Time travel in media (books and movies)

Time travel is one of the ultimate dream and an ultimate fantasy for a lot of people. Who haven't dreamed of going back in the past to correct some personal mistakes? On even on a bigger scale, to go back to correct history by preventing some major events to happen? Time travel, for now is still a fantasy but it a inspired a lot of stories on different types of medium. In this post, we will talk about time travel in medium such as books and movies.

Time travel has been used for different purposes in media. Some have written about time travel to explore the paradoxes that could arise from modifying the past. Others use it as a plot device, a way to create more dramatic feature to the story. For others time travel is a talent for only one person or it's controlled by some sort of control organization. Time travel maybe the consequence of technology development or being due to a mutation. In this latter case, it only affect the mutant and possibly his/her offspring. For some authors, time travel is only possible in the past and it will affect only the timeline of the traveler. For others, every event which happened during time travel will create a new timeline different from the one of the traveler. And finally, there some who presented time travel like and enhanced movie experience, you could watch the past but you can't modify any aspect of it. In this post, I'll try to present one work on each of those approaches for time travel.

The man who murdered Mohammed, by Alfred Bester (first published in 1958). In this short story, a man came at home in the evening and find his wife cheating on him. He went to his lab and create a time machine in order to go back in time to kill his wife grand-parents. When he came back to his present, his wife was still in the midst of aldutary. He traveled back in time several and killed historical figures in other to modify his present. But he failed every time. He finally realised after killing Mohammed that his actions in the past didn't alter his present by only modify his own existence (he was slowly fading after each murder). His last murder completely anhilate him and let the present unchanged. This text is an example of how actions of a time traveler don't alter his current timeline, but may only alter his own existence as a human being.

Alfred Bester

The time traveler's wife, by Audrey Niffenegger (published in 2003). In this story, time travel is more a plot device. It's only affect the story of the two main protagonists. The male one is able to travel in time due to a genetical mutation but he has no control over it. He can't control when he will travel, how long he will stay in the period. It is very random. But this feature gives a new light to his lovestory with his wife. This story is a statement to the idea of some people are meant to be together no matter what is happeneing in their lifes. The focus is more on the development of the relationship then on time travel itself. But time traveling serves the purpose of the story very well in my humble opinion.

The Time Traveler's Wife movie poster

Back to the future saga (1985,1989,1990) written and directed by Robert Zemeckis. This saga was very interesting in various poinst. The choice of a car as a time travel machine opens up the possibilities for mobility. And the Delorean is just amazing. They tried to consider a lot of possibilities about consequences of actions made in the past on the present. In this saga, Marty McFly travel in the past and the future. Events modified, if not corrected in the past, have a certain influence on the present and the future of Marty.

Back to the Future Trilogy

Predestination, film by the Spierig Brother and based on the short story All you Zombies by Robert A. Heinlein. The movie starred Ethan Hawke, Sarah Snook and Noah Taylor. It was relased on 2014. Yhis move is a very special one on some aspects. It's telling the story of two people discussing in a bar around a few beers and a pool game. One of them is the bartender and the other is a random customer. The customer is telling is life story to the bartender. During the telling, he begins to share a bound with the bartender. After this meeting, the main protagonist will discover that their lives are very bounded together. Can say more without spoiling the movie. But this movie is the best and most weird way to talk about time travel paradoxes. It also arise a kind of philosophical question : are we bounded to live a life written in advance? And also what came first the egg or the chicken? It must be seen if you want to have an opinion about it.

Predestination Australian movie poster

Time cop starring Jean-Claude Van Damme and released in 1994. The movie is based on a comics of the same name published by Dark Horse comics. In this movie, there's a organization which main purpose is to control time travel. Time Enforcement Commission track down people who use time travel for their own personal profits. In this movie, actions in the past also affect the timeline of the main protagonists.

Time Cop movie poster

Looper starring Joseph Gordon-Levitt, Emily Blunt and Bruce Willis. It has been released in 2012. It this movie, time travel is fordiden. The main use of time travel is for sending back people to be excecuted by people called Loopers. They are sent head in an bag with silver bars. If the person arrived with a sack filled with gold bars, that is used for closing the loop (the older self of the Looper in sent to be execute by his younger self).

Looper main male cast

Hope you enjoyed the reading. Have a great holiday season. Feel free to leave a comment.