Why not go back in time about a day before the terroit attacked...
and get homeland security to stop him before the theft?
shareThey explained at 9:19.
Still they could have gone back an hour before the terrorist arrived in NJ and surprised him
Because they said they knew when the guy went back to, but not where exactly. Kind of hard to surprise him if they had no idea where he would appear.
shareWhat they REALLY should do is go back in time and kill him as a baby.
shareWhich could have tons of other unwanted butterfly effects.
Ever seen Star Trek: City On the Edge of Forever? McCoy goes through an alien portal to 1930's Great Depression era, saves some woman from getting hit by a bus, and as a result all of Starfleet and the Enterprise ceases to exist. The woman creates some peace movement which prevents the US from entering WW2 and Nazi Germany ends up taking over the entire world.
Point is that one change to a past event could have unimaginable future effects.
Your point would be better if they didn't change history already! ;)
shareKind of hard to surprise him if they had no idea where he would appear.
I thought that was the main purpose of the history lady on the team.
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If vampires hate "plus signs" - imagine how they feel about the "square root" symbol. share
I just checked, and see no such explanation. They explain they're limited in how they can track the other pod, but they don't need to track anything. Just go back two days and install better security around the lab. Don't forget to pocket the pod's keys or remove some vital part, just to be certain.
The first pod never gets stolen, the bad guys are dead, and the entire series vanishes in a poof of logic.
Practically all problems are easily solved this way, once you have a time machine. That's why good time machine fiction is so rare.
The writers gave themselves the limitation of not being able to go back within their own lifetimes, or back to a time where they've already been (can't be two of the same person in the same place/time), which prevents them from doing what you suggested. It's sort of arbitrary but sort of makes sense at the same time, and gives the writers a reason for doing what they do in the show.
I still think Primer is one of the best time travel movies made so far. Even though it full of super-technical dialog, and got boring at times, the science and physics of being able to travel through time pretty well line up with time travel theories postulated by Professor Stephen Hawking. Basically to travel back in time, your "machine" would have to run and you be in the machine for however long you're traveling back. So to go back 1 day, you would have to stay inside the "machine" for the equivalent of 24 hours.