Primer

Plot synopsis:
Four engineers- Aaron (Shane Carruth), Abe (David Sullivan), Robert, and Phillip who work for a large corporation during the day, run a side business from Aaron's garage at night, building and selling JTAG cards. With the proceeds of this work they fund pet science projects that they hope will yield applications sufficient to attract "VC attention".
After arguing over the project that the group should tackle next, Aaron and Abe independently pursue work on technology intended to reduce the weight of an object. Although the device seems to work as planned, it has a side effect: a timepiece left in the device shows the watch has experienced about 1300 times the amount of time the device was activated for. Abe reasons that they have created a time machine.After some testing, Abe secretly builds a prototype machine large enough to hold a person and, after traveling back to earlier that day, details the results to Aaron. Abe and Aaron build an additional machine (subsequently called "the box") and decide to cut Robert and Phillip out of the discovery, under the false pretense that the garage has to be fumigated.Abe and Aaron starts using the time machines to make money in the stock market, but as their understanding of how the machines work evolves, they become more adventurous with their trips. Their experimentation is cut short by the unexpected appearance of Thomas Granger (Chip Carruth), the father of Abe's girlfriend Rachel, whose financial backing the group had been trying to procure. Granger's trip appears to have made him comatose, and neither understand how Granger could have discovered the box. Abe is particularly disturbed by this turn of events and concludes that time travel is too dangerous to continue. He attempts to prevent his past self from using the machine for time travel, thereby nullifying all of its consequences, by using a "failsafe" machine, which he previously built in secret, to travel back to a point prior to his first trip through time and also prior to his broaching the subject of time travel with Aaron.Having traveled back four days in time using this failsafe point, Abe goes to meet Aaron and collapses. After Abe recovers, Aaron reveals that unbeknownst to Abe, Aaron had discovered this failsafe box and used it to get control. Aaron brought back another box, creating a false failsafe point to make Abe believe that there was still a working failsafe machine awaiting him, and preventing Abe from undoing Aaron's actions. Aaron then reveals that he has been using a recording to recite their conversation from an earlier time. He continues to explain how he encountered, fought, and was subdued by a previous version of himself who used the failsafe to come back and make recordings after drugging the original Aaron.But Aaron convinced his earlier self that since he has the recordings already made that he should continue to act as Aaron. The earlier Aaron leaves, leaving the later Aaron to his plan to redo the events of a party in which a crasher attempted to shoot Rachel Granger so Aaron can become a hero. Abe agrees to try to change the events of the party with Aaron and the two succeed, though it is unclear how many reiterations it has taken. Their deceptions and their differing views on the use of the machines unfortunately have destroyed their friendship.The continued use of the machines causes brain damage. Aaron seems suffer a stroke when he bleeds from his ears. Then he complains later in the film that his handwriting is poor and he can't read. While Abe stops speaking tech with Aaron and once asks him to write it down.Aaron accuses Abe of coveting his family and Abe warns Aaron never to return or interfere with their doubles. Abe stays behind to continue his plan of attempting to prevent the original Abe and Aaron from this timeline who have no idea of what the others have done from ever using the machines for time travel, suggesting that he would tamper with the machines in the hope that their doubles would think the experiment a failure and move on to other projects.
The earlier Aaron who came back in the failsafe to make the recordings speaks on the phone to an unspecified recipient to which Aaron states he owes a debt.The movie ends with the shot of one of the Aarons and a team of French-speaking workers begin construction on what appears to be a building-sized box.(Originally contributed by Jithin Bhagavati Kalam in Wikipedia, 2007)

Tags: boring, thought-provoking, cult, clever, flashback, psychedelic

Review:
then here comes "Primer," like a ghost in the night.It's too early to tell where this movie will reside in cinematic history-- revered, forgotten, or somewhere in between-- but it's already won the Grand Jury Prize at Sundance (where it beat out 'Garden State'), and just won't go away.
Remember, Shane Carruth had no idea even how to make a movie when he started making this one, but the end result is something far more fascinating than your typical film-school snob could ever put together.
You remember the first time you saw The Matrix (please, not the awful sequels) and you could barely keep up with what was going on, trying to piece together the pieces of what you were being told into a coherent story?This movie was exactly like that.
This film won a major Sundance award, and normally that means I won't like it (especially the normally pandering audience award winners) but this movie, and first-time filmmaker Shane Carruth, deserves absolutely everything it gets.
That is, the tech jargon is good enough that you don't get distracted and can focus on the story line.Final comment: Yes, it is very hard to follow the story line in this movie.Obviously I'm not going to spoil it, but I think the following fact will help when the movie gets kind of hairy towards the end: Aaron is the dark-haired guy, Abe is the blond-haired guy.This movie now has distribution and you should keep an eye out for it in the fall..
"Primer" is often praised for its clever, convoluted plot that you'll have to watch several times to truly figure out.
This is a myth, though, since if you pay close attention and ignore the film's many irrelevant details and scenes, the plot is a pretty simple tale of a guy going back in time, making a mistake, then going back in time again and fixing that mistake.The film is hard to follow NOT because of any clever or deep writing, but instead because the editing is utterly terrible.
The characters spout technical jargon for too long without serving the plot or theme, and a couple scenes are incomprehensible because of bad lighting, awkward cutting, poor staging, and lousy sound quality.All the dialogue is dry and dull, NEVER giving us the slightest reason to care about any of the characters.
You might enjoy this film if you are a college kid trying too hard to have "different" tastes from others, but if you want an actually compelling or rewarding film experience, ignore all the hype and give Primer a miss..
(If I make a boring film in which people really go to the bathroom, is that brilliant as well?) The cinema verite style here does not work and is not appropriate, and despite the barrage of early 10-star reviews - obviously planted by cheerleaders connected with this project - that signals a failure by the filmmaker to engage his audience, which is, yes, his job.
Actually, I would recommend that people see it, with the caveats that I've given above, because it is an example of a good idea; however, in no way does this film deserve such effusive, histronic praise.
Worse yet since this is a time travel movie when you hear Aaron speak you're not sure if it's Aaron A or Aaron B or Aaron C etc...There are times when the story seems to jump around for no apparent reason like when the characters are all of a sudden in a fountain looking for a cat???????
Even though I too have read Stephen Hawking's book, I could not understand how the thing was supposed to work or what principles it was based on, but that shouldn't be surprising since I couldn't understand the relationships among the four young men, what their wives/girlfriends were dong while all this was going on, the blurry sets, the muffled dialogue, or just about anything else about this movie.
The idea is very interesting and makes you think "outside the box" :) You will see what I mean after you watch the movie.I won't waste your time telling you what it is about, just watch it and if you don't like it, at least you will have gained another perspective on movie making.
I had the opportunity to talk to Shane Carruth the maker of this film and aside from being a really nice guy, he explained that you simply have to watch it a few times and pay attention to the doubles and triples of people.
The movie is alienating to viewers from the beginning.Then when the plot picks up and gets into the time travel stuff, the viewer's experience still suffers because nothing is really explained clearly.
I watched the whole movie and left confused about the basics as to how the time travel machine was even supposed to work.The characters are boring and joyless.
I loved that you could at least hear everything they were saying in this film unlike most big Hollywood flicks where they ruin it with orchestra music and background noise (I have no idea what Tom Cruise said at the end of Collateral and I doubt anyone else does either.) Primer does an excellent job with film quality, especially considering their small budget.
An extremely intriguing and initially confusing tale of causality and human failings, Primer made me think of a much more technically minded Donnie Darko--and the temporal contortions are about ten times more complicated.
It probably doesn't help that the language and tone of the movie is extremely technical, filmed and directed to capture the true-to-life mannerisms and speech of two college physics graduate students.
The filmmaker has managed to build some cult following with the easily swayed by taking the position of "its point is to confuse you..." But that lease unanswered the question of why anybody would want to see a movie whose primary point was to make no sense to the viewer?
I've never thought time travel could be so incredibly boring.I'm the guy who goes on and on at length ad nauseum about bad science in science-fiction movies, but this is the first movie that I didn't care about the science.
I am a big sci-fi buff, but this movie was just sad.Terrible acting, horribly profound story line that you could probably only follow if you are a physics grad student.
I can imagine countless bored people who watched and listened to the movie but didn't REALLY pay attention to it, didn't think with it.
You simply cannot expect to like "Primer" if you aren't prepared to be an active participant IN the film.The film is remarkably good visually, especially when budget is considered.
This movie does not use 'technobabble', it uses genuine scientific concepts as a basis for its events, and certainly some degree of knowledge of physics is needed for a proper understanding of the film.I have seen "Primer" four times and I still don't completely understand it (or, at least I couldn't explain it too well to someone else), even after reading dozens of explanations.
The dialogue itself wasn't really very interesting (imagine a bunch of engineering frat boys engaged in non-stop geek talk, somehow it didn't even seem that "mature") and if the dialogue should have at least served to move the plot forward, well, that is another gripe I have with this movie.
Because of the poor production values, this is barely audible.Still, at least you can understand roughly what's going on, as two dull, joyless yuppie nerds create a machine that can transport objects forward (or is it back and forward?) in time.After that, things start to become entirely incomprehensible, and any narrative structure that the movie may have possessed goes out the window.Scenes take place which don't seem relevant to anything, and are then never referenced again.
I also enjoy intricately plotted films like "Memento" and twisty movies by David Mamet."Primer," unfortunately, proves that an interesting and complex plot can nonetheless result in a poor film.
Films like Inception and Time Crimes are puzzles, but they're explained clearly to us so we can engage with what's happening.
While the filmmaker should be applauded for trying something different, this movie is lacking a few things that would make it work -- interesting characters, a good plot, snappy dialog...
The first 30 minutes or so of Primer is full of dialogues with technical mumbo jumbo like the line above, embellished with overlapping lines of characters speaking at the same time in fast forward.
I loved the feel of "Primer." I can't remember the last time I saw such a unique movie.
The creation part of the movie, even though complex and technical, gave me the same happy, wonderful feeling I got as a kid from watching movies like "Explorers" and "The Goonies." Of course, "Primer" is dealing with grown up issues, but deep down, you realize that these intelligent, grown men are all just kids at heart.
Well, if you're going to make a sci-fi movie about time travel, people are going to expect some real adventure, imagination and special effects, e.g. the original "Time Machine".
I'm sorry to report though that this wasn't the case.The biggest problem with Primer is not its overly confusing plot; its cardboard characters who seem to relish dressing in Cheesecake Factory waiter-style shirt and tie for even the most casual hobbies (like playing basketball); it's not its ear-piercing God-awful score; Razzie- worthy acting; or even the amateur cinematography and set pieces; but rather its dialogue and script are the worst I've heard in my 42 years of comprehending English as my native language.
With Primer, action is a distant second to dialogue - dry dialogue at that.As if the film wasn't boring enough, once they start going back in time, what do they primarily use this extraordinary technology to do?
There's a good reason why in 2017, Shane Carruth has only written and/or directed two films since Primer's release in 2004 - though I will commend Carruth for developing a cure to insomnia.I rarely give out 1-star or 10-star ratings as some reviewers often casually do, as I think such horrible or perfect qualities in a film are extremely rare, but Primer is the absolute worst movie I've ever seen.
Though its production values are terribly low - the film was made for just $7,000 - Primer's discount visuals actually work well within the context of the story itself.
Let's put it this way: this isn't the first time I've seen the movie, and I still had to look up a summary afterwards to work out a few of the details.
By now, one can deduce that Primer is a divisive movie: one half of its audience believe it is a work of genius and the other believes it is a misconstrued waste of time.However, if you look closely at the former's arguments for its genius, you will find suspicious comments.
The premise of the story could have allowed for many revelations about the ethical quandaries of time travel, but instead--since we cannot understand what is going on--we are merely confused.Worse yet, there doesn't even seem to be any post-structural properties to the work, so even post-structuralism--the 'failsafe' philosophy for many, many pseudo-intellectuals--can't be used as an excuse.Thus, I can only conclude that Primer is full of the worst of cinematic bile there is: pretense.
It is, imho, the first _movie_ involving time travel that actually took the effort to think about it seriously.
I watched it on recommendation from a Podcasts suggesting good time travel movies.
The UK DVD cover for Primer describes the film as 'Donnie Darko for grown-ups'; if, like me, you found Donnie Darko hard to wrap your head around, prepare to be completely and utterly perplexed by this baffling and ultimately very boring sci-fi oddity.The basic plot revolves around a group of boffins who spend their spare time building experimental projects in a garage.
Excited by this discovery, the pair build a larger version and, armed with the latest stocks and shares figures, take a trip into the past with the aim of making themselves a fortune.While this might all seem straight forward enough, director Shane Carruth presents matters in such a convoluted and inaccessible manner that it is nigh on impossible to follow the film's finer plot developments, making Primer a very frustrating viewing experience indeed.
As the film introduces more and more ideas, including time paradoxes and doppelgangers, it becomes more and more unbearable.Whether the impossible to unravel plot is a case of deliberate obfuscation taken a step too far or just the result of bad story-telling I cannot say for certain, but when a film is too puzzling to be solved, even after trawling the internet for answers, and proves such a chore to finish even at only 78 minutes long, then I have no choice but to deem it a total failure..
He obviously should have saved that $7,000 and spent his time writing a BOOK called _Primer_, not a film!As for the plot itself, OOOOOH, TIME TRAVEL PARADOXES!
The idea of time-travel is so silly, thin, and well-tread that it would take quite a movie to make it exciting or interesting again--but this movie is neither exciting nor interesting.I do not plan on viewing it again in order to "understand" all the plot complications, because I know that they don't matter.
If _Primer_ had been the first movie or story to take on these notions of time-travel paradox, then I'd cut it a LOT more slack.
But fiction (and popular physics written by scientists such as Hawking, etc.) have covered all this stuff.For a movie about time-travel to be fun and entertaining, it should look a lot more like _Back to the Future_ than _Primer_.
_Back to the Future_ doesn't take itself that seriously, and that's what allows it to open up and have a lot of fun (if you're in the mood for a time-travel movie).But _Primer_ doesn't have fun with itself--it's not about having fun.
_Primer_ is about making the viewer sit through a bunch of boring details to make us feel that it was all something profound by complicating things with time-paradoxes that try so hard to sound deep and scientific, but really aren't.
I have family holiday videos that sounded better than this for goodness sake.The talk was extremely technical so it allows for those who understand it to watch the movie with a smug grin on their faces as they raise a condescending eyebrow at those who are merely trying to follow it's 'gist'.
This is just a movie though, so what the audience sees in Primer is this: two bland, monotone tech industry workers developing a scientific device in a garage, then in a commercial storage space that allows time travel.
The performers in "Primer" are primarily a conduit to a script, and visual storytelling is mostly reduced to, as I suggested above, guys in badly fitted white shirts walking about explaining in overdub, or to each other the complexities of time travel.The film is hard to understand, sometimes creepy and absorbing, and frequently resembles a student film, complete with some odd angle choices, poor quality night footage and very minimal sound design.Although I by no means think that sheer production values make a film worthy of an award, I also have no clue as to how this film won Grand Jury Prize at the Sundance festival in 2004.
It's possible that director/actor Shane Carruth actually DID build a time-travel device to manipulate the outcome of the jurors decision making process, or maybe they were just bluffed by this script-pretentious, zero budget student-level film..
"The story is confusing indeed, so you should watch this movie again to understand it, because Primer is great and..." NO, THANKS!
I feel it's not.So, try to figure out what happened in the movie you just saw, discuss it further and recommend others to "watch it again to understand"...
Most normal people however lost interest in the story at the half of the movie, as it's extremely dull, unacceptably attention demanding and in the end it hardly makes any sense.
And after viewing this movie for the first time I didn't understand more than half of what happened.
Maybe I need to watch it a second time to appreciate this movie or maybe not but really don't feel like it.4/10.
It's interesting that when you read the positive reviews for this film, people say "it's hard to follow, you won't understand it, it's opaque, confusing, etc.
No matter how many times you watch this film, you will probably never be able to understand it.
It just looked like bad movie making.
If you want a good modern time travel movie get Donnie Darko..
Compounding the poor production quality is a completely puzzling story line that lacks structure and features substantial narrative holes making this an impossible movie to follow.It is a mixed up mess of a movie, however there is a good film here somewhere.
Otherwise it makes those dreary 1980's euro-trash films with the single viola sound like a John Williams masterpiece.Script: Well aside from the hole that exist in any time travel movie.
It doesn't talk down to the audience or employ overt stylistic tricks; it's more like a modern reality show following two inventors round, and the way they discover time travel is how it 'would' be discovered; by a couple of geeks in a garage.It's a movie, of course, so things start to go wrong.
I get that not everyone has a big budget to make a film, but that doesn't give an excuse to make an extremely bad and boring movie.
The sound and visuals of this movie are terrible the actors keep talking at the same time in a very muffled way so you won't understand what they are saying which will lead to you not understanding what is going on.