I Love Time Travel - Part 12 - Primer

           What does one say about a movie that is so unbelievably confusing that even a die-hard time travel nerd like myself had trouble putting the plot together?  Primer is a true science fiction film; in that the emphasis is on the scientific part of that equation.  It is an incredibly well-edited and effective movie wrapped up in a tight 87 minutes.  It is regarded as an impressive independent film and an excellent debut for creator Shane Carruth, but to this nerd, it was lacking in a few key areas to make it an enjoyable experience overall.

As simply as I can explain it, there are four young engineers working on a project in a garage.  The first 20-30 minutes is almost padding for the rest of the film, because all of the techno-babble is inconsequential, other than setting up the documentary-like feel.  It works well, but soon, the story of the two main engineers screwing the other two engineers out of the project is abandoned.  Abe and Aaron accidentally stumble on a use for their machine to send an object into a time loop.  The experiment is furthered when they insert themselves into bigger versions of the machines to manually leave the loop, thereby experiencing the same block of time twice.  This is time travel.

The boxes work like this: You turn the box on.  You stay out of contact with the rest of the world (Abe and Aaron went to a hotel room and unplugged the phones and TV) for six hours.  After six hours, you climb into the box and wait it out for six hours. After that time, you emerge as a double of yourself, six hours earlier, while the previous version of you is waiting it out in the hotel. 

It actually makes sense in the context of the movie.  Through he original experimentation, you follow how the box works fairly clearly.  The engineers use their time travel time to check stock prices and invest on the big winner of the day.  They begin to make a lot of money.  They think of publishing and creating new lives for one another.  The trouble is, Aaron is kind of a dick.  What happens if the doubles interfere with the originals?  Aaron manipulates Abe during the trips because it is difficult to know which version of a person you are talking to.  He uses the machine for personal reasons, increasingly edging Abe out of his plans.  The loops become incredibly convoluted and there are no tips to guide you through the process.  It is intentionally confusing, which can be considered intellectual respectful but it loses some entertainment value.

At this point, detailing the plot really would not reveal anything.  This movie was shot on a $7000 budget with the help of Carruth’s friends so, confusing or not, it is impressive. It just lacks a tight story.  I love this stuff, but even I need an underlying struggle to overcome, or a love story, or a plot to kill Hitler’s grandma or something.  Realistic time travel is very cool, but without a human connection it can be as dry as a high school physics lecture.  Aaron is a selfish jerk whose aim seems to be to screw over his friend and leave his wife and daughter.  There is some conflict there, but we really did not get to know him well enough in the beginning of the film so we really don’t know what to think. 

Primer is worth a Netflix rental simply because it is one of a kind. The acting is quite good for a bunch of no-names in a film that cost less than a used Toyota.  The science is meticulous, sound, and fascinating, but to me it lacked the spirit of the fun, summertime time travel films or the darker, pessimistic ones.  It was somewhere in the middle, and my fuzziness after watching it was not due to the twisted timelines. It was a very good try. However, if there is one underlying theme of Primer, it is above all else, do not time travel with an asshole.