Primer

2004

Action / Drama / Sci-Fi / Thriller

75
Rotten Tomatoes Critics - Rotten 79% · 130 reviews
Rotten Tomatoes Audience - Upright 79% · 25K ratings
IMDb Rating 6.7/10 10 120463 120.5K

distrust garage mathematics identity crisis time travel time machine

Plot summary

A group of fledgling inventors discover a complex method to manipulate reality. At first, they successfully game the stock market with it, but the consequences of the invention start to catch up with them.

Director

Shane Carruth Photo
Shane Carruth

Top cast

Casey Gooden Photo
Casey Gooden as Robert
David Joyner Photo
David Joyner as Rachel's Date
David Sullivan Photo
David Sullivan as Abe
Shane Carruth Photo
Shane Carruth as Aaron
720p.BluRay 720p.WEB 1080p.BluRay 1080p.WEB
710.45 MB
1280*714
English 2.0
NR
Subtitles us  
23.976 fps
1 hr 17 min
Seeds 26
646.41 MB
1280*714
English 2.0
NR
Subtitles us  
23.976 fps
1 hr 17 min
Seeds 18
1.43 GB
1920*1072
English 5.1
NR
Subtitles us  
23.976 fps
1 hr 17 min
Seeds 86
1.22 GB
1920*1072
English 2.0
NR
Subtitles us  
23.976 fps
1 hr 17 min
Seeds 98

Movie Reviews

Reviewed by dark1rey_ 7 / 10

"Here's what's going to happen."

You're going to watch this movie for the first time... and you won't understand it. It's that simple. Honestly, I don't think it's possible to grasp Primer in a single viewing, especially if you're going in with just the basics. And that's not a flaw - it's part of the design.Once it's over, you're left with two possible paths.The first option is to watch it again. And again. As many times as it takes until you start piecing the puzzle together on your own. This is the purest - and most challenging - way to approach the film: no spoilers, no external explanations, just your intuition, memory, and attention to detail. Trust me, two viewings won't be enough.The second option is to look for explanations. That's the one I chose. The video that helped me the most was "PRIMER (2004) - ILLUSTRATED EXPLANATION" by LondonCityGirl. Thanks to that, I was able to understand a big part of what was going on. Still, I kept digging, reading, and watching other analyses to catch more nuances. Primer is packed with visual clues, subtle gestures, and lines of dialogue that seem insignificant but carry a lot of weight.My first viewing was total confusion. And if I ever felt like something made sense, I was probably wrong.The second time was completely different. I started noticing connections, details I had completely missed before. But even then, I realized something crucial: even if you understand the fundamentals of the story, a lot still remains open to interpretation. And I'm pretty sure that if I hadn't looked up any explanations, I'd have been just as lost as I was the first time.My favorite scene is a specific one - an unexpected chase down the street - where the shift in tone, the music, the tension, and the atmosphere all come together so perfectly that I felt completely immersed in the film.
Reviewed by asabfatin 7 / 10

Fresh look at the sci-fi sub-genre of time travel

Pros-1. Charged with heavy scientific theories(half of which i don't understand) not dumbed down for the audience. Serves it's homegrown realism.2. High production value for a microbudget project. Shots feel calculated and cinematically composed. Once it kicks the sense of paranoia is always there. The dialogues are pretty naturalistic and creates the atmosphere of being accompanied by scientists(not seen that often). It feels homemade rather than cheap and that helps maintaining its low-key presentation.3. For a genre known for silly pseudo-science and not giving much thought about paradoxes it faces, this film started the trend of 'science based' time travel movies.Cons-1. Too much theoretical talks for exposition in the first act. Nearly lost me there.2. Convoluted plot, partially saved by the narration.
Reviewed by DD-931 7 / 10

The Pandora's Box That is Time Travel

I have to say this is an astounding movie to me. Not simply because it looks far better than a $7000 movie has any right to look (even if a distributor spent a hundred times that to "clean it up").This movie takes the ultimate advantage of it's budget to present a time travel story that is, in a way that I find rather unnerving, the most "realistic" portrayal of time travel I have ever seen. The "non-acting" of the actors, the shaky (yet sometimes quite sophisticated) use of the camera, the odd way the story plays out as semi-coherent...this film plays out as if it were actually made by it's protagonist (which, of course, it was). But what we discover by learning the story through "Aaron" is that the final result of time travel is, quite simply, madness.I had such a feeling of dread as this film unfolded. From the moment we see Aaron and Abe first watch the "other" Abe at the U-Haul facility, the full ramifications of what time travel really could lead to started to crystallize. It's not just the idea that God-like powers have been placed in the hands of flawed human beings...it's the concept that flawed human beings are continually pulled like magnets toward the temptation to trap themselves inside a nightmarish existence, for the most "logical" of reasons. Not only that, but the insidious way the ripple effect of tampering with reality through time travel spread and spread meant that, ultimately, no one would be safe from such a disastrous invention. To me, somehow the most terrifying moment of this film is when the wife talks about getting an exterminator to take care of the "sound in the attic." As soon as I realized what that sound was, it shook me.I will be thinking about this "imperfect" film for some time to come.
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