You Want Some Relish With Your Paradox? 5 Time-Travel Movies (And One Television Show) To Blow Your Mind

THERE ARE PLENTY OF THINGS in this world that I like. I’m pretty happy I live in a world where I have the opportunity to pursue those things with as much depth as humanity as a whole can provide.

I mean, I love astronomy, cosmology, the history of space-travel… and I have access to the cumulative knowledge of our species at my fingertips. As much as  like to complain about our impending doom, there’s some awesome stuff out there to keep me entertained in the interim.

So, one of the things I like is Time-Travel. It’s got a bit of a weird rep in Science Fiction communities because there are some who declare that going backwards in time is purely fantasy, and any ‘machine’ that gets built to transport someone backwards in time runs on fairy dust and wishful thinking.

Me, I think people who get hung up on the lack of plausibility are missing the point. Time-Travel stories are amazing to me because they are opportunities to explore some paradoxical ideas. I think they are fun to think about. Even if I’m not the best at thinking through ALL the possible repercussions, I still get my entertainment value out of it.

I mean, if I did travel back in time and accidently kill my mother before I was conceived. I don’t think I would have much to worry about. Since I never existed, then I never got to travel back in time, never killed my mother, and therefore am okay… up until I travel back in time and accidently kill her again.

Which is fine, because that just means I cease to exist, and can’t kill her, therefore everyone lives.

And so on and so forth.

That explains why I was never that concerned about Marty McFly in the first Back to the Future movie, as soon as he gets erased from reality, everything will go back to being fine.

But sometimes, in either movies, or books, some of those paradoxes get explored in interesting ways. And in celebration of the IWM anthology that was released recently. I thought it might be nice to point out a few of the more interesting, but perhaps less popular, time-travel stories, that deal with some of the weirdness of time-travel.

Timecrimes: A Spanish film about a man who witnesses some strange things at the lab near his home. Goes to investigate, and ends up sending himself back in time so much that he’s got versions of himself running all over the place on the same day.

The narrative of the movie reinforces that idea that time is, more or less, immutable, so you can go back and do as much crazy stuff as you want, you aren’t going to change anything, because that’s the way it happened the first time.

My take – it’s an interesting movie, but the main character has to behave in some pretty hard to understand ways as he travels back in time in order for the movie to play out logically. Think of this as a purely Calvinistic view of time-travel.

Primer: A story about a group of young entrepreneurs that build a time-machine, which I think goes back about 6 hours. They then witness their entire lives fall apart as they deal with some of the more bizarre aspects of time-travel.

My Take – a VERY interesting look at time-travel, but nearly incomprehensibly complicated. One reviewer of the film said 'If you say you understood in upon a single viewing, you're lying.' And I have to confess that I'm on the opinion that repeated viewings must be necessary to begin to understand this. However, I have only seen it once. I can honestly say that I couldn’t make sense of what I’d witnessed. So I'm taking it on faith that it makes sense. It’s been praised as being one of the most clever time-travel movies ever made, but I’d warn any would-be viewer: It’s hard to follow.

Futurama: Roswell That Ends Well: An episode of the very clever Sci-fi animated show created by Matt Groening (Of The Simpsons fame) where Fry and the gang travel back 1940’s era earth.

My Take – one of my favorite episodes of the show, even if it isn’t the only Time-Travel episode (or the one with the most interesting time-traveling concepts). Not to spoil anything, but there are some intriguing run-ins with some of Fry’s ancestors. Fun to watch and at least nominally mind bending. This is a tad spoilery, but it does involve the consequences of messing around with the lives of your ancestors. 

12 Monkeys: Bruce Willis believes he's been sent into the past to discover the origin of the mysterious virus that destroyed most of humanity. Also, time-travel makes people go a bit bonkers. 

My Take - One of the better movies on this list, but also very intriguing because of it's take on the immutability of time. A side note that Brad Pitt plays crazy just a little too well. 

Bill and Ted's Excellent Adventure: A couple of good-for-nothing-wannabe-rockstar kids are, apparently, destined to be be the saviors of humanity, as long as they can pass their history exam. So future society sends them a personal time-machine so they can be sure to do very well on their exam. Hilarity ensues.

My Take - Probably the movie that I obsessed over the most as a young adult that wasn't a carry over from my childhood (Star Wars, Raiders, etc.). One of the actual paradoxical t

hings this handled so well, that was touched on a least a little in the Back to the Future movies, but not really, was the fact that a time-machine can fix all your problems. 

For example, Ted's father can't find his keys. Hasn't been able to find them throughout the whole movie. During the climax, our young heroes desperately need those keys most urgently. They decide that after they get out of the mess they are in, they will take their time-machine, travel back in time to a point that Ted's father wasn't missing his keys, steal them, then hide them right beside the spot they are currently in. Say, right behind that small bush that they're standing next to. They agree that's a good idea, then reach into the bush and there are the keys. 

This made such an impression on me that I decided that there are a few key moments in my life that, should I ever have access to a time-machine and have the opportunity to communicate with my younger self, that then and there are my assigned times and places to make contact. 

The Butterfly Effect: The guy from That 70's Show is an unwilling time-traveller. He blacks out and reappears in the body of his younger self from time to time. He tries to undo the mistakes he feels like he made during critical times of his life, but those unintended consequences tend to make his older self quite unhappy. This movie has kind of a dark tone.

My Take - I like that it was a darker look at time-travel. But what this movie did that not many others do, is demonstrate that changing the past is possible. And with each jump back in time, our young hero typically screws things up. Of course, the less obvious message (i.e., my interpretation of the movie's subtext) of the movie is that the universe has dictated that if he is ever with the woman he loves, things will be disastrous. So who says Hollywood demands happy endings?

I hope everyone has had a chance to run out and pick up a copy of the very FIRST ANNUAL IWM ANTHOLOGY (The Time-Travel Edition). Still a great bargain at $3.99 over on Amazon.