Missing scene
There is a scene missing: how do they come up with the final show/ report and make it so good? It’s never ever said or thought about until it just happens.
shareThey have a time machine, they literally have an infinite amount of time to rehearse.
shareBut the clock in San Dimas is always running, so technically that isn't true.
"But the clock in San Dimas is always running, so technically that isn't true. "
This is the silliest trope in time travel movies; how do you have a time limit when you have a time machine? By artificially creating either stupidity (Marty McFly choosing 10 minutes instead of two weeks) or some kind of illogical time limit (this movie).
San Dimas is not a time, it's a location. A clock does not define time, it only measures it.
Therefore, 'clock always running in San Dimas' makes no sense.
From a time traveler's perspective, there is no "permanent now", and a time can't be 'running' in any 'chronological coordinates', because the time machine can travel to any point in a timeline.
Let's say it's 12:00 noon in 1985. An hour later, it's 13:00 pm in 1985.
But if you are in 1885, from your perspective, you can always go to 12:00 noon in 1985, or friggin' 09:00 am in 1985.
(I am leaving out months and other details to simplify the explanation)
So you can travel from 1885 to 1978, 12:00 noon. You can travel from 1978 to 9000 BC. You can travel from 9000 BC to 9000 AD.
Why would anything be 'running' while you time travel? From your perspective, only the place you are in is 'running', and everything else is frozen still. From the time traveler's perspective, time is a solid line that you can pick any point freely at any time.
You can spend an hour, a day or a year in 1885, and it doesn't affect your ability to then travel to 1985 12:00 noon exactly the second you left, or one second earlier, or two weeks earlier, or you name it.
Why would 'clock always be running in San Dimas'?
Only so that the movie can happen, not for any other reason. From a time traveler's perspective, that kind of notion is complete nonsense.
The 'clock is always running' is the point. Forget San Dimas. But that is what Rufus said.
this means that no matter where they go, what they do, how much time they spend in the past of future, the clock is always running forward and they will run out of time to do their report.
This makes no sense in terms of the movie as they should be able to loop it over and over again without the ripple.
I can totally buy that the clock is running in San Dimas.
Its like your own personal clock is always running , and that time is added to your departure time on return.
sort-o-fing.
Yeah, I never liked the whole 'clock in San Dimas is always running' bit.
Especially because, in the scene where they rescue the historical characters from jail, it's made clear that they time travel back several time to set up situations which will benefit themselves. Why can't they just time travel as much as they want, and then make it back in time for their presentation?