Sorry your browser is not supported!

http://www.primermovie.com

[Edit]
I found a board discussing the film. And at least it doesn't seem like I am the only one who is trying to disect it piece by piece.
http://primermovie.com/phpBB2/viewforum.php?f=1&sid=2844d702495145892c4b6d519bd4a532
[End of Edit]

The opening credits tune. It helps you get into the mood.
http://www.primermovie.com/Audio/Primer%20-%20Track%2009%20-%20Closing%20Credits.mp3


Has anyone watched this film? More importantly were you able to fully grasp what was happening?

I love these types of films, but I must say that after the first time watching it I was a bit confused on what was going on WHEN. Also how much of the SCI-FI is backed by actual science? I've always like the idea of time-travel, warps, dimensions etc... but I'm not sure I really understood the timeline of this movie, and thinking of the paradoxes of time travel in general hurts my head at times.

If anyone has seen the film, I would appreciate any help in gtting my head around it. I fear I will have to rent it again, and watch it at least a few more times to fill in the pieces.

I felt the same with the movie HyperCube I and II.

~zenassem

I'm pretty sure I understand the whole thing now, I pondered on it for several days. It's very intricate-- they give you bits and pieces of the plot but really 75% of the later half of the movie is implied and not shown, never mind scrambled throughout the film and presented in a confusing manner, so it's quite difficult to figure out.

The ending is also ambiguous...

"I felt the same with the movie HyperCube I and II."

you mean cube, cube zero, and hypercube? if you want to discuss those contact my aim or msn

p.s. i'm torgettingent primer so ill watch it soon

Wonderful to see how much support indy filmmakers recieve from their own crowd

By the way Zen-

Here are some thouhts I had (spoilerish):

The most important thing to remember is that at any given time there are multiple copies of the main character (the guy with the earbuds in all the time, forget his name) existing simulaniously. In a flashback late in the movie he is shown discovering the other guy's backup machine; this is when he went back the first time to retrace everything. I believe his third copy went back to the party 'scene' in particular and locked up his first/second copy to recreate it just the way he wanted (himself shown escaping from the attic near the end).

I also believe that at the end of the movie it's his third copy that's leaving on the plane; the second one is dead (I think he killed him) and the first one left to live with his wife and children. But I'm not certain...

You know, my head's hurting all over again

Shane made the film with a total production cost of $7,000 . I love it when someone can do something that is better than many productiond from the Major Studios.

It just goes to show that if you are creative enough and persistant enough, that we can put out a competitive and entertaining product; whether it be a movie or video game. Very inspirational.

As far as the Primer story
Yeah Mouse I believe you pretty much have it. There seems to be still some dispute over how many boxes are eventually created as each time through they bring a failsafe with them. There also seems to be discussion over how many doubles are created. I have seen theories of three timelines, and four timelines.

I will have to watch the movie again, and pause it to take notes. It's sometimes hard to determine for instance; abe0 from abe1, abe2 etc... But I believe there are enough clues to figure it out.

It just gets complicated to be 100% on everything because we really don't know how many trips back Aron made to get the party to turn out the way he would like.

The ending is also open for discussion. AS far as I know, Abe as the upperhand in the fact that he was the first to discover the boxes, and turned the first one on; so in essence he could travel back the furthest and turn off the box that Aron is in, hence wiping Aron out of existence. I'm not positive on this asssumption. I'll have to watch it a few more times.

Recursion always hurts my head!

for instance. Say Abe turns on the machine on Monday at 8:00am-> then spends the day at the hotel. He returns to the storage facility at 4:00pm that day, and enters the box.-> He stays in the box for 12 hours and gets out.... at 8:00am tha monday. If he then returns to the storage facility close to 4:00pm, he will see himself entering the box to make the time travel back.

That's one loop, and even that, hurts my head a bit.

but I love it

I really wish I could write a story like that!

@qwe
Thanks for correcting my failing memory. I believe I saw Cube and Hypercube. I will have to watch/buy them to discuss it, because it has been a while. But I may take you up on the offer soon. I just want to finish disecting Primer first, and I still have "The Light Of Other Days" to read.

~zen

Another tough thing is, it's never explained whether going back and killing your original copy would create an infinite paradox or not. A lot of stuff like that is left unexplained.

I would think Abe to have the upper hand, but he always seemed like such a timid character... Aaron was the one with all the ambition. Abe just didn't strike me as the type to do anything once Aaron left him alone.

I also wish I could write something like that. It's quite ingenius

Well just got back with my very own purchased copy of PRIMER. So hopefully I'll be able to figure most of it out.

@Mouse,
That's kind of like the Paradox of traveling back in time and killing your mother; hence you are never born. Are you really YOU? A copy?

Could you still live out your life? I guess it may be ok if you stay in that timeline, but what if you were able to to foward in time, after going back to kill your mother. Than what? I'm sure someone has an Educated opinion on this.

@qwe
I also rented "Cube 3: Cube Zero" which from the description is actual the prequel to cube.

So I am assuming the movies came out in this order
1. Cube
2. Hypercube
3. Cube Zero

But movie/timewise (if that makes sense) it should be viewed
1. Cube Zero
2. Cube
3. Hypercube

I'll let you know what I think about it tomorrow. The guy a BlockBuster (Actually he's the only one there with a good "movie sense", and he seems to know every movie in every genre; I do follow his picks) said this one explains things a bit more.

It's funny because he saw me purchasing Primer, and we struck up a conversation. Without me making any reference to Cube, he says "Oh, have you seen Cube Zero yet??" I kid you not when I tell you that I practically fell down. Then I told him someone from the board just mentioned Cube Zero; and today was the first I had heard of it. Or is it?

So this got me thinking.... qwe, possibly your the guy who works at my local Blockbuster. Or possibly by watching the movie I created a double, and he/you already knew what I was coming in for. Perhaps both are true. Either way I hope this all won't turn out like "being John Malkevich", because I really don't want to fall onto the side of the New Jersey Turnpike anytime soon.l

quite a scary coincidence giving the themes of the movies.


Does anyone have any other "Think Type" films to suggest?
I liked Pi as well!

~zen

doesnt really matter. if you watch cube 1 first, you dont really know whats going on with the whole cube thing, cube zero explains (vaguely and in a weird way) who is controlling the cube and how. decide for yoruself which to watch first

i have some awsome think type movies to reccomend heh

american beauty, garden state, eternal sunshine of the silent mind are my favorites. you could also try i heart huckabees, traffic, one hour photo, 12 monkeys. some of these ihavent seen in a while, i am relying on which movies are this type by memory so some may be other types. most of them have a lot of cool psychology type meaning

p.s. for a really artistic movie (not so much a think type one) try Amelie. it's french with english subtitles labeled a comedy

anyone else can add to the list

winamp, WMP and divX all were playing Primer but without sound. VLC media player works though--glad i found it. i don't have much of a backround in science, the movie is hard to follow. i have no clue what the main character showed the other main character when he brought him to the (storage house?) and then asked if he was alright to drive.

edit: spoils follow. realtime movie commentary

edit---i think its being explained right now. they are doing it again, whatever the guy did

edit---so he went inside of it himself and waited. ic. and there is time travel involved. hm ic.....

edit---oh so that wanst just a guy that looked like him, it was actually him

edit---ok most of the movie makes sense now

edit---i assume the ear bleeding is because of pressure in the chamber? who knows

edit-"Man are you hungry? I havent eaten since later this afternoon"

edit-i dont see why they have to do it EVERY single day... and they continue after an ear bleed, perhaps they should get an MRI and other tests on their head/body.

also...an opinion on the paradox of killing your mother before you're born. if you move through time similar to how you move through space, it wouldn't really matter--you'd go on normally, though of course you'll never meet yourself because you won't be born. it's just like killing someone else's mother------you no longer have a "connection" to yourself, you move permanently through time. did i convey this right? point out the holes pls

edit-i wish i had a bigger brain.

i am at the part where they decide to go back in time and stop the kids from banging on all the cars which means their doubles sleep better... won't this mean that their doubles won't enter the box? and doesnt that mean that there will be another copy of them?

edit-why would they need nitrous oxide? the only reason i could see would be to kill pain or perform aneasthesia but they could get much more effective painkillers than nitrous oxide and the triazolam already puts the body in a safe minimal sleep as they said. maybe they want to have fun with laughing gas? jk

edit-im not sure what he just did... kill his double? with n2o?

edit-you guys are right. its hard to understand the ending. i'll have to watch this a couple more times and read those forums