Primer (2004) - Quotes

Exploring the Consequences of Success

Taglines: What happens if it actually works?

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Desire and the Paradox of Choice

Taglines: If you always want what you can't have, what do you want when you can have anything?

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The Pain of Discovery

Aaron: So...does it hurt?

Abe: Yeah. Yeah it does a little.

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A Question about Eating Preferences

Aaron: Do you feel like a steak?

Aaron: To eat?

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Importance of Every Workday at Cortex Semi

Abe: Do you have anything important going on at work today?

Aaron: I hope you're not implying that any day is unimportant at Cortex Semi.

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Unusual Consequences of the Machine

Abe: [Notices Aaron's ear is bleeding] Whoa. You're bleeding.

Aaron: I got it.

Aaron: Is this normal? This isn't normal.

Abe: For the machine?

Aaron: [Irritated] No, for people! What you think, it's the machine?

Aaron: All right, I got it!

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Understanding the Complexity of Time Travel

Abe: I just want you to see it the way I saw it.

Aaron: I am trying, okay, I really am here.

Abe: Look, everything we're putting into that box becomes ungrounded, and I don't mean grounded like to the earth, I mean, not tethered. I mean, we're blocking whatever keeps it moving forward and so they flip-flop. Inside the box it's like a street - both ends are cul-de-sacs. I mean, this isn't frame dragging or wormhole magic, this is basic mechanics and heat 101.

Aaron: This is not mechanics and heat.

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Miscommunication About Noises in the Attic

Kara: Did you call pest control?

Aaron: Babe, I'm telling you, they're birds. You don't want a bunch of dead baby birds up there. Do you?

Kara: They don't sound like birds.

Aaron: [to Abe] She thinks there are rats in the attic.

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Abe's Warning Against Return and Consequences

Abe: And I don't think there's ever been any reason to show you what I'm capable of...but I'm telling you this now. Go out there and do whatever it is you want. There's no way in the world I can stop you, but don't come back here. And don't come near them. Any of them.

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Moment of Contentment in Darkness

Abe: [His first experience in the machine] Maybe it was the dramamine kicking in, but I remember this moment in the dark with the reverberation of the machine. It was maybe the most content I've ever been.

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Questioning the Safety of Their Experiment

Abe: Aaron, I can imagine no way in which this thing could be considered anywhere remotely close to safe. All I know is I spent six hours in there and I'm still alive... You still want to do it?

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Engineers Face Harsh Realities at 40

Bradshaw: You know what they do with engineers when they turn 40? They take them out and shoot them.

The Quest for Perfection in Chaos

Aaron: How many times would it take before he got it right? Three? Four? Twenty? I've decided to believe that only one more would have done it. I can almost sleep at night, if there's only one more. Slowly and methodically, he reverse-engineered a perfect moment. He took from his surroundings what was needed, and made of it something more. And once the details had been successfully navigated, there was nothing left to do but wait for the conflict. Maybe the obligatory, last minute moral debate until the noise of the room escalates into panic and background screams, as the gunman walks in. And eventually, he must have got it perfect, and it must have been beautiful with all the praise and adoration he had coming. He had probably saved lives, after all. Who knows what would have happened if he hadn't been there?

The Nature of Innovation and Human Effort

Aaron: [narrating] Meticulous, yes. Methodical. Educated. They were these things. Nothing extreme. Like anyone, they varied. There were days of mistakes and laziness and infighting. And there were days, good days, when by anyone's judgment, they would have to be considered clever. No one would say that what they were doing was complicated. It wouldn't even be considered new. Except maybe in the geological sense. They took from their surroundings what was needed, and made of it something more.