MovieChat Forums > 11 Minutes Ago (2007) Discussion > I liked it a great deal, but...

I liked it a great deal, but...

posted 13 years ago by wsheit
1 reply | jump to latest

It falls into the same time loop problems that other time travel films (such as Time Crimes) fall into. At the point where the main character first jumps back, the events that cause him to return are dependent on his subsequent trips. But the contents of those subsequent trips are dependent upon what he learns in the first trip. It's a two way dependency that doesn't really work.

The only way you can possibly solve it is rather complicated. You can argue that the very first time the character jumped back, he actually found a DIFFERENT reason to return- one that we never see. When he came back a second time (15 minutes earlier), he would ultimately come to the reason that the audience gets to see (Cynthia) and determine that this is the new reason for his repeat trips. Then, because of this change, the events of his first jump would be rewritten because the first-jump-him would be reacting to essentially NEW stimuli- the events of the second jump and their impact on the camera crew. This process would continue for each jump until a multitude of timelines had been overwritten. The overwriting would finally stop once Pak stopped going further back in time.

Thoughts?

[–] ansezantz 13 years ago

I didn't quite understand what you said. My understanding is that he DID indeed find a different reason. During the first/latest 8:00pm? tumble we see Pak taking the hybrid air sample, however he encounters the camera crew following him, telling him that he has tumbled several times previous, and showing him the blackboard, IIRC, the camera crew actually says "yeah there's another reason", and something to the effect of "your double previously told us to tell you that you HAVE TO come back". Cynthia also kisses him and gives him an enigmatic "Yes" to a question (an unknown question from Timeline 1's perspective). When Pak returns to 2055, he fixes the polluted air and he would then have several months to ponder the meaning of the blackboard and perhaps fall in love with the memory of Cynthia. So he tumbles back to earlier and earlier times making sure he makes the right moves to ensure causality for those in Timeline 2 (Cynthia/camera crew/and anybody else he interacts with in 2007).

For simplicity sake, there are two Pak's, "Pak Original" that we see in seven of the eight 11-minute intervals, and the "Pak #8" which we see in the last/7:00pm tumble who hides and records everything and finally stays behind with Cynthia. Pak #8 is actually just the Pak Original being stuck in 2007 after his eighth tumble.

Timeline 1 is the timeline that we the audience sees for the majority of the film, it is the same timeline that Pak Original experiences in 2055 (assuming he's 30 years old, that would mean 2025-2055). Around 2055 Pak Original finishes his time-tumbling device, and becomes the first time-tumbler, he makes eight tumbles of 11-minute intervals into 2007 (which we see depicted in the film);

Timeline 2 is the timeline of everybody else shown in the film, and what Pak #8 sees/records hiding behind the drapes at the end of the film.