges for dinner with the gang next Friday.

After Filby leaves, so does George, but George leaves via the fourth dimension, traveling forward into the future with his machine.

He arrives in 1917, where, outside, he encounters a new world and meets Filby, or at least he thinks he does, but it is Filby’s adult son, James. He learns that Britain is at war with Germany and that Filby Sr. was killed in the war last year.

He leaves and travels further forward, but explosions impede his progress, stopping him in 1940, and they are at war again.  His house is destroyed as he travels further forward to 1966, where a strange sound causes him to stop.

It is air raids sirens, and citizens are being evacuated to underground shelters.  Once again, he encounters Filby Jr., now an old man, who warns him to escape before the mushrooms bloom.

He doesn’t heed that advice and the city is destroyed by atomic bombs him, then a volcano erupts, and he gets back in the machine just in time to be buried in the lava.

Pushing forward in time, he must wait until the lava erodes.

When it does, he arrives in a beautiful, Eden-like garden in the year 802,701, just next to a giant sphynx and a sealed metal door. No one seems to be at home, so he takes the car keys and explores.

The world is lush, verdant, and bountiful but seemingly devoid of people. He finds a large building in disrepair, perhaps for centuries. Inside, it is empty, although the tables are set, and there is fruit aplenty in the serving bowls.

Exploring further, he finally finds signs of life — a herd of beautiful young people, known as the Eloi, frolicking near the water’s edge.  One has fallen in and is drowning, but the others pay no attention.

The Traveler rescues her. Her name is Weena, and she’s about as grateful as a wet sheep and walks away from him with the others.

He follows them back to the building, where they all chow down. He tries asking many questions, but they’re sheep.  They have no curiosity, ambition, or concept of the past or future.

The Traveler cannot believe he can learn nothing from them, but they admit to having books and take him to them.  They crumble to dust when he touches them.

Angry at what the human race has become, he chastizes them and leaves, returning to his time machine, but it is gone. Dragged into the Sphynx and now sealed behind the metal doors.

Weena arrives, having followed him, and warns him of the Morlocks. The Morlocks give them their food and clothes, and they follow their commands. The Morlocks come out at night and attack, but the Traveler fends them with matches.

The following day, the Traveler is still unable to get into the sphynx, so he explores, discovering a series of silos leading underground and the sound of machinery coming from them. As he sets out to explore one, sirens emanate from the sphynx, and Weena and all the other Eloi walk, trancelike, into the sphynx.  The Traveler cannot stop her, and when he tries to get other Eloi to help, they say that no one ever returns.

He climbs into the silo, and deep unground, he discovers the world of the Morlocks and their terrifying secret: They eat the Eloi.

Using a torch, he tries to rescue Weena and the Eloi.  He is outnumbered and about to be killed when one Eloi, having witnessed the Traveler fighting with the Morlocks, makes a fist and clobbers one of the Morlocks.

The Traveler starts a petroleum fire as the Eloi escape.  The Morlocks’ underground world is destroyed.

Sometime later, the sphynx burns, and he can reach his time machine, but this is a trap by the Morlocks.  He starts the machine and returns to January 5, 1900, where he stumbles in the door, filthy and disheveled, to greet his waiting guests.

They aren’t buying his story and leave, but Filby returns, and finds that he has left in his time machine, taking only three books with him.