History Film / Primer

* TheEndingChangesEverything: The second act of the film involves the use of very limited Time Travel. However, [[spoiler:in the third act Abe learns that his friend Aaron has already used the time machine to change the past. So during the entire aforementioned second act, Aaron had actually been Aaron-from-a-week-in-the-future, manipulating current events for his own ends.]]

* [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tUzy-xPf0MI Step-by-step breakdown and explantion of the film's plot.]]
* And to top it off, it is so complex that it even frustrated [[Webcomic/{{xkcd}} Randall Munroe]], as can be seen at the bottom right of his [[https://xkcd.com/657/large comic about movie narratives]].

Shane Carruth later went on to direct (and write, produce, star in etc.) ''Film/UpstreamColor''.

* ShownTheirWork:

* ChekhovsGun: [[spoiler: Aaron's headphones.]];[[spoiler: Rats in the attic.]]

* HomemadeInventions: The time machine.

* CorruptCorporateExecutive: Platz is hinted to be one. At first, it seems like he's just your typical BadBoss but a bit of dialog earlier in the movie refers to an event that happened "last year" and one of the characters saying he knew someone with a legal background that knew about "cases like ours." Suggesting Platz took an intellectual property invented by the company (probably claiming that it was developed on company time with company resources, which is often covered in employment contracts.)

* NumberOfTheBeast: Although a loose connection, the coincidence is too glaring to ignore. Apparently from the time the box is turned on, to the time it is turned off it will undergo approximately 1300 cycles of forward to backward time. (This seems to be the case no matter how long or briefly the box is running.) If the number of cycles happens to be 1333 (an odd number, which is significant to the films plot) then the inside of the box will have 'experienced' each point (A and B, or turned on point, and tuned off point respectively.) 666 times.

* NumberoftheBeast: Although a loose connection, the coincidence is too glaring to ignore. Apparently from the time the box is turned on, to the time it is turned off it will undergo approximately 1300 cycles of forward to backward time. (This seems to be the case no matter how long or briefly the box is running.) If the number of cycles happens to be 1333 (an odd number, which is significant to the films plot) then the inside of the box will have 'experienced' each point (A and B, or turned on point, and tuned off point respectively.) 666 times.

* TimeIsDangerous: Excessive time travel causes strange physical problems in the protagonists: mysterious bleeding from their ears and deterioration of their handwriting. WordOfGod is that this is also a case of CloneDegeneration.

* ReedRichardsIsUseless: They invent a workable TIME MACHINE and the best use they can think of is to make money in the stock market?

* And to top it off, it is so complex that it even frustrated [[Webcomic/{{xkcd}} Randall Munroe]], as can be seen at the bottom left of his [[https://xkcd.com/657/large comic about movie narratives]].

Then something goes wrong. And that's when things get [[TheEndingChangesEverything really confusing]]. The ''plot itself'' is non-linear. Most of the plot -- including several crucial events -- is neither shown nor described, just ''{{implied}}''. And on top of that, the characters communicate almost exclusively in dense TechnoBabble.

-->--'''Abe'''

* TheSlowPath: In ''both'' directions. To go back two hours, you have to sit in the box for two hours.

* DeadlyNosebleed: A symptom of improperly performed time travel. He leaped out of the box late (early from his perspective.)

* WhamLine: [[spoiler:"I hope you're not implying that any day is unimportant at Cortex Semi." A WhamLine not for the words itself, but for the fact that Aaron says it even though Abe had failed to remember the line that prompted it, revealing that he was reciting the conversation from memory, too.]]. The lines before that also count, such as the fact that [[spoiler: Abe has a secret backup time machine which has been running for most of the movie.]]

* CloneDegeneration: WordOfGod for states that [[spoiler:doubles created via TimeTravel are imperfect copies. This is the reason for Aaron and Abe's earbleeds and the degradation of their handwriting when they begin altering their past.]]

Quite possibly the single {{geek}}iest film ever made, and one that brings [[TechnoBabble technical jargon]] to a new art form, it is also one of the most believable via its starkly straightforward presentation.

''Primer'' is a 2004 independent film, written and directed by Shane Carruth. ([[UpToEleven Also produced by Shane Carruth, starring Shane Carruth, edited by Shane Carruth, Shane Carruth as director of photography and with a soundtrack composed by Shane Carruth.]]) It was made on [[NoBudget a minuscule budget]] of $7,000, most of which went towards buying film stock. The film is a character-driven drama about two engineers who unexpectedly create a TimeMachine, and an examination of how TimeTravel (and the power it confers) affects them and their friendship.

* HeterosexualLifePartners: Abe and Aaron.

''Primer'' is a 2004 independent film, written and directed by Shane Carruth. ([[UpToEleven Also produced by Shane Carruth, starring Shane Carruth, edited by Shane Carruth, Shane Carruth as director of photography and with a soundtrack composed by Shane Carruth.]]) It was made on [[NoBudget a minuscule budget]]: $7,000, most of which went towards buying film stock. The film is a character-driven drama about two engineers who unexpectedly create a TimeMachine, and an examination of how TimeTravel (and the power it confers) affects them and their friendship.