Movie report: Primer (2004)
So, you build this time machine. Or you build something, and you think it's a time machine. Only here's how it works: you can go back in time, say, six hours, but that means spending six hours in the machine. While you're in there, the world goes on. And when you come out, it's six hours earlier. And there are now two of you: the you there was before at this time, and the you that just stepped out of the machine. So, you buy shares in a stock that you know is going to go up in value during those six hours, and do other things to get rich quick, all while avoiding your other you.
But can you stop there? Aren't there other things you could straighten out, things that occurred during those six hours? Bad things, maybe? And when you start changing what you yourself already went back in time to change, well…
Primer is a movie that was supposedly made for about $7,000, won all kinds of awards, and deserves them. It focuses on Aaron and Abe, two very young engineers who talk and behave like engineers talk and behave: a little too fast, maybe not paying attention enough. They fool around with inventions in Aaron's garage in their spare time, looking to become the next Jobs and Wozniak. Instead, they discover … they don't know what.
Pretty soon, they're spending too much time in the machine, too little time sleeping or living, and there are so many of themselves running around doing, undoing, undoing the undoing and redoing the doing, that no one – them, us, no one – knows what they're doing. I've seen a diagram of the plot of this movie that looks like a tangle of yarn, and it's only partly kidding.
You can't keep up with this movie, and if that kind of thing bothers you, you'd better stay far away from this. But if you want to see something that brings science fiction pretty close to high Greek tragedy, check out Primer.
So, you build this time machine. Or you build something, and you think it's a time machine. Only here's how it works: you can go back in time, say, six hours, but that means spending six hours in the machine. While you're in there, the world goes on. And when you come out, it's six hours earlier. And there are now two of you: the you there was before at this time, and the you that just stepped out of the machine. So, you buy shares in a stock that you know is going to go up in value during those six hours, and do other things to get rich quick, all while avoiding your other you.
But can you stop there? Aren't there other things you could straighten out, things that occurred during those six hours? Bad things, maybe? And when you start changing what you yourself already went back in time to change, well…
Primer is a movie that was supposedly made for about $7,000, won all kinds of awards, and deserves them. It focuses on Aaron and Abe, two very young engineers who talk and behave like engineers talk and behave: a little too fast, maybe not paying attention enough. They fool around with inventions in Aaron's garage in their spare time, looking to become the next Jobs and Wozniak. Instead, they discover … they don't know what.
Pretty soon, they're spending too much time in the machine, too little time sleeping or living, and there are so many of themselves running around doing, undoing, undoing the undoing and redoing the doing, that no one – them, us, no one – knows what they're doing. I've seen a diagram of the plot of this movie that looks like a tangle of yarn, and it's only partly kidding.
You can't keep up with this movie, and if that kind of thing bothers you, you'd better stay far away from this. But if you want to see something that brings science fiction pretty close to high Greek tragedy, check out Primer.
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