Why did the penny throw him back into the present?

Also, when he took out the penny from his coat, why didn't he quickly put it back in, instead of standing there and looking shocked?

Also, why didn't he tell Elise that he was from the future?

Another thing. Why did he need to make sure that the hotel clerk wrote room 416 and 9:18? What if he wrote something else? Would that have changed his fate?


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"I don't understand why the penny threw him back to the present in the first place?

I mean, if it was that easy, then couldn't just a single thought about his own time have brought him back as well? If so, wouldn't it have just been a matter of time, with or without the penny?"

The penny was something tangible. In order for Richard to go back in time modern things like the penny and his tape recorder had to be out of sight. It "broke the spell".


"Also, what if she didn't give him the watch? Would that have broken the time loop?"

In the beginning or the end? If she didn't give it to him in the beginning he might not have ever gone in the first place. But it was predestined. I think Richard was indeed worried that for instance if he didn't get the right room at the right time it could very well break the time loop. Maybe it would or maybe it wouldn't. Maybe though if she didn't show him the watch at the end he might have never saw the penny and she would've bought him a new suit and they could've lived happily ever after! But I think it was an example of you can't change the past. Everything happened the way it happened. If at the end we didn't see Elise in the afterlife, we could've ventured that the loop in time continued and the past Elise grew old and saw Richard again, gave him the watch and said, "Check the coin pocket this time!"








...even in a valley without mountains the wind could still blow.

It's the nature of the time travel technique he and his professor used. You can't have anything physical that reminds you of modern times. Presumably with that technique, once you're in the past, your mind can at least subconsciously believe you're there and that the future was a figment of your imagination. The penny was absolute, incontrovertible proof that he didn't belong in 1912.

The penny clearly said "1979", which made him think of his present life and thus ruined the illusion he had created. Remember how he had to dress up and make himself believe that he was back in 1912? It took several tries and a lot of concentration. Once Richard had become ensconced in his 1912 life, however, his present life was a distant memory. However, the 1979-minted penny snapped him back to reality, per se, and he was rushed back to the present.

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The method of time travel shown in the film is a form of auto hypnosis where the time traveler convinces themselves so thoroughly that they're in the past that they actually travel there. When Richard looks at the penny he sees that it's a modern coin with an, iirc, 1979 date on it. This breaks the hypnotic spell and launches him back into the present.

Unless Alpert's covered in bacon grease, I don't think Hugo can track anything.

Many of the responses in this thread have been good, and for the record I do think this plot point works according to the rules the film sets up. I just want to add that in the novel the situation is more complex, and from the very start of his time-traveling experience Richard does indeed live in fear that a mere thought could push him back to the present. There's a scene early on where he becomes tempted to torture Elise's mother with his knowledge of her future, then he stops himself, realizing it could threaten his hold on the 1890s (the period he travels back to in the book). He reaches a similar conclusion after briefly entertaining the idea of getting rich by inventing something that doesn't exist yet. He comes up with the theory that in order to remain in this period, he not only must stop thinking about the future, he must eventually lose all knowledge of having come from there.

Later in the book, after he has reunited with Elise following his abduction, he runs into Robinson, whom he perceives is about to kill him. To distract him, he suddenly tells Robinson about his death twenty years later. Then Richard runs back into the hotel room. He expects to hear Robinson's footsteps outside the door, but to his surprise he hears nothing. It's at that point that he inadvertently pulls the penny out of his pocket.

The implication, I think, is that it wasn't just the penny that caused him to be sent back--his stating aloud Robinson's future probably helped loosen his grip on the period as well.

I guess he didn't realize the penny was in his pocket. Which of course is a stretch to think he would have made such a mistake given how thorough he was to think it was 1912.

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