I just watched Primer for the 3rd time and realized I had the whole timeline backwards

I thought I understood the time travel rules after the second watch, but then I drew it out on paper and saw the characters were swapping places way earlier than I thought. Has anyone else had that moment where you think you've got a movie figured out and it turns out you were completely off from scene one?

2 comments

2 Comments

anna_hill23d ago

The whole brain-swap thing with the two main guys is where I got tripped up too... I remember watching the scene where they're in the garage and one of them is giving instructions to the other, but it's actually the future version of that same guy who already went through it. That moment when you realize the first thirty minutes is basically a loop that's already been completed a dozen times... it messes with your head. The trick is, the movie doesn't give you any visual clues about who's who besides their clothes, and even those change between runs. So you end up having to track which Abe is which by the tiniest details, like whose coffee mug is on the bench or who's wearing a watch on their left wrist.

ray_king23d ago

The coffee mug detail is what got me. I spent half the movie squinting at mugs like I was a detective on a caffeine budget. By the end I was tracking watches and left wrists like I was in a spy movie. Did you ever figure out if the garage scene was the start of a new loop or the end of an old one?