Why win millions when you can win thousands!
Seriously, next time just write down the lottery numbers and take home millions and then retire and report the body to police.
shareI see your point. But they were just doing what the pictures told them they were going to do, and a few just happened to be the results from the races he normally bets on.
shareRight. How can you win millions on the lottery with a picture that has dog racing results?
shareBut they were just doing what the pictures told them they were going to do, and a few just happened to be the results from the races he normally bets on.
No, they were deliberately writing down the names of the winning dogs. They weren't "just doing what the photos told them to do"; they were manipulating the future by sending information to themselves from the future to the past.
So, why not write down "11 22 33 44 55 Powerball 20"? (By the way, if anyone wins with that number, I expect a 50/50 split!) True, they would have to wait until the next draw, but there are drawings twice a week. It's not like they'd have long to wait. share
I think you missed the point of the movie. In this movie, the future is predestined. They didn't have a choice, as far as they knew.
They got a picture of 24 hours in the future. That picture says "Dog XYX will win". Now, 24 hours in the past, they can't just be like "no, instead, lets put lotto numbers up." The picture basically told them what to do, in the sense of the movie.
They were too afraid to do anything outside of what the photos showed because they thought they would "screw up time" and end up like the Doctor, dead and burnt to a crisp.
They may believe that the future is predestined, but that doesn't make it true. Their belief in the inevitability of the future as seen in the picture was based on a false premise. That's one of the ironies of the film.
We change the future every time we make a choice. The characters in TL could have done so as well. Then, the photo would have been a picture not of the future but of a reality that might have been but didn't happen.
I do see your point that, given their false belief about predestination, they couldn't put up lottery numbers because they kept seeing winning race info.
Hmm ... I'll have to think about whether there's a way around that.
There's an easy way around it.
You just decide ahead of time to write the lottery numbers.
Let's say the lottery is on Friday, on Wednesday you say (or think/decide, whatever)'On Friday i'm going to write the lottery numbers', you get Thursday's picture it has the lottery numbers on the window because you already decided to write them on the window on Friday.
Certainly. They even make a conscious decision to do the dog racing results, based on Jasper's suggestion. We know he's got a bookie and probably owes money, so he's been wanting a win for a while. The camera feeds right into that. And once the money starts coming in, they don't really have a reason to change it.
Now, it's also quite possible that if they made a conscious decision to do the lottery, that the camera could still spit out a picture with dog racing results on it. And they'd probably just figure they changed their minds about trying the lottery after thinking about it.
Yes. This. I think they only felt they had to follow it because of the old man. I think if they had decided to do something different, the photos would just have been of something different. They still would be predicting, but they just would've been predicting different things - like the lotto numbers, for example.
shareThat is what I figured, the only reason they did what the photo said was because the old man scared them. If they did not read his journal or find his body they probably would have started to make their own predictions and changed the photos based on what they want.
sharesince you guys are already this far down the rabbit hole, consider this:
it wouldn't have made one bit of difference to the storyline if they won at gambling vs. the powerball, because...
THEY NEVER DO ANYTHING WITH THE MONEY!
since you guys are already this far down the rabbit hole, consider this:
it wouldn't have made one bit of difference to the storyline if they won at gambling vs. the powerball, because...
THEY NEVER DO ANYTHING WITH THE MONEY!
No see, if they had known they could change the future. Or at least not follow what the pictures tell them. Then nothing would have happened. They could have put the lottery info up, they could have become millionaires, and they could have lived a good life. share
it doesnt matter what they did, the future was already decided. there was no way they could change the photos, otherwise the photos wouldn't have come out like that in the first place.
The point the movie was making was that no matter what you do, your path is already determined. This doesn't mean it's "right" - that's just what the movie is suggesting.
There's an ancient story that works the same way:
A man is walking through the market when he suddenly sees Death turn the corner. Death sees the man and stares at him intently. The man panics and runs back to his home. His neighbor asks him why he looks so scared.
"I saw Death in the market, and Death looked right at me. I know he must be coming for me."
The neighbor replied "Well then - why don't you take my fastest horse and ride to Samarra? Then you will not be here when Death comes for you."
The man thanks his neighbor, takes the horse, and rides off.
Soon the neighbor sees Death coming down the street towards the man's house. The neighbor calls out "We have beaten you! He is not here for you!"
Death looks back and says "I was not coming for him here. I was curious, because I have an appointment to take him tomorrow in Samarra"
---
The point being - if the man had not seen Death in the first place, he wouldn't have gone to Samarra. If the people in the apartment hadn't seen the photos, they would have done different things. And even having seen the photos, they would often *try* to change their behavior, only to discover they always ended up in the same place.
It's enough to drive you insane...
this is exactly right. that's how this movie treated the future. in this movie there is no such thing as 'alternate future', like how it is used in Back to the Future part 2.
example: if i saw my future and tried to change it, the future would already know that i saw my future and tried to change it, thus making it impossible to change.
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well have you ever thought that the future was always going to be predestined because the future already knew that they were too scared to try something different?
in this movie, you cant change the future by making a choice, it's already predestined and the future already knows about that choice that you are about to make.
some movies that deal with time travel say that you can change the future as long as you know what will happen in the future, thus creating an 'alternate future'. Not this film.
the only way for lottery numbers to appear on the window was if they were going to think about winning the lottery, which the future knows they they would never have such thoughts.
The whole message of the movie was that you cannot change the future, even if you knew what the future was going to be.
The old man probably saw his demise and tried despearately to change it, but couldn't find a way to do so.
Just like how at the end, the future knew that the note would fall off the window and she wouldn't have a chance to stick it back up again. it's all predetermined.
The very act of looking at the future changes the future.
And...... if the precogs taught us anything it's that you CAN choose, some people have an alternate path. Bonus .20 cents via telepathic up-link credit transfer to who gets the movie reference (oh wait, were not in the year 2340 yet).... I'll just mail you a check... or with paypal's fees you might get like .03 cents out of the .20 delivered.
I"m going to guess, Minority Report. Mail a check to 123 fake street Arizona, Michigan.
shareDid you see the whole film?
Because at the end, it was clear that they could change things, and then the pictures would change.
And in any case, even if that were not true, they had been doing things forever without seeing the pictures. Under these premises, just because they COULD see the pictures did not mean they HAD to see them. And, just like had been going on for months or years, if they chose not to look, they would have been free, because whatever they chose to do would be what the pictures would show. It was only when they became aware of what the pictures showed that they now had to match them, and not veer away.
So they could have just not looked at the picture one day,and done whatever they wanted to, including leaving lottery numbers instead of racing results.
Separately, they HAD to use an illegal bookie? Seriously, plenty of legal gambling around.
Nothing changes in this film. They couldn't change things.
So they could have just not looked at the picture one day,and done whatever they wanted to, including leaving lottery numbers instead of racing results.So they put up Lottery Numbers, but because they never look at the picture, they're of no use to them, since they decided to go get that picture after the Lottery was over.
But they do get a new picture to look at. So they go to check the new picture, and find Dog Racing results again! That would have been fun to watch. They'd be all "WTF with all these dog racing results?" share
Yes, the only reason they do the dog thing is because it's written that way in the script. And even so, once they realize the thing works, they could decide to put something else in the window, such as the aforementioned lotto numbers. But then there'd be no conflict and the movie would be even lamer than it is.
The movie raises questions about whether things are predestined, i suppose, but it never really focuses on them, since the the characters spend most of the time (at least the boys) believing that if they deviate, they die. Then of course all we're left with is crappy thriller material.