The central theme to Shane Carruth’s Primer
is one about how the advancement in technology can potentially lead to
unpredictable events caused by the technology. As Abe and Aaron discover the
time-travel capabilities of their invention they begin exploiting it to make
money in the stock market. However after they begin time travelling they soon
observe odd things happening. They discover the father of Abe’s girlfriend (Rachel)
in a vegetative state caused by time travel. Abe and Aaron never revealed to
Rachel’s father their machine, implying that his discovery of their machine
could have been made through their doubles. It is also revealed later in the
film that Aaron’s double actually drugged the original Aaron. Here the audience
see’s the negative consequences of the duos invention. They created a machine
that they did not entirely understand or could predict and thus became victim
to unforeseeable “side-effects” of time-travel. In the end the two part ways as
they cannot agree on what to do with the time travel device reinforcing the
idea that it is impossible to predict all possible consequences of a technology
and the great potential new technology has to disrupt and even harm our own
lives.
No comments:
Post a Comment