MovieChat Forums > Time Lapse (2015) Discussion > this is what I don't get

this is what I don't get

posted 9 years ago by bluethreads
51 replies | jump to latest

I am assuming the movie is in a linear fashion- with the characters' present selves getting photos from their future selves and watching day by day how the story unfolds. Each night they replicate the scene to match the photo they received 24 hours prior, they then receive a new photo from their 24 hour future selves.

In this regard, the movie makes sense to me up until the point where we discover Callie's present self is sending messages to her past self. If Callie's present self sends messages to her past self, now we have three time lines- we have the future, present, and past- it seems to me that so long as Callie keeps sending messages to her past self to change the present, how can time move on?

When Finn was questioning her about the photos she had hidden in the drawer showing what appears to be an affair with Jasper, she seemed to be aware of this affair even though it didn't happen in the linear time line we are watching of their present selves, indicating that she remembers all of her past and present selves. If Callie's present self remembers events of her past self before she changed them with the messages she is sending to her present self, why can't the other characters remember?

[–] fearless2003 9 years ago

The affair did happen. This was not changed or undone. Finn was drunk and passed out. Jasper was drunk. That's why they don't remember. Not because it didn't happen. Callie remembers it.

There's only one timeline. There are no "parallel" timelines. Nothing gets changed at any point.

It is one internally consistent timeline.

[–] lostn 9 years ago

Callies secret day time photos are guiding the night time photos in the direction she wants them to.

She herself is chained to fate the same way the night time guys are. She's just following what her future messages tell her to do, and repeating those messages to her past self. She too is being led by fate, but in a direction she wants to go. She just wanted to revitalize her relationship with Finn.

I think with the affair, Jasper knew about it. It happened. It wasn't just in her mind. But he was keeping silent about it to not hurt his friend and pretending not to know about it in order to look innocent.

[–] BadCash 9 years ago

When Finn was questioning her about the photos she had hidden in the drawer showing what appears to be an affair with Jasper, she seemed to be aware of this affair even though it didn't happen in the linear time line we are watching of their present selves, indicating that she remembers all of her past and present selves.

I think you missed a key point of that scene - Callie says that the photos of her affair are "from before", meaning that they're from before they discovered the machine. There were always photos missing on the wall, because the first thing Callie did when she discovered the machine was to collect all the incriminating photos.

If Callie's present self remembers events of her past self before she changed them with the messages she is sending to her present self, why can't the other characters remember?

I don't think anyone, ever, changes anything in the timeline of the movie. All they do is influence what they do the next day - they never actually change what has already happened.

[–] carl_johnson-1 9 years ago

All they do is influence what they do the next day - they never actually change what has already happened.

Correct. And from the point of view of when the pictures are taken, the next day has already happened. They can't even change that.