MovieChat Forums > Travelers (2016) Discussion > In 18 months everyone gets overwritten.....

In 18 months everyone gets overwritten...

posted 8 years ago by johntarmstrong-56068
15 replies | jump to latest

It makes sense that since the only thing stopping the Director from overwriting people is some sort of programmed morality that prevents it from overwriting people unless they originally were going to die, that since it saved all those people from Helios it can now overwrite everyone at their original death time in 18 months. Maybe that was the directors plan all along as a way to save everyone living in the terrible future (including itself apparently) by transferring them all back to the past.

[–] chrisjdel 8 years ago

That's an interesting idea, if I'm understanding you correctly. That now they have 91 million host candidates (everyone who was scheduled to die on impact day) and on that day there will be a mass arrival of Travelers. Potentially the entire remaining human population from their future. I don't know if they would do this or not. Occasionally the events that lead to a person's death don't come together. Sometimes the transfer doesn't happen, like that guy that MacLaren watched get hit by a truck. Misfire? Hard to say. The one he was supposed to meet had already arrived but someone should've been sent in his place. Why waste the opening?

Then again they stopped MacLaren from falling down the elevator shaft and used him anyway. Is stopping the event that killed the host 18 seconds before the transfer different from stopping it 18 months before? You could argue either way. That would be an interesting cliffhanger for the end of Season 2 though, the sudden game changing arrival of millions of new Travelers.

[–] Sluggr-3 8 years ago

I believe that the guy who got hit by the truck was one of a few possible candidates that day for 14. The farmer was the one who was selected, which now makes me think that 14 came back somehow off the radar. Make the faction think that 14 came back as "bus-guy" who was then killed or misfired, so no more 14, and 14 in the farmer's body can then do his work off the radar if people in the future think he is dead. This of course now does nothing except make the issue of who is working for whom and who is bad or good even more murky.

My Chimp DNA seems to have lost its password temporarily. Sluggr-2

[–] chrisjdel 8 years ago

It's the same dilemma any present dweller would face dealing with people from the future. They can check up on you, but you have no way of verifying anything they say. They could be telling you exactly what you need to hear to get you on their side, so they can manipulate you into helping them. How could you ever be sure you were getting the full and complete truth?

MacLaren and his team are in a similar position, although maybe a bit less so, because of the changes in the timeline. They know now that there's another powerful faction trying to interfere in the past. But who's working for whom? Which people (and orders) can be trusted? Season 2 is going to have a very different feel, with much of the certainty and sense of being on solid ground that's been driving them either gone or diminished.

[–] Sluggr-3 8 years ago

You have to love a show that keeps getting better even after the episodes stop for a season.

My Chimp DNA seems to have lost its password temporarily. Sluggr-2

[–] chrisjdel 8 years ago

Few types of story in any genre are as convoluted and difficult to write as time travel. At least, when it's done well. And a series based on the idea lends itself to Saturday afternoon quarterbacking better than most. You could throw in an endless variety of twists, take the plot in a thousand different directions. Whatever happens the show itself will have a single answer to every question and most of our speculation will turn out to be dead wrong. But throwing out ideas and theories is so much fun!

[–] Sluggr-3 8 years ago

I'm thinking the computer records on Helios impact day may be less than ideal.

As for 14, I'm thinking that it may have been set up to be a deliberate misfire. make those in the future think that 14 had been sent back but then killed instantly, thus taking him off of future-radar. "No plan survives contact with a truck."

My Chimp DNA seems to have lost its password temporarily. Sluggr-2

[–] chrisjdel 8 years ago

Yeah, that would be smart. Send your own people out to meet this guy. They witness him getting splattered by a truck, report him DOA, and suddenly the Faction isn't looking for him anymore. He's officially dead.

[–] splendido 8 years ago

Interesting idea indeed. You may be right. But it's also possible that the AI also takes its own existencial risk into account. If that's true it means it wont take any decision that leads to a future where it doesn't exist. If it was created to prevent human extinction then it has to make sure to keep humans on the brink of it to exist. If they actually prevented the asteroid from hitting the Earth it seems it had almost no impact on the future, but why? According to what they said that was one of the main causes of the future's problems. Does it mean they failed?

[–] chrisjdel 8 years ago

All it has to do is transfer back to the 21st century and it becomes immune to any changes in the timeline caused by Traveler missions. In fact, if you watch the very end of Ep. 12 it appears this is exactly what's happened. We'll have to wait for Season 2 to be sure but the Director may be in the present now.

[–] BryceMaryott 8 years ago

Actually, they've changed enough that there are now two factions. It's now possible there are two DIRECTORS - which would explain why they're getting conflicting orders.

[–] chrisjdel 8 years ago

Now there's another interesting idea! Two different AIs leading two different factions. Maybe neither faction is the original united one that MacClaren's team remembers from their timeline. So, follow one? Follow the other? Try to get them together? Defy both of them? Decisions, decisions.

[–] splendido 8 years ago

But why there are factions at all if they prevented the asteoriod collision? It means they are living under similar conditions as they were when the asteroid did collide with Earth. If the Director is tranfered to the XXI century it means it's a casual loop.

[–] BryceMaryott 8 years ago

One of the shelters that originally collapsed, killing everyone in it. NOW, it didn't so there is an additional group of people in the future that weren't there originally.

It looks like some of this additional group of people formed their own faction, because it wasn't BAD enough to have everyone only focused on survival.

[–] gregorysterner 8 years ago

Right, 2 different timeline, each with different Directors and ideals on how to make it correct. Maybe even one group of travelers CAUSE the problem and a different group sent to stop them?

[–] christmastiger-16003 8 years ago

I like this idea, I just want to express my agreement.