The Time Machine Page #19

TIME TRAVELLER & WEENA - MOVING SHOT 235

Their feet kick up small flurries of dust as they

walk among exhibitions of a long bygone era still

existent behind plastic. Some of the cases are

broken and their contents, exposed to the atmos-

phere, have decayed, crumbled to dust. We recognize

objects and machines, some belonging to the early

part of the twentieth century and still others take

on the forms and shapes that the audience of today

will recognize as contemporary. Then they pass

cabinets that hold objects of a time far beyond

comprehension.

Weena finally leads the Time Traveller to a broken

case which contains several boxes of golden rings

a few inches in diameter and one inch wide, lined

with minutely spaced grooves. He picks up the

nearest box and examines its contents.

TIME TRAVELLER:

(picking up a ring)

Are these the talking rings?

WEENA:

Yes.

TIME TRAVELLER:

They speak?

WEENA:

Yes.

TIME TRAVELLER:

Of what?

WEENA:

Things no one here understands.

TIME TRAVELLER:

How do you get it to talk?

Weena takes the ring from the Time Traveller and

lays it on a smooth topped porcelain block on its

edge, like a coin, and spins it like a top.

INSERT:
WHIRLING RING 236

A VOICE emerges from the spinning ring as the current

of air flows through its grooves, much like a phono-

graph needle evokes sound as it plays through the

surface of one of our records.

VOICE FROM RING:

Whomsoever chances upon these rings

will probably hear the last recorded

voice of civilized man. This is the

year four thousand eight hundred and

twenty-nine.

TWO SHOT 237

The Time Traveller is listening in fascination and

Weena in disinterested detachment.

VOICE FROM RING (cont'd)

The war between the East and West,

which is now in its three hundredth

and twenty-sixth year has at last

come to an end. There is nothing

left to fight with and few of us

left to fight. The atmosphere has

become so polluted with deadly

germs that it can no longer be

breathed. There is no place on

this planet that is immune. The

last surviving factory for the

manufacture of oxygen has been

destroyed. Stockpiles are rapidly

diminishing and when they are gone,

we must die...

The last few WORDS DECREASE IN VOLUME and FADE AWAY.

The Time Traveller eagerly reaches into the case for

the second ring and spins it.

ANOTHER VOICE FROM RING

This is the last day. We, the last

to survive, have had our final meeting.

We have decided to split into two

groups. Each man and woman has made

his own decision. Some have chosen

to take refuge in the great caverns

and find a new way of life far down

below the earth's surface. The rest

of us have decided to take our chances

in the sunlight, small as those chances

may be.

The VOICE from the ring DWINDLES and is heard no

more. The Time Traveller quickly picks up the

third and last ring and spins it. NO WORDS are

heard -- only the SOUND of MARCHING FOOTSTEPS over

floors of stone -- then a deadly SILENCE.

CLOSE ON TIME TRAVELLER 238

As he watches the last ring spin to a standstill.

Over this:

TIME TRAVELLER'S VOICE

From the talking rings I learned how

the human race divided itself and

how the world of the Eloi and Morlocks

began.

He turns.

GREEN MUSEUM - LONG SHOT 239

The Time Traveller paces across the hall. Weena

hurries after him.

TIME TRAVELLER'S VOICE

By some quirk of fate the Morlocks

had become the masters and the Eloi

their servants. The Morlocks main-

tained them and bred them like cattle

only to take them below when they

reached maturity, which explained why

there were no older people along them.

They exit.

GREAT HALL - FULL SHOT 240

The Time Traveller, followed by Weena, walks from

the book shelves toward the entrance.

TIME TRAVELLER'S VOICE

Now I knew I must go below. It was

the only means of finding a way up

into the sphinx to reach my Machine

and to find out what happened to the

little people when they went below.

They leave the Great Hall.

EXT. LANDSCAPE - FULL SHOT - (DAY) 241

The Time Traveller strides toward one of the wells.

Weena senses his intention and catches up with him

to grasp his arm.

WEENA:

No...don't go...please.

He shakes her off.

AT MOUTH OF WELL - MED. SHOT 242

The Time Traveller places his jacket on the wall.

Then into the well he drops a dry leaf which, instead

of fluttering slowly down, is at once sucked out of

sight by the current from the shaft. Then he looks

around and finds a pebble, drops it down the well and

listens.

After a PLOP is heard he puts his arm down the

shaft as far as it goes, feeling its surface, then

throws his leg over the porcelain wall and starts

to descend. Weena rushes to his side to stop him.

WEENA:

You will not come back.

TIME TRAVELLER:

I'll be back.

Weena shakes her head and, as though giving him

a farewell gift, thrusts a large blossom into his

pocket. The Time Traveller smiles as he dis-

appears.

FROM THROAT OF WELL - LOW ANGLE 243

Locking from below, the top of the well appears

like a small blue disk with Weena peering down.

The Time Traveller gropes his way.

Suddenly from the far distance comes the SOUND of

LOW but POWERFUL SIREN. Weena straightens.

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