Alguém pode explicar a sequência de eventos em 'Primer'?

Primer é um filme muito complexo e difícil de ser entendido na primeira exibição. Isso se deve ao fato de que só vemos uma pequena parte dos acontecimentos reais na história, e as cenas não estão em ordem cronológica correta .

Isso é difícil de detectar, já que as cenas parecem se encaixar uma após a outra, mas às vezes são reprises de uma cena que é reproduzida pelo tempo viajando versões mais antigas dos personagens, resultando em estranhas comportamento ou diálogos.

Uma coisa a se esperar é o fone de ouvido que Aaron está usando em algumas das cenas. O Aaron do futuro registrou todas as conversas anteriores, viajou de volta no tempo, substituiu seu eu anterior e tenta recriar os diálogos dessa maneira, às vezes falhando (por exemplo, na cena do basquete, onde ele perde o arremesso). Então, toda vez que você vê um fone de ouvido, sabe que essa cena não está em ordem cronológica.

Eu recomendaria ler este ensaio muito bom , estudando a linha do tempo postada na resposta do OddCore e, em seguida, revisando novamente filme uma ou duas vezes. Isso me ajudou a entender o filme a um ponto em que posso mais ou menos dizer o que está acontecendo.

Aqui você vai . Uma imagem que descreve os 9 diferentes cronogramas do filme:)

A explicação mais fácil que já encontrei sobre o Primer pode ser encontrada em um artigo em um site de ficção científica / astronomia :

1. Inventors Aaron and Abe try to develop technology capable of making the mass of objects lighter by blocking gravity, but instead inadvertently invent a time machine.

2. Abe then builds a time machine big enough to hold a human being, and successfully proves time travel exists by going back to earlier that day. However, a person can only travel back in time as far as when the machine was activated, and one must stay inside the machine for the length of time one wishes to travel to the past, thus placing a limit on the amount of time travelling you can do.

3. In secret, Abe also construct a “failsafe” machine which in the event of something going seriously wrong he could use to reset the timeline. The “failsafe” basically allows him to travel back to a time before he discussed the subject of time travel with Aaron. Abe would then be able to sabotage the machine as many times as necessary to get Abe and Aaron to abandon their time travel efforts.

4. Over the next couple of days, Aaron and Abe travel back in time and make money investing in stocks. There is also an unfortunate incident at a party in which a shooting occurs, and Thomas Granger (Abe’s girlfriend’s father) apparently finds and uses the time machine, but becomes sick and ends up in coma. (A possible explanation could involve Granger traveling back to stop his daughter being shot by her ex-boyfriend at the party)

5. Realizing the dangers of time travel, Abe decides to use the “fail-safe” time machine and after traveling four days in the past he meets Aaron, and collapses. In a twist, Abe them discovers that his fail-safe did not seem to work and that the Aaron he meets is actually an Aaron from the future.

6. It turns out that Aaron knew about Abe’s failsafe box, and used it to take another foldable time machine back and create a “near-failsafe” point farther back than Abe’s, whilst creating a “false-failsafe” point” for Abe’s time box. (Aaron wanted to keep using the machine).

7. Aaron has used this twice in an attempt to set right the incident at the party, which he feels he indirectly caused. The problem with going back in time to “fix” things, though, is that the original copy of themselves are walking around in that timeline. To resolve that problem, whenever Abe or Aaron independently travel back to change events, they drug and render the earlier versions of themselves unconscious, before hiding them out of the way while they complete their task.

8. In the end there turns out to be 3 Aarons (2 Abes) in this universe, the timeline of which involves the original Aaron1 being drugged by a future Aaron2, who then stowed him in the attic before Aaron2 is himself later drugged by Aaron3 who, like Aaron2, had also traveled back through time. Furthermore, Aaron uses a tape-recorder to record all his conversations, and with his earpiece is able to keep his interactions in the past virtually identical, whilst only influencing those things he wants to change.

9. Eventually, Abe2 and Aaron3 team up to fix the problem at the party, after which they part in anger and in effect are enemies. Abe2 then destroys the time machine, so that it can never be used by Aaron1 and Abe1 to time travel, and experience its realities. However, Aaron2, the film’s narrator, feels guilty about having locked Aaron1 in the attic and phones him to relate the experiences of himself (Aaron2) and Aarons3.

10. The movie ends with Abe2 warning off Aaron3 at the airport, and a scene in which Aaron3 is inside a huge hanger in another country, perhaps there to build a larger version of the time machine for an extended stay. Alternatively, it could be Aaron1 having being filled in with the details of time travel by Aaron2.