Paradox??
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crs_unlimited — 17 years ago(November 25, 2008 09:21 AM)
Technically you are right. This is a paradox. David is returned to his original time at the end of the movie. Therefore he would never have been reported as missing in the first place. There should have been an older David in the future as he was returned.
On a side note. He didn't time travel 8 years into the future. It took 8 years on earth for him to go to Alpha Centauri and be experimented on and then brought back. He hasn't aged because of the theory that when you travel faster then the speed of light time slows down for the traveler. -
timgdx — 16 years ago(January 29, 2010 01:50 AM)
He hasn't aged because of the theory that when you travel faster then the speed of light time slows down for the traveler.
More precisely, and it's not theory, when you travel at any speed time slows down for the travel. Time dilation is only apparent at speeds approaching the speed of light. The assumption is that at speeds FASTER than light, time reverses. -
imdba1 — 16 years ago(January 29, 2010 02:24 PM)
Actually, it is a theory in the strict sense of the term. Time dilation has been observed on trans-Atlantic flights.
One interesting thought that I've had about this is what stops different parts of one's body from existing in different times? While it might not be perceptible, there would still be some. If you move your arm back and forth, it is traveling at a different speed. -
PsychoDragonX99 — 16 years ago(March 17, 2010 11:09 PM)
might not be a "paradox" but a really severe and possibly head-exploding headache trying to figure it out altogether! LOL.
But yes, I believe one of the other posters explained it best (forget which one). David was abducted & placed on a separate timeline than his own. He was "missing" for 8 years, and since he would most likely be labelled "David-Prime" (meaning original or #1), David-Prime was simply returned to his own time a slightly later than falling into the trench.
Max the ship/computer simply just placed him in the same area as the trench, just was off by a few years. -
cjsks — 15 years ago(June 02, 2010 08:49 AM)
You are correct. However, just to clarify, traveling forward in time is entirely possible. As you accelerate toward the speed of light, time slows down. This effect is observed everyday on a small scale, on satellites in orbit, particle accelerators (like the large haldron collider), etc.
Going back in time, at the end of the movie that's the paradox. -
Fozzy_Fozzbourne — 14 years ago(January 28, 2012 10:45 AM)
How about going with the Parallel Universe idea, and Max and David landed in a parallel universe.
Anything that can happen, will happen, so what are the chances of jumping into a parallel universe, a place where an alternate david was missing for 8 years and simply goes nack to hia reality where he was missing for 2 hours -
3PocketCharlie — 14 years ago(February 07, 2012 12:15 PM)
In stories where paradox is not directly addressed, I take it like this: David left 1978 and came back in 1986. He was in 1986 for a few days. Then he went back in time to 1978. For the few days, that timeline existed only for David (and Max). No one else would ever experience that timeline.
All glory to the Hypnotoad -
10fttall — 14 years ago(March 04, 2012 05:49 AM)
I agree with this interpretation. Even though David travels back to 1978, he does not do this until the end of the movie, so technically, those few days in 1986 took place "before" David is returned to his family on July 4, 1978. Therefore, there is no 20 year old David in the 1986 that is shown in the movie.
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ispamforfood — 13 years ago(November 28, 2012 12:46 PM)
The answer lies in what those in the movie "Deja Vu" call the "branching universe theory" Or the Many-worlds Interpretation.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Many-worlds_interpretation
Right now, we are alive And in this moment, I swear We are infinite. -
Isnam777 — 13 years ago(December 29, 2012 10:51 PM)
I don't know if any of this makes a difference in the "paradox" so if it does someone please explain it for me. A couple things have changed even if the alternate timeline in the movie is erased: 1)Max and the aliens who built it still have the knowledge gathered by Max's expedition (even if the alternate timeline doesn't exist) and 2) Max still has memory of the alternate timeline so I'm guessing this makes both David and Max certified inter-dimensional travelers.
Also something to consider, the little alien creature David keeps from Max at the end of the movie is proof that that alternate timeline took place somewhere/sometime.
Lastly, whoever said David didn't travel into the future is correct, it's only stated at the end by Max that they will travel through time to return David to where he was supposed to have been returned to in the first place. Apparently time travel was the only real dangerous thing they did in the movie.
Peace is not the absence of affliction, but the presence of God. ~Author Unknown -
EightiesKid — 12 years ago(May 06, 2013 06:09 PM)
There's two basic kinds of time travel in movies - a single timeline that's always changing (i.e. Back To The Future), or as a single fixed timeline (i.e. Bill & Ted) where changes have always happened.
We can rule out the fixed timeline in this movie, considering that 12 year old 1978 David obviously shows up in 1986, and because he still has the creature with him at the end, along with his memories of Max and his adventure. It's just like Back to the Future's single changeable timeline, so my theory is that, once David is back in 1978 (more or less "in his own time", albeit a few days older), the 1986 version of his parents and his brother Jeff we saw in the movie, ceases to exist.
Put it this way, if a time traveler were in '86 at the very end of the movie, the timeline probably would've immediately changed around them to a universe where 20-year-old David had always existed (just with his memories of the trip years before).
It's like how Marty all throughout Back to the Future would remember his nerdy dad and alcoholic mom from the beginning of Part 1, and all his adventures throughout Part 2 and 3, despite those timelines no longer existing. -
chrisjdel — 9 years ago(August 24, 2016 02:37 AM)
Yes, this movie is aimed primarily at kids and young teens (and us nostalgic adults who first saw it at that age). They weren't going to get too deep into branching timelines and stuff like that. David made it back where he belonged. Whether it was exactly the same place he left or just indistinguishable from it hardly matters since there was no sequel. And the idea that the future family he met now lives in a world where he's gone and will never come back is kinda depressing, so they never brought it up.