PrimerA happy accident--that is the result of the science experiment which Aaron (Shane Carruth) and Abe (David Sullivan) have been working on. Originally designed as a supplement for computers--that elusive but lucrative investment of modern wizardry--the duo find that the incongruities and mysteries of their creative engineering has resulted in things they have a hard time explaining. Their mutual discoveries--and sometimes exclusive ones--compound their understanding of the device they have crafted, what it is doing and how it can be applied. As the pieces of the puzzle come together, they discover that they have invented a time machine.
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Primer differs from other time travel movies in a lot of ways. First, Aaron and Abe do not set out to create a time machine; in fact, it seems that they have little interest in creating something with a hypothetical use, but a practical one. They live in an era when computers were proving themselves as the future, the advent of the dot.com boom--coincidentally which found a rooting in Texas, where Primer was originated and shot--and young, creative individuals who utilized smarts and engineering were discovering opportunities to capitalize on this new frontier. Aaron and Abe are working on the cheap, because their jobs are to support their families and they are already just getting by. They can't afford to be careless--as Abe puts it when he's playing "bad cop" to their other two, less motivated, colleagues--that they can't just be messing around with "Tesla coils" and "ball lightning". So they cut costs where they can--everywhere they can--to make their invention something which doesn't break them, salvaging parts from a catalytic converter and copper tubing from refrigerators. They are garage geniuses working on the cheap, so Aaron's analogy to Abe--which he already knows--about how NASA spent millions on a zero-g pen, when the Russians just used a pencil also says a lot about Primer. Primer is auteur Shane Carruth's breakthrough film, and the movie is exceptionally smart and does not condescend to its audience. It allows the allure of some ambiguity of the events, which is consistent with the looming sense of paradox which is an accepted sword of Damocles when tampering with the fabric of time, but is chock full of technical smarts and detail to cement it as plausible. The film itself is an experiment in and of itself, with an impossibly low budget of seven thousand dollars. It remains exceptional because of the heart and authenticity of this frugal approach to filmmaking; the motivation of the characters and the creative vibe is felt in the film like the feedback loop of their inevitable creation. They say the quickest way to become rich is to already be rich, but Primer shows that this isn't exclusive, that sometimes hunger can be a powerful motivator, that in the absence of abundance, one finds what is around them, and makes it useful.
It is not a coincidence that Aaron and Abe try their hand at innovative computer engineering. After all, the big billionaires and modern legends of capitalism are guys like Bill Gates and Steve Jobs, and they all started the same way--more or less--by getting creative and adapting that which was around them for a new purpose, finding the need and building on it. And like these two "nerd titans", Aaron and Abe are friends and colleagues, but also are people with differing sets of values, something which spurs the subtle rift between them--how it should be used, when it should be used, and the rules of causality. These are smart guys, not because they bet on stocks to get rich quick, but because they at least consider the repercussions of causality--even if they ignore it. Aaron and Abe have their revelations about the experiment, share some of the info with one another, but in their anxiety about the creation of the machine, remain cautions, keep secrets, and diverge. As Aaron and Abe talk about their time travel experiences, things start to blur, and things become a little off; their tenses in their dialogue interchange between past and future...even their identities seem malleable and obscured, aided--even if unintentionally--by their uniform-like manner of dress and the nigh identical cadence of their voices. The real "time travel" has to do with creating a virtual doppelganger, one who can live through the day as normal, return to the coffin-sized machine, and return to the past with the memories of the day intact--fundamentally time travel, but also a kind of extension of the self, a way for both Aaron and Abe to allow that which they have kept under the carbon-copied personae of young professional computer engineers to find a new way to experience the world. They don't go wild or act without justification--they are scientists, after all--but they do find that their desires for the machine's application vary, as do their responsibilities to such an awesome discovery. In some cases, the second guessing which follows a milestone event in our lives--like Aaron and Abe experience--becomes literal in Primer. The question is raised: If you had a time machine, what would you do? It is an old question, it is a hypothetical question, but it is the ultimate question of Primer. What would you do?
Recommended for: Fans of a thoughtful, deliberate science fiction movie about the logic and causality behind time travel, about a couple of middle-class guys who like to get together to talk computer science make something special, something virtually magic. This is also requisite viewing for any aspiring filmmaker looking to work on the cheap and still produce a magnificent product.
It is not a coincidence that Aaron and Abe try their hand at innovative computer engineering. After all, the big billionaires and modern legends of capitalism are guys like Bill Gates and Steve Jobs, and they all started the same way--more or less--by getting creative and adapting that which was around them for a new purpose, finding the need and building on it. And like these two "nerd titans", Aaron and Abe are friends and colleagues, but also are people with differing sets of values, something which spurs the subtle rift between them--how it should be used, when it should be used, and the rules of causality. These are smart guys, not because they bet on stocks to get rich quick, but because they at least consider the repercussions of causality--even if they ignore it. Aaron and Abe have their revelations about the experiment, share some of the info with one another, but in their anxiety about the creation of the machine, remain cautions, keep secrets, and diverge. As Aaron and Abe talk about their time travel experiences, things start to blur, and things become a little off; their tenses in their dialogue interchange between past and future...even their identities seem malleable and obscured, aided--even if unintentionally--by their uniform-like manner of dress and the nigh identical cadence of their voices. The real "time travel" has to do with creating a virtual doppelganger, one who can live through the day as normal, return to the coffin-sized machine, and return to the past with the memories of the day intact--fundamentally time travel, but also a kind of extension of the self, a way for both Aaron and Abe to allow that which they have kept under the carbon-copied personae of young professional computer engineers to find a new way to experience the world. They don't go wild or act without justification--they are scientists, after all--but they do find that their desires for the machine's application vary, as do their responsibilities to such an awesome discovery. In some cases, the second guessing which follows a milestone event in our lives--like Aaron and Abe experience--becomes literal in Primer. The question is raised: If you had a time machine, what would you do? It is an old question, it is a hypothetical question, but it is the ultimate question of Primer. What would you do?
Recommended for: Fans of a thoughtful, deliberate science fiction movie about the logic and causality behind time travel, about a couple of middle-class guys who like to get together to talk computer science make something special, something virtually magic. This is also requisite viewing for any aspiring filmmaker looking to work on the cheap and still produce a magnificent product.