The Return of the Time Machine (1984)

from Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Movie
Original title The return of the time machine
Country of production Federal Republic of Germany
Publishing year 1984
length 120 minutes
Age rating FSK Unknown
Rod
Director Jürgen Klauss
script Günter Kunert
production Ulrich Nagel for Telefilm Saar GmbH, Saarländischer Rundfunk
music Peter Schirmann
camera Michael Faust
cut Monika Solzbacher , Ute Biedinger
occupation

The return of the time machine is a dystopian television film based on a script by Günter Kunert . It was first broadcast on September 30, 1984 on ARD .

action

Berlin , October 1925. In an antique shop , the internist Dr. Beilowski happened to find a device that he identified as the time machine from the novel by HG Wells . To test the machine in his living room, he sends his domestic servant Amanda to Neuruppin , where she is supposed to visit her mother. The machine is an X-ray machine and very dangerous; However, as a scientist, he must take the risk of an experiment.

Beilowski presents the machine to his friends Professor Danzke and engineer Pfeil and his brother-in-law Dr. Risolani in front. Danzke is a historian and member of the Reichstag for the party for unstoppable progress PUF, but is initially skeptical of a journey through time, like the psychiatrist Risolani, as there is no guarantee of return. The engineer Pfeil is only interested in technical progress; he is only concerned with the question of how bicycle racks could be constructed in a hundred years . Ultimately, none of the four academics is prepared to take the risk of a journey through time, so that the company is in danger of failing.

Since Arrow recalls his foreman Werne Berger, of him in the First World War in the Battle of Verdun as a dispatch rider has served - while he himself admittedly rather stood in the second row. After some hesitation, Wernesberger is ready to travel to the year 2025. While Danzke is interested in the social conditions in the future, Beilowski is only interested in appropriate medication and Pfeil continues to only be interested in porters because of his own heart disease. Risolani remains skeptical because he cannot rule out interactions between the future and the past .

As a precaution, Beilowski gives Wernesberger his revolver , with which he already "made legs" for the Hereros and Hottentots in German South West Africa . In addition, the Futuronaut receives a pith helmet , although it is clear that the machine only travels in time and will not change its location. After commissioning, the time machine with Wernesberger becomes transparent and disappears.

When she reappears, instead of Wernesberger, there is a 45-year-old man in the machine who is injured and completely exhausted and has to be treated by Beilowski. His name is Morges and he speaks German with a strange accent . According to his ID, he was born on February 5, 1976. Beilowski realizes that Morges' injury was caused by a firearm, so there is a suspicion that the time machine was stolen and that Morges was shot by Wernesberger. But Morges claims to have found the machine empty. Arrow is horrified; Wernesberger is his most important employee, he is also married and has two children.

Risolani makes Morges using Hennessy - Cognac talkative. In 2025 there will be no more birds; Morges calls them the "former inhabitants of the air", whom he only knows from the "Palace of Zoology and Botany". Plants arouse the curiosity of the futuronaut. When asked about the state order, it turns out that Morges lives in the administrative unit Bastonia 2 with the capital Mobutonia (allusion to Mobutu Sese Seko ). Bastonia 2 is the daughter country of Bastonia 1, which is apparently in Africa and where only "dark colored" live. Beilowski is appalled, but Morges explains to him that they are all negroes . When Beilowski examines the color of his skin and tells him that he is one hundred percent white , Morges reacts indignantly; “His person” is “naturally” a negro. The residents of Bastonia 2 are negroes by conviction; the different skin color has no meaning: "Bastonia is Bastonia".

To Beilowski's delight, it turns out that Morges is a kind of pharmacist . When he wanted to know how 70-year-olds will fare in the future, Morges says that he doesn't know any people in this age group. At the beginning of the 50th year of life, people “need” the drug 100-11, which leads to a “normal exit”. Beilowski is shocked; Risolani soberly states that he has always had the impression of walking on very thin ice. Now he suspects that the "future" ones have also broken into it.

Morges has nothing to do with the term “ God ”; he considers it to be a kind of “special machine” that has all the data and controls the fate of people: Such a god is their god too. Beilowski is shocked again. Risolani is just amazed at the wonder of his brother-in-law - after all that her generation has experienced during the war.

The question about his gunshot wound makes Morges visibly nervous; Pfeil insists on an investigation into the disappearance of Wernesberger. When going to the toilet, Morges escapes through the window. He admires nature in the garden of Beilowski's villa , plays with a tadpole, and admires an owl. Apparently, he has no intention of going back in the future, because he revealed to Risolani that he is 49 years old and that he will die next year, i.e. in 2026.

But Morges is caught and forced to return to the future. Pfeil gives him a letter for Wernesberger. He and Morges are expected to return to 1925. But the time machine has disappeared. Risolani makes Beilowski serious allegations. The journey into the future was madness. He would thus have in the past, will travel to the faulty design to improve people to create it anew. Beilowski, Danzke and Pfeil did not pass the test for using the time machine, they were fools.

Amanda returns to find a field of debris in the living room. She misses the alleged X-ray machine. Wernesberger's wife, who misses her husband, answers the phone.

criticism

An intelligently made, entertaining television game .

Lore

The film was edited on DVD by Pidax in 2011 .

literature

  • Ronald M. Hahn / Volker Jansen: Lexicon of Science Fiction Films , 2 volumes, 7th edition Munich (Wilhelm Heyne Verlag) 1997, volume 2, p. 766. ISBN 3-453-11860-X

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Hahn / Jansen, Vol. 1, p. 766