Primer (film)
en.wikipedia.org
en.wikipedia.org
I have seen it 17 to 18 times, and even-though people have attempted to explain everything that is going on to me I still have a hard time wrapping my mind around it. Awesome for the hacker in you!
On a side note, my biggest annoyance with Wikipedia is manifest in articles about movies. For some reason, they allow an editorial policy of essentially writing out a scene by scene account of a movie.
From about two or three viewings, I got about a third of it right.
I would stress that not all of Wikipedia falls into that trap. Obscure information (histories of places, etc) read quite well, and tend to get the information balance right. However, pop culture and movies in particular, seem to attract a kitchen sink style, as though someone just sat through the film with a laptop, and typed up everything as it was happening on the screen in front of them.
The linked timeline from the article is actually pretty "easy" to read and really helped me understand what I've just seen. Just watch the movie beforehand :)
http://neuwanstein.fw.hu/primer_timeline.html
Edit: The entire movie is officially(?) available on Google Video, though the quality is not that good. You should find yourself a better copy...
http://video.google.com/videoplay?docid=3909854615539675694#
The proofs are in 2+1 dimensions, but they're generally believed to hold in 3+1.
http://preposterousuniverse.com/research/#ctcs for a brief summary with references by Carroll.
The jury is still out on other implementations, though of course everything seems to point towards them being impossible.
On the other hand, it would be very interesting to know what is the mechanism by which the Universe protects itself against CTCs.
http://www.themorningnews.org/archives/reviews/mindfuck_movi...
It's definitely the most complex of the bunch, but most of them were great finds. Cube was another low-budget gem, and on the other end of the spectrum there's The Game with Michael Douglas.
I started watching Primer but gave up after 10 minutes or so, maybe the effects of watching it late after you put your child to sleep.
SPOILER ALERT.
Also, single timeline based time travel is just plain better than multiple timeline based time travel. There are just way too many problems that having multiple timelines introduces. I don't think you can ever tie up all lose ends with multiple timelines... someone can always just build a time machine later and fork the past. Maybe Primer addresses this with the limitations of their devices.
Maybe there were some interesting ideas, but it just felt so clunky and amateurish.
Check it out: http://www.preceden.com
Just some feedback lower the barrier to entry. From the initial look of it, it seems like it would have a steep learning curve.
Your stats look great though. Spend $60 and get $145 back, you are on to something.
The $5/day the led to that $60 didn't result in any paying customers, so I stopped. Blog reviews and word of mouth are much more effective.
As far as usability goes, it should be pretty easy to use. There are advanced features, but for a simple timeline, you should be off and running in minutes.
Hope you like it.
But The man from Earth was just boring, I don't get why so many people liked it.
Bad actors, the hero claims are either dull or ridiculous (I laughed a lot when he pretended to be J.), and most important of all, not surprising. I knew what the movie was about before I saw it, and if it can't show me more than I can imagine myself, it just sucks.
I'll be happy to get some downvotes so that some of you could save 2 hours by not viewing this movie.
I've watched this movie several times and I pick up on new things almost every time.
I guarantee you'll have a better time.
IMO it stays with you a long time after you've watched it..
Primer, on the other hand doesn't use a single editing gimmick or plot twist, but rather does a deep drive in the mind bending situations that can occur when time travel becomes possible.
I can't say I've watched Momento more than once. I guess that says something in itself.
I'll definitely be getting a copy of Primer now!
Criticisms: it's twisted beyond comprehension, and it's jargony almost to a fault. I find it tough to get some people to sit through it.
Why is this an important distinction? Because you can't calculate or quote business investment and return while discarding the cost of people working for several years on a project for free.
Saying that Primer cost Shane Carruth $7000 to make is like saying that The Harry Potter Book Series cost J K Rowling 19 ink cartridges.
It's important to appreciate what Shane achieved with such few resources though, and it's interesting to note also that he was a software engineer before making his way into filmmaking.
Wow. This particular fact really stood out to me. I'm glad he chose to be resilient and finish the project. Theres a lot of parallels founders can draw upon from the making of this film (budget, style, technique, etc.).
http://www.imdb.com/title/tt1187064/
If you're broke, it's available on Bittorrent (I am broke). Otherwise you won't regret your purchase.
But Primer is pure mind-bending sci-fi. You could feel the atmosphere of the guys inventing something like few other movies.
Actually - this is how I think a startup should feel and look like: the way the movie portrays it at the beginning, while the guys are still figuring things out.
Another surprisingly good lower-budget/-attention sci-fi film is PANDORUM.
"Are you hungry? I haven't eaten since later this afternoon."
It's a low-budget philosophical/mathematical/surrealistic geek film.
* http://i.imgur.com/kqja1.jpg
* http://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/PrimerTimeline.gif(though the movie has only 1.5/5 stars, interestingly enough.
"It's a time machine."
"Does it work?"
"Heck, yeah, it does. You don't even know."
If you haven't seen it, find the incredible review of the Phantom Menace on YouTube by Red Letter Media. The most insightful part is where he asks people to describe the nature of the characters in both trilogies. For the original movies, people instantly recall, for example the "dashing...arrogant..scoundrel" Han Solo. For the newer films, nothing. What was princess Amidala like? Nobody cares.
Avatar suffered from this, and no amount of shiny graphics could ever bring me to care. With great characters you can forgive all kinds of things (eg Battlestar Galactica.)
Stories like these are part of what makes us human.
"Sheldon: It occurs to me that if I ever did invent a time machine, I will just go into the past and give it to myself. Thus eliminating the need to invent it in first place. That really takes the pressure off".
I would like to hear what you guys think of time travel, after all it has be one of the favourite subject of speculative science fiction.
I like the clause in their roommate agreement - if any of them ever invents a time machine, the first stop will be their meeting on the roommate agreement when they are discussing it.
Honestly, I'm rarely a fan of time travel stories. They tend to be full of plot holes and half-baked logic. Since everything is theoretical, it seems like many writers just pull whatever rules they feel like out of a hat, and use it as a sort of deus ex machina. Very rarely is it used well in my opinion. Primer is one of the rare exceptions because it's well structured and thought out (maddeningly so), but overall I tend to skip such things.
Also, it could be noted that Primer being about time travel could be considered a spoiler. I didn't know what it was about until it was actually revealed in the movie, and I was kind of happy having it that way.
Let me just clarify a little bit. Traveling to the past is not possible. "Traveling" to the future is already known how to.
At least some fiction make a coherent history for how time travel works, like Primer or Asimov's book 'The End of Eternity'... Unlike for example Donnie Darko, a movie that i love, but the ending....