For some strange reason, I enjoy the movie The Time Machine. I vividly remember discovering this movie well after midnight. It intrigued me. For those of you who are not like me and aren’t randomly awake at 2 a.m., The Time Machine is the story of scientist and inventor Alexander Hartdegan, a professor at Columbia University, who becomes obsessed with nailing time travel when the love of his life is murdered in a park after he asks her to marry him. Fast forward, Hartdegan masters time travel but runs into a bit of a snag–she keeps dying. But why is that?
Before we answer that question, let’s think about all the time travel based movies we’ve seen thus far. What’s the main rule in time travel? Change nothing of the past and/or don’t let anyone see your future self. So if you can’t change the things of the past but you can manipulate them, so to speak, what is the point?
Well, I’ll tell you. Because you think you can. It’s that simple. I’ve thought about what I would change if I could go back in time, and I honestly think I could go back and change nothing but change everything, if that makes sense. The problem with this attitude is you’re wrong. No, no, no, you’re wrong. We can’t go back and change nothing but change everything and it work flawlessly. Something will not work and something will be changed that will, more than likely, devastate you.
“But the Avengers did it and nothing went wrong,” I hear you rebut. Ah, but remember, they put everything back in the end….expect for Loki from 2014. He got out and the TVA dealt with him…sort of.
Bottom line is maybe we have this obsession with changing the past because there is some regret in our lives about what we should have done or what was could have been. But think about it, you’ll still have problems. Maybe not the exact same problems but problems nonetheless.
I’m hard-headed, so I’d at least try. What about you? Would you chance it? What would you change if you did?
BLACK WATCH 