It is actually very simple.
In the linear non-multiverse version of time travel as seen in this film any given moment in time happens only once.
For example, Dec 6th 1980... The day Nimitz left Pearl Harbor happens only one time though Owens/Tideman experiences it twice, the day itself happens only one time.
When Nimitz goes back in time to 1941, That year does not happen a second time. It happens only once.
James Farantino's character of Owens/Tideman is not him being two separate people. He is one person living only one life in one direction from birth to death.
He was born sonetime in the late 1940's grows up and joins the Navy as a pilot. Becomes CAG of the Airwing assigned to Nimitz. He travels back in time with the carrier and gets left behind in 1941.
He continues to live on from that point, taking a false identity as Tideman. He gets rich using his knowledge of the future. But ge is still the same man living one continuous life growing older.
By the time He reaches the year 1980 again, he is now an old man. Sometime after 1980 he passes away.
From Birth, to death, he has lived only a single life. One man.
Because of time travel , he exists as two different beings at the same time because his life overlaps itself. But he exists only as a single person still. He is not inhabiting two bodies at the same time. As Tideman, he is only aware of himself as Tideman. He does not control the thoughts or actions of Owens. Owens to him is 40 something year old memories. As Tideman he can no more control Owens as you can control the actions of your ten year old self. You can remember what you did as a ten year old. You have memories of your actions. But you as an adult cannot control your ten year old self. Those actions are years into your past.
If you were to travel back in time to when you were ten. You as an adult still cannot control your ten year old self. even if your adult self and your ten year old self exist at the same time.
To think of it another way, an analogy I use that works pretty good....
Imagine time itself as a side walk. Each slab of the sidewalk is a year. You can only move along the side walk in one direction in increasing years. You cannot move backwards on the side walk. No one can.
Now imagine a person's life as a rope.
One end of the rope is your birth.
The other end of the rope is your death.
The length of the rope is the entire span of your life.
As you experience your life you move along the rope from beginning to end.
Your "Self" Your awareness... exists only at a single point along that rope and you cannot repeat any portion of your life. you move inexorable from birth to death. you cannot repeat you teen years as a teen or you 20's or any other part of your life. You can only have the memories of what has passed.
Your life rope is laid out on that sidewalk of time. The start of the rope is on the slab of sidewalk that is the year of your birth. The length of rope is laid out along the sidewalk and the end of the rope is on the slab of sidewalk marking the year of your death.
Time travel then... is the rope of your life looping back on the sidewalk to an earlier slab.
A looped rope may run parallel to itself for a time. just as Owens/Tideman did. But the sections of rope are still two very different points along the length of the rope.
I was a teen in 1988.
If as a 25 year old, I travelled in time to 1988, I do not become a teenager, I am still 25.
I experience 1988 twice. But 1988 only "happens" once.
There is only one slab of sidewalk labelled 1988. That slab exists only at that single point in time.
Now my life rope may loop back on itself and run parallel to itself over the slab labelled 1988, and I will experience the slab twice. Once at a 19 year old kid, and again later as a 25 year old man. but each experience happens only once.
I joined the Navy to see the world, only to discover the world is 2/3 water!
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