9 Confusing Films Where Absolutely Nobody Knew What Was Going On

1. Primer

Shane Carruth's famously difficult time travel flick revolves around two young men who accidentally stumble across the means to travel through time. The movie is noted for its absolute refusal to condescend or patronise its audience, often to the point of frustration, employing heavy use of technical dialogue which will seem esoteric to all but the science graduates among us. Abe (David Sullivan) builds a prototype machine which appears to work successfully, and shows it off to Aaron (Carruth), before they begin to experiment far more ambitiously together. They initially do what anyone else would, by trying to make money off the stock market, before a problem abounds when they realise that Abe's girlfriend's father has somehow used the machine and become comatose as a result. After they agree that time travel is too dangerous, Abe employs the use of a fail safe machine to travel back in time once again and negate everything that has happened so far. Now, this is where things get complicated, as Aaron and Abe begin to argue over the applications of their machine, and Aaron tries to stop Abe from undoing everything. At the end of the movie, despite Abe's attempts to tamper with the machines, Aaron moves forward with creating a time machine that's the size of a warehouse. Theories: Time travel movies can be confusing at even the best of times, and though the central narrative of Primer isn't too difficult to follow, it's the non-spoonfed manner in which the various timelines all play out. It's estimated that there are up to 9 timelines in play throughout the movie, and because the movie's low budget prevents Carruth from showing any doubles on screen together, the movie is made even more complex as a result. There aren't really any theories needed: just a firm explanation of the time travel mechanics, which you can handily find in the below image. It's still something of a headache to get your head around, but it simplifies the central laws of the movie:

Did we miss any classically confusing movies? Let us know in the comments below!