MovieChat Forums > Johnny and the Bomb (2006) Discussion > Did you spot the Paradox !!!!!! ***SPOIL...

Did you spot the Paradox !!!!!! SPOILERS

posted 18 years ago by Ruarie1
11 replies | jump to latest

If Johnnys grandmother had died then her and his grandfather couldnt have concieved Johnnys mother.So in turn Johnny couldnt have been concieved and wouldnt have been able to go back in time that very day to change every thing becuase he hadnt yet been born.He also wouldnt have been able to meet whom he thought was his mother in the shopping centre because it is biologically impossible that she would look exactly the same as she did when she was johnnys mother.I hope this makes sense. Any views on the matter? btw i actually liked the show!!!!

[–] seagull1997 18 years ago

His grandfather in the show was his PATERNAL grandfather so his father is the one not born not his mother

[–] Ruarie1 18 years ago

Aaaaaaahhhhhhh I see.... In that case Johhny would look diffrent since he would have a diffrent father, but his mother didnt know who he was.So Johnny never could have been concieved, therefore it is still a paradox

[–] kerravon 18 years ago

Well yes, in so far as if Johnny wasn't born, he wouldn't be running around trying to do the mess he inadvertently started - but there wouldn't be much story in that.

Time-travel stories normally ignore the "if you weren't born, you wouldn't be here to fix the problem that stopped you being born" paradoxes - Back to The Future is probably the only one I can recall that indicated that there was only a finite amount of time before, erm, time sorted itself out and the not-born character would end up not existing at all.

Good show, mind.

[–] kestersmith 18 years ago

I've not read the book, but i would bet my left ear that Pratcehtt explains the nature of this time travel.
In the discworld books time is described some thing like "it has a way of sorting itself out" so any butterfly effects are kind of removed by fate i guess

[–] gailjelley 18 years ago

This is actually different to the book. I haven't seen the series, but Johnny's grandmother doesn't die and he never meets his mother when she doesn't know who he is. In the book, Wobbler gets stuck in the past and he meets his grandfather and stops him getting together with his grandmother. Hope this helps

[–] mark6785 18 years ago

Its impossible to make a time travel story without this paradox!
go on - try to name one that does
They all just explain it slightly differently, one of the odder ones being the "timequakes" experienced after someone had just been back in time in, er, wot was it, with kris kristofferson . millenium that was it.

butterfly effect:
When that guy goes back and spikes his hands as a child, and then his cellmate watches the wounds appear and thinks he's jesus - once he got back to the future the wounds would have been there since he was a child.
There is just no way round this stuff.
dosent mean you cant enjoy a good time travel story though.
Think about it too much and you'll end up levering your brain out of your ear! as Terry used to say.

[–] s-shipway 18 years ago

TP uses his 'trousers of time' to explain this - in other words, it is alternate timelines. Johnny has to fix things to get back on 'his' timeline.

As was already mentioned, in the book it is Wobbler who is not conceived, and Johnny and co. switch between the two different timelines.

[–] andy-evans 17 years ago

My only problem with the discussion is that the "paradox" idea is an idea that has never been proved and is based on understanding that comes predominantly from literature. Time travel, if it ever occurred might be completely different from anything that has been written about or filmed etc. WHY does the butterfly effect happen? Nobody can really know until one day it DOES. Until that time I will continue to enjoy fiction as simple storytelling that I like and not get hung up in "that can't happen in time travel!" because you don't know and nor do I.

[–] GolightlyHolly 17 years ago

From what I'm reading here, it sounds like the whole Wobbler thing isn't in this? - which is disappointing, because I thought that was an extremely clever, funny, and sad part of the book.

I haven't seen it (obviously) - how long is it? Is it movie length, or episodes?

[–] mark6785 16 years ago

yeah the wobbler thing is in it.
its roughly movie length, i think they aired it in two ,1 hour long episodes.

*first post on this board in 14 months..... *

* * * ** tumbleweed . .

* * * * *

[–] fox1205 15 years ago

to s-shipway:

Oh finnaly, someone gets the princip of the trousers of time.
Thats the only way it can happen.
And thats the way its meant to be.
Dont you get it?

Did you spot the Paradox !!!!!! ***SPOILERS***

Did you spot the Paradox !!!!!! SPOILERS