Is Back to the Future the Clearest Explanation of Time Travel in Film?

[gopolks]

Doc Brown's explanation of time travel on the blackboard, in BTTF2, the best explanation of time travel I have seen in any movie.

 

[FlexGunship]

Doc Brown's explanation of time travel on the blackboard, in BTTF2, the best explanation of time travel I have seen in any movie.

This is unfortunate. Primer does a much better job. And several Heinlein books go even further: Time Enough For Love and ...All Your Zombies specifically. Even Isaac Asimov acknowledge that Heinlein was the best science fiction writer and would continue to hold that title until he died (Source: http://blogs.discovermagazine.com/gnxp/2009/04/heinlein-pulp-greatness/#.Ui8wp8ZjuSo)

If you find the fictional representation of time travel interesting then you should take some time and look towards the great authors who have done it justice.

That being said, everyone loves Back to the Future, AMIRIGHT?

 

[Bandersnatch]

This is unfortunate. Primer does a much better job.

Primer does a better job at explaining time travel? Are you serious?

Compare:

with:

...and that is even disregarding the fact that there was no such explanation in the film.

 

[phyzguy]

This is unfortunate. Primer does a much better job. And several Heinlein books go even further: Time Enough For Love and ...All Your Zombies specifically. Even Isaac Asimov acknowledge that Heinlein was the best science fiction writer and would continue to hold that title until he died (Source: http://blogs.discovermagazine.com/gnxp/2009/04/heinlein-pulp-greatness/#.Ui8wp8ZjuSo)

If you find the fictional representation of time travel interesting then you should take some time and look towards the great authors who have done it justice.

That being said, everyone loves Back to the Future, AMIRIGHT?

I still think Heinlein's short story "By His Bootstraps" is the best time travel story I've ever read. At one point there are four versions of the main character, each on his own timeline, all talking to each other trying to figure out what's going on. And yes, "Back to the Future" is great.

 

[rshreyas]

as soon as i hear i only remember about the book where a man invents a machine that could travel in time .he goes into the past where his machine will be lost . he somehow manages to find his machine he soon travels to the future and he sees that ,earth would be a worst place to live in .he comes back to his own time .it's an extraordinary novel .it was written by h g wells the first science fiction author.

 

[Curious3141]

as soon as i hear i only remember about the book where a man invents a machine that could travel in time .he goes into the past where his machine will be lost . he somehow manages to find his machine he soon travels to the future and he sees that ,earth would be a worst place to live in .he comes back to his own time .it's an extraordinary novel .it was written by h g wells the first science fiction author.

That novel is "The Time Machine". And he's hardly the first sci fi author. Even Jules Verne started writing years before him.

The first sci fi author or work is difficult to pin down - even the Sumerian Epic of Gilgamesh has been cited as the first sci fi work, but most would just consider it mythology.

 

[FlexGunship]

I still think Heinlein's short story "By His Bootstraps" is the best time travel story I've ever read. At one point there are four versions of the main character, each on his own timeline, all talking to each other trying to figure out what's going on. And yes, "Back to the Future" is great.

...All You Zombies is the revised title (in short story form) for By His Bootstraps. Same character and story.

Primer does a better job at explaining time travel? Are you serious?
[...]
...and that is even disregarding the fact that there was no such explanation in the film.

Primer's rules for time travel are consistent within the movie (as opposed to Back to the Future). Regardless of the complexity of the situations, Primer doesn't really have any logical issues. BttF has entire websites devoted to the comical plot holes.

http://www.denofgeek.us/movies/16532/the-plot-holes-and-paradoxes-of-the-back-to-the-future-trilogy