Dimensions

by Antony Neely, directed by Sloan U’Ren

Release: 21 September 2011
Format: Feature Film
Genre: Science Fiction
Audience: Adults
Content: Debatable Time Travel
Original Language: English

Imagine you’re a young boy in 1921 Cambridge when your equally young first love dies in a deep well. What would you do? Naturally, you’d vow to become a great scientist in an artsy movie so you could go back in time to alter the tragic event.

Apparently, people in early 20th-century Cambridge espouse many wise thoughts about time, parallel universes that encompass every possible combination of events again and again, and something about every decision every made creating a branch point. In the end, it's difficult to make a cohesive model of time from the plotline of Dimensions, but we tried our best to do so in our plot notes.

— Michael Main

Annie: Are you ready to leave?
Stephen: Yes.
Annie: How long will it take?
Stephen: I don’t know: seconds, decades, an eternity.
Annie: An eternity? For a few moments together?
Stephen: Yes.

DEBUT

Dimensions (Cambridge Film Festival, 21 September 2011).

VARIANTS

1 English variant

TAGS(SPOILERS!)

Time Periods

Circa AD 1900 to 1929: 1921 Cambridge
Circa AD 1930 to 1939: 12936 Cambridge

Timeline Models

Branching Timelines: a discussion that branches occur with each decision made, but no real clarity

Time Travel Methods

Chronoscopes: The portal is also a viewer of the past.
Luggable Time Machine: The final portal, at the well, seems luggable enough.
Time Portal

Themes

Just a Dream, Hallucination, et al.: The possibility occurs that Stephen did climb down after the jump rope, ended up in a coma, and is dreaming everything else.
Save “Lois”!: Victoria is Stephen’s “Lois.”
Stuck outside of Time: Robert is stuck, apparently long enough to become bald and for his clothes to dissolve.
Viewing the Past

Fictional Tags

Parallel Universes or Dimensions: a discussion with no real clarity on parallel worlds

TIME TRAVEL ITINERARY (SPOILERS!)

From Cambridge (probably), a 1936 (or possibly later) where the well-accident never occurred ⋙ to young Stephen’s Cambridge garden, 1921, before the well accident. Note: In hindsight, it seems that the old professor at the garden party near the start of the movie is Stephen visiting from the future. But this seems to be a future where the well accident never occurred (because he does not steal the jump rope). He is wearing Conrad’s 1936 jacket, so we assume that he came with (or after) Conrad from 1936, and they aged along the way. (Apparently, time travel also made the young men’s clothes large enough to fit the fat old men.) Also, we don’t know whether they returned to 1936 or not. In any case, we call that 1936 the no-well-accident future.
From Stephen’s Cambridge lab, a 1936 where the well accident did occur and Victoria died ⋙ to Stephen’s garden, 1921, before the well accident. Note: Stephen, Conrad, and Annie use the portal to view the past, but the machine burns out before any travel can occur.
From Robert’s cottage near Cambridge, a 1936 where the well accident did occur and Victoria died ⋙ to an unknown outside-in-time place for decades at an unknown time. Round trip. Note: Robert’s premature attempt to travel to the past ends in him being trapped outside of time, possibly for decades.
From the well near Stephen’s Cambridge garden, a 1936 where the well accident did occur and Victoria died ⋙ to young Stephen’s Cambridge garden, 1921, before the well accident. Note: It seems that Conrad went first and Stephen followed. They aged along the way, and Stephen’s shirt changed from grey to white. Stephen borrowed Conrad’s jacket, interacted with the children, stole the rope, and thereby created the other future where the well accident never occurred. Admittedly, we have no idea whether this is what the filmmakers intended.

INDEXER NOTES (SPOILERS!)

Credits—from the <a href='https%3A%2F%2Fwww.imdb.com%2Ftitle%2Ftt1703231%2Ffullcredits'>IMDb</a>