Time travel movies are often among the most complicated or confusing in the science fiction genre. In addition to well-known works such as Back to the Future, 12 Monkeys and Looper, there are also extremely unknown pearls of this kind to discover.
One of them is the ultra-low-budget film Primer from 2004, which was not available in Germany for years. The strip by and with Shane Carruth, which was shot for just $7,000, is now available as a streaming subscription from MUBI. Luckily also with German subtitles, because Primer is possibly the most complicated sci-fi film ever.
Primer is about a time travel breakthrough in the garage
In the sci-fi film’s plot, engineers Aaron, Abe, Robert, and Phillip build JTAG cards in their spare time to sell and fund science projects. After an argument, Aaron and Abe build a new object on their own, which turns out to be a special time machine turns out. Initially, they use their achievement for activities such as tracking stock prices, but the experiment soon spirals out of control.
There is an explanatory graphic for the Sci-Fi Mindfuck Primer
Even the explanations of the extremely dialogue-heavy film can overwhelm you, but with information about the reduction in the mass of objects and loops between entering and switching on the machine, Primer slowly warms up.
When additionally built boxes also come into play, Carruth’s sci-fi film becomes more and more of a completely overwhelming experimentwhich can hardly be followed.
It is not without reason that the German and English Wikipedia pages for the film have their own explanatory graphic that explains the time travel in Primer. Even with that, many won’t be able to follow the story of the sci-fi mindfuck to the end.
As an extremely low-budget debut, Carruth’s work does not require any special effects and relies purely on the script and dialogue. In the simplest way, the director proves that how highly complex he can tell storieswhich are otherwise implemented in a rather complex manner with much higher budgets.
Primer only cost $7,000, but the film ends up being more complicated and challenging than any expensive time-travel-themed blockbuster movie.
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