Yeah, but why did he stab himself? And why did he take off the woman's clothes? (SPOILERS!)

[Orrex]

Watched Time Crimes last night. An unexpectedly cool time travel romp, and a novel take on this too-often-hackneyed plot device, but I can't figure out how the whole causal chain got started in the first place.




Some well meaning soul will likely suggest that I watch Primer, to which I say thank you, but I found it rather dull.

[taterguy]

1. It helps to put what you're spoiling in the OP

[Orrex]

2. But I'm only spoiling it for people who already know what it is

And, since it's about time travel, that sort of makes sense.

[Dr. Strange]

3. I still haven't watched Primer.

But in Time Crimes, I got the feeling the main character almost knew as soon as events started that he had no choice but to act them out as he saw them. A sort of ambivalent Kwisatz Haderach, if you will. (Oh yes you will!)

[Orrex]

4. I concur, but...

It's clear that the Hector we meet in the opening scene is not the "first" Hector, but it's still not clear why the woman was nude before "Hector Prime" showed up, nor who would have stabbed "Hector Prime" or why the first Hector-on-Hector stabbing took place at all.

A quite enjoyable film, but a little unclear in a way that I don't think is greatly helpful to the story.

[Dr. Strange]

5. That's the mindfuckery.

On the one hand, having a nude female out in the woods is completely absurd--like the director just wanted to sneak in some T&A for the viewers' prurient interest. But the absurdity just highlights the fact that there is no sane reason for Hector to have her take her clothes off. He does it because that's what he saw, and he seems intent on carrying out the actions as he saw them.

This Red Dwarf take on the same phenomenon is awesome:

[Orrex]

6. I knew that there was a technical term for it

In the way that you describe it, it's reminiscent of Vonnegut's Tralfamadorian worldview, in that the event must happen that way because that's how it's structured. It has always happened that way.

How could poor Hector possibly overcome that sort of mindfuckery?