Time After Time

Trivia: It seems like a mistake, but it really isn't: Director Nicholas Meyer, in his DVD audio commentary, points out that the time machine should not have stayed in London and rightfully did belong where it ended up - in a museum in San Francisco. This is plausible not because of alternate dimensions or time zones, he explains, but because the machine was crated up and shipped there by museum curators after H.G. Wells' death/disappearance.

Trivia: All three of the children of the real H.G. Wells were still alive at the time of this film's release.

More for Time After Time

Mistakes

Audio problem: When Wells is en route to the Hyatt, exhaust sound from the taxi as it descends the hills of San Francisco seems to have been stolen from the Mustang in "Bullet." When the taxi pulls up in front of the hotel, it sounds again like the ordinary taxi that pulled away with Wells earlier.

stevewaclo ★

More mistakes in Time After Time

Quotes

Jack the Ripper: It's catching isn't it, violence.

More quotes from Time After Time

Questions

Question: Excluding plot convenience and suspension of disbelief, how could the time machine be shipped to San Francisco when H.G. Wells was traveling into the future with it?

Answer: At the end of the movie, he said that he was going to dismantle the time machine, so it's not used again, thus ending this timeline and the timeline we know as H.G. Wells would come to pass. As for the time machine being in San Francisco, if the machine had never been moved or buried, he would have landed in London.

Answer: In the late 1970s, Wells' time machine and other belongings were sent to San Francisco as part of an H.G. Wells exhibit at a museum. It had been found two years earlier, buried under Wells' since-demolished London house. It was considered a non-working "curiosity" that Wells built and had inspired his novel, "The Time Machine." In the 19th century, when Wells chased Jack the Ripper into the future, that is where his time machine landed, apparently drawn to its 1979 counterpart in San Francisco. At the end, Wells returned to 19th-century London in the time machine, where it would eventually be found many decades later. And sorry, but there has to be some "suspension of disbelief" to explain the time travel.

raywest ★

More questions & answers from Time After Time

Join the mailing list

Separate from membership, this is to get updates about mistakes in recent releases. Addresses are not passed on to any third party, and are used solely for direct communication from this site. You can unsubscribe at any time.

Check out the mistake & trivia books, on Kindle and in paperback.