# No more time-travel movies? **URL:** \ **Category:** Cafe Society\ **Created:** [March 15, 2002, 3:54pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/no-more-time-travel-movies/98479 "2002-03-15T15:54:16Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 14\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![Skywatcher](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/skywatcher/32/254_2.png) [@Skywatcher](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Skywatcher)\ **Post date:** [March 15, 2002, 3:54pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/no-more-time-travel-movies/98479/1 "2002-03-15T15:54:16Z")
I watched _Frequency_ for the first time last night (see comments [here](http://boards.straightdope.com/sdmb/showthread.php?threadid=54818&pagenumber=2)) and it occurred to me that this movie probably couldn’t be made today. No movie which involves time-travel and takes place pre- and post-9/11/2001 can ever be made without incorporating an attemt to stop the hijackings. Just thought I’d share. ---
**Author:** ![Legomancer](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/779978/32.png) [@Legomancer](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Legomancer)\ **Post date:** [March 15, 2002, 4:22pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/no-more-time-travel-movies/98479/2 "2002-03-15T16:22:06Z")
Sure they can. Just like we have movies and fiction with people trying to prevent the assassination of Lincoln or Pearl Harbor some other event. Right now we’re really close to the event and it seems like nothing can ever be the same ever. But this will wear off, and we’ll be back to normal eventually. ---
**Author:** ![Bryan\_Ekers](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/bryan_ekers/32/183_2.png) [@Bryan\_Ekers](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Bryan_Ekers)\ **Post date:** [March 15, 2002, 4:28pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/no-more-time-travel-movies/98479/3 "2002-03-15T16:28:32Z")
Hogwash. _The Final Countdown_ (1980) showed a time-tossed nuclear aircraft carrier on the verge of heading off the attack on Pearl Harbour, but it certainly wasn’t the only post-1941 time-travel movie made. I don’t see any movies coming out _soon_ using Sept 11th as a plot point, but after a few years enough emotional distance might make it possible. I can easily imagine a remake of _Countdown_ in 2025 or 2030 involving the same basic premise (and probably the same ending). In the meantime, time-travel movies will still be cranked out. _Terminator III: Rise of the Machines_ should hit theatres next year. ---
**Author:** ![Protesilaus](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/82dd89/32.png) [@Protesilaus](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Protesilaus)\ **Post date:** [March 15, 2002, 5:59pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/no-more-time-travel-movies/98479/4 "2002-03-15T17:59:18Z")
There have already been plenty of time travel movies where the travelers don’t do things like try to kill Hitler, or save John Kennedy or Martin Luther King, or do anything else to prevent a prior disaster, even when there’s no reason why they couldn’t make an attempt. These ideas just never come up. Lots of travelers never even try and make money off their knowledge, which is something that should occur to even the least altruistically-minded. Just like in lots of fiction, people in time travel movies don’t always act the way real people would. ---
**Author:** ![Skywatcher](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/skywatcher/32/254_2.png) [@Skywatcher](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Skywatcher)\ **Post date:** [March 15, 2002, 6:03pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/no-more-time-travel-movies/98479/5 "2002-03-15T18:03:15Z")
I think you two missed my point, which was that movies taking place in _both_ timeframes would have to feature either attempts to prevent the hijackings or to prevent the loss of life from the collapses. I don’t expect time-travel movies to compeltely cease but, as **Bryan** said, it will take a long time for them to deal with the attacks. And I expect T3 to take place exclusively post-9/11. ---
**Author:** ![pezwookiee](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/9d8465/32.png) [@pezwookiee](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/pezwookiee)\ **Post date:** [March 15, 2002, 7:06pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/no-more-time-travel-movies/98479/6 "2002-03-15T19:06:16Z")
No, no, no, no. Because of something like 9/11 the idea of time travel becomes even more appealing. I’m not saying that anyone is going to make a movie that incorporates those event sinto a time travel scenerio anytime soon - that would be rather crass and insensitive - but, I think that huge events in people’s lives is what gets them to think “what if it happened this way? What if I could go back and change it?” This is a very basic human feeling and science fiction as a metaphor will continue to tapp into very basic human feelings. There is nothing wrong with this and it should be seen as a kind of an outlet. While there will probably not be any movies made directly about 9/11 time travel, that will be something in the back corners of viewers minds when they view these movies. And there will be a need for them more than before I think. For examples speciafically relating to the OP, please see **The Last Supper** in which several liberals meet and discuss whether or not they’d go back in time and kill Hitler. Something else that handled the idea of going back in time to change real-world events was the Lee Harvey Oswald episode of **Quantum Leap**. ---
**Author:** ![Skywatcher](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/skywatcher/32/254_2.png) [@Skywatcher](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Skywatcher)\ **Post date:** [March 15, 2002, 7:24pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/no-more-time-travel-movies/98479/7 "2002-03-15T19:24:54Z")
I think my thread title is giving people the wrong impression. I worded it that way for a reason: to get attention! 😛 I remember that episode of “Quantum Leap”. The problem of using a well-known event was worked around by having the First Lady also die in the original timeline, and the same deus ex machina will work with any historical event. ---
**Author:** ![friedo](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/f/8edcca/32.png) [@friedo](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/friedo)\ **Post date:** [March 15, 2002, 7:40pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/no-more-time-travel-movies/98479/8 "2002-03-15T19:40:59Z")
I always liked the premise of the TV show _The Paper_. It wasn’t about time travel, but rather the protagonist always received tomorrow’s newspaper, and would then venture out to prevent whatever disaster was going to happen. ---
**Author:** ![Skywatcher](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/skywatcher/32/254_2.png) [@Skywatcher](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Skywatcher)\ **Post date:** [March 15, 2002, 7:45pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/no-more-time-travel-movies/98479/9 "2002-03-15T19:45:53Z")
BTW: if such a method (i.e.: saving one instead of everyone) was used in connection with a 9/11 movie it probably wouldn’t be very popular. ---
**Author:** ![mobo85](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/b19c9b/32.png) [@mobo85](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/mobo85)\ **Post date:** [March 15, 2002, 8:23pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/no-more-time-travel-movies/98479/10 "2002-03-15T20:23:12Z")
> [@](#): > > \*Originally posted by friedo \* > \*\*I always liked the premise of the TV show _The Paper_. It wasn’t about time travel, but rather the protagonist always received tomorrow’s newspaper, and would then venture out to prevent whatever disaster was going to happen. \*\* Sorry to pick a nit like the monkey I am, but the show was actually called _Early Edition_. ---
**Author:** ![Dewey\_Cheatem\_Undhow](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/13edae/32.png) [@Dewey\_Cheatem\_Undhow](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Dewey_Cheatem_Undhow)\ **Post date:** [March 15, 2002, 8:55pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/no-more-time-travel-movies/98479/11 "2002-03-15T20:55:26Z")
> [@](#): > > \*Originally posted by pezwookiee \* > \*\*For examples speciafically relating to the OP, please see The Last Supper in which several liberals meet and discuss whether or not they’d go back in time and kill Hitler. \*\* [Total Hijack] Is this _ever_ gonna make it to DVD? I absolutely adore it. [/Total Hijack] ---
**Author:** ![hazel-rah](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/h/73ab20/32.png) [@hazel-rah](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/hazel-rah)\ **Post date:** [March 16, 2002, 1:46am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/no-more-time-travel-movies/98479/12 "2002-03-16T01:46:46Z")
So if I invent a time machine then I have an ethical responsibility to use it to correct every evil in human history? I don’t think so. I reserve the right to only use to it fend off alien invasions, and _only_ those alien invasions that start in England or Scotland in the sixties and seventies. In other time travel news, **Donnie Dark** is the best movie ever. -fh ---
**Author:** ![hazel-rah](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/h/73ab20/32.png) [@hazel-rah](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/hazel-rah)\ **Post date:** [March 16, 2002, 1:48am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/no-more-time-travel-movies/98479/13 "2002-03-16T01:48:31Z")
**Darko** ---
**Author:** ![White\_Lightning](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/w/f04885/32.png) [@White\_Lightning](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/White_Lightning)\ **Post date:** [March 16, 2002, 5:57am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/no-more-time-travel-movies/98479/14 "2002-03-16T05:57:08Z")
> [@](#): > > \*Originally posted by \*\*mobo85 \*\*\* > Sorry to pick a nit like the monkey I am, but the show was actually called _Early Edition_. That’s what I was gonna say. I love that show, I’ve been watching reruns of it recently on cable.