Warning: contains spoilers for Time Cut
Netflix’s new horror Time cut follows its main character Lucy Field (Madison Bailey) as she accidentally travels back in time 21 years to the first night of a serial killer’s murder spree. Lucy’s own sister, Summer (Antonia Gentry), was one of the killer’s victims, so she was never able to meet her in her original timeline. However, Lucy uses her time in 2003 to befriend her sister and do everything she can to save Summer’s life.
While Time cut is a very entertaining watch for audiences, the film leaves some questions unanswered about what Lucy leaves behind in her original timeline. Throughout the film, Lucy and Summer’s friend Quinn tries to warn them about the dangers of time travel, such as There is no sure way to know how you can change the future by changing the past. For better or worse, Lucy’s story at the end of Time cut appears to prove this theory correct because by leaving her original timeline to save Summer, she inadvertently created a tragedy in her original timeline.
In Lucy’s original timeline, her parents lost both of their daughters without explanation.
While traveling through time, Lucy disappeared without a trace
In Lucy’s original timeline, at the beginning of Cutting time, It’s 2024, and while visiting her sister’s memorial, she discovers a time machine that transports her back to 2003. This essentially means that she disappeared without a trace in her initial timeline. This event has huge implications for Lucy’s parents because they had already lost a daughter to a serial killer in 2003, and then lost another in 2024 when she randomly disappeared.
Lucy’s next trip back to 2024 only occurs at the end of the film, after she manages to stop the killer and save Summer’s life, meaning she has already created an entirely new timeline. As her parents initially only wanted one child, as long as Summer lived, Lucy was never born. When Lucy goes to check her house to see what has changed, she realizes that her parents don’t know who she is. However, although her parents in the new timeline she created may not know her, the audience never gets to know her parents’ reaction to losing her. Time cut’original timeline.
Tragically, Lucy got the parents she always wanted since she didn’t exist
Without the pain of losing a child, Lucy’s parents became more attentive
At the beginning of Time Cut, the audience sees Lucy trying to bond with her parents and talk to them about her goals and her future, especially her internship at NASA. However, they are not very supportive and suggest that she stays at home. After losing Summer 21 years earlier, they are still mourning her death and as a result are not able to care for and support Lucy in the way she wants.
In contrast, when Lucy meets her parents (or, more accurately, Summer’s) in 2003, they are very different from the people she grew up with. They are happy and caring, and are even interested in Lucy’s life despite not knowing her. At the end of Time cut, when Lucy decides to stay in 2003 forever, she finally gets to spend time with her parents and sister like she always wanted. Unfortunately, however, this could only happen because she was never born in the altered timeline.
A teenager goes back in time to the early 2000s to save her sister from a dangerous killer.
- Director
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Hannah Macpherson
- Writers
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Michael Kennedy, Hannah Macpherson
- Cast
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Madison Bailey, Megan Best, Michael Shanks, Antonia Gentry, Griffin Gluck
- Release date
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October 30, 2024
- Execution time
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95 minutes