FAQ for
Primer (2004) More at IMDbPro »

The following answers may contain spoilers. Spoiler tags are used sparingly (if at all) to make the page more readable.

There is a very nice summary of what was happening in the article "Primer: The Perils and Paradoxes of Restricted Time Travel Narration." It is by Jason Gendler, a Masters student in Critical Studies at the University of California's Department of Film and Television, and was published in the December 2006 journal called Nebula.

Gendler describes some of narrative techniques of the film and distinguishes what we see occur on screen, versus what is depicted in narration and montage, and what we must deduce and or speculate.

In addition, there is a quite complex interpretation of the movie in the form of a timeline chart. This chart is unverified and does have inconsistencies with the film. According to this interpretation, there are at least 9 timelines in the story.

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First thing, I saw these guys as scientifically accomplished but ethically, morons. They never had any reasons before to have ethical questions. So when they're hit with this device they're blindsided by it. The first thing they do is make money with it. They're not talking about the ethics of altering your former self. So to me, they're kids, they're like prep school kids basically. To call it a primer or a lesson was the easy way to go. And then there's also this power they have in using the device is something almost worse than death. To put someone else in the position where they're not sure they're in control of anything. They're not in the front of the line anymore and they're living in someone's past, to be secondary in that world. The thing that is most important is to feel like you're at the front of the line, to be prime or primer. I definitely never wanted to say that in the film, but that's where it comes from.

From an interview of Shane Carruth by Wendy Mitchell April 2005

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The voice is Aaron, who has traveled back from the future in order to record the events of the following days. This Aaron had traveled back to that same morning and drugs his past self, locking him(self) in the attic (his wife believes the noise coming from there is rats; Aaron advises against spraying for them, pretending it's because the noise could be baby birds). The narrator then encounters an even older iteration of himself who has already made the recordings. They struggle and the narrator wins, but allows the older Aaron to proceed with the meeting with Abe after everything Abe will do is explained to him.

As to which party is being addressed in the phone call, there two likely possibilities, neither specifically confirmed or refuted by the film itself. The narration seems to be an attempt to prevent Abe from re-writing history so that Aaron will never learn of the time machine. So Abe cannot undo the events to come, the narrator possibly phones his drugged self to explain what he did, why he did it, and what Abe plans to do, feeling he owes himself at least that much. The second possibility is that he is phoning the version of Abe who as yet does not know of the events to come, attempting make amends for the fact that his (Aaron's) actions ultimately ruined (or will ruin) their friendship. As the Aaron who is speaking on the phone always refers to both Abe and Aaron as "he" or "they," as opposed to "I" and/or "you," it is imossible to definitively demonstrate which party is the addressee.

According to the writer/director Shane Carruth:

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That's purposely vague. Abe and Aaron each have a point in the film where they find themselves in someone else's past, and they both react a little differently to it. This is Abe's moment. This man [Granger] has found out about the machine and he's used it to come back, but they don't know from what point in the future or who told him about it. That's what spurs Abe to reboot the whole thing, that's how he reacts: let's redo everything and then I'm the one in control. It was important that the audience be in the same place that they are there isn't any way to know. That's the one big question that comes up, and I'm satisfied by that that's supposed to be the big question. I stuck with the rule that we were going to be with Abe, that we were going to see his experience.

Village Voice Interview by Dennis Lim published October 5th 2004

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On the DVD commentary track, Carruth suggests that Granger's daughter might have been shot by her ex, and either Abe or Aaron told him about the machine to allow him to go back and save her. [In a later part of the intervview with Lim, Carruth said: "What I think happened is that Abe told Granger about the machine."] This is how Mr Granger is able to be following them at night later on in the film, yet also be at home in bed to answer their phone call - at the same point in time. However, he does make it clear that this was not his specific explanation for the scene, but merely a likely possibility.

According to the writer/director Shane Carruth:

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This isn't really addressed in the film, but the reason Granger is unconcious is because he's suffering from recursion. What I think happened is that Abe told Granger about the machine. This man who's been told by Abe about the machine uses the machine to come back and somehow has an interaction with Abe so that now Abe probably won't tell him about the machine and yet he still finds himself there. Without coming out and saying it, the film is built on the idea that these paradoxes are a way to understand things. The universe is not going to explode or break down if you create a paradox. Whatever's going to break is probably going to be you.

Village Voice Interview by Dennis Lim published October 5th 2004

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It is a small toy called a Weeble, an egg-shaped object painted with features and weighted at the bottom so that they will remain upright (hence the advertising slogan "Weebles wobble, but they don't fall down").

The toys were popular during the '70s and '80s, but by the time Primer was going into production, they were no longer readily available. Shane Carruth describes his difficulties in securing one for the film via Ebay on the commentary track.