MovieChat Forums > Time Lapse (2015) Discussion > She could use a dozen pieces of tape, th...

She could use a dozen pieces of tape, the note would still fall off

posted 9 years ago by jorgedc
8 replies | jump to latest

I really enjoyed this film. I'm a huge fan of Time Travel/Time Loop films. My 3 all time favourites are Triangle, Time Crimes and Primer. The following is how I view this film and I am certain there is nothing on screen that contradicts my theory. By the same token, it can be viewed many different ways, and again be supported by what is shown on screen. But anyway, this is my theory and I'm open to anyone challenging it.

My theory is that this film is very unique among Time Travel/Loop films. Most films in this genre involve multiple timelines where the characters can manipulate the future or the past, sometimes even coming into contact with other versions of themselves. The difficulty with creating airtight story lines is the ever present time paradoxe. Very few films can avoid these plot holes. Example: Back to the Future part 11: After old Biff gives his younger 1955 self the Sports Almanac, he should not be able to get back to his present time and leave the car for Marty and Doc to find. The minute he hands over the Almanac, he has created an alternate timeline and can only move within that timeline. Finding these plot holes is great fun and part of what makes these films so fascinating. The above 3 films I mentioned are unique in the genre in that they hold up very well with no significant plot holes at all.

But coming back to Time Lapse. I do not believe that Time Lapse is a Time Travel/Loop film at all. I believe that in Time Lapse there is only ever 1 timeline, and that it cannot be manipulated. Everything the characters see in the future has to happen that way and cannot be tampered with. Last night while discussing the film, one of my friends said that the characters went out of their way to set up the situations in the future polaroids. I disagree, I think that no matter what they did, that situation would always arise. So when Finn packs his bags and says he is leaving, there is no danger of him changing the future and creating a paradox. He cannot leave, because the future has already said that he will be on the couch.

Warning: Spoilers ahead!!

Hence my Subject heading: She could have used a dozen pieces of tape, the note would still have fallen off. Callie believes that she has been manipulating events and can undo what has just happened, by simply putting up the note saying 'Don't get caught at Window'. She is however wrong. She has only been doing what has already been written in the future. In this film the characters cannot change anything once they've seen the next days polaroid.And if they decided to nly look at the polaroid after the moment in question, the polaroid would simply show what they had just been doing.

So no matter how securely Callie puts up that note, it will always fall of, because the future has already shown the window without it.

[–] carl_johnson-1 9 years ago

I think you contradict yourself a bit. If she can't change things, then she can't use a dozen pieces of tape instead of one. She's stuck with using one, because that's what her future self used, and she can't change what will happen.

It's not that the note was predestined to fall, no matter how much tape she used. It's that the note was predestined to fall because she only used one tape. And she was predestined to use one tape. There's no wiggle room to change even a single thing.

[–] pinkunderwear60 9 years ago

"In this film the characters cannot change anything once they've seen the next days polaroid.And if they decided to nly look at the polaroid after the moment in question, the polaroid would simply show what they had just been doing. "

No. They managed to change quite alot. First, Jasper never would have gotten the race bets right without the polaroid. Finn starts painting again thanks to the polaroid. And Callie wouldn't get her boyfriend Finn to love her so fast without the polaroid.

During the first weeks all characters gets what they wants.

Jasper. Money.
Finn. Creativity.
Callie. Love from her boyfriend.

The difference how they use the polaroid machine is quite interesting.

The boys looks at the pictures to learn about what happens in their future. The girl sees the machine as a way to manipulate her past self into a 'another' future.

Just like every night they is afraid to ' *beep* with time ' and change anything what the picture shows. Callie is forced to follow a pattern set by her future self.

I think the moment when the message fells off the windows is a reference Jaspers words ' don't *beep* with time ' . Its the day when Callie fails to communicate with her pasts.
Its also by suprise the day Mr. Bezzerides sees and misinterperate and dies by a tragic accident? The picture also has some connection to Finns painting, which leads Mr. Bezzerides to the storage room, and his death.. In order for Finn to get his keys?

.. As for Callie, you notice in the film how she loses touch of reality in the last days. probably due to drugs given by Jasper but also as she -connects- with her pasts and lives more in state of what can happen, as not in the present moment.

[–] farfromanonymous 9 years ago

She can't have known how much tape to use since there is not note or tape in the picture. The theory is true that if she glued it to the wall it wouldn't have mattered. They are all treating the photo as if that's what they are destined to do. Except, the camera takes a photo of the future, so they are looking at what has already happened. There was no note in the picture, so there will be no note taped to the window at that time. Whatever happened to remove the note is irrelevant, because the picture taken at that time shows no note.

[–] movieLoader 9 years ago

What you're suggesting is impossible.

If we assume the photo can't change once printed, it would be impossible *not* to be able to change the future and do something different to the photo.

If the photo shows a blank canvas, then simply paint something on the canvas just before 8pm. Easy.

The biggest plot hole in this film is also the thing that everything hinges on... the characters believe they must "obey" the photo, which is really stupid. They have no reason for believing this except for a vague idea they make up.

[–] carl_johnson-1 9 years ago

Not impossible, because if they could change the moment the photo shows, they never would have gotten that photo in the first place. The camera will only produce photos that will come to pass, even if the characters try to change what is shown. Sometimes, by trying to change the future, they actually cause it!

There's a nifty time-travel theory on this called the "Novikov self-consistency principle": https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Novikov_self-consistency_principle. Essentially, the camera can't produce photos that can be changed, since those futures have a zero-percent probability of occurring. It will only produce photos that lead to a self-consistent future (> 0% probability).

[–] blckbuster 9 years ago

What you are saying is literally true, because everything they have done is predestined from far in the past, their creator had decided every action they will take.

[–] jake-619-887578 9 years ago

What if she wrote the message backward on the glass window in a permanent black marker so that when the picture would be taken, she would see the message and not let it happen. If she wrote on the window the present may have been altered.

[–] jake-619-887578 9 years ago

You say that whether or not they look at the picture they would have the same outcome because it was just a picture of what would happen no matter whether they knew it or not.

I would agree with that except when viewing the picture Finn could paint a painting that his future self had painted but when he didn't see the picture of the next night because the bookie kept it, Finn couldn't paint anything. So it seemed the painting would only get painted if Finn saw the photo which means the photo only determined that day's outcome if the picture was viewed.