How is the machine works???

I didn't get it, either. I don't think it makes much sense. How can you look around the infinite curviture of the universe with a laser-powered lens (or whatever he said) and then see yourself at the end?? If it's infinite (which it probably really is), it would never get back around to you! Also, even if that part of it would work, the laser would have to "see" faster than light (waaaaaaaaaaaaaay faster), which is not possible.

Oh, and I've seen waaaaaaaaaaaaaay worse english than yours... from native speakers. So don't worry about it. You're doing pretty good.

"Guten Tag, ich will mein Leben zurück."

The theory of how the machine works is irrelevant, let's just assume that there is such machine and build a story with that premise. What I really do not understand is how they "see" a future that does not really exist since they are able to change it. Something similar happens in other movies, like "Back to the Future" and "Terminator", they change the future several times but still remember the old future - which for them is part of the past of their biological lives since they have already lived it. The moral message that after all we are in control of our own future is a lame excuse for such amount of unresolved paradoxes and contradictions.

I don't understand why the movie had to come up with some strange "universe curve" machine theory (or whatever).. I clearly leaves a lot of issues in terms of the whole "changing the future" idea. It is not really possible within the premise to change the future.. what you see is supposedly the light/sound/energy (whatever) from the future getting "returned" to you. Within that premise it's logical that you cannot possibly change anything as what you see has already happened and is now only getting reflected back at you. It would only be possible if the time-line split into multiple connected dimensions which had different outcomes. So you would in fact be looking at the outcome of another dimension. Anyway.. as most movies about time-travel.. this "time-viewing" movie made a complete mess of things as well. And it's probably better not to think too much about it.

What they should have done was to go with a quite different approach to the machine. An approach which would not only have made the movie better (IMO) but also made time-viewing very scientifically plausible within our current technology framework. That could be possible with a "Deterministic Time-viewing Machine".. which would basically be a very powerful and complex computer-system, that could calculate the future very precisely based on data from the past and present.. much like a game of pool where the balls (as in life) are already moving in a certain direction. A machine so powerful and intelligent that it can not only calculate physical phenomenons, but also predict human actions. It's not that far fetched at all... and it might be possible some time in the future. Such a machine could then project the "future" onto a screen using CGI. However.. for it's predictions to be perfect the machine would also have to consider all factors.. which is probably impossible. But it could be pretty accurate.

Using that approach to "time-viewing" it would not be a problem to change the future, as the prediction would only be a very precise (dependent on the computers infallibility) "moment in time" prediction based on current data. So if someone where to know the machines predictions it should be possible to alter things..........Unless! Unless the machine already knew that and had taken your actions into account!? So you'd have to make the machine-room as-well as yourself immune to the machines probing for information.. that way it couldn't predict your actions.. whew.. time-travel/viewing is tricky! It's probably never gonna happen.

If you know your English is bad why don't you correct it?

Okay, I don't know if everybody is avoiding the question because it's irrelevant, or if they don't have the answer, here's what I know (and please correct me if I'm wrong):

Like all things in the universe, light can be bend by gravity. When a beam of light passing a planet at proximity, it's path would bend toward the planet's gravity and being slingshot to an higher speed, causing it (or image) to appear on the other side earlier than it should.

In the event of a solar eclipse, we would see the sun emerging from behind the moon, when actually it is still behind it. We see the image of the sun BEFORE it appears.

Base on this theory, if the machine can tracy a beam of light from planet to planet, all the way back to it's origin - earth, then we are seeing the image BEFORE it happens. Of course, technically it is impossible, but the theory is there.


Classics are names that everyone heard, yet most have never seen!!

Consider the fact that it is a sci-fi movie. Therefore, although there may be an explanation, it doesn't necessarily have to make sense.

In the short story, they don't quite go into the full mechanics, but the machine is based on the idea that true time travel is impossible, but it is possible to glimpse the future. It's explained that the machine is a "time scoop", with which one can see the future but also "scoop" certain things out into the present.

I suppose what they show in the movie is a bit confusing, though. The impression I got from the story was that it was more or less a self-fulfilling prophecy. Jennings was working on the machine and saw that he would have these problems once his mind was wiped and he left the company. He knew every problem he would run into because he'd seen it through the machine. Because of this, he knew every problem he would face and was able to figure out a series of seemingly inconspicuous items to substitute his paycheck that would each provide a solution and use the time-scoop to retrieve them.

And when Jack Crow and Buffy Summers joined forces, Edward Cullen never knew what hit him.

I think they'd have done better to not try to explain how it worked. Their explanation was ridiculous. Even if we could see around the universe, the light we see would be from billions of years ago. And of course, the earth itself might look a bit small at that distance.

... and the rocks it pummels. - James Berardinelli