Time Travel: Can't Be Late to Work
The clock industry is dominating the time traveler demographic. Here's your chance to get a piece of the action.
With the release of Déjà Vu comes time travel themed movie trivia. Puzzles and questions that'll make you want to watch Back to the Future for the 600th time.
- What do a racecar, kayak, and radar have in a common?
I’ll let you know in two days, along with the rest of the answers to this week’s trivia. In the meanwhile, I am honoring time travel after seeing Déjà Vu. I was not blown away, but if you are a Back to the Future fan, I suggest you see it as a point of comparison. Also, any film that you can talk about with another filmgoer for over fifteen minutes already pays for the admission.
Fictional time travelers (and maybe the real ones too) are constantly going back and forth in these films, it is never just one trip. I can’t blame them, with that sort of ability, who would stop at just one trip? But it is a necessary evil to travel twice. Marty McFly couldn’t stay in 1965, or so he believed because he’d miss his girl, Jennifer, and he simply didn’t belong there. Perhaps if he was more of a scientist like Doc Brown, he would have stayed in the past, away from his parents and live his life in another world. But in the reality of fictional films (is there such thing?), he had to go home to 1985 to ensure the entire world didn’t collapse. I’m waiting for that filmmaker out there to show the world what it would look like when the space-time continuum finally did collapse. In the meantime, here’s a puzzle that requires some repetitive travel too:
- John Carpenter wants to make another Halloween sequel, but he has many problems. Dimension Films wants him to replace Dr. Loomis with Dr. Phil, whose life changing influence is considered much more powerful and marketable (and non-coincidentally, annoying). Filming takes place in the Malibu Canyons and now Carpenter has to cross Malibu Creek along with his principal actors. He found a boat, but it only fits 2 people at a time. None of the stars can touch the water or else they will melt, and there is no bridge in sight although the water is only two feet deep. If Carpenter leaves Dr. Phil alone with Michael Myers, he will talk and talk until Myers gives up his killing spree before the filming has even begun. But if he leaves Laurie Strode (Jamie Lee Curtis) alone with Myers, no doubt he will be tempted to kill her before the camera starts rolling. Only Carpenter has the director’s bullhorn, therefore the ability to separate the therapist from the killer, and the killer from his long desired victim.
- How can Carpenter get his actors across the creek without losing any of them to sanity or death?
No Halloween sequel has involved time travel (let me know if I’m wrong), and hopefully none of them will. But I doubt time travel as a concept for film will ever be forgotten. Anything not understood will always explored through film, writing, or those nights where you find yourself staring into space, wondering, what the hell am I doing here? Well, in the meantime, in this puzzle, the first letter to each answer will spell out the scientific evidence proving time travel. That is, after you put them in the right order…
Question 1: The lead of this film was originally cursed by an ex-girlfriend but the final script has his time dilemma unexplained, that is until he finds a new girlfriend, although it takes some major convincing. This will happen when you tell her, “I am a god. Not the God. I don’t think.”
Question 2: After Girls Just Want to Have Fun, Cyndi Lauper had this hit, although the movie of the same name was released four years earlier.
Question 3: In which movie did Ash, after being enslaved in 1300 A.D. show his masters their fate with his boomstick? Hail to the king, baby.
Question 4: This is the granddaddy of all time travel films in terms of its year and style. Terry Gilliam certainly thought so considering he based 12 Monkeys on it. (Hint: When considering what is the first letter, drop your Do, Re, Mi, Fa, Sol, La, Ti, and Do’s).
Question 5: This film is consider by some the best sequel of the series, perhaps due to the return of Roddy McDowall as Cornelius and Kim Hunter as Zira.
Question 6: Although not a movie and not one that contains time travel per se, this television show featured a family that dealt with everyday problems like dinosaurs and the Sleestak. Don’t be surprised though, this show is being made into a film, starring Will Ferrell.
Your answers to these puzzles, as promised. Until then, always remember to use condiments when making a sandwich. The sandwich of the week, The Condiment Cabinet’s Dream: peanut butter, jelly, and cream cheese on bread of your choice.
