Primer (2004) - The Bench scene

Primer is a film about a lot of things at once—two struggling engineers striking out on their own, into a far more complex world than they’re ultimately prepared for, further complicated by the inclusion of recursive time travel; past, present, and maybe-future versions of both main characters running around with parallel, divergent or opposed goals, even in the same scenes. The whole movie winds up being a kind of liminal space.

The one scene that best makes the case for Primer’s liminal nature, though, is the bench scene which we see from different perspectives in both main characters’ timelines. First, we see it from Abe’s (David Sullivan) perspective, where he approaches Aaron (Shane Carruth, also the writer/director) to discuss the progress of their garage-built time machine. We also see it later, however, when Aaron takes a quick jaunt into his own past (roughly two days or so) to interfere with the existing timeline. We know he’s done this, because he has a recording of the conversation he and Abe had the first time around. Aaron uses it to queue his own responses for his own gain. But because we don’t have this fact until later, the scene from Abe’s POV comes across as innocuous and the beginning of their journey together. In fact, it’s really much closer to the end. Their paths converging in this manner breaks down the very concept of the progression of time as an objective fact. Hence, a liminal space for the audience, catching up to Aaron’s perception of events. Also, good luck explaining this movie to anyone who hasn’t seen it.