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Following the shooting death of his girlfriend Emma (Sienna Guillory), New York scientist and professor Alexander Hartdegen (Guy Pearce) constructs a time machine able to transport him back in time in an attempt to prevent Emma's death. When she also dies in the new timeline, Alex realizes he can't alter the past and decides instead to go into the future to see whether answers might be found there. By mishap, he travels to the year 802,701 AD where he learns that the human race is divided into two factions: the peaceful cliff-dwelling Eloi and the monstrous, apelike subterranean Morlocks who eat them. When the Morlocks capture the only friend he's been able to make—the young and pretty Eloi Mara (Samantha Mumba)—Alex is faced with having to go underground to save her.

The Time Machine is a remake of the 1960 classic, The Time Machine (1960), both of which were adapted from an 1895 novella, also titled The Time Machine, by English science fiction writer H.G. Wells (1866-1946). The screenplay for the movie was written by American screenwriter John Logan and has very little resemblance to the source material.

The main character was named George in the original movie. In the book, however, he was only referred to as "the time traveler."

The Über-Morlock (Jeremy Irons) is referencing mankind as a whole. Man's constant need to advance itself ultimately became its undoing, which came in the form of the moon colony destroying its inner core and setting up the conditions that forced humanity to split into Eloi and Morlock.

Because Vox (Orlando Jones), the Photonic Sphere built in 2030 AD, still exists and works. From it, the Eloi would have learned English. Mara speaks English so well because she teaches it to the Eloi. It might be assumed that the Über-Morlock knows English because of his telepathic ability to reach the minds of the Eloi. In the novel, however, the time traveler was unable to communicate with either the Eloi or the Morlocks, except by signs. Nobody spoke English.

Alex successfully escapes from the Über-Morlock by hurling the time machine forward to the year 635,427,810 AD where he finds only a desolate valley overrun with Morlocks. Haing found the answer to his question—he cannot save Emma because it was her death that caused him to build the time machine, so by saving her, the machine would never have existed—he decides to return to the cave, rescue Mara, and alter the future. After releasing Mara, he jams his watch into the machine's controls and sets it working. The result is an explosion that reaches throughout the Morlocks' network of tunnels. Now, however, Alex is trapped in the year 802,701, so he sets forth to build a new life with Mara and Kalen (Omero Mumba). Vox is put to work reading stories and teaching English to the Eloi. The screen then splits in two, showing on the right Alex walking with Mara and Kalen through a field that was once Alex's home and on the left Philby (Mark Addy) and Mrs Watchit (Phyllida Law) strolling through the same area as it exists in 1903. Since Alex has disappeared, Philby asks Mrs Watchit whether she would be willing to become his housekeeper, at least until Alex returns, and Watchit agrees. The camera then pans around Alex's study, stopping at a view of the street outside the window. Philby walks past and tosses his bowler away.

Yes. The Time Machine is in the public domain and may be read and/or downloaded from several online sites such as Project Gutenberg.