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By Robert Scucci
| Published
One of my favorite modern time travel movies has to be 2024’s Tim Travers and the Time Traveler’s Paradox. It’s a movie about a guy who repeatedly tries killing his past self, only to learn that he broke the space-time continuum, resulting in thousands of clones of himself. He doesn’t know how to break the cycle, and each attempted fix for his botched experiment continues to make things exponentially worse. While watching 2022’s MadelinesI couldn’t help but notice the similarities, which made me think the two films would make a great double feature.
Madelineswhile ridiculous on its own terms, feels more subdued thanks to its willingness to play things a little straighter. Most of the humor in Madelines is situational, whereas Tim Travers takes a more slapstick approach while tackling the same kind of paradoxical storytelling that most good, low-budget time travel movies are known for.
From One To Many
The premise of Madelines is painfully simple before it veers into the kind of unhinged time-travel logic you’re typically used to. Madeline (Brea Grant) and Owen (Parry Shen) finally think they’ve cracked the code for time travel, but Madeline doesn’t want to start animal trials because she thinks it’s cruel. Her investor, Rory Devonshire (Richard Riehle), couldn’t care less because he just wants results.
Thinking that the only ethical way to push the research forward would be to test the technology on herself, Madeline takes one for the team, not realizing there was an error in her code, leading to an unthinkable number of alternate versions of herself generating like clockwork every day.
From this point forward, and this is why the film would play perfectly against Tim Travers and the Time Traveler’s ParadoxMadeline and Owen decide that the best course of action is to kill every new Madeline as they poof into existence. The operation becomes less about extolling the virtues of time travel and more about cleaning up their mess in the form of repeatedly murdering Madeline until they can figure out how to close the loop.
Matters get complicated, however, because each new version of the scientist eventually develops her own unique experiences. And now that they’re all aware of each other, closing the loop becomes a process that’s a bit more complicated than, “We need to murder Madeline in perpetuity.”
Doesn’t Quite Stick The Landing
Personally, I think Tim Travers and the Time Traveler’s Paradox is, overall, the stronger movie. I give it more credit for going full ridiculous while attempting to answer the same kind of questions Madelines poses. Both films stand on their own, but Madelines is more introspective and contemplative, reluctantly dealing with its open-loop disaster while trying to reclaim its protagonist’s humanity. Tim Travers, on the other hand, is a total agent of chaos who ultimately loves what he’s doing in the unhinged name of experimental science. Madeline is Lisa Simpson. Tim Travers is Pickle Rick.
If you’re into low-budget sci-fi with surprisingly sound time travel logic, I strongly recommend watching both films as a double feature. They tackle many of the same ideas, but their execution couldn’t be further apart.
As of this writing, you can stream Madelines for free on Tubi. Tim Travers and the Time Traveler’s Paradox can be found on the platform as well.
