time travel movie primer

The Best, Most Realistic Movie About Time Travel Cost $7,000

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The Big Picture

• Primer , created on a budget of $7,000, became a cult classic and won multiple awards.
• The film's complex plot, lack of exposition, and fast-paced editing can make it difficult to follow and understand.
• Primer 's low budget contributes to its realistic feel, making it relatable and believable for viewers.

If ever a film were brought into existence through the sheer force of one man's will, 2004's Primer is it. Over the course of three years, creator Shane Carruth (who was in his late 20s at the inception) wrote, directed, produced, edited, starred in, and wrote the score for the incredibly innovative, super-grounded sci-fi, all on a budget of $7,000. Primer would go on to win the Sundance Grand Jury Prize and Alfred P. Sloan Prize and become a beloved sci-fi cult classic.

Primer is the story of Aaron (Carruth) and Abe ( David Sullivan ), two engineers who accidentally stumble onto time travel while working on other projects in Aaron's garage. The time machine itself is a simple, cramped box made mostly of PVC — no shiny DeLorean , no dimension-hopping T.A.R.D.I.S. — but what makes this version of time travel unique is that in order to travel back in time, the traveler must spend an equivalent amount of time inside the box. In other words, to travel six hours into the past, you must spend six hours in the box.

Immediately after their discovery, Aaron and Abe are ultra careful not to influence the past during their brief trips through time, fearing consequences they can't even guess at. But eventually, the temptation to change history becomes too great, and Aaron in particular becomes obsessed with his ability to dictate the outcomes of events. This creates multiple complex, interwoven timelines and ultimately leads to a rift between the two characters.

Four friends/fledgling entrepreneurs, knowing that there's something bigger and more innovative than the different error-checking devices they've built, wrestle over their new invention.

'Primer' Can Be Tough To Follow

Primer is famously cerebral , refusing to hold the audience's hand at any point. The two leads speak in arcane physics jargon throughout because Carruth was adamant that the dialogue should sound authentic. The tight (and, at times, perhaps over-tuned) editing keeps Primer fast-paced; no one will catch every detail of the complicated plot the first time through . Primer is also very light on exposition — the characters often have long conversations about topics that the audience, at least at first, has no context for. Only in the last third of the movie does the voiceover dip in more heavily and start explaining things, though often cryptically.

Between the complexity of the story, the jargon, and the pacing, Primer can be a challenge to follow ; some critics have even called it "antagonistic" toward the audience. But that wasn't Carruth's goal. Instead, as Carruth told IndieWire , "the information is in there" to create a coherent story; it just might take multiple viewings for you to get it all. But unlike some modern filmmakers who don't trust their audience to make inferences and instead prefer to spell everything out, Carruth trusts not only his audience's intelligence, but their fortitude — perhaps a bit too much at times.

The 21st Century’s Best Time Travel Movie So Far Is a Low-Budget Rom-Com

You're guaranteed to be chewing on this one for months, two minutes at a time.

If Primer was an unlikely hit, then its creator was an equally unlikely filmmaker. Carruth has a degree in math and started his career as an engineer before quitting to pursue writing. (This training would turn out to be useful in the course of writing the script, though Carruth had to learn physics jargon by reading graduate students' papers online .) With no formal background in filmmaking, he taught himself scriptwriting, cinematography, and storyboarding in the process of making Primer . Carruth said during his interview with IndieWire that he never planned on starring in the film; he cast himself as one of Primer 's leads only because he had difficulty finding an actor who played the part the way he wanted it , with subtlety rather than drama, and with his ultra-low budget , he worried that someone else might cut and run in the middle of shooting, leaving them stranded.

Perhaps surprisingly, the acting is one of Primer 's biggest strengths . Either Carruth or Sullivan (who's gone on to have a broad and successful TV career) is in every scene, so the film rests entirely on their shoulders. Both performances are subdued and understated, yet a great deal of subtext lies just beneath the surface.

How Was 'Primer' Made?

After months of rehearsals, shooting took place over five weeks around Dallas, where Carruth lived at the time. Primer was shot on super 16 film; Carruth said during his IndieWire interview that he had considered going digital, but in the early 2000s, the technology wasn't yet there to create the look he wanted. However, this meant there was no budget for multiple takes . Once shooting was complete, Carruth did the editing himself, again learning the process as he went along and often having to edit around lack of footage and continuity errors. He also composed the score, a task he said he'd enjoy handing off to someone else the next time around.

In some ways, the story of Primer mirrors the story of its creation. Before their break-through discovery, Aaron and Abe, like Shane Carruth, are cash-strapped; they even vandalize their own cars and refrigerators for parts in their quest to create something people will want to buy. Carruth, too, had to cut corners due to lack of funds , using friends' and family's houses and apartments for many of the locations, relying on ambient lighting and sunlight, filming only a single take for many scenes because he couldn't afford to waste film.

And like his character, Carruth claims to be a "control freak." Primer starts out following four engineers working on patents in Aaron's garage, but as soon as Aaron and Abe realize what they've stumbled onto, Aaron insists on cutting out their two unwitting colleagues rather than revealing the truth to them. He also doesn't let his wife in on the secret, to Abe's surprise. And Aaron is the first one tempted to use the time machine to change the past, leading to his falling out with Abe. Carruth performed every job in the course of making Primer partly because he couldn't afford to hire anyone else, but also because he couldn't stand to give up control , a quality that he doesn't apologize for, because, as he says during his IndieWire interview, "it’s important to feel strongly about the material you’re working on."

The Low Budget Gives 'Primer' a Documentary Feel

The result? Primer 's ultra-low budget contributes to its grounded realism — there are no Avengers: Endgame or even Back to the Future -style special effects, and the main characters never travel more than a few days into the past, so fancy set pieces are unnecessary. Instead, Primer feels incredibly real, even documentary-like (the fact that the actors clearly haven't had professional hairstyling or makeup and appear to be wearing their own clothes contributes to this). Watching Primer , you can actually believe that if two smart but ultimately ordinary guys happened upon time travel by accident, this is exactly how it would play out.

After Primer 's success at Sundance, it had a very limited theatrical release, playing in no more than 31 theaters at a time over the course of a few months yet still bringing in over $400,000 at the domestic box office . Primer 's DVD release the following year quickly vaulted it to cult classic status, particularly among science fiction aficionados. Its complexity contributes to its rewatchability : after your third, fourth, or tenth viewing, you'll still be catching details you haven't noticed before.

Primer isn't for the faint-of-heart film viewer; it asks more of its audience than most films, and gives less. But serious sci-fi lovers and fans of movies that make you think should consider it a must-watch — and don't feel bad if you have to Google "Primer ending explained" after the fact.

Primer is available to rent on Prime Video and Apple TV+ in the U.S.

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• Four friends/fledgling entrepreneurs, knowing that there's something bigger and more innovative than the different error-checking devices they've built, wrestle over their new invention.
• Engineers Aaron, Abe, Robert and Phillip are working on an invention, the prototype being built in Aaron's garage. This project is beyond their day jobs. The project truly does belong to Aaron and Abe, as they use all their free time working on it, primarily trying to overcome the many engineering related problems they've encountered. It is during one of his tests with the invention running that Abe discovers that a protein inside the main unit has multiplied much more rapidly than it could in nature. Rather than the invention being a protein super incubator, Abe, using himself as a guinea pig, and a very meticulous one at that, discovers that the invention can be used as a time machine. In his self experiment, Abe was especially careful not to interfere with his own self in that time warp. Abe passes along this discovery to Aaron, who he expects will tell his wife Kara in what is the sanctity of their marriage, but he doesn't want to tell either Robert or Phillip. Much to Abe's surprise, Aaron does not want to tell Kara, it being a sole intellectual property of just the two of them, in the process moving the base of operation to a locked storage unit. Aaron's plan for the two of them is to use the invention to win big in the stock market by knowing through the time travel what has happened in the market. With two thoughts on the matter now instead of just one, Aaron and Abe may hit some logistical and philosophical roadblocks in how to move forward. — Huggo
• At night and on weekends, four men in a suburban garage have built a cottage industry of error-checking devices. But, they know that there is something more. There is some idea, some mechanism, some accidental side effect that is standing between them and a pure leap of innovation. And so, through trial and error they are building the device that is missing most. However, two of these men find the device and immediately realize that it is too valuable to market. The limit of their trust in each other is strained when they are faced with the question, If you always want what you can't have, what do you want when you can have anything? — Sujit R. Varma
• Four engineers- Aaron (Shane Carruth), Abe (David Sullivan), Robert, and Phillip who work for a large corporation during the day, run a side business from Aaron's garage at night, building and selling JTAG cards. With the proceeds of this work they fund pet science projects that they hope will yield applications sufficient to attract "VC attention". After arguing over the project that the group should tackle next, Aaron and Abe independently pursue work on technology intended to reduce the weight of an object. Although the device seems to work as planned, it has a side effect: a timepiece left in the device shows the watch has experienced about 1300 times the amount of time the device was activated for. Abe reasons that they have created a time machine. After some testing, Abe secretly builds a prototype machine large enough to hold a person and, after traveling back to earlier that day, details the results to Aaron. Abe and Aaron build an additional machine (subsequently called "the box") and decide to cut Robert and Phillip out of the discovery, under the false pretense that the garage has to be fumigated. Abe and Aaron starts using the time machines to make money in the stock market, but as their understanding of how the machines work evolves, they become more adventurous with their trips. Their experimentation is cut short by the unexpected appearance of Thomas Granger (Chip Carruth), the father of Abe's girlfriend Rachel, whose financial backing the group had been trying to procure. Granger's trip appears to have made him comatose, and neither understand how Granger could have discovered the box. Abe is particularly disturbed by this turn of events and concludes that time travel is too dangerous to continue. He attempts to prevent his past self from using the machine for time travel, thereby nullifying all of its consequences, by using a "failsafe" machine, which he previously built in secret, to travel back to a point prior to his first trip through time and also prior to his broaching the subject of time travel with Aaron. Having traveled back four days in time using this failsafe point, Abe goes to meet Aaron and collapses. After Abe recovers, Aaron reveals that unbeknownst to Abe, Aaron had discovered this failsafe box and used it to get control. Aaron brought back another box, creating a false failsafe point to make Abe believe that there was still a working failsafe machine awaiting him, and preventing Abe from undoing Aaron's actions. Aaron then reveals that he has been using a recording to recite their conversation from an earlier time. He continues to explain how he encountered, fought, and was subdued by a previous version of himself who used the failsafe to come back and make recordings after drugging the original Aaron. But Aaron convinced his earlier self that since he has the recordings already made that he should continue to act as Aaron. The earlier Aaron leaves, leaving the later Aaron to his plan to redo the events of a party in which a crasher attempted to shoot Rachel Granger so Aaron can become a hero. Abe agrees to try to change the events of the party with Aaron and the two succeed, though it is unclear how many reiterations it has taken. Their deceptions and their differing views on the use of the machines unfortunately have destroyed their friendship. The continued use of the machines causes brain damage. Aaron seems suffer a stroke when he bleeds from his ears. Then he complains later in the film that his handwriting is poor and he can't read. While Abe stops speaking tech with Aaron and once asks him to write it down. Aaron accuses Abe of coveting his family and Abe warns Aaron never to return or interfere with their doubles. Abe stays behind to continue his plan of attempting to prevent the original Abe and Aaron from this timeline who have no idea of what the others have done from ever using the machines for time travel, suggesting that he would tamper with the machines in the hope that their doubles would think the experiment a failure and move on to other projects. The earlier Aaron who came back in the failsafe to make the recordings speaks on the phone to an unspecified recipient to which Aaron states he owes a debt. The movie ends with the shot of one of the Aarons and a team of French-speaking workers begin construction on what appears to be a building-sized box. (Originally contributed by Jithin Bhagavati Kalam in Wikipedia, 2007)

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At Last, A Definitive Timeline for Primer

There’s a reason I’m posting this as the last official article of the week, because it’s probably going to take you all weekend (and then some) to figure it out.

Primer is a great sci-fi film, but one of the most confusing movies ever made. It takes the subject of time travel, and all the implications that follow, and lays them out in the most complicated, but accurate fashion possible. It takes a LOT of analysis to fully understand the film, and even though I thought I did, this chart proves me wrong.

Anything in this you’d care to dispute? I can imagine coming back to this post on Monday and seeing a million responses with different interpretations.

I think I'm a part of the first generation of journalists to skip print media entirely, and I've learned a lot these last few years at Forbes. My work has appeared on TVOvermind, IGN, and most importantly, a segment on The Colbert Report at one point.

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18 Comments

If you haven’t seen this film (like me), this short info graph will fling you in the right direction of the movie info graph: http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/8/84/Time_Travel_Method-2.svg (How time travel works in Primer)

Just now finding this, huh? It’s been around for at least five years, which is when I simply Googled “primer timeline”.

After a cursory inspection, this diagram for what happens in Primer seems plausible to me. I wish it had been worded more carefully, though–I kept stumbling over awkward expressions. But I thank you for the work.

My main reaction to the movie is like what I felt about Inception, although for a different reason. In Inception, Christopher Nolan wasn’t content to use his modestly clever idea once; he just had to do it four times. Yet he explained everything at every step of the way, so his dream-within-a-dream recursion became surprisingly boring. Shane Carruth similarly felt he had to complicate his story, but, taking the opposite tack from what Nolan later did, Carruth omitted things, under-explained what was happening. His film became annoyingly inscrutable. In both cases, my basic reaction was “Why?”

Inception seemed to me mostly pointless, but I’ll leave that alone as it’s not the subject at hand here. If Primer has some value other than the puzzle it presents, then the complexity of what Carruth presents is actually a detriment. I think there is some value to his tale (beyond the puzzle, that is); it’s the value of seeing the human consequences of a new scientific power. But I wish he hadn’t fragmented and obscured it so much.

I don’t agree. I think the complexity of the film makes discerning the ‘value’ all that much more rewarding. If you pay close attention to what happens throughout, you can see the evolution of the character of Aaron (and to a lesser extent Abe) and how the ability to be prescient has adversely affected his ethics and morality. Even when presented with a situation in which his actions, intended to be positive, had an adverse outcome, he still soldiered on as if he could continue to manipulate events to his advantage and desired outcome. Only… it isn’t actually possible. That is what is too complex: trying to contain and control that many variables.

So while I can understand why people think it may be too complex, I think it only becomes more satisfying with repeat viewings.

A movie is what it is, it can be everything at the same time. There are thousands of movies out there, something diferent for a while doesnt hurt.

This chart is amazing but I found at least one problem. The chart indicates the party takes place on Tuesday the 23rd, but in the movie Aaron clearly says the party was the night that Abe told him about how the machine works, which would mean it happens Monday the 22nd.

Does your diagram confirm / agree with the inconsistencies with Aaron’s refrigerator? During the first (!) revision in Aaron’s Kitchen we see a new refrigerator with a bow on it (presumably a present). Later (!!) we see that Aaron’s refrigerator is now a white one that Abe is salvaging copper tubing from. Clearly this is meant to be in different timelines. I’ve gotta study this diagram for a while now.

The White one is the one in Abe’s place. You can see the guy he talks to when he wakes up to meet Aaron at the door later sitting on the couch while Aaron’s preparing to take the fridge apart. I think his name was Brad.

Shawn: I believe that the white fridge is actually in Abe’s house…

no, no the white fridge was their old fridge. The black was a new christmas gift. They were getting materials out of the old one.This has nothing to to with time travel.

AWESOME!!! I have watched this flick at least 20 times , I have a pretty good handle on it but this has finally given me closure. Thanx!!!!!

Paul, did you author this chart? I ask, because there’s so much not appearing in the yellow boxes, it seems like something the scriptwriter might’ve cooked up to help with getting the script correct!

Either way, fascinating info. Let us know!

I don’t know where to start with the diagram when watching the film.

*SPOILERS* DON’T READ IF YOU DON’T WANT THINGS REVEALED TO YOU, THANKS.

I read over this and question some of it. For instance, the part about the phone call to Aaron. It lists that the Aaron at the hotel didn’t receive the call. It would make more sense that both received the call, cause Aaron (4) answered the call, but Aaron (5) simply lets it ring and doesn’t answer the call, allowing Aaron (4) to answer it instead. This seems confusing to many cause they want so desperately to think they broke symmetry, then in actuality they both got the call and nothing truly changes from the world’s point of view. If Aaron (5) would have answered the call, then, that would have been a different story. The second part that confuses is the part about Abe (3) starting the machines and then leaving. It says he starts them to do an experiment with paradoxes. After Abe (3) and Aaron (4) enter the boxes and time travel at 15:00, it says Abe (3) then starts the machines at 16:45, and they warm up at 17:00. How could he start the boxes if he already time traveled? I understand he was experimenting with paradoxes, but his still being there is odd since he can’t physically split in two. The paradox would have to be something with his actions of the day, not something that happened unhappening. That’s just silly thinking in the reality of it all. A mistype perhaps? 3 Meant 4, 4 meant 5, 5 meant 6, etc? The third part is when Thomas Granger (1) exits the machines too early and thus suffers from a coma later. To me, this all sounds too vague and makes little sense. Everyone overlooks the fact that Aaron says about the shooter firing at the party “He didn’t the time I wasn’t there, and the only time he does is when I rushed him…”. This leads me to believe that he did fire his weapon during at least one of the revisions. Remember when Abe and Aaron are discussing the Granger appearance in the storage locker? Abe asks “What if there’s an emergency?” Aaron states “I don’t know, what kind of emergency?” This points to something unseen and unknowable. Since Granger’s appearance, Abe and Aaron are aware that their frequent travel through time has caused too many instances of themselves, and despite their meticulous care in avoiding their immediate past doubles, too much changes and they’re unsure what their previous selves are doing. Rachel could have been shot, Causing Aaron to travel back to record the conversations and script his next attempt to disarm and jail the shooter. Abe most definitely felt the need to tell Granger as his daughter was harmed or killed, and that’s how everything unravels later. Another thing to remember is the phone call in the car. When Aaron recognizes Granger in the car, Abe calls Granger at home. Abe refers to himself as James Miller from Putney & Meyers, but Granger knows Abe’s voice at that point from the parties they attended to get funding for their project with the original box. This could have sparked curiosity in Granger, causing him to follow Abe, then traveling in one of the boxes once he discovered what Abe was doing. Too much of this is not shown, so all everyone can do it hypothesize. It would sound like the actions of a father trying to save his kin in my eyes. Hope some other people get as much thought out of this movie as I have. It’s interesting to think of all they have to risk every time they use the machines, and furthermore, how much more they have to risk every time they repeat using them. Think of a pile of, well, anything. You can balance it all only for so long. Once it all starts stacking too high, as in the price to pay being too dire, everything will come crashing down eventually. Consequences will go from petty to devastating the more you postpone the one true way to stop it, to never travel again. Greed, lies, deception, anger, hostility, sadness, despair, confusion, all a product of one singular action, the decision to change anything at all. Abe and Aaron tried to go back to the source. That source was right in front of them. “They” were trying to “change” what was to happen naturally, in an unfitting and unnatural way. Thanks for reading my input, cheers. ;D

THANK YOU FOR MAKING THIS TIMELINE, by the way. I just watched Primer and it’s great to see people so invested in intellectual films. I can’t imagine how long it took to create this!

I’m not sure if this is still active. I hope someone catches this.

There is a slight flaw in Timeline 7. At 15:00, it says there the Abe(3) and Aaron (4) enter their boxes. But at 16:45 Abe (3) starts up the timer for the boxes for the Platts punching plan. Can someone care to explain this?

What did you use to create this diagram?

What’s really happening is that every instance of time travel creates a brand new timeline. What we don’t see is the truly original timeline. Aaron and Abe went into the machine and were never seen again. However from their perspective, they appeared in the past (but in a new timeline). Their counterparts would eventually use time machines to leave this timeline and jump into a new one. As long as they were careful with interfering, they could have maintained this system and the time rules in this universe would have appeared to have been based on fixed time rules (you can never really change time). However they quickly discover this isn’t the case when they start messing with the timeline. They can change time as much as they want, however by preventing second version of themselves from using the machines to leave, they ended up stacking duplicates within the timeline. What we don’t see are the thousands of timelines spawning because of their interference. Mr Granger simply represents some sort of future disaster that they have caused. This panics them because they realise they aren’t in control anymore. Exactly why he came back isn’t really important but it could be related to rachel and the gun incident.

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‘Primer’ puzzles, fascinates with paradox

Aaron (Shane Carruth, left) and Abe (David Sullivan) aren't sure what they've invented, but they know it's important in "Primer."

Shane Carruth ‘s “Primer” opens with four techheads addressing envelopes to possible investors; they seek venture capital for a machine they’re building in the garage. They’re not entirely sure what the machine does, although it certainly does something. Their dialogue is halfway between shop talk and one of those articles in Wired magazine that you never finish. We don’t understand most of what they’re saying, and neither, perhaps, do they, but we get the drift. Challenging us to listen closely, to half-understand what they half-understand, is one of the ways the film sucks us in.

They steal a catalytic converter for its platinum, and plunder a refrigerator for its freon. Their budget is so small, they could cash the checks on the bus. Aaron and Abe, agreeing that whatever they’ve invented, they’re the ones who invented it, subtly eliminate the other two from the enterprise. They then regard something that looks like an insulated shipping container with wires and dials and coils stuff. This is odd: It secretes protein. More protein than it has time to secrete. Measuring the protein’s rate of growth, they determine that one minute in the garage is equal to 1,347 minutes in the machine.

Is time in the machine different than time outside the machine? Apparently. But that would make it some kind of time machine, wouldn’t it? Hard to believe. Aaron (Shane Carruth) and Abe ( David Sullivan ) ponder the machine and look at their results and Aaron concludes it is “the most important thing any living being has ever witnessed.” But what is it?

There’s a fascination in the way they talk with each other, quickly, softly, excitedly. It’s better, actually, that we don’t understand everything they say, because that makes us feel more like eavesdroppers and less like the passive audience for predigested dialogue. We can see where they’re heading, especially after … well, I don’t want to give away some of the plot, and I may not understand the rest, but it would appear that they can travel through time. They learn this by seeing their doubles before they have even tried time travel — proof that later they will travel back to now. Meanwhile (is that the word?) a larger model of the machine is/was assembled in a storage locker by them/their doubles.

Should they personally experiment with time travel? Yes, manifestly, because they already have. “I can think of no way in which this thing would be considered even remotely close to safe,” one of them says. But they try it out, journeying into the recent past and buying some mutual funds they know will rise in value.

It seems to work. The side effect, however, is that occasionally there are two of them: the Abe or Aaron who originally lived through the time, and the one who has gone back to the time and is living through it simultaneously. One is a double. Which one? There is a shot where they watch “themselves” from a distance, and we assume those they’re watching are themselves living in ordinary time, and they are themselves having traveled back to observe them. But which Abe or Aaron is the real one? If they met, how would they speak? If two sets of the same atoms exist in the same universe at the same time, where did the additional atoms come from? It can make you hungry, thinking about questions like that. “I haven’t eaten since later this afternoon,” one complains.

“Primer” is a puzzle film that will leave you wondering about paradoxes, loopholes, loose ends, events without explanation, chronologies that don’t seem to fit. Abe and Aaron wonder, too, and what seems at first like a perfectly straightforward method for using the machine turns out to be alarmingly complicated; various generations of themselves and their actions prove impossible to keep straight. Carruth handles the problems in an admirably understated way; when one of the characters begins to bleed a little from an ear, what does that mean? Will he be injured in a past he has not yet visited? In that case, is he the double? What happened to the being who arrived at this moment the old-fashioned way, before having traveled back?

The movie delights me with its cocky confidence that the audience can keep up. “Primer” is a film for nerds, geeks, brainiacs, Academic Decathlon winners, programmers, philosophers and the kinds of people who have made it this far into the review. It will surely be hated by those who “go to the movies to be entertained,” and embraced and debated by others, who will find it entertains the parts the others do not reach. It is maddening, fascinating and completely successful

Note: Carruth wrote, directed and edited the movie, composed the score, and starred in it. The budget was reportedly around $7,000, but that was enough: The movie never looks cheap, because every shot looks as it must look. In a New York Times interview, Carruth said he filmed largely in his own garage, and at times he was no more sure what he was creating than his characters were. “Primer” won the award for best drama at Sundance 2004.

Roger Ebert

Roger Ebert was the film critic of the Chicago Sun-Times from 1967 until his death in 2013. In 1975, he won the Pulitzer Prize for distinguished criticism.

• Carrie Crawford as Kara
• Anand Upadhyaya as Phillip
• Casey Gooden as Robert
• Jay Butler as Metalshop Worker
• Ashley Warren as Hostess
• David Sullivan as Abe
• Shane Carruth as Aaron

Directed and written by

• Shane Carruth

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FILM REVIEW

From a Suburban Garage, a New Take on Time Travel

By A. O. Scott

• Oct. 8, 2004

Shane Carruth's "Primer," a debut feature shot on 16-millimeter for a budget of around $7,000, is an ingenious movie about the perils of ingenuity. Two would-be inventors, Abe and Aaron, working after hours in their suburban garage, stumble onto an invention whose application is not obvious at first but whose ethical and metaphysical implications quickly become enormous. Abe (David Sullivan) describes it to Aaron as "the most important thing that any living organism has ever witnessed," which may be a slight exaggeration. To call the gizmo a time machine, which it more or less is, would be to create a slightly misleading impression, evoking splashy Hollywood confections like the "Terminator" and "Back to the Future" franchises, which "Primer" does not resemble in the least.

The film is, technically speaking, science fiction, but of an unusually rigorous and unassuming kind. Mr. Carruth, a math major in college who worked as an engineer before teaching himself filmmaking, has an impressive feel for the odd, quiet rhythms of small-scale research and development. His script captures the way these young scientists express themselves and takes note of how their intimate, competitive collaboration works in fits and starts and sideways leaps.

"They were meticulous; they were intelligent," an opening voice-over says, and Mr. Carruth, exhibiting both qualities, assumes that the audience shares them enough to keep up with the intricacies of his narrative and with the logical permutations of his premise. This is a lot to ask -- the storytelling is oblique, at times to the point of vagueness -- but the effort is invigorating. Like "Pi" or "Memento" (speculative brain teasers to which this has an obvious kinship), "Primer" is the kind of movie likely to inspire both imitators and cultists. I know of one critic who has already seen it at least five times at various festivals, and part of the attraction is the tantalizing belief that if you see it enough, you will finally figure it all out.

I'm not sure of that. Having seen it twice from start to finish and gone back over the videotape in search of clues to its meaning, I wouldn't say that it entirely makes sense. At a certain point, Mr. Carruth's fondness for complexity and indirection crosses the line between ambiguity and opacity, but I hasten to add that my bafflement is colored by admiration. Mr. Carruth has the skill, the guile and the seriousness to turn a creaky philosophical gimmick into a dense and troubling moral puzzle.

I don't want to give too much away -- and I certainly don't want to embarrass myself by getting it wrong -- but Abe and Aaron's attempt to control their experiment starts to go awry. Their ambitions are at first modest and shallow: they will use the time-travel boxes, which produce temporary doubles of the two men, to make money in stock-market day trading. But soon the temptation to mess with the order of things starts to work on them, especially Aaron, or maybe one of his doubles, and the story takes a shadowy, mysterious turn, deftly evoked by dimming lights and eerie music.

"Primer" is likely to turn viewers into versions of Abe and Aaron: it makes you want to sit down and draw charts and propose equations. Whether these will add up to anything more than a cerebral diversion is hard to say. Mr. Carruth has invented something fascinating -- a way of capturing, on film, some of the pleasure and peril of scientific inquiry -- and you don't need a time machine to predict that as he goes on, he will discover exciting new ways to put it to use.

"Primer" is rated PG-13 (Parents strongly cautioned). It has some profanity and mildly violent scenes.

Primer Opens today in Manhattan and Dallas

Produced, written, directed and edited by Shane Carruth; director of photography, Mr. Carruth; released by ThinkFilm. At the Angelika Film Center, Mercer and Houston Streets, Greenwich Village. Running time: 80 minutes. This film is rated PG-13.

WITH: Shane Carruth (Aaron), David Sullivan (Abe), Casey Gooden (Robert), Anand Upadhyaya (Phillip), Carrie Crawford (Kara) and Jay Butler (Metal Shop Worker).

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Where to Watch

Rent Primer on Prime Video, Apple TV, or buy it on Prime Video, Apple TV.

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Dense, obtuse, but stimulating, Primer is a film for viewers ready for a cerebral challenge.

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Shane Carruth

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More Like This

The Most Confusing Moments In Primer Explained

This post contains spoilers for "Primer."

It is tempting to describe "Primer" as a time travel film — which it very much is — but the sheer headiness of the subject matter morphs it into something undefinable and elusive, eclipsing the metaphor of a puzzle box by the time the credits roll. Crafted with a shoestring budget of roughly $7,000, Shane Carruth's debut feature demands a certain sense of discipline and meticulous attention to detail, where seemingly innocuous dialogue or subtle character expressions often prove crucial to unraveling its wildly complicated plot. To call "Primer" confusing is an understatement: it is a film that absolutely requires repeat viewings simply to be understood, but engaging intimately with it does not guarantee comprehension of every facet.

Although Carruth peppers enough clues and red herrings to help us arrive at a sound conclusion, "Primer" does not encourage the tying up of every loose end, or offer objective answers for every paradoxical query. Abe (David Sullivan) and Aaron (Carruth) seem to follow a linear trajectory until they stumble upon an anomaly in one of their projects, but this established timeline is later usurped with the formation of newer ones that feature different versions of the two characters. "Primer" does not believe in audience handholding and essentially relies on viewers to piece the story together, leading to divisive interpretations of time travel paradoxes . These concepts do not benefit from objective scrutiny but are driven by deeply personal character impulses to control and warp space-time and causality.

With unreliable narration and deliberate subversion thrown into the mix, "Primer" emerges as a discombobulating salad of events that are hard to digest or reconcile. Here are some of the most confusing, oblique moments in "Primer," explained.

What were Aaron and Abe initially experimenting in Primer?

To start with comparatively simple events, Aaron, Abe, and their friends Philip (Anand Upadhyaya) and Robert (Casey Gooden) routinely get together in Aaron's garage to work on scientific projects that they hope to patent and sell for monetary purposes. Each person posits an idea in turns, and the others help him realize the project using the most cost-effective parts, but these efforts do not bear fruit even after multiple tries. The one time they do succeed backfires, as their boss, Joseph Platts, snatches up the patent and makes a ton of money after stealing their idea.

The latest attempt is Robert's idea of building a device that can reduce the mass of an object in theory, promptly assembled by Abe and Aaron, who yank out parts from everyday devices like their fridge or car to cobble together something that can facilitate this experiment. Aaron takes the lead to adjust the box as per his whims to simulate a situation where the object inside the device (or box) is exempt from the effects of gravity, hence causing it to weigh "less." This works and the two tweak and tinker with it (by dropping punched holes into the superconductive field, where the objects float due to reduced mass), and soon realize that the device has massive market potential. Deciding to keep their discoveries a secret from their friends, the two consider publicly announcing it, but ultimately decide to understand the potential of the device better before making any moves.

Abe and Aaron eventually use this rudimentary device to create bigger boxes that facilitate time travel, but this discovery is accidental, which brings us to how this idea becomes a possibility for the two.

How do Aaron and Abe accidentally invent a time travel machine?

The object used in the weight reduction device is a weeble, and several experiments lead to a common fungus growing on it, but the amount that should account for five days' worth of fungus growth instead seems like five or six years. Abe deduces that a space-time anomaly is responsible for this, opening the gates for potential time travel speculations. However, this theory is solidified after a specific experiment, where the weeble is placed inside the box and observed as it to travels from point A to B within a fixed timeframe, with the electromagnetic field ebbing and flowing while determining the trajectory of the weeble.

In simplest terms, the weeble travels from A to B and back again in a set amount of trips depending on the entry point, where inserting the weeble through A generates an odd amount of trips between the points, while B generates an even number, like a trip worth 1,334 minutes. Abe and Aaron control the time that the weeble spends inside the box to monitor its parabolic movements and eventual exit and conclude that the weeble accumulates time from its point of view as the device allows it to move backward in time. As the weeble isn't sentient, it is rather limited in its scope of exhibiting awareness of time travel, prompting the two friends to experiment with a robot with some amount of base intelligence.

However, things take a drastic turn after Abe approaches Aaron on a park bench on Monday, declaring that they are about to witness something that would forever alter the trajectory of their lives. Turns out, Abe has already moved on from his prototype and built a functioning time travel box placed inside a self-storage facility.

How does the actual time travel device in Primer work?

Some glaring queries about the machine(s) are never answered, so we will have to work with what we know. After Abe explains how his box (let's call it Box 1) works, Aaron builds his own box (Box 2) to travel back in time together while replicating everything Abe did to achieve it. When the two first start traveling back in time, they intend to buy more time for themselves as their doubles carry on the tasks stipulated for them, allowing causality to flow without multiple versions of the same person existing within the same timeline. To ensure this, the two must follow some rules related to cause and effect as this process is effectively repeated (until it is not) for at least four days.

The most rudimentary flow of their actions, without any anomalies or aberrations is this: both Abe and Aaron set a 15-minute timer on their respective boxes and turn it on, leaving the area and isolating themselves in a hotel to ensure minimum causal interference from the outside world. This means no cell phones or pagers, or anything that could accidentally lead them to people they know — during this time, the two check stock prices and make note of it. After six hours pass, they go back to their boxes and travel back in time by six hours. The interior of the boxes is akin to sensory deprivation tanks that often induce dreams, explaining their shared, serendipitous dream of calming ocean waves.

As their doubles will mimic their actions, they must allow this to happen when new personal timelines are created. So now, Aaron and Abe must avoid their doubles at all costs to prevent the existence of multiple Aarons and Abes in the same timeline.

Was Abe truly the first one to initiate the causal loops?

Yes and no. Although Abe is the first to build both Box 1 and a failsafe machine (which we will call Failsafe 1) according to linear time and travel back without repercussions, the ability to go back and change things alters this event with lasting consequences. On Wednesday, Aaron realizes that Abe has two storage rooms under his name, leading to the discovery of Failsafe 1, which prompts Aaron to fold up Box 2 and travel through the failsafe further back in time, allowing him to record conversations as and when they happen since Monday (the day everything started). With this solo act of time travel, a new timeline for Aaron is created.

After traveling back to Monday, Aaron uses Box 2 as his own failsafe, which we will call Failsafe 2, which he moves to another storage unit in the facility. He resets Abe's Failsafe 1 and delays it by 30 minutes, closing his loop in the process. This creates a horrible temporal anomaly: there are now two Aarons in the same timeline, and the one who traveled all the way back to Monday is now Aaron-2, while the original Aaron (Aaron Prime, for simplicity's sake), is unaware of this anomaly and is still sleeping in his room. Aaron-2 (identifiable by his red hoodie) injects a sedative into Aaron Prime's breakfast milk, drags his drugged body to the family attic, and assumes his identity.

A brief, seemingly unimportant conversation makes this clear, where Aaron's wife, Kara (Carrie Crawford), complains about noises from the attic, but hindsight makes it clear that it was Aaron Prime trying to get out, while Aaron-2 plays it off as rats scampering about in the space.

What is the deal with Robert's birthday party?

Although Abe does not tell Aaron about his failsafe, there seem to be no nefarious reasons behind this, except for it to be a backup machine in case the flow of causality is broken. Aaron, however, does everything to make it impossible for Abe to travel back before he does (as evidenced by the deliberate half-hour delay in the failsafe reset) and interferes in events to change outcomes. The event in question is Robert's birthday party on Monday night, where Abe's girlfriend, Rachel, is present. In the original timeline, Rachel's ex disrupts the party by pulling out a gun, but does not fire or harm anyone — however, with Aaron-2 traveling all the way back, he interferes by disarming the dude and becoming somewhat of a hero.

This is news to Abe as he was not present at the party, and he scolds his friend for endangering his life and that of his family, although he is unaware that this is an altered event due to Aaron-2's interference with the past. Abe is still unaware of Aaron's shenanigans and only learns about them after it is too late.

Does Aaron-2 care about breaking causality? Not really, as he seems obsessed with the idea of seeming like a hero, and presents it as a noble attempt to make sure that Rachel's ex is behind bars, even if it means disrupting temporal integrity. This callousness spills over to one careless act that unravels everything: Aaron-2 accidentally brings his phone with him to the isolated hotel on Thursday and answers it. Abe warns him not to take the phone with him after they travel back (to prevent a grave paradox), but he does, breaking symmetry and changing history again .

How does Thomas Granger fall into a coma?

Before we dive into this, let's talk about the repercussions of Aaron's cellphone mishap: because symmetry is broken, this creates another set of Abe and Aaron in the same timeline, where it is unclear whether their doubles will mimic the paths set for them. This anomaly might have caused one of the doubles to contact Thomas Granger, the person financing the time travel boxes, who is also Rachel's father. If we are to follow the logic of the timelines, Granger must have entered one of the boxes on Friday to travel back to Thursday to prevent the anomaly, which explains how Abe and Aaron-2 see an altered version of him (with days of beard growth) at around 2 am on the same day. However, Granger inexplicably falls into a coma once Aaron-2 comes close to him during a chase.

Devastated by what has happened, Abe decides to use Failsafe 1 to travel back to Monday to prevent everything from occurring. On arriving at the new timeline, he now becomes Abe-2 and proceeds to drug Abe Prime (who is at home) and locks him in a closet after drugging him. On reaching the bench where he first persuaded Aaron, Abe-2 collapses due to the exhaustion of traveling so far back and the shock of subduing his double, while Aaron reveals himself to be Aaron-3, as Aaron-2 also traveled back to Monday at the same time as Abe did. However, due to the 30-minute reset delay in Abe's failsafe, Aaron-3 arrived earlier, staying one step ahead while listening to the recorded conversations of previous timelines to ensure events are altered without causality being broken.

Thus begins the temporal tyranny of Aaron-3, and the effects of time travel without causal consideration.

Why do Abe-2 and Aaron-3 agree to cooperate?

By now, every secret is out in the open, as a confrontation between Abe-2 and Aaron 3 brings both parties up to speed. They discuss the price of traveling so far back, especially for Aaron-3, who is most exposed to the boxes, explaining why his ears begin to bleed. Abe feels guilty about Granger's condition, which was caused by Aaron-3's anomalous presence (being the person who has traveled back the most in time). As temporal symmetry has been broken, the alteration of history at the birthday party by Aaron-2 in his timeline is null, leaving it up to Abe-2 and Aaron-3 to prevent her ex from endangering Rachel and making sure he ends up in jail.

With this common goal, the two work together at the party to "reverse engineer" a perfect opportunity to de-escalate the situation and ensure that the dude is behind bars. They succeed, but it is never specified how many tries it takes for them to do so, as Abe-2 has to factor in his presence now (as he was absent in the original timeline) and Aaron-3 has to repeat conversations while changing things enough to usher the desired outcome. Once they succeed, Abe-2 and Aaron-3 have no reason to cooperate, as their bond has been irrevocably broken — while Abe wants to go back in time and prevent everything , Aaron wants to start a new life.

In the end, the two decide to part ways, where Aaron-3 decides to leave by stealing Aaron Prime's passport (who, by the way, manages to get out of the attic), while Abe-2 decides to stay back and secretly monitor everyone including Kara and her daughter, to make sure nothing bad happens (while Abe Prime also escapes his confines).

Who is the film's narrator and whom does he address?

When Aaron-3 initiates the new timeline on Monday, he goes home to tackle Aaron-2 and drug him, but the latter knocks him over. The two talk it out, and on learning Aaron-3's plan, Aaron-2 agrees to leave town. By the end, it is clear that Aaron-2 is the one leaving messages for either Abe or his own double through voicemail — however, as only Aaron Prime and Abe Prime are unaware of the full picture, it must be addressed to either one of them. Aaron-2 is also seen instructing workers who are building something , which is presumably a much bigger version of the boxes, leaving his intentions and the fragility of the causal loops up in the air.

The question of why Aaron is so obsessed with changing the outcome of the party seems unclear, as the original event does not end in pain or tragedy for anyone involved. The alterations only lead to a person being sent behind bars and Aaron being hailed as a hero, which could very well be a motivator for such extreme lengths. Moreover, both Abe and Aaron fundamentally misuse their ability to exist outside of time — instead of immersing themselves in these beautiful, rare moments that no one else has access to, they meddle needlessly with time's flow and mess things up beyond repair.

Every version of Abe and Aaron has lost something precious to them, be it their loved ones, their place in the world, or an essential part of their selves. "Primer" might dazzle us with its twisty time travel mechanics and casual loops, but its heart is the rot that grips a pure friendship, which could have been nourished and sustained until the very end. Well, maybe in some other timeline.

Screen Rant

This time travel movie with 73% on rotten tomatoes still makes me confused 20 years later.

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• Primer is a mind-bending time travel movie that challenges viewers to keep up with overlapping timelines and alternate universes.
• Despite its low budget, Primer stands out for its intricate storytelling and attention to detail, making it a unique viewing experience.
• Don't expect to fully understand Primer on your first watch - the complex narrative is a challenge to overcome, and the confusion adds to its appeal.

With 73% positive reviews on Rotten Tomatoes, Primer is an excellent time travel movie that audiences have spent the past 20 years trying to get their heads around. The film follows two friends as they accidentally create a machine that allows them to travel through time, but their obsession over the creation ultimately leads to overlapping timelines and alternate universes that challenge the audience to keep the story straight in their minds . Primer is one of the most impressive indie time travel movies , not just because of the story, but also because it’s so well-made.

Although Primer was only made on a low budget and wasn’t that well-known when it was first released, the film has developed a reputation as a cult classic since modern audiences have rewatched and reevaluated it as one of the best movies about time travel paradoxes . The film takes what’s inherently a simple idea (two men keep traveling through time) and makes it as complicated as possible while presenting all the facts that audiences need to understand what’s going on. It’s the kind of film that requires multiple watches to fully understand, but thankfully, it only gets better with age.

The 10 Best Time Travel Movies, Ranked

The greatest time travel movies have complex plots and interweaving storylines, making them fun to watch and rewarding to unravel the many threads.

I’m Still Not Sure What Was Going On In Primer

But maybe that's ok.

Truth be told, I still don’t fully understand Primer - but thankfully, it’s not the kind of film that needs to be fully understood to be appreciated. There are so many small details in this story that you’d need to take notes to keep track of everything - individual character timelines, event timestamps, and even from whose perspective you’re watching certain scenes. This makes the film quite a frustrating watch for casual audiences, but for those who’ve already fallen in love with the film, it’s easy to watch over and over again , catching new details every time.

The audience is supposed to be just as much in the dark as the characters, exposing the dangers of untested science and ambition in place of probity.

As the two main characters learn more about their machine, the story splits off into multiple timelines and alternate realities, and from the viewer’s perspective, you’re never entirely sure which reality you’re watching unfold. But that’s exactly the point of Primer - the audience is supposed to be just as much in the dark as the characters, exposing the dangers of untested science and ambition in place of probity.

Why Primer Is One Of The Best Time Travel Movies

There's a reason it's still being talked about.

On a technical level, Primer is impressive because of how effectively it handles its low budget. It’s one of the few low-budget sci-fi movies that’s better than most blockbusters . That’s because it can’t rely on special effects or intricate camerawork to hold the audience’s attention, so it needs to give extra detail to the story and the characters within it. I can’t even begin to imagine how long a story like Primer must’ve taken to write. Every scene is filled with detail and double meanings, like a puzzle that’s waiting to be solved.

Thanks to the limitations of its production, Primer ends up being an incredibly cerebral viewing experience. Its strength comes from its ability to challenge the viewer intellectually, rather than blow them away with visuals. This not only helps the movie stand out in a crowded genre, but it also forces its script and story to dare to be different. The result is a film that, despite its limitations, ranks as a unique viewing experience.

You Will Not Fully Understand Primer On Your First Watch

Don't go in with your expectations too high.

You won’t fully comprehend exactly what’s happening in Primer the first time that you sit through it - and that’s completely fine. There’s enough humanity and emotion woven into this film that you’ll still be able to relate to the characters, understand their concerns and worries, and root for their survival without knowing exactly what’s happening in every scene. Primer gets your attention with relatable human problems and then, once you have already been sucked in, it begins to unfold with purpose.

The fact that Primer is confusing isn’t a criticism of the film - although many audiences will see it as something negative and frustrating. Instead, the complex narrative is a challenge to overcome, much like reading a detailed book or solving a puzzle. It’s probably not the best movie to start with if you’re unfamiliar with the sci-fi genre, because it relies heavily on some very complicated concepts and doesn’t always deliver them in the most accessible ways, but when you finally start to understand what’s happening, it’s extremely rewarding. Very few movies have that second level of critical appreciation.

• Primer (2004)

Primer: Arguably the Most Realistic Movie About Time Travel

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Do you ever wish you could turn back time? Well, the 2004 psychological science fiction film Primer will ultimately blow your mind on the ideas and possibilities of time travel. The film was written and directed by Shane Carruth , who is a college graduate and former software engineer himself, with a degree in mathematics. So what makes this time travel adventure film so great, and more importantly, so mind-blowingly realistic?

The Scientific Accuracy of Time Travel in Primer

First, despite its modest budget and experimental story structure, Primer is notable for its philosophical undertones and dense technical and scientific dialogue that was not simplified for the sake of the audience. The language in this movie is difficult to understand. You might be a science fiction fan, but if you are not a scientist, the first time you watch it you will probably only fully understand half of it.

Related : Shining Girls Review: A Time-Travelling Serial Killer is on the Loose

Although, this might be the film's best quality; you will experience the urge to re-watch out of pure fascination. Choosing to focus on the scientific aspect of time travel makes the movie just that extra bit more realistic and allows the viewer to see the logic behind what is going on. It allows the low budget to no longer matter, with the film instead more interested in verisimilitude. It also incorporates a deeper level beneath the technologically accurate dialogue; when asked in an interview with MovieWeb if he expects audiences to understand the "technojargon," Carruth says:

I guess I really don't expect them to. I know I wouldn't, watching it for the first time. The hope is that those scenes are written with an authentic dialogue but they're also written in the hopes that even if we're humming, that there's information coming across about the politics of the group and who's enthusiastic about what, who's proprietary, who the unofficial groups are within the group.

Ultimately, Primer tackles the science of time travel by taking it to a whole other, believable level.

Believable Choices, Characters, and Consequences in Primer

While working with an unrelated invention in their garage, two intelligent engineers, Aaron (Shane Carruth) and Abe (David Sullivan), discover the key to time travel. It goes without saying that when you dabble with time travel, complications always arise (something seen wonderfully in season two of Russian Doll ). When Aaron and Abe unintentionally create what they believe to be a time machine, Abe constructs a version of the device that is capable of transporting a person and puts it through tests.

In their obsession with the invention, the two friends come to realize the frightening consequences of their choices. It's certainly the most realistic take on the notion of time travel, as there's no fancy mission to save the universe; the development of the device is realistic, and the science is bafflingly sophisticated and used out of a passion for science, along with some petty, selfish purposes. It is also fascinating to see the complicated relationship between humans and technology, as the film explores the capitalistic, selfish, and exploitative implications of technology in this corporate world.

Related: These Are Some of the Best Movies About Time Travel

The scientific language in this movie is not the only reason it might take multiple viewings and need to be watched twice or more, they might be essential because the time travel idea is dense, and there’s a lot to absorb. This movie makes you believe that time travel is possible, but also nothing to mess around with.

While the concept of moving through time may be complicated (okay, very complicated) in the movie, the time travel destinations in Primer are just hours or days apart from the present. This is part of what gives the film its very puzzling nature, since characters do not age dramatically and neither do the surroundings alter over a few days time frame; it's sometimes legitimately difficult to know which version of time (and how much the characters know about it) we are watching.

What also makes Primer so believable and realistic is that there is a significant cost to their inventions. In most time travel movies, nothing too terrible or catastrophic happens, and they always seem save the day without gaining even a cut or scratch, or any implications for that matter. In Primer, though, the box is detrimental to the time-traveler’s physical and emotional well-being, and in the end, their friendship is at risk and trust is permanently damaged. The box takes a toll on their bodies; essentially their days become 36 hours long, and as the story progresses, the two men begin to experience some extremely worrying side effects.

Generally, Primer may be the greatest movie on time travel because of its believability, but it's also a film with extremely believable characters, and a plot which is more interested in intellectual sci-fi ideas rather than explosions and happy endings. This is actually the time travel movie to beat them all; if you really want to delve into the nuts and bolts of advanced technology, science, and time travel, then Primer is an essential film.

• primer (2004)
• Shane Carruth

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Future Tense: The 20 Best Time-Travel Movies

By Gavin Edwards

Gavin Edwards

“Time travel hasn’t been invented yet. But it will be,” Joseph Gordon-Levitt says at the beginning of  Looper. That’s the thing about time travel: Once you invent a time machine, you just have to use it to travel back to the U.S. Patent Office on the first day it opened, so you can register your invention and serve as inspiration for an endless stream of movies. For decades, Hollywood has been treating the space-time continuum like it’s just the daily rushes for editors to cut together.

Over the past few summers, for example, X-Men: Days of Future Past sends Hugh Jackman’s Wolverine back in time 50 years, while Edge of Tomorrow puts Tom Cruise in a temporal loop, letting him relive the same battle over and over. So crank up your flux capacitor and check out 20 of the best time-travel movies.

[Editor’s Note: A version of this list was originally published in 2014]

‘Donnie Darko’ (2001)

“Do you believe in time travel?” Jake Gyllenhaal, in his breakout role, plays a disturbed teenager who starts getting warnings about the end of the world from a guy in a rabbit costume. This cult film by Richard Kelly is a puzzle about alternate universes and suburban vortexes; no matter which cut you watch, you still get a moody, trippy slice of high-school alienation and the best use ever of Tears for Fears’ “Mad World.”

‘The Lake House’ (2006)

This romance scores by having one of the weirdest time-travel gimmicks ever: Keanu Reeves and Sandra Bullock send letters to each other via a mailbox at a rental house — even though she is writing and reading them exactly two years after he is. (Many time-travel movies don’t make sense if you think about them too hard; this one doesn’t make sense if you have an autonomic nervous system.) Reeves and Bullock are appealing together, although it seems like a missed opportunity not to put them on a bus that, should it go over or under 50 mph, travels back to the Renaissance Era or something.

‘Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban’ (2004)

The best Harry Potter movie happens to be the one with the most time travel. Coincidence? Hermione has been granted special permission to use a Time Turner because she wants more hours in the day to take a heavier courseload. But the climax of the story is Hermione and Harry’s mission back in time a few hours to save Sirius Black and a hippogriff — revising what we’ve seen before like a crack film editor splicing in new material with Final Cut Pro.

‘Austin Powers: The Spy Who Shagged Me’ (1999)

In the second installment of Mike Myers’ James Bond spoof, groovy secret agent Austin Powers has to go back to his native environment, the swinging Sixties, in pursuit of Dr. Evil. Since Powers goes cross-eyed (literally) when he tries to consider time-travel paradoxes, nobody in the movie takes the premise too seriously. Austin’s description of the 1990s to Felicity Shagwell (Heather Graham): “Everyone has their own flying car, entire meals come in pill form, and the Earth is run by damn dirty apes.”

‘The Navigator: A Medieval Odyssey’ (1988)

Trying to escape the Black Plague in 1348, English villagers dig a tunnel and end up in 20th-century New Zealand, switching from black-and-white to color like Dorothy traveling to Oz. (If you object to the notion of 14th-century villagers finding a way to travel forward in time 600 years…well, in the present day, we haven’t invented time machines either.) Suffused with surrealism and religious faith, the movie succeeds in making clear how strange our modern world actually is.

‘Peggy Sue Got Married’ (1986)

This Francis Ford Coppola movie, dismissed by some as a rehash of Back to the Future ( both feature a protagonist traveling back to the doo-wop era) is actually a small gem, rueful and thoughtful. Kathleen Turner finds herself transported back to 1960, her senior year of high school, trying to figure out how her choices as a teenager helped form her identity as an adult — and hoping she can turn “She Loves You” into a hit before Lennon and McCartney get around to writing it.

‘Bill and Ted’s Excellent Adventure’ (1989)

There are many other goofy time-machine journeys through the past, from A Connecticut Yankee in King Arthur’s Court to Mr. Peabody & Sherman;  none of those, however, have brilliantly slack-jawed performances by Alex Winter and Keanu Reeves. The premise: Two SoCal teens need to locate famous figures of Western civilization so they won’t fail history and their band, the Wyld Stallyns, can stay together and become the musical foundation of a future utopia. The most inspirational moment comes when Ted (Reeves) philosophizes with Socrates by quoting Kansas: “All we are is dust in the wind, dude.”

‘Safety Not Guaranteed’ (2012)

Mark Duplass plays the grocery clerk who’s invented a time machine and places a classified ad looking for somebody to travel back in time with him; Aubrey Plaza plays the magazine intern who shows up on an assignment to investigate that ad. Guess who forges an unlikely connection? This indie movie explores the enduring fantasy of time travel: you get to live your life again, only better. What gives the film life — aside from great performances by Duplass and Plaza — is that it’s not clear until the end whether they’re indulging that fantasy, or whether his time machine actually works.

‘Galaxy Quest’ (1999)

You may remember Galaxy Quest as a genius Star Trek parody featuring the cast of a cheesy outer-space TV show (Tim Allen, Sigourney Weaver, Alan Rickman) thrust into a real interstellar adventure — and not as a time-travel movie. But one of the central pieces of technology in the film is the Omega 13 device, which turns out to be a time machine, albeit not a particularly flexible one: It sends its user 13 seconds into the past. That may be the smallest increment of time travel in any movie, but it turns out to be just enough time to save the day.

‘Planet of the Apes’ (1968)

If you need a spoiler alert for a 45-year-old movie with one of the most famous plot twists in history, you may want to build your own time machine and head back to an era before this movie was released. (Remember to bring your copy of Grays Sports Almanac. ) Everyone else knows that the brilliance of the Statue of Liberty scene is the revelation that yes, this Charlton Heston sci-fi classic is actually a time-travel movie: Charlton Heston’s astronaut has not journeyed to a galaxy far, far away, but only two millennia into Earth’s future. (The time-travel elements of the franchise became even more pronounced in the sequels: in 1971’s Escape from the Planet of the Apes, three future apes travel back to 1973 and end up testifying at a presidential commission.)

‘Time Bandits’ (1981)

Terry Gilliam’s relentlessly inventive time-travel caper stars a young boy and six dwarfs who have swiped a map of the universe and are using it to steal everything they can. Best cameos: Sean Connery as Agamemnon and John Cleese as a daffily aristocratic Robin Hood. God was played by the distinguished British actor Ralph Richardson, who got so into the role that he rejected some of his dialogue, telling Gilliam, “God wouldn’t say that.”

‘Star Trek IV: The Voyage Home’ (1986)

The Star Trek franchise, both on TV and on the big screen, has featured so many time-travel stories, working every possible angle, that eventually the Deep Space Nine show had to introduce a Department of Temporal Investigations just to keep everything straight. This romp was one of Starfleet’s best journeys through time: Kirk and the Enterprise crew head to 1980s San Francisco to bring a humpback whale to the future, and are befuddled by 20th-century concepts such as punk rock, computer keyboards, and exact change.

‘Run Lola Run’ (1998)

The crimson-haired Lola (Franka Potente) gets a phone call from her boyfriend: He’s lost a bag with 100,000 deutschemarks, and if he doesn’t find it or replace it in the next 20 minutes, his criminal boss will kill him. So Lola runs through Berlin, dodging bicyclists, causing car accidents, provoking flash-forward sequences of the destiny of various pedestrians, trying to find a way out. Each time she fails, the 20-minute time loop starts again — it seems to be powered by love and the absence of cash.

‘Hot Tub Time Machine’ (2010)

Probably the funniest time-travel movie ever made: John Cusack, Rob Corddry, Craig Robinson, and Clark Duke head back to the 1980s while at a ski resort, revisiting a time when hair was big, outerwear was neon, and Poison was a big headlining band. (It’s also a time when Cusack was a much bigger movie star; the movie sidesteps that.) Best scene: Robinson having sex in a bathtub so he won’t disrupt the timeline, weeping because he feels guilty about cheating on his wife, even though she’s only nine years old in 1986.

‘Looper’ (2012)

“I’m a sucker for the time-travel genre,” director Rian Johnson told Rolling Stone. “If you’re a nerd like I am, it’s really fun to work out the map of how everything is going to work.” But he made sure this movie, about contract killers snuffing people sent back in time 30 years, didn’t feel like “algebra homework”;  instead, Looper has an aging hitman (Bruce Willis) confronting his younger self (Joseph Gordon-Levitt). For all its sci-fi inventiveness and thrills, the best scene is the two leads meeting at a diner: a young man looking his older self in the eye, determined not to turn into him.

‘Primer’ (2004)

A rigorous, graduate-level time-travel movie, full of confusing plot twists, technical jargon, and duplicate versions of characters trying to outfox each other. But it’s also a thrilling mind-bender, and as soon as you’re done watching it, you want to see the whole thing again to see if it actually makes sense. (It does). Made for an astonishingly low $7,000, director Shane Carruth’s debut is also one of the best movies ever about a tech start-up: When some engineer friends make a working time machine, they skip right over the ethical consequences in favor of the financial rewards.

‘Back to the Future’ (1985)

Funny, thrilling, unbelievably Oedipal: When Marty McFly (Michael J. Fox) travels to 1955 and accidentally prevents his parents from getting together, his mother transfers her affections to him instead. Fortunately, Fox doesn’t have to pluck out his eyes — instead, he labors to make his parents fall in love, so that he will actually be born. Best subtle joke: McFly knocks down a tree in 1955; back in 1985, a shopping center has changed its name from the Twin Pines Mall to the Lone Pine Mall.

‘Terminator 2: Judgement Day’ (1991)

The original Terminator (1984) had a great premise: Arnold Schwarzenegger is a killer cyborg (just the way you like him) coming from the future to kill waitress Linda Hamilton so she can’t give birth to the eventual leader of the human resistance. But seven years later, director James Cameron upped the stakes with this sequel — not just blowing out retinas with bigger explosions and more CGI, but wrestling with the philosophical paradox of whether knowing the future removes humanity’s free will.

‘La Jetée’ (1962)

A gorgeous 28-minute film, told in a montage of black-and-white still photographs and narrated in French, about a man sent back in time to avert an apocalyptic war. He’s obsessed with his childhood memories of a beautiful woman and seeing a man die — inevitably, he gets tangled in the silken cords of time travel. This novella of a movie is pretty much perfect, which didn’t stop Hollywood from making a big-budget feature-length version: 12 Monkeys  (1995), directed by Terry Gilliam, and starring Bruce Willis and Brad Pitt.

‘Groundhog Day’ (1993)

Time travel doesn’t have to span hundreds of years to be a significant plot element in a movie, of course: it can be hours, or a handful of seconds. Characters can be caught in a loop, or spawn alternate universes, or even kill their grandfathers, depending on the rules the filmmakers set up: at press time, actual time travel was still fictional. The time travel in this Bill Murray comedy, while limited to a single day, still plays into one of the most fundamental reasons for its persistence: the notion that if we had a chance to do our lives over, we could do it better the second time. The movie’s great subversion of that fantasy is the lesson that you could begin your do-over right now, in the present tense, on February 3rd and beyond.

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Primer – The Smartest Time Travel Film Ever Made

Written by Kevin Muldoon

| 7th May 2013

| Films, TV, Games & Music

I love films that make you think after you have watched them. Films that have you thinking about them for days after (I’m not talking about M. Night Shyamalan films which have an obvious twist at the end).

One of my favourite films over the last ten years is an independent film called Primer . The film focuses around two friends who are working on a device that will reduce the weight of items, however they accidentally create a machine that allows them to travel back in time. It is a fascinating film that demands a second watch…and a third. Anyone who says they understand the film after one viewing is a liar.

The film was written, directed, and produced, by Shane Carruth , one of the two main stars in the film. At the age of 30 he quit his job as an engineer to make Primer. I have nothing but respect for him for quitting his job and following his dreams. Amazingly, he completed the film on a budget of only $7,000 (nearly all of that money being spent on film stock). It is astounding to think that such a good film could be made on such a low budget (particularly with so many bad films out there costing over $100 million).

Shane Carruth’s second film is called Upstream Color is officially out today. When I read that his second film was being released, I decided to revisit Primer again (for what I believe is my fourth time).

Primer – What Happens If It Actually Works?

Primer is a film that makes sense once you have seen it at least twice and with every viewing you notice a few things that you had not noticed before. It is a relatively short film at only 77 minutes long, but it does not feel short when watching it. The film is not shown in the sequence that events occurred, which is one of the reasons why it is necessary to see the film another time.

After watching it once you will probably be confused about what actually happened. Watching it a second time is a completely different experience. It feels like watching a completely different film.

Where Primer excels over other time travel films is its realism (yes, realism in a fictional film about time travel). With 99% of time travel films, you are left contemplating the grandfather paradox . That is, someone from the future comes back to change the past, however if they come back to past to change something, their own future changes, making it impossible for them to come back to the past in the first place (and I’ve gone cross-eyed !). Even last years big time travel film Looper failed in this regard many times (i.e. the dismemberment of Seth raised many questions though I guess these issues can be countered by saying it creates a multiverse ). As did Terminator in 1984 (the technology from the Terminator from the future was the basis for creating the Terminator that was created in the future).

In Primer, no rules are broken and you after watching the film you start to think that the whole thing is actually plausible (all I need is an old PC to make a whirring sound!).

If you have never seen Primer before, I encourage you to seek it out. You can buy the film on Shane Carruther’s official website ERBP Film . You can also rent it for around $2.99 or buy it for around $9.99 on:

• Sundance Now

Whilst I won’t be explaining Primer in full in this post, I will be talking a little about the plot, therefore if you want to see the movie, please stop reading now. I mean that. This is a film you do not want to spoil!

Primer Explained

SPOILERS – DO NOT READ THIS SECTION IF YOU HAVE NOT SEEN THE FILM

My original idea was to give my view on what happened on Primer. There is little point of me doing that. Firstly, because there are long detailed explanations that already exist online. Secondly, because my own understanding of the plot was helped by the explanations and comments of other fans of the film.

Therefore, rather than do a long explanation of how I understand the series of events in the film, I thought it would be better to simply link to resources that will help you understand it (articles, images and videos).

Primer Explained – Timeline Image Diagrams

Let’s start off with a visual explanation with how time travel works in Primer. It is vital that you understand the basic rules of time travel within the film as your whole understanding of the film itself depends on it. The image that is available on Wikipedia explains it perfectly. It will also help you understand why later in the story there is more than one version of Abe and Aaron going into the future.

There are many timeline diagrams online that aim to explain Primer. A few are posted below (click on the image for the full size image). Unfortunately, most of these images are on dozens of websites online, therefore it was difficult for me to know where they originated. If you know where these images came from, please let me know in the comment area and I will link to the original creator :)

Diagram 3 :

These images will not help you understand Primer….but they do highlight how the Primer timelines compares to other films :)

Primer Timeline:

Movie Timelines Diagram:

Primer Explained – Audio Commentary

The audio commentary below from qutm.org was only released a few months ago. It is one of the best ways of understanding the Primer timeline. All you do is start the audio commentary at the same time the film starts. The commentary will then walk you through each part of the film.

Primer Explained – Videos

There are not too many video explanations online. The main one available is a three part video series which breaks down everything with diagrams. Each video is around 9 to 10 minutes long.

Part 2 and Part 3 can also be found on YouTube.

Primer Explained – Articles

I found the explanation diagrams to be a little difficult to digest. The walkthrough articles that many fans of the film have published online are much easier to follow in my opinion. Below is a collection of some of the best explanations of the timeline in Primer. They should answer most of the questions you have about the film.

• Primer explained @ qntm.org
• Primer explained @ friendsinyourhead.com
• Primer explained @ Reddit
• The Primer Universe
• Primer: The Perils and Paradoxes of Restricted Time Travel Narration
• Primer Movie – Scene by Scene Explanation
• Primer and the Handwriting of Time Travelers
• A discussion about Primer on jaced.com
• IMDB Discussion Boards for Primer

Shane Carruth Interviews

If you have read this far, you are obviously a huge fan of Primer. Therefore, I am sure you would love to hear more from the man himself, Shane Carruth. The interview below with Shane Carruth was published by The B-Movies Podcast last month. In the interview he talks about his new movie Upstream Color though he also talks a little about Primer.

More interviews with Shane Carruth:

• Shane Carruth—Primer—10/11/04
• Shane Carruth Answers All Our Questions About ‘Primer,’ ‘Upstream Color’ and ‘The Modern Ocean’
• An Interview With Shane Carruth
• A Primer Primer
• Making the Film – Interviews – Shane Carruth – 07/Mar/04
• Interview with Primer director Shane Carruth
• Buckle Your Brainpan: The Primer Director Is Back With a New Film
• IMDB Discussion Boards for Shane Carruth

The Future for Shane Carruth

It is great to see the return of Shane Carruth after a long absence. Upstream Color is just out and he is shooting another film called “The Modern Ocean” in a few months time. Sadly, the script he worked on for years has not came to fruition. The project, called “A Topiary”, took up a huge amount of his time but he was unable to secure the funds for it.

Apparently, he was learning how to design the 3D creatures himself for the film by visiting special effects companies.

I really hope that A Topiary gets made in the future, be it from investors or from funding through a website such as Kickstarter . It sounds epic. Here’s what he said about the film to Wired Magazine :

For a while, Carruth tried writing a romantic coming-of-age story set on the high seas. But soon he began mapping out something much bigger, an epic sci-fi story called A Topiary. It’s a tale told in two parts: The opening section follows a city worker who becomes obsessed with a recurring starburst pattern he sees hidden everywhere around him, even in traffic grids. He eventually joins with other believers, forming a kaffeeklatsch-cult that’s soon undone by greed and hubris. The second half follows a group of 10 preteen boys who discover a strange machine that produces small funnels, which in turn can be used to build increasingly agile robotlike creatures. As their creations grow in power and size, the kids’ friendships begin to splinter and they’re forced to confront another group of creature-builders. The movie ends with a massive last-minute reveal, set deep in the cosmos, suggesting that everything we’ve just seen was directed by forces outside the characters’ control. A Topiary consumed Carruth. He wrote much of it in the Dallas suburbs, living off the money from Primer. “There’s no way I could have done that if I had a wife or a family or health care,” he says now. “There’s a way to live that is incredibly thrifty.” While working on the script, Carruth used a 3-D computer program to design all the creatures himself. And since the movie would require hundreds of effects shots, he began visiting f/x houses to learn about their workflow and to see how he might create his own effects. He even built his own small-scale CGI system, renting cloud computers and writing code. “That’s where I lose my time,” he says. “I get obsessed with these little things. I think there’s some novel way to find a solution, and I go down the pathway too far.” After Carruth finished a first draft of the script, he gave it to director Steven Soderbergh, a fan who had reached out to Carruth after he saw Primer. Soderbergh asked his friend David Fincher to serve as co-executive producer. With their names and their blessing, Carruth made a mock-up trailer for investors, one that incorporated some of his own effects work plus images from many of the Spielberg movies he watched growing up. With a budget in the low $20 millions, Carruth began meeting with possible backers, a process that ended up consuming yet another year. “Nobody ever said no,” Carruth says. “It was always enthusiasm and amazement and ‘We can’t wait for this!’ Meanwhile, no money’s sitting in the account.” He kept lowering the budget, getting it down to about $14 million, but even that couldn’t secure an investor. “If this were the ’70s, people would be throwing money at him,” Soderbergh says. “It’s just a different time now.” Finally, Carruth realized that A Topiary was a problem he simply couldn’t solve. Worried he’d be forever stuck in a loop of endless meetings and fruitless go-aheads, he walked away. “I decided that if nobody was gonna say no, I was gonna have to say no,” he says. “It sort of just broke my heart.”

Shane Carruth’s experience suggests that even a successful film will guarantee you full control over your next project. Investors want involved in the project. I can understand this side of it. Can you imagine funding a film for $20 million and having the writer and director advise you that you have no say on what happens? You would fund another project. On the other side, I admire Carruth for not allowing other people tampering with his creation. Why should he give up final cut of his film or be told who he can or cannot cast. Even if he does not secure funds for A Topiary, I hope he continues to make films.

As much as I would love to see it, I do not believe there will ever be a sequel to Primer. There are no loose ends that need tied up. I cannot think of any plausible storyline that would happen after the events of the first film (can you?).

If you have read this far without watching Primer; shame on you! For everyone else, I hope you have found this article useful. Primer is one of the most intelligent films ever made. Most films that have a twist at the end of the film are easy to understand once you know what that twist is.

Primer is different. It really does take a few viewings to understand everything that happened. Once again, I will reiterate: Anyone who says that they understood everything about Primer after one viewing is a liar.

I’d love to hear from those of you who have seen Primer, so I encourage you to leave a comment and share with me your opinion of the film. Please leave a comment if there is any aspect of the film you do not understand and I will try and explain how I see those events.

Thanks for reading. Kevin

About Kevin Muldoon

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12 Best Time Travel Movies on Netflix (August 2024)

Whether altering the past, glimpsing the future, or visiting alternate realities, time travel concepts brim with potential. They seem to add intriguing twists to every genre of film they are utilized in. Such works often greet us with refreshing settings and unique dynamics, putting their characters through imaginative scenarios. From heart-pounding thrillers to heartwarming romances, these are the absolute of best time-traveling movies offered on Netflix.

12. See You Yesterday (2019)

Directed by Stefon Bristol, ‘ See You Yesterday ’ is a Netflix teen-adventure film that blends racial themes with a time travel plot. When a police officer senselessly shoots African American teen C.J. Walker’s caring brother, she and fellow prodigy Sebastian Thomas complete their time-traveling device to save him. However, they find that changing the past turns out to be incredibly difficult.

With their device’s charges running low, the two become desperate to prevent the shooting and try to alter the sequence of events at various points. The poignant and impactful tale addresses themes of racial injustice, grief, and sacrifice. It conveys a sense of helplessness felt by the protagonist, which is symbolic of her community’s emotional state, making great progress but falling victim to old prejudices. You can see the movie here .

11. Captain Nova (2021)

In the directorial hands of Maurice Trouwborst, ‘ Captain Nova ’ is a Dutch sci-fi film that follows Nova, a fighter pilot from a dystopian future where the Earth is on the brink of environmental collapse. She is sent on a mission from 2050 to 2025 to alter key events and save the future. However, she unexpectedly becomes a young teen girl as a side effect and struggles to be taken seriously. Nas, an outcast teen, assists her on the mission as the Secret Service tries to capture her. With striking visual effects and creative future technology, the film adds a touch of humor for a refreshing sci-fi experience aimed at audiences of all ages. You can see the movie here .

10. In the Shadow of the Moon (2019)

With Jim Mickle at the helm, ‘ In the Shadow of the Moon ’ combines a noir-style serial killer mystery with time travel in a high-concept thriller filled with twists and turns. The story centers on Philadelphia police officer Thomas Lockhart, who becomes obsessed with a series of inexplicable murders committed by a woman appearing every nine years despite having died in front of him. As Lockhart delves deeper into the investigation, he uncovers a chilling connection that challenges his understanding of reality and time itself. The Netflix sci-fi film features a thought-provoking, imaginative plot that explores themes of fate, justice, and the burdens of the past. You can stream the movie here .

9. The Flash (2023)

While not a conventional time-traveling film, ‘ The Flash ’ sees the titular superhero blaze through his fair share of timelines. Directed by Andy Muschiett, the film follows Barry Allen as he taps into the speed force to save his mother, inadvertently altering the timeline to a catastrophic degree. He teams up with his past self and must gather an unfamiliar and scattered Justice League to defend against General Zod’s invasion of Earth. The film explores the potential divergence of the timeline far beyond the Butterfly Effect, with a single seemingly mundane event of time manipulation changing both past and future dramatically. Featuring an array of cameos and plenty of fan service, the film maintains a decent pace with explosive action sequences. You can see the movie here .

8. Long Story Short (2021)

Loosely based on the Indian film ‘Baar Baar Dekho,’ ‘Long Story Short’ follows Teddy, a man who wakes up the day after his wedding to discover that his life is fast-forwarding, with each day skipping ahead a year. As Teddy struggles to understand this strange phenomenon, he begins to miss the most important moments of his life. The Josh Lawson directorial combines humor with a poignant message about love, regret, and the fleeting nature of time. The impactful film creates an increasingly charming and thought-provoking narrative with the use of fantastical time travel. You can stream the movie here .

7. The Door Into Summer (2021)

Also known as ‘Natsu e no Tobira: Kimi no Iru Mirai e,’ ‘The Door Into Summer’ narrates a tale of mystery, betrayal, and advanced technology interwoven with the delicate threads of time travel. Directed by Takahiro Miki and based on Robert A. Heinlein’s eponymous novel, the film follows Soichiro Takakura, an ingenious inventor who finds himself betrayed by his girlfriend and business associates who take over his life’s work. Hoping to live in a brighter future, he enters cold sleep and wakes up thirty years later in 2025. Finding his wealth completely dissolved and his company closed down, he traces down figures from the past in search of answers. The Japanese-language film essays as a thoughtful time travel story, offering a combination of romance and sci-fi with moving performances from the lead cast. You can see the movie here .

6. Still Time (2022)

Directed by Alessandro Aronadio, ‘Still Time’ is a poignant Italian comedy-drama about a workaholic man who finds his life skipping a year ahead every day. The film is based on Josh Lawson’s ‘Long Story Short.’ Dante barely makes time to spend with his friends and family, being late to his own fortieth birthday. Blowing out the candles, he makes a wish that causes him to begin leaping in time. From missing the birth of his baby to witnessing his relationships withering owing to overwork, each day makes him grieve the life slipping through his fingers.

‘Still Time’ stands out as a touching and thought-provoking time travel movie that encourages us to cherish each moment before it’s too late. The narrative depicts how everyday choices and habits can paint the picture of one’s life in the long term, offering a glimpse into the future without even requiring time travel. You can stream the movie here .

5. When We First Met (2018)

‘When We First Met’ narrates the story of a man going back in time to win the affection of the woman he loves in a delightful romantic comedy directed by Ari Sandel. Noah meets Avery, the girl of his dreams, but waits too long to make a move and is friend-zoned. After she marries someone else, he wishes for another chance and inadvertently travels back in time through a photo booth. Jumping with joy, Noah tries to woo Avery in a series of hilarious and ill-fated attempts, traveling back to the night they met repeatedly. With its humor, heart, and refreshing twists, ‘When We First Met’ offers a relatable and gratifying take on a time-tested formula. You can see the movie here .

4. Hot Tub Time Machine (2010)

Helmed by Steve Pink, ‘Hot Tub Time Machine’ transports a group of washed-out friends to the 1980s, when they are tempted to change their lives and the timeline. Four friends suffering through various shades of disaster in their lives are sent to the past via a malfunctioning hot tub. At a bustling ski resort, they seek to relive their youth by immersing themselves in ‘80s culture while attempting to make better choices for the future.

The irreverent comedy doesn’t take itself or the concepts of time travel too seriously; instead, it uses its premise to go all out with silly references and hilarious sequences. Despite the zany humor, the characters gain unexpected depth and charm, making ‘Hot Tub Time Machine’ an easily recommendable lighthearted and raunchy adventure into the ‘80s. You can stream the movie here .

3. The Adam Project (2022)

Helmed by Shawn Levy, ‘ The Adam Project ’ narrates a humorous and action-packed time travel tale of a pilot from the future teaming up with his past self to save the world. Adam is a young boy grappling with the recent loss of his father while facing bullying at school. One day, he finds an injured pilot hiding in his shed, who is revealed to be his future self. On a secret mission, the older Adam (Ryan Reynolds) is being pursued by a powerful organization and seeks to save the future from it.

The interactions between the Adams are both heartwarming and hilarious, with the two bonding over their woes and sharing comparable mannerisms. Their futuristic pursuers attack with gunships, pulse weaponry, and “not lightsabers,” making for stylish chase and fight scenes. ‘The Adam Project’ is a solid sci-fi romp which accomplishes its goal of thorough entertainment with Ryan Reynolds delivering his signature charm. You can see the movie here .

2. Mirage (2018)

Originally titled ‘Durante la tormenta,’ ‘ Mirage ’ revolves around Vera Roy, a mother who finds that she is able to influence past events through her television set. With the old device and a peculiar thunderstorm overhead, she communicates with a boy living 25 years in the past and saves his life before he meets with a tragic accident. The intervention unknowingly alters the course of her own life, and she wakes up in a reality where her daughter never existed.

Vera must restore her timeline within 72 hours or be stuck in her new reality. Helmed by Oriol Paulo, the gripping Spanish thriller blends complex time travel with suspense and mystery, its post-Cold War setting creating a foreboding atmosphere. The well-written film manages to keep us in the dark with its twists and is further enhanced by stellar performances from the cast. You can stream the movie here .

1. Back to the Future (1985)

Directed by Robert Zemeckis, ‘ Back to the Future ’ is a timeless classic when it comes to time travel films, transporting us to the ‘80s and ‘50s. The film follows the journey of Marty McFly, a teenager who accidentally travels back to 1955 in a DeLorean-turned-time machine invented by the eccentric Dr. Emmett Brown. There, he must ensure that his parents meet and fall in love to prevent his existence from being erased.

The lighthearted yet sophisticated comedy captures the imagination with clever writing and great special effects that hold up in the modern context as well. The film isn’t afraid to have fun through its time-traveling concepts, with Marty going through a number of awkward and comical scenarios during his iconic adventure. You can see the movie here .

Read More: Best Sci-Fi Movies on Netflix

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