MovieChat Forums > Time Lapse (2015) Discussion > For those who don't understand: Self Ful...

For those who don't understand: Self Fulfilling "Future"

posted 9 years ago by zienizzle09
11 replies | jump to latest

It took me a while to figure it out but here is the breakdown.

There are only TWO possible outcomes that are mutually exclusive, one where the picture is viewed and one where its not. Whether or not its viewed "changes" the future.- Thats what this movies is about

#1 Whatever the picture printed was the unchangeable future. It was set in stone and there wasn't anything that could be done to alter it.
-"To be viewed or not to be viewed".

#2 All the camera did was record what they already did and printed it in advance. If you decided to view the Picture, then the picture already incorporated every step you'd take 24 hours later after viewing that exact same picture so it would be impossible to avoid even if you wanted to because you already tried to avoid it and that was the end result.

#3 Once they decided to view there future, there future changed. The future they would of had no longer existed and the photo snaps a day in advance showing there future selves that already looked at the photo .

So when the Scientist viewed two weeks in Advance, he screwed everyone by unknowingly setting off a chain of events that led the painter to paint the gas canister, which he mistakenly thought was "his own death". Because of this he tried to prevent it(which he failed) and thus led him the storage area and caused the kids to go to his house check on him and which led to everything that happened and up until the point where he painted the gas canister.

The Dumb b_tch after shooting her boyfriend didn't understand that once it happens, theres no changing it otherwise it would of never happened.

See its all a self-fufulling outcome. We create our futures, its knowing them that can destroy it. "DONT *beep* WITH TIME"

[–] carl_johnson-1 9 years ago

I really don't see the timeline changing at all, future or past. Each specific future shown in each photo was always going to happen, whether they looked at the photos or not. The futures when they didn't see the pictures still came to pass, as shown when they discovered the pile of photos when they discovered the camera.

[–] 9 years ago

[deleted]

[–] ion-moon 9 years ago

Just as in the final scene, when Callie posted the note but it fell, had Finn tried to shoot jasper or had they tried to do anything differently, it would have backfired and everything would have eventually fallen into place to create the scene they saw in the photo.

[–] mborgesi422 9 years ago

I think that was always meant to happen with the note falling. That was how it happened from the start, she didn't change anything because she couldn't. It's like Twelve Monkeys the movie, he constantly saw this dream occurring because that was his memory. He was never changing anything.

[–] FeyeLM 9 years ago

"your theory relies on them not being able to change anything after the photo is taken"

but the film proves that you can't change the outcome of the picture, any efforts to change it, any decision made- the photo accounts for all of those variables and incorporates that into what is foreshown.

If Finn has decided to shoot Jaspar in the head before the picture was taken, the photo taken the day before showing the next day would have shown the repercussions of that decision, at least that's my take on it anyway, it's a great film for showing a perhaps deterministic universe, at least in regards to the camera.

[–] TonyC4444 9 years ago

Well that's the point. You can't. If Finn decided to shoot Jasper the gun would jam. Jasper would kill Finn and he'd be sitting in front of that pile of money smiling all alone still. His theory doesn't "rely" on them not being able to change anything, they simply can't change anything. There is no making the photo impossible to happen, the theory (this is all theory of course) is that the universe would start bend the laws of improbability.

It all comes from dealing with Paradoxes. If the photo shows Jasper sitting in front of the camera with the money and Finn shoots him then Jasper could have never been sitting in front of the money leading to the decision for Finn to shoot him because the decision was based on something that hadn't occurred yet. There are different theories for how to deal with paradoxes, this particular movie seems to follow the Novikov self-consistency principle which basically states that there is one immutable timeline and you can never do anything to change that.

By the way, I am right behind you.

[–] mborgesi422 9 years ago

The scientist goes to the storage area because Finn needed him to so he could get the keys to escape. That's why he changes the time settings on the camera and why he paints the canister. Essentially Finn caused the scientist's death.

[–] BarryFrom 9 years ago

Sorry, couldn't get past "would of had"

[–] wrlord2001 9 years ago

Quite right.

[–] ProfessorPiehole 9 years ago

This is a pretty good synopsis.

So the extension of this logic is that they had the power to break the cycle if they stopped looking at the photos, which would result in the unseen photos being the proverbial tree that falls in the woods that nobody hears, depicting whatever would naturally occur without advance knowledge.

As with most movies dealing with this subject, there is some paradox. In this case, it's unclear how present self sends the message to future self to provide the race results in the first instance (remember future self who held up the results wasn't just sending a message to past self, future self had already reaped the benefits of the message).

The movie suggests that just by standing there thinking the thought of how you'd like to use the camera for personal gain it will trigger a photo that incorporates the new events. I think you just have to treat the mystical powers of the camera as curing the chicken and the egg problem.

Lastly, this movie reminded me of a classic Homer Simpson quote . . . https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mS9LCR5P5wI

[–] joolztoolz 9 years ago

In this case, it's unclear how present self sends the message to future self to provide the race results in the first instance (remember future self who held up the results wasn't just sending a message to past self, future self had already reaped the benefits of the message).

The movie suggests that just by standing there thinking the thought of how you'd like to use the camera for personal gain it will trigger a photo that incorporates the new events.

It would seem that way on first glance, but the camera always records what had happened in the future. Not 'will' happen in the future, but what already happened in the future. So, even though they are in a linear time illusion, they realize they can watch the races the next day, tape the results to the window, get them the night before and make bets based on the winners.

The reason they could do it at first was that they had already done it.