Ask Mike: Time travel
Hey Guys,
This weekend, a movie that is destined for greatness hits theaters: “Hot Tub Time Machine.” Yes, I really am that excited. While “HTTM” is the first movie to combine time travel with a dirty Jacuzzi, it’s far from the first flick to send characters back or forward in time.
To many moviegoers, the genre began with “Back to the Future,” that timeless flick (bad pun intended) from 1985 in which a teenager played by Michael J. Fox travels back to 1955 and runs into the teenage version of his parents. I’d argue that BTTF is the most famous example, but the genre started a long time earlier.
Near as I can tell, the first major movie to feature time travel came in 1931, when Will Rogers starred in “A Connecticut Yankee in King Arthur’s Court.” Of course, that was an adaptation of Mark Twain’s classic novel, and not an original story. Twain’s novel, more comedy than science fiction, was published in 1889. “The Time Machine,” by HG Wells, was published several years later. Bartleby writes that “The Time Machine” “launched the time-travel genre.”
In the years since those books (and later movies) brought the idea of time travel to the main stream, there have been dozens of films that take audiences either back or forward in time. “Planet of the Apes” whipped Charlton Heston thousands of years forward to an era when primates rule the Earth and speak with English accents. “Peggy Sue Got Married” took the opposite approach, sending its protagonist back to her own high school with the knowledge that her future husband wasn’t all he was cracked up to be.
There has been considerable debate among people who are much smarter than me on whether or not time travel is really possible. Some say that no matter how much you trick your silver DeLorean or hot tub, time travel is a scientific impossibility. Others, including Albert Einstein, have argued that “time is simply what a clock reads.”
So, two questions for you guys. First, what’s the all time greatest time travel movie? And second, do you honestly believe we’ll ever time travel? Leave a comment below, and I’ll see you in the future (well, next week).
Thanks for reading,
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I’m glad to read this blog!
I also like watching movies, I hope we can be friends
I’m not sure if I like it because I’m a child of the 80′s or because it really is fantastic, but I love ‘Back to the Future’
‘Back to the Future’ is great because it explored so many areas the casual moviegoer wouldn’t be expecting;
The grandfather paradox, alternate realities and time-travel to name a few.
‘Back to the Future’ also showcases a stylized version of the 80′s and 50′s that is both charming and a kind of time capsule that viewers who lived in either era can look and feel that warm nostalgic feeling. Those who didn’t grow up in those eras can get a glimpse at what they missed.
The screenplay balances science fiction, comedy and action/adventure into one movie, and not many can say they’ve done this, or done it so well.
HTTM does look good
Good blog. Humorous and witty. BTTF was good. There were few other movies which were good. Like Butterfly Effect, Time Machine, Total Recall to name a few. All these movies had big common fault, but I guess that is the case with any time travel. If you go back in time and then time in question has been altered and it will keep on happening over and over again. You are back in time and your the then self is there too (if it is there) or you see someone else (if you were not present at the time). These ‘sightings’ will be recorded somewhere and hence when u r back in present, u would go back again, once time reaches that point where you originally traveled back. Same goes the rule for future travel.
Time travel is possible but only metaphorically. U have recording devices in which u can visit your memories oh so many time. Like VCRs, tape players, cameras, DVDs and such.
Physically it is impossible to travel in time either in past or future. Whatever has past us, it has been vaporized. It is only a form of energy. It hasn’t been destroyed but it has changed its form. Future hasn’t been created yet, so u can’t be there.
This is my argument and I hope someone proves me wrong!
I really like Back to the Future best, but I like Butterfly Effect and many others. I thought about writing one myself (I occasionally write books), but haven’t gotten around to it.
I hope Time Travel wont become available. People are greedy and could really screw up something (Like Biff did in BTTF 2).
If one was to build a time machine why is it that some peoples theories say that it will only work with the time it was built. How can you travel further back then the time machine was built. What would you use to. communicate to send a message if you were to speak into the past ? Could you communicate with sound how would you calculate the time you would go. How would you turn it on and off