Frankenstein, 20,000 Leagues Under the Sea and the template for today’s Amazon tip: they are all among the absolute sci-fi classics that became milestones of the genre before the beginning of the 20th century.
There are stories that change everything that comes after them. The sci-fi works of the 19th century in particular laid a revolutionary foundation for everything that makes up our literature and genre cinema today. These include Mary Shelley’s Frankenstein, Jules Verne’s 20,000 Leagues Under the Sea – and H.G. Wells’ The Time Machine.
You can watch an ambitious film adaptation of this influential time travel novel on Amazon Prime as of today: Simon Wells’ The Time Machine from 2002 with Guy Pearce and Jeremy Irons. It boasts great effects, a story that is still relevant today and fantastic images that every sci-fi fan should have seen at least once.
Streams sci-fi epic The Time Machine now on Amazon Prime
In The Time Machine, an inventor travels to an infinitely distant future and learns its horrors
As the 19th century draws to a close, scientist Alexander Hartdegen (Guy Pearce) is blown away by the technological developments of his time. A wonderful future awaits him with the woman of his dreams, to whom he proposes. But an unexpected stroke of fate suddenly leaves him all alone.
An idea matures in Hartdegen, driven by the technologies of the future: what if he could travel through time and start all over again? He throws himself into working on a time machine, no matter how much those around him ridicule him for it. In the end, however, he triumphs, climbs into his vehicle and explores the past and the future.
(Guy Pearce in The Time Machine)
After a few detours, he ends up in the year 802,701, where he witnesses a world that is infinitely far removed from the one he is familiar with. Two hostile species of beings dominate this Earth, and Hartdegen realizes that he has stumbled into the middle of a deadly conflict.
The Time Machine on Amazon Prime impressively brings to life the visions of one of sci-fi’s greatest writers
The Time Machine is a movie that should be on every sci-fi fan’s must-see list. Anyone who takes a close look at the greats of future visions will sooner or later stumble across H. G. Wells alongside Mary Shelley, Jules Verne and Isaac Asimov. In addition to The Time Machine, Wells also created War of the Worlds and thus secured himself a place in the halls of fame of science fiction.
His view of the far, far distant future of our planet is and remains frighteningly familiar. Admittedly, technical or biological aspects now seem rather fantastic according to our own level of science. But the idea of how a divided society is developing, in which the gap between rich and poor is widening, has lost none of its relevance.
(The Time Machine)
The Time Machine is therefore rightly one of the stories that sci-fi libraries cannot be imagined without. The book platform Goodreads ranks Wells’ work among the most influential sci-fi and fantasy books ever.
Incidentally, the author’s descendant Simon Wells himself sat in the director’s chair for the 2002 film adaptation. Under his supervision, pictures were created that truly do justice to the vision of the original. Practical sets, props and, above all, the make-up work for the Morlocks and Eloi – Oscar-nominated in their day – bring the bleak future to life. The movie, which flopped at the time, has more than earned a second look.
If you want to immerse yourself in the terrifying and fascinating future vision of The Time Machine, you can do so from today with an Amazon Prime streaming subscription.
