The Time Machine (2002)

Guy Pearce: Alexander Hartdegen

Photos 

11 more photos

Quotes 

• Über-Morlock : Who are you to question 800,000 years... of evolution?

  Alexander Hartdegen : This is, this is a perversion of every natural law.

  Über-Morlock : [grabs him by the throat]  And what is time travel but your pathetic attempted to try to control the world around you? Your futile effort to have a question answered? You think I don't know you, Alexander? I can look inside your memories, your nightmares, your dreams. You're a man haunted by those two most terrible words: What if?

• David Philby : A professor from Columbia University should not be corresponding with a crazy German book keeper.

  Alexander Hartdegen : He's a patent clerk, not a book keeper, and I think Mister Einstein needs all the support I can give him.

• Alexander Hartdegen : My question is why can't one change the past?

  Vox : Because one cannot travel into the past.

• Alexander Hartdegen : I could come back a thousand times... and see her die a thousand ways.

• Alexander Hartdegen : You're forgetting one thing. What if?

• Alexander Hartdegen : Can you tell me what's happening here?

  Vox : Well, my sources are no longer fully annotated and my information is somewhat anecdotal but, I believe what was once one race, is now two. One above. And one below. Two distinct species that have evolved.

  Alexander Hartdegen : And how do those below survive?

  Vox : That is the real question, isn't it?

  Alexander Hartdegen : I don't believe it.

  Vox : Well, if you don't like the answers, you should avoid asking the questions. Look at them. They have no knowledge of the past. No ambition for the future. So lucky.

  Alexander Hartdegen : Why would you say something like that?

  Vox : Can you even imagine what it's like to remember everything? I remember the six year old girl who asked me about dinosaurs eight hundred thousand years ago. I remember the last book I recommended. "Look Homeward, Angel" by Thomas Wolfe. And yes, I even remember you. Time Travel... practical application.

• David Philby : Nothing can change what happened.

  Alexander Hartdegen : No, you're wrong. Because I will change it.

• Alexander Hartdegen : You were right, Philby. We did go too far.

• David Philby : [looking at a futuristic picture]  I wonder if we'll ever go too far.

  Alexander Hartdegen : With what?

  David Philby : [pointing at the picture]  With this. With all of this.

  Alexander Hartdegen : No such thing.

• Alexander Hartdegen : How did this happen?

  Soldier #1 : The moon. Come on, move it.

  Alexander Hartdegen : That's impossible. What happened?

  Soldier #1 : What, you been living under a rock?

  Alexander Hartdegen : Yes, I've been living under a rock! Now tell me...

  Soldier #1 : The demolitions for the lunar colony screwed up the orbit, okay? The moon's breaking up, all right? Now, come on.

• Mara : Why have you come here? Why have you traveled through time?

  Alexander Hartdegen : To have a question answered.

  Mara : A question?

  Alexander Hartdegen : Yes. Why can't I change the past?

  Mara : Why would you want to?

  [a look of realization] 

  Mara : You've lost someone. Someone you loved very much.

• Alexander Hartdegen : My proposal for utilizing solar power... rejected. My concepts for harnessing microenergy waves... rejected. The Dean suggests that I focus on something that might actually help mankind... like his study on the benefits of tobacco consumption!

• Alexander Hartdegen : [reading from stone]  One generation passeth away, and another cometh but the Earth abideth forever.

• Jogger : Hey.

  Alexander Hartdegen : Hello.

  Jogger : Nice suit. Very retro.

  Alexander Hartdegen : Thank you.

  Jogger : Bet that makes a hell of a cappuccino. That thing.

• Alexander Hartdegen : You were right, Philby. I did go too far.

• Kalen : "New Yorkers"? Are they friendly?

  Alexander Hartdegen : Until you talk to them.

• Mara : What are you doing with it?

  Alexander Hartdegen : Changing the future.