MovieChat Forums > Retroactive (1997) Discussion > Did you notice the flaw?

Did you notice the flaw?

posted 19 years ago by Bob_Brooker
7 replies | jump to latest

The time machine is build to send objects back in time. People would keep their memories and items their condition. In the opening scene the scientist sends a rat and a tape back in time to prove the success of the experiment. However the tape doesn't behave like it should do. The scientist (re)enters the room and finds the camera loaded with the tape that should, by the logic of the film, still rest in his pocket. It's there twice now - once blank and once recorded. That's inconsistent with the fact that people aren't copied but replaced.

Live spelt backwards is Evil

[–] 19 years ago

[deleted]

[–] 19 years ago

[deleted]

[–] Bob_Brooker 19 years ago

>>There shouldn't be a tape in the camera but the tape in his pocket would include the interview.
exactly, the double tape thing was just a cop-out on part of the director.

>>PS: Did you see it on German TV?
yes mate, twice: tuesday and thursday

Live spelt backwards is Evil

[–] 19 years ago

[deleted]

[–] jones8557-1 14 years ago

I also had issue with the opening scene. Subjects of the experiments shouldn't have any memory of the event, however, the rat remembered it would die if it ate the cheese.

[–] wonderfibre 14 years ago

Yes they would - the whole film was built around the fact that the people travelling back in time remembered things!

[–] GMEllis625 11 years ago

The problem with the opening scene is that the person is sent back to an exact moment in time, but just the memories, not their physical body. So the rat is alive and remembers getting killed by the rat trap, but the machine should not have been physically replicated. If the time machine replicates then there would have been two rats and two tapes; if the time machine sends the entire physical body back then the rat would be dead; if the time machine only sends back the memories then the tape would be blank.

The rest of the movie is pretty good about maintaining the premise of how the machine works--only people who go through the machine remember what happened during that alternative time period.

Of course this (and virtually ever other time-travel movie/TV show) ignores the "space" part of the space-time continuum: traveling back in time also requires you to move through space. For example, moving back 6 months means the Earth is 300km away on the other side of the Sun (not to mention that the Sun is traveling through space and is in a completely different place.