MovieChat Forums > Frequency (2000) Discussion > Something I don't Get?!

Something I don't Get?!

posted 12 years ago by Gelbs
10 replies | jump to latest

Something I don't get and bugs me. In general, but can use this movie (quality film) as an example. Bit hard to explain, lol.
Obviously initially, the father dies and Jim Caviezel's character remembers this. But when he changes the past and helps his father survive, he still says he remembers both him dying, AND surviving in his future self. That's fine. BUT. His past self would never remember his father dying as it never happened. And that past self then obviously becomes the future self, and would only remember his dad not getting killed by the fire. So in theory, Caviezel's character shouldn't remember both scenarios?? Big paradox really. It's understandable he would remember both at first, but not when you consider his past-self becomes his future one!

[–] erikazboi2006 12 years ago

I'm going to TRY to answer this question. lol

I think the answer could be (In my opinion) that the reason why he remembers both is that it is officially an alternate reality. Just like you said, the young John will not have any memories of his father dying because it never happened but this may be because the new young John who's dad is NOT dead isn't on the same time line. It splits off exactly when his father doesn't die. The only reason why older Jim knows both memories is because he is from the original father dying timeline and changed the past. This sounds crazy, but there's a new old John who doesn't have ANY memory of his father dying because he never lived through it.

Almost like Back to the Future when Marty and is family can remember that the car was totaled by Biff then when he went back in the past, changed some things, and came back, it never happened according to his family but he could remember it. It's an alternate reality because the original timeline involved a car wreck.

I sure hope this helps..LOL

[–] Gelbs 12 years ago

Cheers for the reply, lol.
Yeah I get ya! It's one confusing thing, time-travel. That would make sense though. So many outcomes etc, lol.

[–] Mellow-Fellow 10 years ago

All time travel scenarios are "alternate universes" or I guess the proper way to say it is an alternate universe I dont think there is a plural for universe, it is simply the one, and the theory is fun but certainly impossible according to everything we have learned to date.

I was talking to a guy on the "Edge of Tomorrow" board about this and a few people don't think it's an alternate universe movie, well any time travel has to be, all that matter and energy must get transferred to a separate time line to be logical but it is time travel after all so applying logic to that is kind of hard.

Check out "Predestination" a movie that came out last year I think, Ethan Hawke, If you like time travel I recommend it. It is about the grandfather paradox in time travel theory, and also as mentioned above check out "Edge of Tomorrow" both pretty good time travel movies IMO.

[–] knowgodisnowhere 11 years ago

Actually it is quantum consciousness....just your consciousness travelling in a different timeline, if it takes a different road, you can still remember the other path, and you have to shake off that memory that is not relevant to the new timeline.....

I've been meditating a lot in the past 2 years and I've quantum jumped. Your physical body doesn't jump like in the movie jumper, it is your consciousness that moves at the speed of thought, which is timeless...into the other body in the alternate timeline....

They are setting up gwen towers to emit elfs to keep us from jumping....keeping us in lower chakras...

Remember there is no body, there is no spoon only mind

Open Earth Chakra
www.youtube.com/watch?v=pp-r_f8-qz8

[–] 11 years ago

[deleted]

[–] Mellow-Fellow 10 years ago

haha! Thank you both for the good times, but that guy smokes more than a lot of pot.

[–] muztang04 9 years ago

The issue with quantum consciousness, as presented in this movie in particular, is the fact that there was no actual time travel done. Sure, he communicated with the past but in no way would that allow John to keep both sets of memories from both timelines. It makes slightly more sense in 'Back To the Future' on the count of Marty and Doc being time remnants from the other reality once they make changes in the past. One could argue that although everyone else's minds were altered in the future to reflect their current timeline, them being in the past saved them from having this altered state of consciousness because they were, in a sense, outside of time. ...I guess? But with THIS MOVIE John never left the constraints of his timeline therefore everything that changed should have completely changed his mind over the last thirty years and he would have had no idea that the HAM radio was even still around because he never would have used it to prevent his father's death to begin with. I suppose one could argue that the Aurora Borealis WAS his temporal shift outside of the constraints of time, but we simply do not have enough to go on to truly explain how this worked the way it worked since the film (And it didn't have to) didn't rely on exposition of any kind from smarter men than Frank and John.

Nobody on the IMDB likes anything anywhere at anytime.

[–] TOrockchick 11 years ago

It's also the same thing that happens in the film Mr. Destiny. Jim Belushi's character struck out during his championship game as a kid and he ended up having a crappy life. When his does hit the ball and gets a home run, he's life changes for the better and he still remembers everyone, but certain people don't recognize him.

[–] Psyche-8 9 years ago

I've said this on a separate thread but it's like a rock being thrown into a pond. The rock causes ripples to emulate in circles across the pond yet itself is unaffected by the ripples because it is at the centre. John is like that rock because he - or rather his actions - cause the changes but he himself is unaffected.

I also agree with the replies above that talk about time travel creating alternate realities because that is exactly what happens here and we see exactly the same thing in 'The Butterfly Effect'. In fact, in that film the central character played by Aston Kutcher suffers adverse effects from having his head suddenly crammed with new memories.

"He murders his wife every night. Other than that, I think he's pretty harmless."

[–] MaximumMadness 9 years ago

Honestly, it's just a creative conceit necessitated by the nature of the story. It can be annoying/confusing, but most time-travel stories have to sort-of invent their own "rules" for these sorts of things. (Especially as we don't really know what time travel would do if it happened in real life)

And given that this is more of a fun, emotional and exciting sort-of drama/thriller (as opposed to something trying to be more serious or hard-hitting), I think this particular conceit works in this case.

And FURTHERMORE, this is my signature! SERIOUSLY! Did you think I was still talking about my point?