The Time Machine (2002) Trivia Quiz

Answer: Klaus Badelt

Klaus Badelt, born 1967, is a German composer. Among his other notable works are the soundtracks to the movies "K-19: The Widowmaker" and "The Pirates of the Caribbean: The Curse of The Black Pearl". The list of composing credits amassed by John Williams is virtually endless, but his best known works are the scores to "Star Wars", "Superman", and "Close Encounters of the Third Kind".

There was life after the new wave band Oingo Boingo split up, as proven by former member Danny Elfman's ability to not only compose catchy TV theme music but movie scores such as "Batman" and "Darkman". Following a 12 year stint as Yes' guitarist, South African-born Trevor Rabin found a home in Hollywood as a movie soundtrack composer.

Answer: New York City

Alexander Hartdegen is shown to be a young professor, teaching physics at Columbia University in uptown Manhattan.

Answer: The Future Is Now

The year 2030 is his first stop before proceeding on into the future after realizing he couldn't save his fiancee, Emma. He sees the billboard and hears a recording talk about the first detonations for the planned colonization of underground living on the moon.

Answer: Photonic Memory Core

After Alexander thinks VOX NY-114 is a "stereo opticon of some sort", it corrects him by saying that this system is "a compendium of all human knowledge". VOX NY-114 is a supercomputer represented as a speaking holographic image (hilariously played by Orlando Jones).

Answer: Unified Field Theory

After Alexander finds out that the public library information unit is a compendium of all human knowledge, he puts it to the test by asking it what it know about different areas of science, physics and engineering - all areas concerning the field of time travel.

Although unified field theory, a term coined by Albert Einstein, is a branch of physics dealing with relativity and electromagnetism, it is not one of the areas Alexander queries the unit on.

Answer: "Live long and prosper."

Alexander had traveled into the future after his fiance Emma dies a second time. The first time was in a park when she gets shot during a robbery gone bad; this incident serves as the catalyst for Alexander to create a time machine to go back and save her.

He avoids the park after traveling back through time, but she is killed anyway when a horse-drawn wagon topples over onto her, crushing her. Alexander's friend, Filby, meets him at the hospital and he says, "Why can't I change it? I could come back a thousand times and see her die a thousand ways." He thinks by traveling forward in time he will find the answer he seeks.

He gets frustrated, realizing his answer won't be found here, and decides to leave after the public library information unit starts singing a verse of a tune from the Broadway version of "The Time Machine".

Answer: He's a "wandering idiot".

The villagers were contemplating throwing him into the river, possibly thinking that this stranger might be an enemy. After telling Mara the truth that he came from the past in a machine, she thought it best to provide another explanation to her people, telling them that "he hit his head and he's a wandering idiot".

Answer: Dinosaurs

After Mara is captured by the Morlocks, Alexander and Mara's little brother, Kalen, find out that the Vox unit, with its photonic memory core, is still functioning after 800,000 years. It says to Alexander, "Can you even imagine what it's like to remember everything?" Then adds, "I remember this six year old girl who asked me about dinosaurs 800,000 years ago," and finally, "And yes, I even remember you.... time travel, practical application."

Answer: The food supply

After going underground in his attempt to find Mara, he discovers that the Morlocks are cannibals, capturing the Eloi for food. Then Alexander meets the Morlock leader (brilliantly played by Jeremy Irons) who to his surprise, can not only speak English, but is imbued with telepathic and telekinetic abilities.

The Morlocks' ancestors were once humans who had to live underground after the moon broke apart, and even they evolved into different castes, such as the type confronted by Alexander. When the Morlock leader refers to the Eloi as food, and Alexander questions him, he (the Morlock leader) becomes enraged, asking who is he to question 800,000 years of evolution.

Answer: Further into the future

When Alexander and the Morlock leader start fighting, he pushes the lever forward, into the future, as a way of distancing him both from Mara and as a way of getting rid of him. After the Morlock leader is pushed out of the machine and its sphere of influence, where he is seen to age rapidly and disintegrate, the machine stops at the year 635,427,810 and Alexander encounters an Earth depicted as a barren, rocky landscape underneath a darkened sky with clouds of black smoke.

This is more in keeping with the original written version.

In the book, the time traveler goes forward in time about 30 million years, showing a similar kind of fate for the Earth.