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The 10 Rules Of Time Travel
What movies have taught us about surviving trips through time...

The Time-Traveler's Wife is but the latest example of a movie trend: time-travelling never goes smoothly. Oh sure, jaunting back a few decades and placing a few bets, or buying last week's lottery numbers, may seem like a good idea, but it's rarely that simple. So for the day when your mad scientist sibling / room-mate / mad professor mentor finishes that flux capacitor, here are a few of the rules of time travel we've learned from the movies.

WORDS HELEN O'HARA

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The 10 Rules Of Time Travel | At All Costs, Avoid Your Ancestors The 10 Rules Of Time Travel
1. At All Costs, Avoid Your Ancestors
Back to the Future (1985)

Forget finding plutonium for your DeLorean's flux capacitor - what you need to remember is that when you mess around with the past, you mess around with the future. Hence when 17-year-old Marty McFly (Michael J. Fox) inadvertently drives his way back to 1955 and disrupts the moment that his parents first meet, the race is on to reunite them before his future self fades from existence. Living through a Freudian nightmare that no teenage boy deserves, Marty manages to catch his father peeping through ladies' windows and has his mother become sexually infatuated with him. Probably best to avoid your parent's dating-era altogether, come to think of it.

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Have Your Say
Can you think of anymore time travel rules to add to our list? Register or login now to have your say.

Your Comments
1
Posted on Wednesday August 19, 2009, 16:34 by richithekiller
.....oh no' I've gone cross-eyed. Read More

2
Posted on Tuesday August 18, 2009, 13:08 by Mycroft3
I was expecting the biggie from "Somewhere in Time." Don't take anything from the present with you, when you travel into the past. And Bill Murray isn't travelling in time at all in "Groundhog Day." He WANTS to travel but he's stuck there on the side of the road. Read More

3
Posted on Sunday August 16, 2009, 15:55 by stevetaylor
SSSHHHH DJ, SSSSHHHHH.... Read More

4 Excellent List!
Posted on Friday August 14, 2009, 15:30 by Kimmycat24
In the Star Trek reboot, old Spock (Leonard Nimoy) gives Scotty (Simon Pegg) the formula for transwarp beaming . I was a little confused by this at first. Old Spock then tells Scotty he was the one who actually invented transwarp beaming in the first place. Scotty would have discovered the correct formula eventually. Time travel can give you a headache! Read More

5 Nice list but...
Posted on Thursday August 13, 2009, 18:26 by ClaraDarko
...if you wanna see some really deep and enjoyable work about time travel movies, you must watch this amazing video: http://www.vimeo.com/4961023. Read More

6 you forgot one
Posted on Thursday August 13, 2009, 15:54 by The Kevmiester
the most important rule from austin powers: "just have fun (look at camera) and that goes for you too!" Read More

7
Posted on Thursday August 13, 2009, 15:19 by D.J
I always thought the plotline of T2 was a bit stupid. Read More

8 Not to be the geek here......
Posted on Thursday August 13, 2009, 14:37 by richm_drevil
But with the Bana time travelling in Trek (boy that guy gets around doesn't he) he effectively rewrites history as an alternate timeline away from the previous Trek. So the 2 Spocks are technically not the same Spocks ...... I think ........ ummm ....... so could be in the same place ........ er ...... god anyone got any Alka Seltzer? If I tried to think too much about the Terminator series of films and their time paradox, I think my head would go all Scanners explosive! Read More

9 Not to be the geek here......
Posted on Thursday August 13, 2009, 14:23 by richm_drevil
But with the Bana time travelling in Trek (boy that guy gets around doesn't he) he effectively rewrites history as an alternate timeline away from the previous Trek. So the 2 Spocks are technically not the same Spocks ...... I think ........ ummm ....... so could be in the same place ........ er ...... god anyone got any Alka Seltzer? If I tried to think too much about the Terminator series of films and their time paradox, I think my head would go all Scanners explosive! Read More

10 the time travellers guide...
Posted on Thursday August 13, 2009, 12:29 by chola1
surely "beware mulleted belgians" is a general life rule, not just a time travel rule? Read More

11 The Time Traveler's Guide
Posted on Thursday August 13, 2009, 12:28 by dm_imp
Nice! I have an alternative list: http://www.vimeo.com/4961023 Read More

12 The Time Traveler's Guide
Posted on Thursday August 13, 2009, 12:17 by dm_imp
Nice! I have an alternative list: http://www.vimeo.com/4961023 Read More

13 The Time Traveler's Guide
Posted on Thursday August 13, 2009, 12:16 by dm_imp
Read More

14 Time Traveler's Wife
Posted on Thursday August 13, 2009, 11:50 by BJThomas
I think I understand why Eric Bana loses his clothes when time travelling - genetic malformity and all that - although you'd have to worry where the line is drawn about what is part of you and what is not? Lots of bacteria living in the gut which are quite essential - wouldn't these be left behind? Don't understand Skynet though. Sending naked robots in order to show off their creative plastic moulding, I suppose. By the way, on the subject of The Time Traveler's Wife, where's the review? Day before and still nothing for it (or for Aliens in the Attic or A Perfect Getaway), surely it's a wide enough release for you to get some opportunity to screen it. Read More


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