Primer/Fridge

Everything About Fiction You Never Wanted to Know.


  • Primer is very obviously brilliant in many ways, but it's also brilliant in a very subtle way. The first time I watched it I felt very confused at the end, but like that was OK, and the artistic intent - the movie captured in a very tangible way the confusion the characters felt travelling through time. Later, as I watched it more times, I started to understand what was happening, and at some point, it hit me: the movie gives the viewers the experience of the characters travelling through time, and our repeat viewings are their repetitions of the same events. We keep watching it again and again and having a different perspective on it each time, just as the characters experience the same events over and over again, gaining new insights into what's happening.
  • The name. It's a primer (information given to bring one up to date on what's happening).
    • And prime is also used in physics for when a variable changes slightly. Not only does the box send them to a slightly different time, but it's also a slightly different 'them'.
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