Warning: This article contains spoilers for about time.About time is a sci-fi rom-com that incorporates one of the most interesting sets of time travel rules in fiction. With Domhnall Gleeson and Rachel McAdams, About time Tells the story of a young man who discovers his family has time-travel powers. more specifically, All the people on his father’s side of the family can go back in time. While Tim and his father cannot travel to the future, they can go to the past, make all the changes, and then return to the present. As soon as Tim learns about his powers, he begins to use them to his advantage.
Tim never uses time travel for financial gain, but his use of time travel is far from selfless. The movie manages to balance the certain level of horror that comes with the power to drastically change everything around you with the levity of a love story. Although how time travel works is not the focus of the movie, About time Has a surprisingly consistent set of rules Which makes the movie even more enjoyable. Tim never creates alternate timelines or new versions of himself. Every change he makes impacts his life, without any easy way out.
About Time goes against the usual time travel movie rules
There are no alternate timelines in About Time
One of the most popular time travel rules in fiction is that if you go back in time and change something, a new timeline is created. There are dozens of variations on this trope, such as the idea that some changes may be small enough for the original timeline to accommodate, while others end up creating new timelines. of Back to the future And Terminator to Steins; Gate And everything in between, almost all time travel movies and TV shows work better under the assumption that there are multiple timelines.
however, in About timeEverything happens in one timelineAlthough there are at least two active time travelers during the events of the film. Every change Tim or his father makes to the past has an effect on the only timeline there is. The movie leaves no room for theories or speculation about the existence of other timelines, as we follow Tim and his perspective on all the changes he makes. About timeTheir premise is that Tim and his father can rewrite their lives at will.
While the multiple timelines tropes are a great way to solve time travel paradoxes—it doesn’t matter if you killed your grandfather if you’re in a different timeline—it often lowers the emotional stakes of a story. Unless carefully written, asserting that time travel creates new timelines can come off as a cheap trick to avoid paradoxes and plot holes. If what a time traveler does in the past has no consequences for the present where they come from, everything risks being futile. About time Is not too worried about the mechanics of his time travel But rather about Tim’s character.
About Time cleverly uses the butterfly effect trope
Tim’s actions have real consequences
Another popular time travel movie trope is the butterfly effect, which, in this context, establishes that even the smallest changes to the past can lead to massive changes to the known present. The butterfly effect trope is usually associated with the concept of alternate timelines, meaning that a small change made to the past can be large enough to create a brand new timeline. While About time Adheres to the concept of butterfly effectIt uses it very cleverly. Tim struggles to get the things he wants because he can never predict the outcome of the changes he makes.
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For example, shortly after meeting Kate for the first time, Tim goes back in time to help save his friend’s game. While he succeeds in doing so, he returns to a present in which he and Mary never met. Tim then has to travel back in time a couple more times before he and Mary can finally meet Under the right circumstances again. The biggest butterfly effect in About time Is when Tim goes back to help his sister, and once he returns to the present, he has a son instead of a daughter.
About time travel mechanics make Tim’s Journey even better
Tim always remembers how things were before he changed them
About timeThe time travel rules are good enough for this movie, especially since the heart of the story isn’t really Tim’s powers, but what he does with them. Whereas a lot of time travel stories involve an actual physical trip from one point in time to another—usually involving a time machine— About time It’s almost as if Tim is sending his consciousness back in time. There are never two teams at any timeWhat, in movies like Back to the future Or shows how The bottleOften leads to plot holes.
Tim and his father always remember how things were before they changed the past, which adds to their moral dilemma about when and how to use their powers.
Tim’s powers allow us to watch the changes made to the timeline from his perspective. It makes for a very personal story where the narrator can change what was previously at will. It also leads to the moral dilemma that the story presents About time – Should you keep changing the past if you can do it to achieve the things you want? An interesting detail is that Tim and his father always remember how things were before they changed the past, Which adds to their moral dilemma About when and how to use their powers.
About Time is more than just about time travel
This movie is more about life than time
Regardless of how much I like how time travel works in About timeThis movie is more than just a set of sci-fi rules. It’s not just a romantic comedy either. About time Uses time travel to comment on our perception of time and life itselfHighlighting how, outside of fiction, we don’t have the opportunity to go back and fix things or relive a moment. While it seems like the point of the movie is whether or not Tim should change things, that’s not quite the lesson he learns.
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About time key fax breakdown |
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Budget |
$12 million |
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Box Office |
$87 million |
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Rotten Tomatoes critics score |
71% |
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Rotten Tomatoes audience score |
82% |
About time It ends with Tim learning from his father that the best way to use his powers is to live the same day twice – one to make it through all the challenges life puts in your way, and the other to appreciate all the little moments we have Can’t experience properly. Amidst the chaos of adulthood. Tim eventually starts using time travel not to fix or change things, but to make sure he makes the most of every minute he has with the people he loves, including his dying father.