TIM TRAVERS AND THE TIME TRAVELER’S PARADOX MOVIE REVIEW

“A few hours can change a person.” You’re not kidding. Here, we see how true that statement is.

The movie is all in the title. We watch as scientist Tim Travers contemplates time travel… whether it’s good or not. He’s curious as to what would happen if you went into the past and not only met but killed yourself in that past. Could you exist in more than one timeline? Tim Travers digs deep to answer these and other questions. Joel McHale plays a podcast host named James Bunratty. This podcaster asks Tim, “Tell me what the time travel paradox is.” He responds by saying that paradox is impossible, but he has theories to tunnel through before he knows this for sure. How does time travel explain the soul existing in two bodies in the same place at once? It can’t. So, why keep looking for this answer when, in the end, we’re all doomed to be alone anyway?

Tim goes to Mac’s Entropy bar to blow off some steam. He meets Delilah, played by Felicia Day. They get into a conversation about how he has created a machine that has him forced to kill himself repeatedly. He tells her he didn’t have a lot of friends growing up because he always wanted to perform science experiments on them. Continually speaking about himself, she doesn’t appreciate the fact that he isn’t paying attention to her, so she suggests he’s on the spectrum and makes an ugly exit. He happily goes back to the lab. Oddly, he has made the decision to kill his younger self. How can he now exist?? Maddening. An article in NPR, written by Matthew S. Schwartz, suggests, “Researchers ran the numbers and determined that even if you made a change in the past, the timeline would essentially self-correct, ensuring that whatever happened to send you back in time would still happen.” Interesting. Regardless of this point, the movie continues.

Tim, unfortunately, needs plutonium for the machine he uses for time travel to work. You can’t buy that in your average convenience store, so he had to steal it from an international crime organization. Within is Royce, played by Danny Trejo, who you don’t want to meet on your best day. This group Tim stole the plutonium from isn’t happy and aims to get it back and end Tim… even though Tim is ending himself. I’ll explain. Outside of Royce and his gunman, Helter, played by director Stimson Snead, Tims are coming through the portal like mad, and Travers is faced with deciding what to do. He has, so far, just been shooting them in the head. Now, he has to clean up and disposing of bodies to deal with. That said, there comes a time when there are just too many Tims. So, he labels them with the Greek alphabet, which is a wise idea, but if he doesn’t stop this problem, he could run out of the ability to label them using this method. If you’re paying attention, he does so wisely. Meeting Royce and Helter, who thinks he’s going mad after continually seeing a man he has killed appear again and again, has given Tim more to think about.

Already with a stack of dead Tims, he finally learns that keeping them alive is a positive. What is a self-hating man to do when he has all these intelligent versions of himself running around? He likes to get information and ideas from these sage men but can’t let this keep happening. Making love to them is an act he not only ponders but completes. Yeah. That was my reaction, too. Maybe this will put an end to his self-loathing. He thinks of the experiment as a bonding experience and discovers some things about himself this way. This was where I thought the film kind of went off the rails a touch. Shot mostly in the lab, the first half of the movie is slow and could lose members of the audience before the best part. If you’re watching, keep watching. It does get better overall, and the mundane dialogue given by a rather dry-voiced actor improves.

Zeta, after being forced into a black void, returns with the wisdom of a man who has been falling forever. That’s a long time to gather your thoughts and come up with some answers. Still, he’s very angry. He’s also very strong and Godlike. Can Tim cohabitate with this version of himself especially? Keith David’s appearance in the film as The Simulator is remarkable. The storyline with his character is especially fascinating. I hope I haven’t lost you.

Okay. I ask you to overlook the occasional moments where the sound could use some improvement and where the graphics needed enhancement. It is an indie, after all. Remember that while watching. Even “Back to the Future” wasn’t without fault. Nobody’s perfect. Such is the reality of time travel films.

However, do what you can to pay attention to the tasty philosophical story playing out in Tim Travers. And keep up! It goes by quickly. The bar’s name gives you a hint as to what’s going on here, and there’s plenty to like about the movie if you give it your full concentration.

Watch this before Tim destroys the universe, and you don’t get a chance to! You don’t need him getting in the way of the enjoyment watching what could end up being your new favorite sci-fi film. If sci-fi is your preferred genre, you will absolutely love this movie for how it deals with the paradox twist and the entertainment that comes with exploring the theories Tim is looking into.