Paradox: The Time Travel Podcast

Finally, we’ve come to the smoking-hot group of middle-aged friends reliving their cocaine-fueled glory days in an ’80s comedy of time travel that is “Hot Tub Time Machine.”

There aren’t a ton of time travel comedies out there, but “Hot Tub Time Machine” manages to be pretty funny, when it isn’t being a little overly sexist and very 2010. Still, a few great time travel and 1980s comedy gags thanks to the very solid casting of Crispin Glover.

Turns out, “Hot Tub Time Machine” has a lot in common with “Back to the Future,” in that it has some pretty sad and weird implications about traveling back in time, changing everything about your life, and then returning to the present to a life you don’t recognize with loved ones you’ve never met before. Hilarious!

Finally, we’ve come to a smoking-hot question and answer episode of time travel, rounding up some interesting questions from our amazing listeners. It’s Q&A time!

In this bonus episode, we dug up a bunch of questions listeners have put to us on the various social media channels for Paradox, like its Facebook page, the Facebook page for “So You Created a Wormhole,” and our Twitter accounts, @philhornshaw and @hewizard. (You can use them to ask us questions too!)

While we always get back to people on those social places (or at least we think we do), we figured it might be nice to make the answers a little more public. We also figured that we owed a second episode for the last couple of weeks, given that we were absent for a bit thanks to work obligations, child rearing obligations, and Comic-Con obligations. We didn’t go this year, but it’s Comic-Con; you never really leave.

So here’s a bunch of questions about various movies we’ve covered on the podcast. Below you’ll find the timestamps for each question so that if you’re not up on a particular movie or episode, you can skip it to avoid being ruthlessly spoiled by questions and answers. You’ll also find links to the episodes for each question, should you need a refresher.

Super mega huge thanks to all our Paradox listeners and to everyone who took the time to write us questions — you’re amazing and we appreciate you! Hopefully these answers are up to spec, but if not, feel free to catch us on The Internet, where we’re always excited to dig into the nitty-gritty even further.

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After this, check out our new episode for “Hot Tub Time Machine!”

Finally, we’ve come to the hellish murder cruise of parenthood of time travel that is “Triangle.” For real, this is one Phil, as the resident horror movie fan, has been looking forward to for a while.

This is definitely one of those movies you need to watch before we talk about it. More than the usual spoiler warnings here! “Triangle” is best experienced with zero understanding of it. The fact you’re reading about it here, on our time travel podcast, is already a spoiler!

Did you watch it? Okay. Moving on.

“Triangle” is a 2009 horror movie that sneaks up on you as a time travel film. Though it never received a lot of fanfare, it’s pretty impressive as both a horror movie and a time travel movie, getting a lot of the usual issues right throughout. Melissa George’s protagonist character, Jess, is a solid time travel protagonist who understands her plight pretty quickly. Of course, things still don’t go well for her.

It’s also a testament to writer and director Christopher Smith that “Triangle” is among the most internally consistent time travel movies we can think of. That’s doubly impressive because it’s a horror movie, where playing fast and loose with “rules” is often part of the approach, since feelings like fear and dread are paramount. So kudos to Chris!

At least one of us is also excited to talk about a horror movie, something we don’t get to do too often. Sorry if it sounds like Phil is gleeful about murder and dismemberment — he’s not! At least, not outside the confines of horror films. Probably.

We also talked about the similarities between “Triangle” and another movie: Nacho Vigalondo’s “Timecrimes,” or “Cronocrimenes” in its native Spanish (an altogether even-cooler-sounding title, really). We recommend checking out the movie, then listening to the Paradox episode on “Timecrimes” as well.

Finally we’ve come to the adaptation of a tragic 1950s Robert Heinlein short story about really cruel timeloops that is “Predestination.”

Yup, it’s been a long time. We’re pretty sure some old man stole our car and messed around with the radio presets and other buttons, and long story short, it’s 2018 and our Creedence tapes are missing. …I may be mixing my movie jokes here.

Anyway, it’s “Predestination,” the 2014 Sarah Snook and Ethan Hawke vehicle that adapts what might have felt like an eminently unadaptable but classic 1959 Robert Heinlein short story, “All You Zombies.” As we say in the episode, if you haven’t read “All You Zombies” or watched “Predestination,” we suggest watching the movie first — the twists (of which there are a ton) hit a lot harder if you don’t have experience with the short.

We definitely suggest checking out “All You Zombies” if you haven’t (although it’s very similar to what’s in the movie) because it’s one of those time travel stories that has inspired a lot of others. As we don’t advocate piracy, here’s an Amazon link where you can snag a Kindle version.

Heinlein wrote a couple of these intense timeloop stories, and “All You Zombies” followed another crack at the idea: “By His Bootstraps,” which Heinlein wrote 18 years earlier, and “The Door into Summer,” published in 1957. “By His Bootstraps” is another short story whose influences can definitely be felt resounding through time travel stories, and both works are worth checking out.

Another book we mentioned in this episode: “The Man Who Folded Himself,” by David Gerrold. Written in 1973, it also digs into the idea of time travel and meeting yourself, and the weird identity entanglements that can result thereof.

Finally, we've come to the smoking hot cycle of endless, painful death matched only by the endless monotony of life (but, you know, funny) that is "Edge of Tomorrow."

Tom Cruise’s foray into time travel takes a lot of cues from Bill Murray’s “Groundhog Day,” but adds a sci-fi angle and throws in aliens. It’s cool, goofy, and hilarious, and it has a terrible title.

“Edge of Tomorrow” puts together a pretty solid time loop movie from those ingredients, and does well to avoid some of the issues loop movies struggle with by placing itself right in the middle of the loop, fully aware. And that works out pretty well, all things considered.

And Cruise is pretty great at getting murdered repeatedly, but in hilarious ways.

Oh, and that book Phil was trying to find at the end of the episode? It’s called “Replay,” by Ken Grimwood. Not Recall. That’s not a thing. Anyway, you can find it at the bookseller of your choice — it’s Paradox recommended!

Finally, we've come to the smoking-hot mystery at the Circle K of time travel that is Bill & Ted's Excellent Adventure.

Strange things are definitely afoot for Bill and Ted, but as far as time travelers are concerned, the two confused San Dimas high schoolers are actually pretty damn good at this. Ted intuits how nonlinear causality works on pretty much his first try, which is something that is often the undoing of most other time travelers.

And while “Bill & Ted” might be a bit heavy on deus ex machina for getting its heroes out of tight spots, it still pretty funny and only slightly cringy.

Finally, we've come to the smoking-hot Imagine Dragons concert of a time travel movie, of time travel: "Project Almanac."

After a ridiculous nine-month delay brought on by familial responsibilities, job responsibilities, and excuse-making, the Paradox podcast is finally back! We’re sorry.

We’ve powered through, though, and we’re finally back with an episode about Peggy Sue Got Married! Oh, wait, no, for some reason we didn’t do that even though it had been requested, and we hopped over to Project Almanac instead. We’ll come back to you, Peggy Sue and Nicolas Cage doing that voice for some reason.

Meanwhile, sci-fi found footage tale Project Almanac starts off strong, but quickly gets lost in the time travel, mostly because it never really establishes any rules. Sure, fixing your chemistry test and watching an Imagine Dragons concert is cool, but these supposedly genius kids never consider things like the Butterfly Effect or the Marty McFly “Close Enough” Axiom. And what’s the deal with David’s dad? They never explain that.

Finally, we've come to the smoking-hot excuse to watch Denzel Washington be smoking hot (in several ways) in a movie of time travel: "Deja Vu."

The Tony Scott-directed, Denzel Washington-starring movie is a consummate action vehicle that actually does pretty well with time travel. It's also the movie that originally inspired "So You Created a Wormhole: The Time Traveler's Guide to Time Travel." After watching it way back in 2006 (or whenever), it was "Deja Vu" that led us to look into trying to explain time travel stories.

As it turns out, though, "Deja Vu" is pretty solid. And Denzel rules.

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Finally, we've come to the smoking hot British-comedy-about-a-time-travel-bathroom of time travel, "Frequently Asked Questions About Time Travel."

By popular demand, we're diving into the 2009 comedy that mixes a bit of a "Shawn of the Dead" vibe with some time travel tropes, some "Back to the Future" gags, and some generally nerdy discussions of why Hollywood puts out a bunch of crap sequels instead of great sci-fi movies, because jeez.

All the knowledge of every sci-fi movie ever can't save "FAQ" from getting lost in its time travel ideas, however. Still pretty funny, though!

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Finally, we've come to the smoking hot six-foot Halloween bunny hallucination from the future of time travel, "Donnie Darko."

Way back from 2001 comes a broody teenage angst story that's also about time travel, God, sacrifice and parallel universes. "Donnie Darko" is a weird case because it has an original cut of the movie, which is pretty, uh, ambiguous, and a director's cut that is significantly less ambiguous, but no less confusing.

The good news is, we've gone through both versions in our analysis in Episode 17! The bad news, this is our longest episode (and it feels like we keep saying that).

This handy breakdown explains a lot of what's up with "Donnie Darko." And here are a ton of more details, including the pages of "The Philosophy of Time Travel."

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