Written by Robert Scucci | Published
The understanding of the passage of time in movies is often simplified so that the viewer can follow the internal rules of the story and put everything together easily. in 2004 The beginningwritten, directed, produced, edited, and scored by Shane Carruth, is not one of those movies, and I’m sure it was made for the sole purpose of confusing the hell out of its audience. I mean that as a compliment. I bring this up because I can’t explain it Primer’s the mind inside you, mainly because I’m not that smart.
I’d like to think I’m a balanced, generally intelligent person in the sense that I can navigate adult life, make informed decisions, and reliably express the thoughts in my head as a way to communicate with the outside world. But if you want me to talk The beginning As a journalist, I don’t know what else to say other than “sorry.” You’re watching the Peter Principle play out in real time here, as is any attempt I make to explain the timeline presented in The beginning quickly pushing me to my highest level of incompetence.
What I can do is focus on the ethical conventions presented The beginningand how the film was produced on a reported budget of just $7,000 somehow provides the most compelling examination of the passage of time and its effects. I say “sort of” because I’ve already admitted that there’s no logical way to revise the idea without starting to pull back both sides of my mouth.
The Box and Its Effects
The beginning tells a story of cause and effect through the eyes of Aaron (Shane Carruth) and Abe (David Sullivan), two engineers who shine a light on various technology projects outside of their day jobs. After accidentally discovering that they can manipulate small objects in time, Abe takes the research further and develops a human-sized travel device he calls “the box.” Skeptical at first but intrigued, Aaron watches Abe’s demonstration, which involves Abe traveling six hours into his past self and proving that his former self will fit into a box once those six hours are up.
At first, Abe and Aaron do exactly what you would expect anyone to do with this kind of power. They day trade in the stock market and earn money because of their new foreknowledge advantage. Naturally, they repeat this process many times, failing to notice the strain it is taking on their bodies. In accordance with Primer’s By internal rules, Aaron and Abe successfully live in 36-hour days, which leads to extreme fatigue and increased mental toughness.
They also fail to account for what happens to timelines when multiple versions of them go live at the same time. The result is a spiraling web of unintended consequences, especially when these duplicates stop sticking to the plan and make decisions that spill out in ways they can no longer control.
Before long, we’re dealing with several iterations of Aaron and Abe, all of whom suffer the kind of mental decline you’d expect from juggling multiple timelines while trying to fix events that have already been irrevocably altered.
Best Left Box Closed
I have tried to exclude all the other facts shown in it The beginning in good faith, but I stopped about 45 minutes into the movie. The whole thing started to resemble a connect-the-dots task my four-year-old might complete while battling two ear infections. While the logic of the universe is held together on the surface, one of the most disturbing things The beginning its lack of traditional changes or visible signs.
You can do that up to budget constraints, but I’m sure it was a deliberate creative decision regardless The beginning he was supported by the studio. The confusion feels intentional because anyone living through what Aaron and Abe are going through will be lost as they try to process it in real time.
Even more interesting is how cold and calculating both men become as the film progresses. Ethics fall by the wayside, largely because none of them have ever been forced to consider moral responsibility on this scale before. Simply tracking timelines becomes such an all-consuming task that thinking about the principles of their actions barely registers when mental decline begins.
This is Brain Bender
If you are looking for a piece that is modern and very accessible The beginningI would recommend the 2023 ones The Aporia. While both films work on their own terms, the shared framework of cause-and-effect makes them worth watching together. Look The beginning if you want your brain twisted into a pretzel, then go for it The Aporia seeing the same idea explored in a way that’s easy to follow without sacrificing emotional weight.
Both are excellent films in their own right, though The beginning it requires more effort from its audience. It refuses to hold your hand, or to tone anything down, which is why it stands as one of the most uncompromising time travel films ever made.
The beginning is available to rent on-demand via YouTube, Amazon Prime Video, and Apple TV+.
