Paradox: The Time Travel Podcast

Finally, we've come to the smoking hot Harry Potter spawn in stage play form of time travel: "Harry Potter and the Cursed Child" -- our first play!

The "eighth" Harry Potter book (which is actually a script) takes a bit of what was started in "Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban" and kicks it into high magic time travel gear. Over the course of the two-part play, a couple of dumb kids make every time travel mistake pretty much ever. Albus Severus Potter and Scorpius Malfoy are basically Marty McFly if the general time travel ineptitude of History's Greatest Intern was paired with a wanton disregard for any sort of smart planning or awareness of consequences.

It's a lot of fun!

And hey we found a video of someone (kinda) answering the question we had about how you say "Cursed Child." We're going with Curs-ed.

In this episode:

Finally, we've come to smoking hot wizard-children-mess-with-the-time-space-continuum-with-zero-adult-supervision of time travel: "Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban."

We're prepping for our next episode, in which we're covering the newly released stage script, "Harry Potter and the Cursed Child." To get in the mindset for a wizardly time travel story, we're checking out a (much more compact) wizardly time travel story. Azkaban might not be as time travel-heavy as "Primer" and the other films that we've covered here, but that doesn't mean there's not plenty to break down.

You know, like the many failed timelines in which Harry and pals were (most likely) brutally mauled by a werewolf.

In this episode:

Finally it's blah blah blah smoking hot "Primer" episode blah blah blah way too long here you go. It's Part 2 of our double-wide episode on the technically proficient and complex "Primer."

Quick note: By now you'll have seen the "Part 2" up there in the headline. Ridiculously convoluted as "Primer" is known to be -- believe us when we say it's one of the movie's charms -- we wound up recording an insane, double-wide near 2.5 hours of episode for this one. As such, we've split Episode 14 into two parts, hopefully making it more digestible for you, our beloved listeners. Both episodes are live simultaneously, so if you're looking for Episode 14, Part 1, this is your link.

In this episode:

In the next episode of Paradox, we'll be hitting up some magical time travel with "Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban" (movie not book), in order to lead into the newly released script, "Harry Potter and the Cursed Child."

Finally, we've come to the smoking hot ridiculously-convoluted-best-friend-betrayal-so-you-can-look-baller-at-a-party of time travel, "Primer."

Often exalted as one of the best time travel movies out there, "Primer" is a 2004 indie film written and directed by, and starring, Shane Carruth. In a big way, it's one of the most technically exacting time travel movies, and it's often thought of as being pretty difficult to follow as a result. But that's why we're here!

As always, you're going to want to make sure you've watched the movie before listening, because we're going to spoil the hell out of it. We'd also recommend you watch it more than once. Like, at least twice. And the second time, probably you should turn on subtitles, because it'll help you catch some snatches of dialogue that are essential to the plot but easily missed.

Another quick note: by now you'll have seen the "Part 1" up there in the headline. Ridiculously convoluted as "Primer" is known to be -- believe us when we say it's one of the movie's charms -- we wound up recording an insane, double-wide near 2.5 hours of episode for this one. As such, we've split Episode 14 into two parts, hopefully making it more digestible for you, our beloved listeners. Both episodes are live simultaneously, so if you're looking for Episode 14, Part 2, this is your link.

Without further adieu, listen to Episode 14, Part 1!

We enjoyed this handy plot rundown from qntm.org. We consider this one pretty damn close to a definitive read on the movie (although we have a couple spots where we take issue, as mentioned in the episode). This rundown is also great for seeing key time travel moves and drawing clear lines from lines of dialogue and character motivations to how they play out in the film.

In this episode:

In the next episode of Paradox, we'll be hitting up some magical time travel with "Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban" (movie not book), in order to lead into the newly released script, "Harry Potter and the Cursed Child."

Finally, we've come to smoking hot viral-end-of-the-world-and-animals-inherit-the-Earth of Time Travel: "12 Monkeys." And "La Jetée," the short film it's based on, as well.

Look, this is our longest episode, and one of us is neck-deep in the hundreds of thousands of people-strong insanity that is Comic-Con. So go ahead and listen, because we're feeling a little nuts.

Also, one more mega-huge thanks to listener Tim Taber for his generous donation to the cause of talking about time travel movies!

In this episode:

Finally, we've come to the totally nonsensical "giant anthropomorphic turtles with googly eyes that make you uncomfortable" of time travel: "Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles III."

The lesser of the three original "Turtles" films, "TMNT III" includes time travel back to 1600s Japan for some reason. This is accomplished by a weird scepter, the rules of which make zero sense.

Somewhat in honor of the release of the "Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles: Out of the Shadows", the second movie in the new rebooted Turtles continuity that Phil rather likes, we're digging into 1993's ignoble end to the live-action "Turtles" movies. It's technically a time travel movie!

By the way, here's the ZZ Top song from the beginning of the movie that Nick incorrectly disparaged as being a knock-off of "Turning Japanese" by The Vapors. It makes sense in context!

We'll be hitting up the Terry Gilliam movie "12 Monkeys" on our next episode, combined with "La Jetee," the French short that inspired the film. You can check it out on Vimeo or (but you might want to find it in French with subtitles instead).

In this episode:

Finally, we've come to the smoking hot "1979 San Francisco riff on a classic time travel story -- but with Jack the Ripper also because that's awesome" of time travel: Time After Time.

Director Nicholas Meyer dives into H.G. Wells' novel The Time Machine, mixes in the story of an 1800s serial killer, takes the whole thing to San Francisco (just like he will with Star Trek in The Undiscovered Country) and tosses in the First Lady of Time Travel, Mary Steenburgen.

Then things get weird, as Time After Time is alternately an adventure story, a fish-out-of-water comedy, and a story about gruesome murders. It's pretty awesome. Although the time travel doesn't make a ton of sense.

Yup, the hit super-violent fantasy TV show Game of Thrones went ahead and somewhat haphazardly introduced time travel. So welcome to a very special bonus episode of Paradox, in which we attempt to make some sense of the extremely limited tidbits of information presented in Game of Thrones Season 6, Episode 5: "The Door."

(Spoiler alert from the future: They never did explain the time travel and it never did make sense.)

The "bonus" part of this episode is that it's a short one, mostly because there are a ton of unknowns when it comes to Game of Thrones and time travel. We've only seen it a couple of times, it's perpetrated via magic, and for a while it appeared that what we (and Bran Stark) were seeing were visions of the past rather than the actual past. That is, until Bran yelled at his young father, Ned, during a scene earlier this season, and Ned heard him.

During "The Door," though, we go full time travel, and all evidence suggests we're looking at a time loop. Hopefully the answers to more questions, like what's actually happening, what the rules are, and whether time is an unalterable written-in-stone loop already, will be forthcoming by the end of Season 6. When we get 'em, we'll be back here to talk about 'em.

Meanwhile, pour one out for Wyllis, whose fate has literally always been to care and then die for Bran Stark.

Finally, we've come to the smoking hot "Goofy attempt to link a reboot to the rest of its franchise" of time travel: X-Men: Days of Future Past.

The second movie in the rebooted X-Men franchise (or are they prequels?) and the, like, ninth film in the X-Men continuity (or is it a continuity at all?), Days of Future Past introduces everyone's favorite plot device: time travel. In order to save the world from an awful fascist future full of killer robots, the future X-Men decide to send Wolverine (who else, when it comes to these movies) back in time to prevent a crucial event. Of course, that means needing to get the band of Professor X and Magneto and pals back together for some reason.

To cut through all the X-Men lore both filmic and comic, we've recruited our pal Dr. Bryan Carr, Ph.D., associate professor of Mass Media and Information Science at the University of Wisconsin-Green Bay. He's also a regular contributor to video games website Shacknews and a co-host of Shacknews' ChattyCast podcast. Find it on the site and iTunes, and follow him on Twitter at @Learnonaut. He's also super-smart, almost like some kind of ... mutant. Hmmmmmmmmmmmmm.

Also, we forgot to mention it during the show itself, but Jay & Miles X-Plain the X-Men's episode on Days of Future Past was a huge help in cutting through the gobbledygook in this episode. You should definitely listen!

In This Episode:
-How to Watch Timecop: Amazon, YouTube, Vudu, iTunes, Google Play
-New Donate button!
-Catching up with "Time Lapse"
-The weirdo, never again relevant opening scene of "Timecop"
-You Can't Kill Hitler
-You Can't Travel to the Future (Except When You Can and Do)
-Van Damme's Ass
-All About Entwood, McComb and a variety of time travel henchmen
-The Nonsensical time machine of "Timecop"
-Alternate 2004
-McComb is Terrible at Villainy
-The Same Matter Can't Occupy the Same Space
-Timeline Breakdown