Time travel has yet to be proven but that hasn't
stopped movies through the years from toying
with the possibility. Films released in the eighties,
nineties, and two thousands have their own ideas of how
time travel is possible,as well as the causes for time
travel, and the repercussions. A few of these films are, the
Back to the Future Trilogy, 12 Monkeys, The Time
Travelers Wife, and the Terminator Series. Though
these films are of fiction, the concepts of time travel
are based on actual theories of scientific relativity.
In the Back to the Future Trilogy, Dr. Emmett "Doc"
Brown and Marty McFly travel to the future and the past
trying to repair damage that can alter the future. They
time travel in a car that runs on trash and is equip with
the Flux Capacitor.The car must accelerate to 88 mph to
activate the Flux Capacitor which what makes time travel
possible. In reality driving 88mph does not make you time
travel and if it's just a point of activation for the Flux
Capacitor then why couldn't it be less? Some events can be
argued with time travel theories presented in these films
especially in Back to the Future II. Old Biff from2010
goes to 1955 in Docs time machine to give young Biff a
sports almanac. Old Biff returns and 2010 looks as pleasant
and suburban as it did before. The exchange between the two
Biffs changed the future so not only should it have changed
1985 into a disastrous town but some change should have
been shown in 2010.When asked about this the writers
said," We decided not to make anything of this idea because
this is one of those difficult time travel concepts that
general audiences have a real hard time understanding. A
detailed explanation of it would have slowed down the
story, and most of the audience doesn't ever think about
it. That's why we made certain things ambiguous and left
various things open for interpretation in hopes that the
possibility of at least one or two explanations would be
better than a "definitive" explanation that you could find
holes in." (Zemeckis, Gale)Doc and Marty find Jennifer and
carry her out of the house before Old Biff returns so a
loop hole would be to say that no matter what disaster 1985
became because of the exchange, 2010 could still become the
same exterior of the original 2010 Hillside. The trilogy
also shows people vanishing from their present time when
there is an abrupt change in history so old Biff may have
returned but as seen in the film, he gets out of the car
clumsily and in pain; one could assume he's about to
vanish. It is believed that the slightest change in history
can drastically change the future whether it is in,
fortune, relationships, lifestyle, events, birth,or death.
In the final movie of the trilogy Doc ends upturning a
train into a time traveling machine after the original was
destroyed which insinuates that any vehicle can be modified
for time travel.
In the film 12 Monkeys the government has an advanced
program that allows time travel. The machine is overseen by
scientists who send able people to the past to trace the
origins of a virus that plagues the future. Out of all the
uses of time travel this film has the largest source that
can only be described as a mechanical capsule. James
Cole, a convicted criminal, is sent to collect information
pertaining to finding a cure for the virus which kills
millions between1996 and 1997. The year 1996 pre-virus for
Cole is considered a Utopia from the year he is coming
from, 2035. Fresh air, music, and freedom are missing from
his world as an adult. Through the story James is haunted
by a dream of a man dying but later it's revealed that it's
his future; a form of Deja Vu. The characters James and
Kathryn feel a sense of familiarity for one another that
cannot be placed. My only explanation in this circularity
concept is the recognition of each others soul.
Presumably, "..the events of deja vu are encounters with
memories from a past life, and that dreams are soul travel
and soul memories.It would work for religions that believe
in reincarnation,but there is no scientific evidence to
back it up"(Carroll). The outcome was inevitable and
proves that you cannot change fate. Ultimately, Cole risks
his life to protect the future of mankind with the help of
time travel.
The novel, 'The Time Traveler's Wife' by Audrey
Niffenegger has been adapted into a film which was
released in June2009. The way time traveling is used in
this story is much different than the films I've previously
spoken about;instead of being produced with the help of
mechanical technology the ability to time travel is in
genetics. The character Henry DeTamble has a genetic
disorder which causes unpredictable time travel. "Henry is
one of the first people diagnosed with Chrono-Displacement
Disorder:periodically his genetic clock resets and he
finds himself misplaced in time, pulled to moments of
emotional gravity from his life, past and future."
(Audrey Niffenegger.1) Henry has no control over his time
travels and it becomes rather deadly popping in at random
times and place without any belongings. Not even his
clothes travel with him. The extent of his time in the past
and the future is unknown which leads him to have to steal
and pillage. It is later revealed that time travel is
perhaps triggered by stress levels and is indeed
hereditary. The disorder however causes miscarriages for
women or mice that carry future time travelers because the
embryos travel out of the womb, and then in again. Henry
works with Dr. Kendrick to come up with a cure for this
disorder for him and future carriers.
In 'The Time Traveler's Wife', the Henry limits
himself to change the past especially when it comes to
death however he does use this ability once in his life to
purchase a winning lottery ticket allowing him and his
wife to be able to buy a home and live comfortably. This
moral compass is tested also in Back to the Future II when
Marty McFly buys a sports almanac against the advice of Doc
and it gets into Biffs hands which changes the future
entirely. I suppose the difference in outcomes were due to
better judgment and not abusing the opportunity at hand.
12 Monkeys deals with more serious matters when trying to
change the future for the better. When trying to stop Dr.
Peters, Coles younger self watches his adult self die. This
will be a memory young James with replay throughout his
life. All three films have their main character confronted
by their selves at a different time which is always seen as
a possible threat in stories of time travel. "The
possibility of meeting ourselves, of gazing on ourselves
from the outside is the paradoxical event that perhaps
fascinates us the most in all the narratives on time
travel, both in literature and in cinema. A distinction
between literature and film in this respect is that, thanks
to the point-of-view, we the spectators can be
perceptively, almost physically part of this unattainable
gaze, by which we look at ourselves while we see and we
make ourselves see at the same time" (Rascaroli. 364) Each
of these films concludes that being in the same dimension
does not cancel out a person when they come into contact.
Though these films have different methods and reasons of
time travel, it's clear that many of their views on ideals
and consequences are the same. The possibilities are
endless..
Clearly these films play on real theories and
imagination, so the question is whether they are accurate
or not in plot or technique. In The Terminator the future
time machine as stated in the first film can only transport
living tissue preventing any weaponry from the future to be
sent to the past.Without an outer layer of skin the robots
wouldn't have been able to time travel in any of the films.
However if this is indeed the case why is it that in
Terminator 2: Judgment Day there is a liquid metal
Terminator sent to the past? Possibly it could imitate
living tissue or originally was wrapped in living tissue
but was discarded at some point. Through out the series
John Connor continually sends protectors to the past, first
to his mother then for himself. Being the micro chip from
the first installment of the Terminator survived the
company Cyberdyne Systems attained knowledge from it. Isn't
it possible that it's because of John Connor that the
Terminators exist in the first place? It led to the
creation of Skynet.
These films as well as many others of time travel are
based on scientific theories. Albert Einstein's relativity
theory proposes that space time is curved instead of a
straight time-line which opens the possibility of time
travel. The curve as we're a 3 dimensional being is a
circle and the film 12 Monkeys deals with circularity. The
films Contact and Donnie Darko use the theory wormholes.
"For example travel from Point A to Point B in the image is
greatly facilitated by the presence of the wormhole.
Wormholes may be possible on microscopic distances as a
result of the quantum foam which allows
particle/antiparticle pairs to leap into existence
momentarily, then subsequently disappear. Interestingly,
wormholes allow travel between different times as well as
different locations,so time travel may be theoretically
possible." (Corbett)Wormholes are said to exist at the
center of a blackhole. The television show Doctor Who
refers to the theory of quantum physics. " According to one
interpretation of quantum physics, every time a quantum
object, such as an electron, is faced with a choice, the
world divides to allow it to take every possibility on
offer. In the simplest example, the electron may be faced
with a wall containing two holes, so that it must go
through one hole or the other. The Universe splits so that
in one version of reality -- one set of relative dimensions
-- it goes through the hole on the left, while in the other
it goes through the hole on the right. Pushed to its
limits, this interpretation says that the Universe is split
into infinitely many copies of itself, variations on a
basic theme, in which all possible outcomes of all possible
"experiments"must happen somewhere in the "multiverse".
The film, The Butterfly Effect and the television show Tru
Calling deal with time travel on a more personal and
physical level. Both have huge repercussions because of the
main characters constant attempts of change, it alters the
universe and its balance. It entails recurrence and relies
on initial conditions. The Butterfly effect is based off of
the Chaos Theory that deals with dynamic behavioral
systems. There are so many theories yet to be proven and
they are constantly used as a base in science fiction.
