Time Travel Movies

[MadMatt]

This might belong in the Entertainment section, but I thought it would fit better in the Basement since it is more of a "geek" topic.

Why the hell do most time travel movies suck? I mean, they ignore logic and generally have plot holes you could drive a truck through.

For example, I am watching "The Sound of Thunder" on the Sci-Fi Channel; Long story short, a trip back through time goofed something up now the "present" is changing - actually, there are "time waves" that sweep through and change things incrementally on each sweep.

However, everybody remembers how everything is supposed to be and that things have gone wrong. But if time actually changed, NOBODY would realize that anything is different - all of the "changes" should seem normal and natural parts of everyday life.

Also, what is this crap about "time waves" that change things a little more each time they sweep through history? If you do something in the past that alters history/the timeline, it should change all at once.

What other movies do this kind of BS and are there any movies that do it right?

[Foster]

One that jumps into my head is "The Planet of the Apes" at the end when he crash lands in Washington DC and apes rule the world?

On the other hand though, the "Bill and Ted" series got it right.

[HBox]

I generally consider TimeCop to be the authoritative example of the time travel movie genre.

[MadMatt]

I generally consider TimeCop to be the authoritative example of the time travel movie genre.

That is one of the worst EVER. It is a relatively entertaining flick - if you completely suspend disbelief.

Tell me - how do you jump through time riding in a rocket sled, appear in the past without the sled, then somehow jump back into the sled when you return to the present? Is it somehow magically stored in your butt?

[TooLowBrow]

once again, i'll point to 'the time traveler's wife' an excellently written novel about a form of time travel.
i just read line that the movie is coming out this dec.
eric bana plays the male lead
but the female role goes to on of the 'mean girls' (not lindsey)

my hopes arent that high

[Judge Smails]

I literally just finished watching 12 Monkeys on one of the many myriad movie channels that I've got. That's a pretty good flick in my opinion.

[Judge Smails]

Whoops

[Coach]

However, everybody remembers how everything is supposed to be and that things have gone wrong. But if time actually changed, NOBODY would realize that anything is different - all of the "changes" should seem normal and natural parts of everyday life.

Also, what is this crap about "time waves" that change things a little more each time they sweep through history? If you do something in the past that alters history/the timeline, it should change all at once.

What other movies do this kind of BS and are there any movies that do it right?
Well Time waves would actually be correct..think of it as ripples from a rock thrown into a pond...but a little different..starts small and gets larger.
Say you travel back to Gettysburgh with a Thompson machine gun..The moment you appear..a ripple..with the Thompson, a larger ripple. You fire the Thompson a bigger ripple. You mow down an entire squad with Thompson..bigger ripple..and etc.

[MadMatt]

Well Time waves would actually be correct..think of it as ripples from a rock thrown into a pond...but a little different..starts small and gets larger.
Say you travel back to Gettysburgh with a Thompson machine gun..The moment you appear..a ripple..with the Thompson, a larger ripple. You fire the Thompson a bigger ripple. You mow down an entire squad with Thompson..bigger ripple..and etc.

Except that when you return, all the ripples would already be done. In the movie I was watching all the damage had already been done - they stepped on a butterfly. One ripple would have gone through and changed everything right after the guy smooshed that insect.

Instead, nothing changed immediately and they had wave after wave occur every few hours, a few things changed, and everybody in the world still remembered what the "real world" was supposed to be like. It doesn't make sense.

[Devo37]

http://i31.photobucket.com/albums/c395/Devo37/Back_to_the_Future.jpg

[Enabler]

I think Idiocracy kind of does it right. They wind up in the future by mistake and they can't go back to the past. Not sure what this thread is but I love that movie!
http://skeptisys.files.wordpress.com/2008/04/idiocracyfoodpyramid.jpg

[donnie_darko]

cellar door.

[LaBoob]

I saw Sound of Thunder and I can definitely see why you started this thread after watching it...

Since you're talking about the technology behind time travel movies, I'd like to bring up Primer? I think they were the most honest about the tech aspect of it, pretty much disregarding the entertainment value, but it was still a memorable movie, and one you have to watch over and over again. In fact, writing about it makes me realize I've forgotten all my theories and I should probably watch it again! I would still say it's probably the most honest time travel movie, and most true to the technology.

[sailor]

I saw Sound of Thunder and I can definitely see why you started this thread after watching it...

Since you're talking about the technology behind time travel movies, I'd like to bring up Primer? I think they were the most honest about the tech aspect of it, pretty much disregarding the entertainment value, but it was still a memorable movie, and one you have to watch over and over again. In fact, writing about it makes me realize I've forgotten all my theories and I should probably watch it again! I would still say it's probably the most honest time travel movie, and most true to the technology.

i enjoyed primer, but what makes it most honest and true to a tech that doesn't exist? on the surface that sounds crazy.

[LaBoob]

i enjoyed primer, but what makes it most honest and true to a tech that doesn't exist? on the surface that sounds crazy.

By honest I just meant that they didn't sugarcoat it with a Delorean or something else equally unbelievable with more focus on lights and special effects than on function... the machine they created wasn't pretty and definitely wasn't without its kinks, and that's what I appreciated about that movie. Not that I don't like Back to the Future and other time travel movies (it's one of my favorite kinds of sci-fi) but this one made me think that time travel could really happen, or could be happening right now.

[cougarjake13]

i liked the movie sound of thunder as entertainment but i didnt get the waves either and the people still knowing that the original world was the true world

[TooLowBrow]

http://www.startrek2.com/movies/images/st4.jpg

[oldladyfacepuncher]

Primer is a good one. Like LaBoob said, it does make you stop and think that maybe it is going on now. The initial tech to do it would be limited, so I could totally see a few guys changing their own lives on a small scale. Rather than the tech is suddenly discovered and all the sudden a group of elite international commandos and a high school history teacher have to go back and forth in time using a gussied up wristwatch to stop an alien invasion while maintaining the integrity of the time line. I thought Contact had the same real world approach.

I like the the series finale of Star Trek TNG. Throw out any sense of reality for that one, however it was a damn entertaining story line to have present Picard jumping into his own lives in the past and the future in order to coordinate all three to stop an anomaly that works backwards. This one is cool because it doesn't present time as a static line that just runs from A to B.

[LaBoob]

I thought Contact had the same real world approach.

Agreed.

[TooLowBrow]

http://www.impawards.com/1981/posters/time_bandits.jpg

[bobrobot]

The Time Machine directed by George Pal (1960) is pretty groovy!!!

http://www.cinemasterpieces.com/timemachine.jpg

[TooLowBrow]

http://www.impawards.com/2002/posters/time_machine_verdvd.jpg

[hammersavage]

http://www.screenhead.com/wp-content/uploads/2008/05/donniedarko_wideweb__470x2990.jpg

[Aqualad]

once again, i'll point to 'the time traveler's wife' an excellently written novel about a form of time travel.
i just read line that the movie is coming out this dec.
eric bana plays the male lead
but the female role goes to on of the 'mean girls' (not lindsey)

my hopes arent that high

I hated the time travel rules in that book. He could only travel to points in his own life, but he jumped back as a separate person, not like on Lost where your consciousness projects itself.

[Coach]

Except that when you return, all the ripples would already be done. In the movie I was watching all the damage had already been done - they stepped on a butterfly. One ripple would have gone through and changed everything right after the guy smooshed that insect.

Instead, nothing changed immediately and they had wave after wave occur every few hours, a few things changed, and everybody in the world still remembered what the "real world" was supposed to be like. It doesn't make sense.

If you returned 3 seconds after you left..there would be waves that you'd feel. Every action in the past affects the future. Time travels in waves like light or sound. That guy who stepped on the bug..It took a wave of temporal change a quantative amount of "real" time to catch up to his current position. If you go by popular scientific theorem that time is on a really long loop...The inital wave goes out..like a sander roughing and changing the odd spots through time... Then the other waves come and clean up those rough spots...The person who travels back and changes time..then theorhetically, has to wait for self same waves that he produced..not only flow past his "Real Present" but to return through the loop to his temporal present..Changes in memory...would be slower for those close to the traveller than the remote from the traveller...I am over simplifying this. So sorry in advance Mike the Teacher!

[Furtherman]

If you have Netflix and enjoy time travel movie - check out Timecrimes (Los Cronocrimenes). A man accidentally gets knocked back and hour and just that little jump causes all kinds of problems. I really enjoyed it and it's easy to follow. Spanish film, with subtitles.

http://www.best-horror-movies.com/image-files/timecrimes-horror-dvd-cover.jpg

[STC-Dub]

http://www.startrek2.com/movies/images/st4.jpg

I love Star Trek and even I hate that movie.

[Brad_Rush]

If you have Netflix and enjoy time travel movie - check out Timecrimes (Los Cronocrimenes). A man accidentally gets knocked back and hour and just that little jump causes all kinds of problems. I really enjoyed it and it's easy to follow. Spanish film, with subtitles.

http://www.best-horror-movies.com/image-files/timecrimes-horror-dvd-cover.jpg

I have that in my Watch Instantly Queue! It sounded interesting.

[instrument]

the jacket!
loved it

[Gvac]

Watch this some time -

http://www.geraldpeary.com/reviews/stuv/somewhere-in-time.jpg

It'll eradicate any fond thoughts you may have ever had of Christopher Reeve.

[Furtherman]

I love Star Trek and even I hate that movie.

Hate Star Trek IV???

Well double dumb ass on you!