Guy Pearce credited as playing...
Alexander Hartdegen
- Über-Morlock: Who are you to question 800,000 years... of evolution?
- Alexander Hartdegen: This is, this is a perversion of every natural law.
- Über-Morlock: [grabs him by the throat] And what is time travel but your pathetic attempted to try to control the world around you? Your futile effort to have a question answered? You think I don't know you, Alexander? I can look inside your memories, your nightmares, your dreams. You're a man haunted by those two most terrible words: What if?
- David Philby: A professor from Columbia University should not be corresponding with a crazy German book keeper.
- Alexander Hartdegen: He's a patent clerk, not a book keeper, and I think Mister Einstein needs all the support I can give him.
- Alexander Hartdegen: My question is why can't one change the past?
- Vox: Because one cannot travel into the past.
- Alexander Hartdegen: Can you tell me what's happening here?
- Vox: Well, my sources are no longer fully annotated and my information is somewhat anecdotal but, I believe what was once one race, is now two. One above. And one below. Two distinct species that have evolved.
- Alexander Hartdegen: And how do those below survive?
- Vox: That is the real question, isn't it?
- Alexander Hartdegen: I don't believe it.
- Vox: Well, if you don't like the answers, you should avoid asking the questions. Look at them. They have no knowledge of the past. No ambition for the future. So lucky.
- Alexander Hartdegen: Why would you say something like that?
- Vox: Can you even imagine what it's like to remember everything? I remember the six year old girl who asked me about dinosaurs eight hundred thousand years ago. I remember the last book I recommended. "Look Homeward, Angel" by Thomas Wolfe. And yes, I even remember you. Time Travel... practical application.
- David Philby: Nothing can change what happened.
- Alexander Hartdegen: No, you're wrong. Because I will change it.
- Alexander Hartdegen: How did this happen?
- Soldier #1: The moon. Come on, move it.
- Alexander Hartdegen: That's impossible. What happened?
- Soldier #1: What, you been living under a rock?
- Alexander Hartdegen: Yes, I've been living under a rock! Now tell me...
- Soldier #1: The demolitions for the lunar colony screwed up the orbit, okay? The moon's breaking up, all right? Now, come on.
- David Philby: [looking at a futuristic picture] I wonder if we'll ever go too far.
- Alexander Hartdegen: With what?
- David Philby: [pointing at the picture] With this. With all of this.
- Alexander Hartdegen: No such thing.
- Mara: Why have you come here? Why have you traveled through time?
- Alexander Hartdegen: To have a question answered.
- Mara: A question?
- Alexander Hartdegen: Yes. Why can't I change the past?
- Mara: Why would you want to?
- [a look of realization]
- Mara: You've lost someone. Someone you loved very much.
- Alexander Hartdegen: [reading from stone] One generation passeth away, and another cometh but the Earth abideth forever.
- Jogger: Hey.
- Alexander Hartdegen: Hello.
- Jogger: Nice suit. Very retro.
- Alexander Hartdegen: Thank you.
- Jogger: Bet that makes a hell of a cappuccino. That thing.
- Alexander Hartdegen: My proposal for utilizing solar power... rejected. My concepts for harnessing microenergy waves... rejected. The Dean suggests that I focus on something that might actually help mankind... like his study on the benefits of tobacco consumption!
- Alexander Hartdegen: [the people are arguing in their language] What are they saying?
- Mara: They're trying to decide if we should throw you in the river. Now tell me quickly, and tell me the truth. Where do you come from?
- Alexander Hartdegen: Well I'm from here, just not from now. I'm from the past.
- Mara: [Confused] Oh...
- Mara: [She speaks to the people in their language, and they all laugh. She translates for Alexander] I told them that you hit your head, and that you're a wandering idiot.