The Unknowable Answer: Questions About Primer (Primer Explained) 

The failsafe machine is a machine that had been running (in secret, in another room) the entire time in case Abe wanted to essentially wipe the slate clean of anything they had done. It's a reset button, essentially. To use the failsafe machine would be incredibly taxing, as one would have to stay in for the entire duration it was running in order for it to take them back to point A. Which explains (I assume) why Abe is so disoriented and collapses once he comes back to Aaron on the bench listening to 'march madness'.

This video literally explained nothing

This movie is a masterpiece. A director that inspires me to once make a 7000$ movie.

Wow. The "...we've been friends for a long time and built up trust..." quote immediately followed by the clip of [the original] Aaron discovering Abe's second storage room and failsafe machine REALLY hits home and shows the lack of trust between the two. You can see the look of sadness on Aaron's face when he sees Abe's failsafe (which Abe had kept secret) for the first time.

Platts, I believe, is a guy they approached for funding on a prior project, and ended up stealing their idea, which I assume would have been a lucrative one. When their friend says "Maybe we should get into it," I think he's implying that they should get a lawyer and try to sue him...

I know this post is pretty old, but I can't find any discussion about Primer that's any more recent. I have a question which NO ONE seems to be asking: When Abe first shows Aaron the machine at the storage facility, they're sitting on the bed of Aaron's pickup truck, and this is where Abe shows Aaron (without his earpiece) the fact that he's already time-traveled.. But shortly afterward, in the film, they pull up next to Aaron's truck in Abe's car! What has occurred in between? Am I missing something basic here? Abe also asks Aaron, "Are you sure you're OK to drive?" This scene has always confounded me. I assume they've both time-traveled, as Aaron asks Abe, "What did you do your first time through?" to which Abe answers, "I drove to Russelfield" or some such like. But nobody has even discussed this part of the film, that I can tell. I've read The Primer Universe, and there's nothing in there about it. So...does anyone know the answer to this? Great video anyway! Thanks for this

I always thought it strange that Abe seems out of it, lying on the floor, in the scene right after they first test the machine. Before the "coffins". I think the time distortions begin at that point, before he even invents the failsafe. If I'm right, then there is literally no way to have ANY idea what exactly is happening after that point in the movie.

hilariously sad to see the amount of people who missed the point. great video

Nice work - best clarification of primer I have seen, and no need for timelines! Well done.

They talk so fast I never realized they straight call him hero in the garage. Like the "regret" thing too. So many shows movies tell you alot in the names and I hadn't thought to look at that here. I swear I've seen this movie six times and I havent even started I suppose. Thank you. Why all the downs?

I found this to be a really amazing and extremely insightful video.

U made the video to explain the movie.....I will make a video to explain this video....

very well made sort film that explains a lot about this movie!

When Thomas Grainger went into the box and which one. Was symmetry break the cause? Did Aaron touch him and some energy event occurred?

im convinced that abe is the protagonist and aaron is the antagonist of this story

This video is as brilliantly edited and the movie 😎👍

Are the quotes more than arbitrary quotes involving the word "primer" in different ways? I mean, they sort of feel connected, but I'm not seeing any explanatory purpose to them.

Wonderfully edited and thorough. Thanks!

God, I watched this movie for the 50th time last night and just watching your review makes me want to watch it again. I also want Shane Carruth to get funding for more of his films. Especially the one I heard about him wanting to make. (Do some research)

I always thought that he told Granger because of the Platt incident. Something went wrong and he told Granger and Granger went back in time to try and fix it. A lot of videos say it was the party, but that isn't true

The only part I still don’t understand is Granger finding a coffin. How!?

Even with all the other youtube explanations there's is still so many things left unanswered

I need to revisite my film to understand exactly. I enjoy Upstream Color a lot.

abe thinking ahead of aaron with the failsafe never made sense to me. aaron is clearly a lot smarter and a lot less inhibited by morals than abe so he should have everything figured out a lot faster than abe. the only way i can make that work is that abe built it out of worry, a few iterations in when he understands the ripple effects of the box and getting out at the A end. it is somewhat believable that aaron in his greed driven quest to use the box for his own profit might overlook a failsafe due to a money induced kind of tunnel vision. ive watched this movie many times and read many interpretations of it and i always had trouble with that part. if im still way off im fine with it, this movie is so brilliant that i welcome its complexity to make me look a fool in youtube comments. basically what im saying is that i kind of want aaron to have been in complete control over abe for the entirety of the movie. the earpiece suggests this but the failsafe does not, and i think aaron not building his own failsafe is unlikely. if abe thought of it aaron would have too.

you really should remove the: (Primer Explained) part from the title.

Beautiful work!

16:03 go back and tell myself to not click this. No I dont want to see it again.

well that sucked

I mean 2:00 He cant write like a normal person anymore and they didnt even have began to build the machine

The entire timeline with all the characters actually makes sense. The Aaron who went to France built a bigger machine that could allow food and supplies inside and he is the one who traveled back to tell his former self to leave for France and then completed the timeline. He also sent the phone message to the original Abe to ensure that the second Abe who was trying to destroy everything would not succeed. The most likely explanation for Granger is that Rachel and Abe (Rachel's boyfriend) got killed at the party. Then Aaron saw this as an opportunity to get money from Granger to save his daughter. He had to let Granger travel back in time to see that his daughter was saved. That is why Granger had about 3 days beard growth because he was hiding away from his original Granger for all these days after his daughter was saved planning to meet Aaron that night to give him his reward. Aaron likely used Abe's Platt idea as a way to meet with Granger to get his reward. The night the new Granger met the new Aaron was likely the night the original Granger had traveled back with the old Aaron, and so Granger went comatose and eventually died so that there would be no paradox since in this new timeline Rachel had not died and it became clear that the original Granger would not travel back in time to "become" the new Granger. Aaron realized that he could not get the reward from Granger and actually briefly lost consciousness when trying to interact with Granger who should not be there due to the paradox (Aaron did not slip and fall). Abe especially would go unconscious when near the new Granger due to the paradox since his life was saved in circumstances involving the original Granger who would no longer travel back. Abe also felt his life was in danger from paradoxes (and maybe it was) so he tried to end it all by going back to the beginning and stopping the original Abe from inventing time travel not realizing that stopping time travel would cause the new Abe's death. There always had to be a plausible way to get to the current state from past events and when there wasn't it would lead to a paradox and any disappearances required with individuals going comatose and dying to restore a plausible history for the current state. For example, with the new Granger comatose, Abe and Rachael could continue to live in the current timeline since they had never died in the new consistent history, but if Abe succeeded in stopping time travel there would be no plausible way for the new Abe or the new Aaron to exist and so both of them would definitely die. Aaron this time was much smarter and when he went back he was dedicated to stop the new Abe and to complete the timeline not for Granger's reward -- which he now knew he could not get -- but so that he could avoid the consequences of paradoxes and complete the timeline to continue to live. That is why he was very invested in succeeding when he returned the second time because now he realized it was life and death. One of the most interesting twists is that when Aaron returned the second time realizing the life and death nature of his survival mission -- much more committed than the earlier Aaron he met who just wanted Granger's reward -- he realized that if he locked up the other Aaron it could create another paradox -- so there had to be a way for the other Aaron to fit into the timeline. Hence the trust agreement between the two Aarons -- after explaining to the other Aaron that there is no way to get Granger's reward and that it has become a life and death struggle -- they agreed that the other Aaron would leave to another country so as not to interfere with current events that may cause any paradoxes and that he would leave with the set folded time machine box that the new Aaron came out of and later embed this into a bigger box so that he could travel back over a longer time period and plausibly "become" the third Aaron himself. Having traveled back over such a long time period from France the new third Aaron would obviously be weaker and unable to overpower the second Aaron which is why a convincing dialogue was especially important. In the scene we see (the last one with the third Aaron coming from France) we see him wearing clothes from France that are different from the clothes he wore in America. To be sure that the second Aaron shared the life and death nature of the third Aaron's survival mission, the third Aaron likely assured the second Aaron that if the third Aaron went comatose due to paradox from failure of the second Aaron's mission in France, then the third Aaron would not be able to wake up the original Aaron at the appropriate time and show him how to use the time machine to "become" the second Aaron, and this would lead to a paradox that would cause the second Aaron also to die. The various timelines are the equivalent of the many-worlds and consistent histories interpretation of quantum mechanics similar to Schrodinger's cat. All the consistent plausible histories exist simultaneously except when they must be observed and then one consistent history is chosen to display. However, all histories must be consistent to avoid a paradox. For example, the third Aaron who came to speak to the second Aaron is both the Aaron who traveled from America after meeting Granger and the Aaron who traveled from France after meeting the third Aaron as they both exited the machine at the same time and became the same person. For purposes of display, we are shown the third Aaron who came from France. Reply Reply

awesome!

I need a diagram to explain this RU-vid video.