10. The Time Machine (2002)
Loosely adapted from the Jules Verne novel, The Time Machine sees a Columbia University scientist (Guy Pearce) send himself to the year 802,701, long after the moon has been accidentally destroyed by space colonists. This has left a ravaged planet where many people have chosen to live underground, eventually mutating into monstrous ape-like creatures. Though some of the plot elements are suspect, Martin says the destroyed-moon aspect is accurate. “The moon controls so many elements of the Earth. Even if the moon were to go out of orbit a few degrees, the results would be catastrophic. We’d have extreme freezes, extreme heat. The moon controls our waters, our oceans, our tides … You’d see the melting of the ice caps in Greenland and Antarctica. The water levels would rise 200 feet, so basically 75–80 percent of the Earth’s population would be underwater if they didn’t get out of their coastal cities fast enough. Even if they did, imagine the impact and the destruction it would cost on other cities. Imagine if everybody in Los Angeles went to Las Vegas. All of a sudden you’ve got tens of millions of people in Las Vegas — it can’t sustain those people. You’d have a breakdown of society, security, and control. So any survivors that are left, you’d have a lawless Mad Max scenario.”
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