Primer Explained

This film "Primer" is a confusing movie so I thought I'd take a stab at it myself. Yes, I have seen the movie and yes I have seen the explanation videos on Youtube, the reviews, and the commentary. I even rewatched parts of the movie to double check the explanation videos. It's a simple idea that comes off nerve racking but it's not that bad once you get it. These smart guys with day jobs they deplore look for something else to do and create a machine that they consider an experiment not intended for what happens later. The idea started as one thing and turned into another when they found a fungus growing in the machine. Their original idea was to create something that could be used for mass transit light rail or satellite launching, since something that suspends something with less mass could be used to shuttle bullet trains or even a missile (satellite rocket). Sounds like a cool enough idea. I was wondering what they were trying to make at first. It's actually quite ambitious for these technology grads to take on such an idea in their own garage. The machine itself is bizarre and apparently has unlimited applications. How do you come up with something like that? That in itself is a great plot. A machine with unspecified use that's basically able to manipulate an electromagnetic field and disrupt the mass of an object. Wow, that's a mouthful. I can't say I've ever had an inkling for such a possibility. This machine is really a strange contraption that sits in a metal box and uses some hard to find materials just to even power it. They were talking about plutonium and palladium, Argon, car batteries, magnets, and other dangerous substances. I don't know where you get half of those things but if the government ever restricted materials then they could track who bought what. There are only so many uses for some things. At one point they insert what looks like a radioactive isotope into the machine. I think in some way this takes it from a mere suspension system to something much more powerful. Their idea was too grand in scope. It's like creating a nuclear bomb in your basement. They even wondered how it stayed powered on after disconnecting the car batteries. Well, the radioactive energy and electromagnetism is enough to keep it running. So these guys found the aforementioned fungus and learn by accident that they had sped up time within the electromagnetic field of the chamber inside the machine. This by fluke shows them that if they can speed up time then they can slow it down, or rather, turn back time. That's the whole basis of the movie and it's freaky how possible that could be. I don't doubt that someone has even figured something out already, but they would never tell us. Some critics wonder how they learned of time travel if they sped up time, well it is the opposite. So once they learn this they do what any geek squad would think of, they study the stock market to make loads of cash. They end up making a machine with a compartment big enough for a person that resembles a coffin hooked up to a big machine. They go back in time by only a day at a time. Simple enough plan but then they learn of their doubles. The doubles are themselves basically. This is dangerous and to run into your double could lead to a paradox. The scary part is the original self doesn't affect anything as long as he stays out of the way, but they learn that you can create a paradox and keep the original self there. One guy creates a fail safe box that goes back a week. Then one of them has a double take the fail safe box back a week and this creates a third self. The third self tries to stop them all from using time travel to get rich and knocks one guy out. Another guy uses his double to become a hero to get adoration from a woman. In the end the doubles want their lives and the original selves must leave in order to stay alive. It's very screwed up. In the end one guy is employing a bunch of people to make a warehouse size time machine but we don't know what for. If I were him I'd be more worried about what to do with doubles if they don't disappear. Very scary idea there. It might be quite intellectual for some but that's what makes it the type of movie you'd watch more than once to figure out. In the end it works. This idea could be more realistic than we know if it's based on real science.
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Guest Commentator FLESHCRAWL says: "Is it normal to get bleeding from the eyes, nose, ears, and mouth? Time travel is messing with me!"