Yeah, you are right. In the world of Primer, the duplicates individuals, and timelines, just continue on into infinity. They just keep going. Thus the guy tied up in the attic. The numerous extra Abes, and extra Aarons that they don’t exactly know what to do with. So yeah, that is what that says to me… At least at a remove. I haven’t pointed my brain at this world in a bit! hahaha. Too busy trying to figure out Dark. If you liked Primer dude, you have to check out Netflix’s Dark. Trust me on this one.

Am a fan of your website, and also,
like you, a big fan of Primer.

I just took a look at the Definitive Primer
Timeline chart:

http://unrealitymag.com/index.php/2011/09/30/at-last-a-definitive-timeline-for-primer/

That suggested a question that I’d like to pose to you:

When Abe(0) makes his first trip backward
to create Timeline #2, what happens to
Timeline #1 ? Nothing is shown on the
chart after Abe(0) makes his first trip.

Does that mean that Timeline #1 is effectively
destroyed ? Or, if not destroyed, does that
mean that Abe disappears completely from
Timeline #1 ? If the latter is true,
Abe would no longer be in Aaron’s life, right ?

Any ideas on this ?

Thanks.

Thanks for your overall efforts on bring light to better movies.

Although many people have attempted to bring logical analysis to Primer, it is not possible. The problem is that even thou we are told the box transports the person inside back in time to the time the box was turned on, in fact what it does is hold the person inside in real time while it transports the entire universe back in time. Imagine that, the power of a tiny box built with parts from Home Depot and the last operating Radio Shack.

Imagine a 3rd person named Bob viewing everything. He arrives 10 minutes early. You-1 turns on box, waits an hour, gets in box, waits an hour inside of box, and gets out. Bob and the world is 2 hours ahead, where you would expect. You-1 is existing now a hour behind, he can relive an extra hour. But this is not what the movie shows. It shows outside the box going back in time. You-1, who retains his real time, gets out of the box and asks Bob how long he has stood there, and he says 10 minutes. This means the box is transporting the universe back in time, not the contents of the box. This is why all analysis falls apart. You-1 magically changes into You-2 in the box, but this movie is supposed to have been logical, no magic nonsense. Logic doesn’t work with this movie.

Somewhere I read Shane Carruth has stopped discussing Primer online.

thanks, Malcolm

I like the way you are thinking, but the rules of the movie make it most likely impossible to mess with the creation of the time travel machine. They are only able to travel as far back as when the first box was first turned on. Yes, the movie can be one big loop, but not one that predates the creation efforts. My take anyway.

One little thing is bothering me about the theory of being able to prevent a (or THE) past from happening. Your example of kidnapping your past self after you get out of the box helps to land the movie but I can’t get past one of the final scenes where Abe (what ever number) falls out of the closet. Before reading your explanation I thought it was a revert to the scene where Abe wakes up one the floor confused near the start of the movie. Does this mean that the whole movie is one big loop that cant be changed?
It seems like a bit of chicken or egg thing to me. They invented a time machine but using it is what caused/helped them to invent it…

Maybe this is just my simple mind missing lots of stuff. I can see why it took such a long time to review the movie.

Hey Shelby…
So I click the link, and I watch the video… then I read your comment. And I’m like, yeah, yeah, YEAH, YEAH, TOTALLY WOAH, YEAH! And all the while I’m like, where’d good ‘ol Shelb get that FANTASTIC quote from? What would I do if I realized my friend replaced the “treasure” with something lesser as I am trying to do the same? Yeah!? What would I do. And then I see your link back here, and even still I’m assuming that it was a quote that I got from somewhere else. So I go look for the quote in the post so I can go read the whole article, because damn Daniel!, that is going to be a good article. One of those inside out thinker kinds of fellows!

HAHAHA. Ok, so I’m a freaking idiot. Dumb as a board really. Gah.

But thank you for spreading the love and sharing the word about the goodness that is Primer and our discussion here. Even if the author of this particular blog is a flipping idiot.

I was a little insulted because of what he says about Primer (although happy that it was mentioned at all).

I commented and linked people here- we’ll see if anyone realizes what the story is really about.