The Amateur Time-Travel Sci-Fi That Cost $7k Is Somehow Even More Mind-Blowing Than Tenet
You've never seen a time travel movie like this.
Christopher Nolan 's Tenet is an example of a great auteur being given a huge budget and complete creative freedom to bring his extraordinary concept to life on the grandest scale possible.
If you thought Tenet was hard to follow, Shane Carruth's low-budget sci-fi thriller Primer is here to change your mind.
What Is Primer About?
The main characters are two engineers, Aaron and Abe, who accidentally invent a real time machine. Like in Nolan's movie, it doesn't send the user millions of years back or forward, but rather makes time go back for a short period of time.
With the help of their discovery, the two start to make money on the stock market – but very soon their endless copies and different versions start to get in the way.
The plot of Primer is hard to follow at first, but that's the point. Stock up on pens and paper: this movie made for pennies will confuse you in a way that even the most intricate sci-fi blockbuster could never dream of.
Primer Is a $7k Sci-fi Masterpiece Made by a Mathematician
The director of Primer, Shane Carruth, is a mathematician, and he approached the script of the movie with truly scientific meticulousness.
His movie, made for only $7,000 and starring himself, does not reveal all its secrets to the viewer and does not try to lead the audience to clear answers – to this day, fans make huge diagrams to understand what is happening in the plot.
Shane Carruth Made Two Films – Both Have Become Cult Classics in Their Own Right
Shane Carruth rarely makes films, but each of his two films, Upstream Color and Primer, can be considered cult in narrow circles of fans – they are constantly revisited and discussed.
But these works are difficult to interpret because the set of ideas embedded in the films is not as important as the experience and emotions the viewer gets from watching them.
Primer Is One of the Most Unique Movies about Time Travel
Primer is about paradoxes and ethical problems. Unlike most time travel films, Carruth does not try to simplify the mechanics of time travel or the complex physical and mathematical terminology.
Primer is an interesting and unique look at what would happen if a time machine appeared in our world. And no: there would be no adventures, no flying cars, no hoverboards. Just endless paranoia, fear and misunderstandings – what should we do with this machine?
Where to Watch Primer?
Primer is available to buy or rent on Apple TV.