Hollywood & Time Travel #HotTubTimeMachine
#TalkNerdyToMeLover's Awesome Applesauce: Charles Quevedo
When it comes to "time travel", Hollywood has had a long-time fetish for the topic. It doesn't matter that the theory is filled with paradoxes and conundrums and that we're usually left scratching our heads at the confusing Quantum Mechanics of it all, the film studios still makes movies about it and the audience still enjoys watching them. For decades, Hollywood has entertained us with the whole idea, throwing out the rule book in the process and putting their own creative spin on it.
"Time-travel" -- the ability to travel back to any point in the past or future -- is a very cool concept. Who hasn't imagined physically traveling back through time to the 8th grade and getting revenge upon that school bully that made your life a living hell (by picking on you every day) by giving him a much deserved "swirlie" (hanging a person upside down over a toilet, his head in the toilet bowl, while it is flushed)?
The ideas of "time travel" has existed for centuries, long being the subject in literature before the movies got a hold of it. While Hollywood churns out a movie about the topic every one to two years, one must wonder if the film studios are having a hard time keeping the "time travel" stories fresh and original these days. In the past, we've seen movie characters break the time barrier in all sorts of inventive storylines.
While NOT all "time travel" movies listed below make use of technological devices, they are all quite original in their own way:
"The Time Machine" (1960) -- (H. George Wells, A Victorian Englishman, builds a time machine and travels to the future where he finds that humans are at war with the underground cannibalistic Morlocks).
"Time Rider: The Adventure of Lyle Swann" (1982) -- (Lyle Swann, a dirt bike rider, competing in a multiclass vehicle cross-country race in the desert, accidently stumbles upon a time travel experiment that utilizes "macer velocity acceleration" and finds himself sent back to the Old West).
"Bill & Ted's Excellent Adventures" (1989) -- (Two San Dimas teenagers, Bill and Ted, use a time machine phone booth to abduct famous world figures in order to prepare for a historical presentation).
"Back To The Future" (1985) -- (Marty McFly, a teenage slacker, accidently travels back through time in a DeLorean time machine and meets his parents. When he accidently interferes in his parents' first meeting with each other and them falling in love, Marty plays matchmaker).
"12 Monkeys" (1995) -- (James Cole, a convict in the future, is sent back through time to gather information about a man-made virus that devastated the planet).
"The Philadelphia Experiment" (1984) -- (Two U.S. Navy soldiers, David Herderg and Jim Parker, are part of the USS Eldridge's "anti-radar" experiment in 1943. When something goes wrong with the experiment, they finds themselves accidently transported to the future in 1984).
"Somewhere In Time" (1980) -- (Richard Collier, a American playwright, is smitten by a vintage photograph of a stage actress, Elise McKenna, at the Grand Hotel. Falling in love with her, he uses "self-hypnosis" to time travel back to 1912 and romances her).
"The Time Traveler's Wife" (2009) -- (Henry DeTamble, a Chicago librarian with a genetic disorder causes him to randomly time travel as he tries to build a romantic relationship with his true love, Claire).
"Time Cop" (1994) -- (Max Walker, a U.S. Federal agent for the Time Enforcement Commission, uses a "time sled" to time travel back 10 years in the past to save his murdered girlfriend).
"Click" (2006) -- (Michael Newman, an overworked architect, is given a "universal remote" by an eccentric store clerk. Michael finds that it allows him to control the universe... and in particular, controls "time"... being able to fast-forward and rewind to different parts of his life. Complications arise when the remote starts to overrule his choices).
"Peggy Sue Got Married" (1986) -- (Peggy Sue Bodell, an unhappy woman who wished her life turned out differently, faints at her 25th year high school reunion and discovers that she has time traveled back into her own life as a high school senior).
"Deja Vu" (2006) -- (Using a time machine that the FBI has in their possession; ATF agent, Doug Carlin, travels back in time to save a woman from being murdered, falling in love with her in the process).
"The Sound Of Thunder" (2005) -- (Travis Ryer, leader of Time Safari expeditions, takes clients back in time to hunt dinosaurs for an extraordinary price. When a hunter accidently steps on a butterfly, it sets off a chain reaction that alters reality in disastrous ways).
"The Butterly Effect" (2004) -- (Evan, a young man suffering from childhood traumatic events, discovers that when he reads from his adolescent journals, he can travel back in time. He takes the opportunity to alter those tragic events, but makes changes to his own history that becomes more worse than the last).
"Terminator" (1984) -- (Kyle Reese, a soldier from the future, travels back to 1984 to protect a woman who will someday give birth to the future leader of the resistance against human hunting machines called, "Terminators").
Whether the "time travel" storylines are good or bad... fresh or stale... the film studios will keep making them and we'll keep watching them. It's the whole wonderment of it all that keeps us glued to the screen. With "time travel"; the possiblities for thrills, drama and "fish-out-of-water" hilararity is endless.
One last thing, "Hot Tub Time Machine", probably the most original of the "time travel" movies to come out so far, officially comes out to the public on March 26, 2010. The movie is about four guy friends who are all bored with their adult lives and travel back to their respective 80's heyday life... thanks to a time-bending hot tub. I missed the opportunity to catch a sneak peek of it 2 weeks ago with Talk Nerdy To Me Lover's very own "Jen Friel" (who hosted a special screening of it) and others. I'm hearing some good things about it. From the look of the movie trailer, it seems it could make a lot of money at the Box Office the very first weekend. I don't know about you, but I smell a success. If you're aching to catch a movie this weekend, check out "Hot Tub Time Machine"... that's what I'm gonna do.
Follow Charles on Twitter: @FuglyCharlie