Primer (2004) on Netflix
PG-1320041h 17mDramaSci-FiThriller
Two engineers working nights in Aaron's garage find their weight-reduction experiment leaves objects looping backward through time. Abe builds a box a person can enter, and the two try it.
- Netflix3.3/5
- IMDb6.7/10123,105 votes
- Rotten Tomatoes72%
Trailer
Plot summary
Aaron and Abe hold day jobs and spend nights and weekends in Aaron's garage building error-checking devices. While researching electromagnetic weight reduction, they notice a side effect: objects left in the field run forward to the moment the field is switched off, then backward again, so something can leave at an earlier point in time. Abe refines the effect into a box large enough for a person and travels six hours into his own past, waiting out the interval in a hotel room and then inside the box so as not to interfere with anyone. He brings Aaron to the storage facility to watch the earlier Abe enter the box. The two repeat the trip over several days, trading stocks same-day with knowledge of how the market moves. Abe is cautious; Aaron is impulsive.
Cast
- Carrie Crawfordas Kara
- Jay Butleras Metalshop Worker
- John Carruthas Man On Couch #1
- Juan Tapiaas Man On Couch #2
- Ashley Warrenas Hostess
- Samantha Thomsonas Rachel Granger
- Chip Carruthas Thomas Granger
- Delaney Priceas Laney
Did you know?!Facts and trivia about Primer (2004)
Can contain spoilers, watch the movie first.
- Carruth cast himself as Aaron after having trouble finding actors who could “break ... the habit of filling each line with so much drama”, and most of the other actors are either friends or family members.
- The time machine itself is a plain gray box, and its distinctive electronic “hum” was created by overlaying the sounds of a mechanical grinder and a car engine rather than by using a processed digital effect.
- The principles of time travel in the film are inspired by Feynman diagrams. Carruth explained that Richard Feynman had interesting ideas about time, and that in the diagrams, which map the interaction of elementary particles, there is really no difference between watching an interaction happen forward and backward in time.
- After shooting, Carruth took two years to fully post-produce Primer, an experience he has since said was so arduous that he almost abandoned the film on several occasions.
- Primer was produced on a budget of only $7,000 with a skeleton crew of five, and the small budget required such conservative use of the Super 16mm film stock that the carefully limited number of takes gave an extremely low shooting ratio of 2:1.
