The reason they were drugging their past selves is because they came back to change what their past selves had done. Their past selves might interfere with their plans to change events, so they needed to prevent their past selves from interfering. Also they were trying to keep the time travel a secret. If people started seeing two of you running around in different places that would make it difficult to keep the secret. There were actually three Aarons at the end. There's Aaron-1 who gets drugged and stuffed in the attic by Aaron-2. Aaron-2 intends to change the events of the party and Aaron-1 would have gotten in the way of this. Then there's Aaron-3 who shows up and has all the recorded conversations and the plan to resolve the incident at the party. Aaron-3 intended to incapacitate Aaron-2 because Aaron-2 would normally go about creating these recordings and the plan, but because Aaron-3 already has done this, Aaron-2 would just get in his way. Aaron-3 is unable to incapacitate Aaron-2, however, after Aaron-2 learns that Aaron-3 has already done everything he intended to do, Aaron-2 decides to just leave since Aaron-3 is more invested in it all. After Aaron-2 left with the arrival of Aaron-3, he decided to leave Aaron-1 a voice message about everything. This is the voice over we hear during the movie. He wonders how many times Aaron-3 had to redo the party to engineer the perfect outcome. He doesn't know the answer because he never got to do it himself. Aaron-2 is the one we see at the very end of the film. Aaron-2 has never run into Abe-2 so he doesn't know about the Granger incident and Aaron-2 appears to have hired a bunch of workers to construct a much larger room-sized version of the time machine box.
This is pretty good, but there's a couple of problems with your analysis. The reason that Aaron used Abe's failsafe had nothing to do with the party. Altering the outcome of the party only really became part of the plan after the Granger incident, since Aaron said Abe couldn't watch Rachel all the time and if her crazy ex would wave a gun around at a party, what will he do when she is alone? Aaron used Abe's failsafe simply to usurp control. He did not want his knowledge of time travel to be erased. He did this a short time after the party, immediately after discovering Abe's failsafe. We know from the dialogue that, in the timeline that hoodie Aaron came from originally, neither he nor Abe went to the party: "The gunman never fired... Not when I wasn't there... Not when I was and I rushed him and, from what Robert tells you, he doesn't tonight"... which sounds like a third iteration, but is simply a restatement of the first iteration. So, the gunman did come, but he didn't shoot. When Abe is chewing out Aaron over rushing the gunman, he is saying that Aaron has a wife and kids, but it is the Arron in the attic who has a wife and kids. Hoodie Aaron felt heady with the ability to change things and decided to rush the gunman, since he knew he wouldn't fire anyway. Also, it is a phone call, not a voicemail, and the call is actually to original Abe, in order to explain why the boxes aren't working anymore. The two time traveling Aarons agree that the time traveling Abe's plan to sabotage the boxes won't work. And they both owe their very existence to the trust that Abe placed in them by telling them what the machine was. This is the point of the big speech about trust that Abe makes before revealing the secret, and this is why the narrator says at the end "now I have repaid any debt that I may have owed you"... Also, at the very beginning he says that the person he is calling should not interrupt and shouldn't say anything. Abe is basically a doormat throughout the movie. Can you even imagine Aaron obeying such an instruction? He also says "some of this you know" because Abe already knows that he has built a time machine since he has built the failsafe. These are the only bits of dialogue I can find to support the assertion of Shane that the recipient of the call "could only be Abe"... The two Aarons agree that Abe's plan to sabotage the boxes won't work, because "yours (the fresh copy of your original self that you gassed) already knows what they've built"... Being as there are already two Aarons that know about time travel, there'd be no need for a third. Let him stay with the family. Lastly, there's literally no way to know which Aaron is working with the French speaking interpreter. The narrator does voice over this part, but he voices over the whole film, so that means literally nothing. In either case, Aaron from the Granger incident sure as shit told hoodie Aaron all about everything that went down when they talked and hoodie Aaron decided that v-neck sweater Aaron "had more invested" in the outcomes of the next few days.
Aron kicked the batteries from under the table. not the machine. to demonstrate that the machine was running without any power input. They then clarify that it winds down eventually, but "What does that!?" The designing of the machine is a bit weird, I choose to believe they were going for an anti-grav machine from the beginning instead of building a random machine and then figuring out what it does, and then they stumbled by accident onto the time-travel aspect of it
As to the nature of the machine, you are correct - the machine was designed to make thing weigh less and watched some interview with Currath that the idea was inspired by inventions where an unexpected use/effect turned out to be much more important that focus of the original idea.
Props to you, I've been binge-watching other people's first-time reaction of this movie today, so far you've been the one who has managed to grasp the most of the little details and intrigues on a first-time watch!
+1 for a Primer reaction. Such an obscure movie, yet so great. Paraphrasing someone here, but "if you understand everything about Primer on your fifth viewing, you're a genius. If you get it on the first you're either a liar or a savant". I've seen it quite a few times, I've studied timelines etc, and I still think I haven't quite grasped everything that's going on. I love it, and I can only hope I can one day understand this insane masterpiece. Don't try to help me, thanks. s'more fun to work it out on my own.
I think there had to be at least one time when both Aaron and the girl got shot, because otherwise there would be no reason for the girl's dad (Granger?) to go back in time. Abe kind of hints that he would have only told Granger about the time machine in the case of an emergency.
I love this movie and had to watch it a bunch of times. A couple of things that got cleared up for me: The machine... Point A is whenever it gets turned on and Point B is whenever it gets turned off. In the watch experiment it is 1 min, but when they go for stocks, its about 6 hours. They have to get in when they turn it off (B) and wait in real-time to get back to point A. If they didn't ever move, they'd just end up back at Point B eventually, but over 1300x experience that loop. The Grainger incident... We (and they) never find out what happened, but I'd like to think it has to do with Rachel actually does end up getting hurt at the party in some way. In this timeline, either Aaron or Abe are forced to reveal the machine to Mr Grainer but perhaps he does not know how (or when) to exit properly and this is the reason for his condition. The cellphone incident- Before that happened, Aaron and Abe continue to follow their own rules, despite fantasizing. But after no negative effects of breaking symmetry with the cell phone, this proves to Aaron he could probably go rouge.
But the Aaron who brought his cell phone was already breaking symmetry from the beginning, therefore either he was simply not as invested in the rule about not breaking symmetry as Abe since he knew it wouldn't be a problem, or he wanted to demonstrate this fact to Abe. Remember that he had already rushed the gunman at the party and changed that event... So, he conveniently "forgot", but on purpose, to teach Abe to relax a little bit about breaking symmetry. He knew from the second he drugged the milk and stuffed himself up in the attic that the past could be changed.
I found out about the movie when an explanation video of it popped up in my recommendations on youtube. That spoiled it for me, so I never got the chance to watch it with fresh eyes, though Id like to think I might have figured it out for myself after a couple watches. I guess I'll never know lol
This could be the most impressive movie reaction that I have ever watched. Looking forward to watching some of your others. To me, the best example of a convoluted plot that is easily understandable is in the movie Adaptation. Have you seen it? If not, then please react.
nice reaction. more ppl need to watch this. also, check out Timecrimes - it's a fantastic movie, with very similar backgrounds to Primer. if you could react to Timecrimes, it would be even better :) also, don't watch a trailer or anything - just go in 'blind'. I promise it will enhance your enjoyment of it tenfold.
The reason they were drugging their past selves is because they came back to change what their past selves had done. Their past selves might interfere with their plans to change events, so they needed to prevent their past selves from interfering. Also they were trying to keep the time travel a secret. If people started seeing two of you running around in different places that would make it difficult to keep the secret.
There were actually three Aarons at the end. There's Aaron-1 who gets drugged and stuffed in the attic by Aaron-2. Aaron-2 intends to change the events of the party and Aaron-1 would have gotten in the way of this. Then there's Aaron-3 who shows up and has all the recorded conversations and the plan to resolve the incident at the party. Aaron-3 intended to incapacitate Aaron-2 because Aaron-2 would normally go about creating these recordings and the plan, but because Aaron-3 already has done this, Aaron-2 would just get in his way. Aaron-3 is unable to incapacitate Aaron-2, however, after Aaron-2 learns that Aaron-3 has already done everything he intended to do, Aaron-2 decides to just leave since Aaron-3 is more invested in it all.
After Aaron-2 left with the arrival of Aaron-3, he decided to leave Aaron-1 a voice message about everything. This is the voice over we hear during the movie. He wonders how many times Aaron-3 had to redo the party to engineer the perfect outcome. He doesn't know the answer because he never got to do it himself. Aaron-2 is the one we see at the very end of the film. Aaron-2 has never run into Abe-2 so he doesn't know about the Granger incident and Aaron-2 appears to have hired a bunch of workers to construct a much larger room-sized version of the time machine box.
This is pretty good, but there's a couple of problems with your analysis. The reason that Aaron used Abe's failsafe had nothing to do with the party. Altering the outcome of the party only really became part of the plan after the Granger incident, since Aaron said Abe couldn't watch Rachel all the time and if her crazy ex would wave a gun around at a party, what will he do when she is alone? Aaron used Abe's failsafe simply to usurp control. He did not want his knowledge of time travel to be erased. He did this a short time after the party, immediately after discovering Abe's failsafe. We know from the dialogue that, in the timeline that hoodie Aaron came from originally, neither he nor Abe went to the party: "The gunman never fired... Not when I wasn't there... Not when I was and I rushed him and, from what Robert tells you, he doesn't tonight"... which sounds like a third iteration, but is simply a restatement of the first iteration. So, the gunman did come, but he didn't shoot. When Abe is chewing out Aaron over rushing the gunman, he is saying that Aaron has a wife and kids, but it is the Arron in the attic who has a wife and kids. Hoodie Aaron felt heady with the ability to change things and decided to rush the gunman, since he knew he wouldn't fire anyway.
Also, it is a phone call, not a voicemail, and the call is actually to original Abe, in order to explain why the boxes aren't working anymore. The two time traveling Aarons agree that the time traveling Abe's plan to sabotage the boxes won't work. And they both owe their very existence to the trust that Abe placed in them by telling them what the machine was. This is the point of the big speech about trust that Abe makes before revealing the secret, and this is why the narrator says at the end "now I have repaid any debt that I may have owed you"... Also, at the very beginning he says that the person he is calling should not interrupt and shouldn't say anything. Abe is basically a doormat throughout the movie. Can you even imagine Aaron obeying such an instruction? He also says "some of this you know" because Abe already knows that he has built a time machine since he has built the failsafe. These are the only bits of dialogue I can find to support the assertion of Shane that the recipient of the call "could only be Abe"... The two Aarons agree that Abe's plan to sabotage the boxes won't work, because "yours (the fresh copy of your original self that you gassed) already knows what they've built"... Being as there are already two Aarons that know about time travel, there'd be no need for a third. Let him stay with the family.
Lastly, there's literally no way to know which Aaron is working with the French speaking interpreter. The narrator does voice over this part, but he voices over the whole film, so that means literally nothing. In either case, Aaron from the Granger incident sure as shit told hoodie Aaron all about everything that went down when they talked and hoodie Aaron decided that v-neck sweater Aaron "had more invested" in the outcomes of the next few days.
Aron kicked the batteries from under the table. not the machine. to demonstrate that the machine was running without any power input.
They then clarify that it winds down eventually, but "What does that!?"
The designing of the machine is a bit weird, I choose to believe they were going for an anti-grav machine from the beginning instead of building a random machine and then figuring out what it does, and then they stumbled by accident onto the time-travel aspect of it
As to the nature of the machine, you are correct - the machine was designed to make thing weigh less and watched some interview with Currath that the idea was inspired by inventions where an unexpected use/effect turned out to be much more important that focus of the original idea.
Props to you, I've been binge-watching other people's first-time reaction of this movie today, so far you've been the one who has managed to grasp the most of the little details and intrigues on a first-time watch!
+1 for a Primer reaction. Such an obscure movie, yet so great.
Paraphrasing someone here, but "if you understand everything about Primer on your fifth viewing, you're a genius. If you get it on the first you're either a liar or a savant".
I've seen it quite a few times, I've studied timelines etc, and I still think I haven't quite grasped everything that's going on. I love it, and I can only hope I can one day understand this insane masterpiece. Don't try to help me, thanks. s'more fun to work it out on my own.
Mate, you did extremely well to understand so much on your first watch! Nice run-down, you clearly have a tonne of film knowledge!
Thanks a ton!
Watch Shane Carruth's second film Upstream Color
It's equally confusing but also beautiful and brilliant, so maybe you want to give that a go lol
I think there had to be at least one time when both Aaron and the girl got shot, because otherwise there would be no reason for the girl's dad (Granger?) to go back in time. Abe kind of hints that he would have only told Granger about the time machine in the case of an emergency.
Loved your reaction, it would be much helpful if you could react to a explanation video of the movie, it would make so much more sense after that.
I love this movie and had to watch it a bunch of times. A couple of things that got cleared up for me: The machine... Point A is whenever it gets turned on and Point B is whenever it gets turned off. In the watch experiment it is 1 min, but when they go for stocks, its about 6 hours. They have to get in when they turn it off (B) and wait in real-time to get back to point A. If they didn't ever move, they'd just end up back at Point B eventually, but over 1300x experience that loop. The Grainger incident... We (and they) never find out what happened, but I'd like to think it has to do with Rachel actually does end up getting hurt at the party in some way. In this timeline, either Aaron or Abe are forced to reveal the machine to Mr Grainer but perhaps he does not know how (or when) to exit properly and this is the reason for his condition. The cellphone incident- Before that happened, Aaron and Abe continue to follow their own rules, despite fantasizing. But after no negative effects of breaking symmetry with the cell phone, this proves to Aaron he could probably go rouge.
But the Aaron who brought his cell phone was already breaking symmetry from the beginning, therefore either he was simply not as invested in the rule about not breaking symmetry as Abe since he knew it wouldn't be a problem, or he wanted to demonstrate this fact to Abe. Remember that he had already rushed the gunman at the party and changed that event... So, he conveniently "forgot", but on purpose, to teach Abe to relax a little bit about breaking symmetry. He knew from the second he drugged the milk and stuffed himself up in the attic that the past could be changed.
I found out about the movie when an explanation video of it popped up in my recommendations on youtube. That spoiled it for me, so I never got the chance to watch it with fresh eyes, though Id like to think I might have figured it out for myself after a couple watches. I guess I'll never know lol
Can you do a reaction for the film Coherance ?
primer \'pri-mər\ n. : a small introductory book on a subject;
This could be the most impressive movie reaction that I have ever watched. Looking forward to watching some of your others.
To me, the best example of a convoluted plot that is easily understandable is in the movie Adaptation. Have you seen it? If not, then please react.
Thanks Darren! Adaptation is on my list of films to react to! so ill get to it eventually
Another great film with a convoluted plot is The Prestige, if you haven't already seen it.
nice reaction. more ppl need to watch this. also, check out Timecrimes - it's a fantastic movie, with very similar backgrounds to Primer. if you could react to Timecrimes, it would be even better :) also, don't watch a trailer or anything - just go in 'blind'. I promise it will enhance your enjoyment of it tenfold.
That trailer is a crime. It just gives away everything.
@@Corn_Pone_Flicks nooo..did you watch the trailer prior to the movie??