Mal ,'Serenity'
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The problem is, to make time travel make sense, one either has to (a) set up an inevitable situation, or else (b) explain an alternate-futures concept sensically, or else (c) have alternate futures and live with the illogic. It is very hard to explain lots in movies due to their brevity; so it is A or C, and usually C.
Yes, this. And far too many go for C. Me, I like A. Done well, inevitability may just be my favorite film mood of all.
I like B. Because then you get all sorts of alternate timelines, and who's to say which is the correct timeline, and all that. So the timeline you grew up in and live in is just one of many. Adds another layer of randomness to life.
I tried not to like Kate & Leopold now I own it.
Liev. Hugh. The wardrobe. The poop-scoop scene. Using the remote control on the shock collar. Mr. Fancy-pants
Can't help it. I'm a patsy.
Edit: When I was a kid, my dad didn't let me have comics. Mad Magazine was also banned for some reason.
Tommyrot, this was probably because William F. Gaines was a big subversive hippie, and Mad Magazine put wrong ideas in kids' heads.
Or possibly just because illutrated == comic in your parents' heads.
One or the other.
All these time travel circularity brain-teasers reminds me of Oedipus, what with the hero receiving a horrible prophecy, then taking action to avoid the prophecy which instead brings it about. So if he hadn't received the prophecy it wouldn't have come about.
That happened a lot with the Greeks. Also Shakespeare. Basically in plays, if someone gets a prophecy, count on it coming to pass. Probably through some action the person takes to try and avoid the prophecy.
Um, what was that movie with Christopher Reeves where he could just think himself into the past?
Somewhere in Time. Also? It's Reeve. The 50's TV Superman was George Reeves. Christopher has no 's'.
Aaaand apparently I'm only talking to tommyrot this morning.
Somewhere in Time. Also? It's Reeve. The 50's TV Superman was George Reeves. Christopher has no 's'.
My brain is like a sieve today.
Aaaand apparently I'm only talking to tommyrot this morning.
It's about time someone realized it's all about me.
In books, I like B, but I can't think of a movie that's done it well. (Groundhog Day and Run Lola Run come pretty close, but they didn't so much explain the alternate timelines as handwave them.)
I need my science fiction worlds to be internally consistent, and rules about how time works seem to get broken the most. (Yes, Minority Report, I'm looking at you.)
So if he hadn't received the prophecy it wouldn't have come about.
That happened a lot with the Greeks. Also Shakespeare.
And, y'know, Mutant Enemy...
I need my science fiction worlds to be internally consistent, and rules about how time works seem to get broken the most. (Yes, Minority Report, I'm looking at you.)
Oh yeah, I like that one too...except I suppose there's some rule-breaking going on there.
And I love Run Lola Run.
(Yes, Minority Report, I'm looking at you.)
Which ties in with the whole prohpecy thing, as Minority Report was very Greek in its prophecy while claiming that people still had free will.
Nice try, little movie.
My favorite time-travel universe is in Connie Willis's books. I love the way it all comes together and makes sense and is explained in a useful and not-boring way.