Recently, I have been a little obsessed with time travel movies and shows. There are a few movies on Netflix (The Endless, Time Trap, In The Shadow of the Moon) and one show on Amazon (Undone) that I would recommend for the sake of entertainment. Undone is fantastic. In the Shadow of the Moon is time/action and Time Trap is a time/romantic comedy/life lesson kind of movie.
Time travel is fascinating because of the linear way we live our lives and because of two facts: we cannot change the past and we will die someday. We all would change something in our past if we could (and don’t give me that crap about life is perfect the way it is and I wouldn’t change anything in the world for it, because I know there is at least one drunken night/person you would take back or one mean thing you did as a kid that you would change without much consequence). Me? I would go back and start learning an instrument at a young age. Though, that would create some major rifts in the space-time continuum and Doc Brown would flip his shit. Great Scott, I wouldn’t want to do that.
Having said all of that, I would not go back or forward in time to change anything. Not even to kill Hitler. How the hell would I do that anyway? No, I would travel through time to observe everything. I would go back to when the Earth was first being created. I would watch the cooling of the planet and watch the mountains and rivers form. I would watch life spread across the lands. I would watch the really good shit like the building of the pyramids and the Great Wall of China. I would spend aloooooot of time in the 1960s and 1970s watching The Beatles and Pink Floyd. And, of course, I would check out the dinosaurs!
Then I would travel forward and watch what happens next. Not right to the end, but slowly, like in fast forward. I would want to watch how we colonized the Moon and Mars and travel to distant galaxies (living out our Star Wars dreams). Or if we totally fuck things up in the next hundred years or so, I want to watch that too. I want to see who survives and how. I want to see the new world that is built over our metallic one. Hopefully, I see a civilization living with and for the Earth and animals, instead of trying to conquer and consume everything. I want to see aliens come down and nod their heads and be like, “Yup, they got their shit together. Now, let’s go share our technology with them.”
We all want to change something but we can’t. There is no all-mighty Reset button. There is no second chance. So, what we can’t have is what we want. I think that is why the idea of time travel is so seductive and entertaining. Besides just being an easy way to bring back all the cool characters after writing yourself into a corner (Avengers, cough, cough).
If I was able to travel through time, I wouldn’t change anything because I believe there is a balance to everything. The Universe knows what it’s doing. There’s no need for some pasty ginger to go back and ride a tyrannosaurus-rex.
Or is there?
Author’s Note #1: I would also cut my mullet that my mother and sisters allowed me keep when I was seven because I said it kept my neck warm in the winter.
Author’s Note #2: Seriously though, go watch Time Trap. It’s got all the good feels. Tell your girl or guy you got a good one for your chill night.