I enjoy this movie very much, and love malcolm mcdowell to no end. however, i had just one question. was it ever explained why he arrived in san francisco rather than right back in london? or how one controls where he ends up?
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This point was always a bit of a problem with me, too, but it seems that the movie makes its own rules regarding time travel here, namely:
-- In the TAT world, if one travels to the future, he goes wherever the (seemingly empty) machine goes during real time. Therefore, since the machine was transported to San Francisco for the exhibition, that's where the Traveller ends up too. Hey, it doesn't make a lot of sense, but this seems to be the logic of the film.
This creates problems, such as: 1) Where does the machine (and the Traveller) go when one travels to the past, since it wasn't built yet? 2) Where do they go if the machine is destroyed/dismantled in the future? My best answer to this: They end up wherever the "crystal" ends up in its natural life, then appear in the destination time without the Machine-- or alternately, perhaps the Machine follows the crystal.
Actually, if this is how the Machine works, it's just lucky Wells had a safe trip.
If I recall correctly, it's even worse than that. I remember a scene where Wells wonders how he got to San Francisco, looks at his watch, and muses, "Hmmm, 8 hours difference.." implying that the time machine didn't compensate for the earth's rotation. Which means that the time machine arrived safely in position at the museum only by the wildest co-incidence. Preposterous, but they at least made an attempt to explain the change in venue.
shareactually the 8 hours is just the different time zones - pacific time vs. the time in england or 8 hours.
sharehe landed in the museum because that's where the display of his machine was. it was the only other open portal.
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According to Meyer's commentary on the DVD, it goes there because that's where the rest of Wells' stuff is, but maybe this is weakest explanation offered so far?
shareWells was pretty smart to know San Francisco was in California because was San Francisco even a well known city in 1893? It seems the 1906 Earthquake would have been the first time it was well known?
shareHistory, history, history. Sigh. There was a little event prior to the 1906 earthquake that put San Francisco on the Map--actually a couple of events. 1) The 1849 gold rush. San Francisco was the port of choice for many of the gold miners that went by sea.
2) The Klondike gold rush (1890 something, don't remember the exact date) where again, people landed in San Francisco before heading north.
In addition to which, San Francisco was a major banking centre for the west. It connected to Eastern and European banks and stockmarkets.
So, sorry, but Wells would have been very aware of where San Francisco was.
Ghostdancer
As far as the Klondike gold rush I wonder if Seattle (the closest U.S. city to the Yukon) instead of S.F. played a bigger part as a port of call for people heading north to the gold fields. I believe besides its port it had a transcontinental rail terminus by the time of the Klondike in nearby Tacoma and/or Seattle as well. At any rate you're right about S.F. being world-famous many years before the 1906 earthquake! San Francisco at the time of the earthquake was the largest city west of the Mississippi and indeed the financial center of the western USA. Los Angeles was still a small town/city.
shareYou should think of the time machine as sort of "self-referencing" Transporter. That is, it transports it's passengers through time instead of space. If Wells attempted to travel to a time before the machine was built, or during a time when the machine was inactive, broke or otherwise destroyed, then the machine would be incapable of time travel for that destination date. The date would have be at such a time when the machine was active, and in working condition.
Perfect explanation, Hank. And now that he is returning to his own time and dismantling the machine, time travel could not be possible for two reasons, that being that both ends of the portal will now be gone.
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share I know that this thread hasn't been active for a few years but the topic reminded me of something that I had been thinking about time travel.
I believe that is is commonly misunderstood that when you travel through time you are not traveling through space. That has to be incorrect. Traveling through time is most certainly traveling through space simultaneously.
Think about it. The earth makes a complete rotation every day as it moves through time it also moves through space. So if you were to travel lets say 1 hour into the future, the physical point of origin you would have started at would no longer be there when you arrive in the future. For instance, if you start out in San Francisco, and you and your time machine traveled separately from the rotating Earth, one hour later you would most likely end up somewhere in Colorado, which according to the rotation of the Earth is a 1 hour time difference from California.
Here is where it really gets complicated. The Earth is also orbiting around the Sun at approx 62,000 MPH or 100,000 KPH. So that being said, you and your time machine would actually wind up in space some 62,000 miles from the Earth.
Now, since time is relative, how would we define a true universal time? The Solar System is also revolving around the galaxy at more than several hundred thousand MPH, and God knows how fast our galaxy is traveling about the visible universe.
So wouldn't all these factors exist in the concept of time travel? As much as I've always wished I had a time machine I think I'd be pretty frightened to use it under those circumstances.
I don't consider myself any kind of science wizard but this is all factual stuff I thought about. I love time travel movies, but as I am watching them I avoid getting my mind wrapped up in these kind of technicalities.
Though it' all relative, the ratio of traveling through time vs space. In a heavier gravitational field you travel more in space than you do in time. You are always moving through time and space- just not equally.
share