Three Time Travel movies

Manuel Royal

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Thanks, Paul! Those all sound worth checking out. (And, I'm relieved that none of them have the same plot as the time-travel play I'm trying to finish up.)

ETA: Okay, just watched I'll Follow You Down. Very interesting and well-acted. Not sure how I would've ended it; didn't see that coming.
 
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PaulLev

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Thanks, Paul! Those all sound worth checking out. (And, I'm relieved that none of them have the same plot as the time-travel play I'm trying to finish up.)

ETA: Okay, just watched I'll Follow You Down. Very interesting and well-acted. Not sure how I would've ended it; didn't see that coming.

Glad you enjoyed. The other two are each very different. Good luck on your time travel play! I've written short fiction, novels, and songs about time travel, but not (yet) a play. Are there plans to stage it, or are you just writing the play on spec?
 

Diana Hignutt

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Can you share the names of the films for discussion here is this just to promote your podcast?
 

Manuel Royal

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Glad you enjoyed. The other two are each very different. Good luck on your time travel play! I've written short fiction, novels, and songs about time travel, but not (yet) a play. Are there plans to stage it, or are you just writing the play on spec?
Well, I'd intended to submit it to the 2nd Annual L.A. Science Fiction One-Act Play Fest, but didn't make the deadline. Hope I find a place for it in 2015.

I'm sure you're familiar with the Spanish movie Timecrimes. I wanted to recommend it here as a fine movie; a merciless examination of one of the maddening ambiguities of certain time travel stories.
 

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Sorry my post offended you. The movies are Dimensions, I'll Follow You Down, and 95ers: Time Runners.

I wasn't offended but we have another place for self-promotion; to me (who is no one at all) it seemed more an attempt at driving traffic than an inducement to discussion which is what this forum is for. Thank you for sharing the film titles. Now, I don't feel like I'm being tricked to your podcast and I'll happily check it out.
 

PaulLev

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I wasn't offended but we have another place for self-promotion; to me (who is no one at all) it seemed more an attempt at driving traffic than an inducement to discussion which is what this forum is for. Thank you for sharing the film titles. Now, I don't feel like I'm being tricked to your podcast and I'll happily check it out.

Enjoy - and the movies too, should you see them.
 

Dave Williams

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I guess I'm one of the few who liked "Timecop." I thought the sequel was okay too.

My favorite, though is an apparently-little-known movie called 'Time After Time." It was one of those movies that came out way better than it should have.
 

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My favorite, though is an apparently-little-known movie called 'Time After Time." It was one of those movies that came out way better than it should have.

I think this movie is better-known than you do, apparently. It is really good. Malcolm McDowell and David Warner, as I recall, as, respectively, H.G. Wells and Jack the Ripper.

caw
 

Manuel Royal

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I just recently read the novel (Time After Time) by Karl Alexander; the movie's a pretty close adaptation. And, he's recently produced a sequel to the novel, called Jaclyn the Ripper.

Opening this week is a new movie called Predestination. It's adapted from Heinlein's famous short story "...All You Zombies", and is actually getting pretty good reviews.
 

PaulLev

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I just recently read the novel (Time After Time) by Karl Alexander; the movie's a pretty close adaptation. And, he's recently produced a sequel to the novel, called Jaclyn the Ripper.

Opening this week is a new movie called Predestination. It's adapted from Heinlein's famous short story "...All You Zombies", and is actually getting pretty good reviews.

Definitely getting some good reviews - including mine http://paullev.libsyn.com/predestination-and-tv-12-monkeys
 

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There's a time-travel movie called Safety Not Guaranteed. The actual time travel is only a small part, but the movie is kind of a different take on it. A guy claims to have a working time machine and needs an assistant, and a team of writers go talk to the guy thinking he's crazy. It was surprisingly good.
 

PaulLev

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There's a time-travel movie called Safety Not Guaranteed. The actual time travel is only a small part, but the movie is kind of a different take on it. A guy claims to have a working time machine and needs an assistant, and a team of writers go talk to the guy thinking he's crazy. It was surprisingly good.

Thanks - I'll check it out.
 

Myrealana

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I just saw "Project: Almanac" in the theater, another time travel movie. It had problems with pacing beyond the time-travel aspect, but it was OK, except for one little thing. It broke the rules

Here's my pet peeve about time travel films: You must follow your own rules.

Time travel, as far as we know, isn't real. It may never be real. It may be impossible. OK. Let's accept that in your time travel movie, the laws of the universe do allow for some kind of travel in time, forward or backward, or both, or whatever.

Great. Because time travel isn't actually real, you get to establish your universe's rules. Once you establish those rules YOU MUST FOLLOW THEM.

You do not get to do a complete rug-pull at the end and change the rules just to save the hero who, by all rights should have died, or to make the ending cool, or to set up a funny joke. LIVE BY YOUR RULES.

If you can't do that, then don't make a time travel movie.
 

Myrealana

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There's a time-travel movie called Safety Not Guaranteed. The actual time travel is only a small part, but the movie is kind of a different take on it. A guy claims to have a working time machine and needs an assistant, and a team of writers go talk to the guy thinking he's crazy. It was surprisingly good.

Safety Not Guaranteed was SO good.

My husband reviewed it for Movie Review World when it came out, and gave it 5 stars.
http://www.moviereviewworld.com/movie-review/safety-not-guaranteed-review/
 

PaulLev

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Here's my pet peeve about time travel films: You must follow your own rules.

Time travel, as far as we know, isn't real. It may never be real. It may be impossible. OK. Let's accept that in your time travel movie, the laws of the universe do allow for some kind of travel in time, forward or backward, or both, or whatever.

Great. Because time travel isn't actually real, you get to establish your universe's rules. Once you establish those rules YOU MUST FOLLOW THEM.

You do not get to do a complete rug-pull at the end and change the rules just to save the hero who, by all rights should have died, or to make the ending cool, or to set up a funny joke. LIVE BY YOUR RULES.

If you can't do that, then don't make a time travel movie.

I agree with you 100%! Time travel to the past or the future invokes all kinds of paradoxes. If you set up a story in which time travel happens, you can't just ignore these paradoxes - you have to explain, for example, how time travelers can change the past without changing themselves to the extent that they would have no motive to change the past in the first place.

And once you come with those work-arounds, you have to stick with them - or provide a very good reason, consistent with the other rules of the story, which this one rule can be changed.

But it's not easy. As a writer (as well as a reader and viewer) of time travel stories and novels, I find that being consistent with rules and paradoxes of time travel is the toughest part of the writing (though very satisfying when you can get it to work).
 

Manuel Royal

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Another vote for Safety Not Guaranteed; good indie movie.

As Myrealana noted, you can make up your own rules for time travel. My favorite science fiction model for time travel is the idea that, if you travel into the past, you immediately create (or access) an alternate timeline -- essentially an alternate universe, that doesn't affect the timeline you originated from. Probably the best treatment of this I've seen was in the great short story "Mozart in Mirrorshades" (by Bruce Sterling and Lewis Shiner). That would make a hell of a movie.

ETA: And now Predestination is available from Netflix. Top o' the queue!
 
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Manuel Royal

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Update: just saw Predestination, thanks to Netflix.

Yes! The Spierig Brothers (writers and directors) did a fine adaptation of Heinlein's famous story. I was afraid they'd over-explain things, or just generally screw it up, but they stuck close to the short story, using minimal (but effective) special effects and giving the audience plenty to think about. Recommended.
 

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I'm sure you're familiar with the Spanish movie Timecrimes. I wanted to recommend it here as a fine movie; a merciless examination of one of the maddening ambiguities of certain time travel stories.

Timecrimes is an exceptional movie. So rich, yet minimalist in terms of location, plot, and characters.

Loopers had some great time travel paradox explanations. I didn't enjoy it as much as Timecrimes, but it was a freash take on time travel.