What happened to Thomas Granger?

Question

In Primer there is a secondary character named Thomas Granger that the two main characters Aaron and Abe come in contact with. Apparently he is the father of Abe's girlfriend Rachel and is head of some sort of company.

He is being mentioned as a potential money source for the project and although they decide not to talk to him, later on they find that they are being followed by what is obviously a second Granger from the future in a very bad condition.

What hints are given about what role Granger plays in the whole story and what did most likely happen to him?

Especially the fact that he ends up in a coma (if I recall correctly) makes me wonder, because the side effects of time travel only seem to become noticable after a long time in the box.

Answer 1

It is implied that something happens in the future. We are left to assume it has something to do with Rachel dying or being injured some time in the future.

Now if we followed the events that are implied to have happened, we would have watched Abe and Aaron grieve over her death, remember that the boxes have been running since before her death and then they tell Thomas about them. Thomas would go back before the accident and change the timeline into the one which is covered in the movie.

So really Abe and Aaron (the copies we follow around) find that their timeline has been messed with without their input.

Answer 2

I have always thought from watching Primer (3 times in one evening) that the problem that the users of the time-machine experience is not from duration in the box, but the number of times they have used it.

Since by the rules of the time-machine mean that you can't go forwards at all, and can only go back as far as the box existed, then the box acts like a photocopier for people - it makes more and more copies of users in the time after it was first invented.

I have always considered the symptoms of the use of the box to be a result of the number of times people are using the machine, not the duration. It is like repeatedly photocopying a picture, the quality degrades over time.

Although it is not explicitly stated, it seems that at some point Thomas Granger uses a box, and the version of him in a coma is an n-th generation copy too far.

Answer 3

This interested me a lot too. What happened to Thomas Granger, why did he come back and why does he pass out.

Firstly as soon as they discover that Granger has come back they realise it could only have been because of an emergency. It could be argued that since he was financing Abe and Aaron he would have been in the best position to discover or be told about the machines. Its quite likely something went wrong with regards to Rachel's ex and he killed someone. Maybe he killed all 3 (Rachel, Aaron and Abe) and Granger found the failsafe. Why didn't he warn them about their deaths? Maybe because he couldn't get near Aaron without going into a coma. Why couldn't he? Its unclear, maybe because of paradoxes involving Aaron dying and Abe surviving. Abe realised he couldn't go back because of the paradox and thought Granger could fare better than him and he was waiting to talk to Abe alone when he was in the car.

In either case its unclear if Thomas Granger appears in timeline that the viewers are sent to when Abe uses the failsafe because it never gets that far.

Answer 4

When Abe and Aaron first exit the box together, they get into the vehicle to talk about it. The audience is left wondering "where did Abe get the funding to build such a thing?". At that moment, Abe's Cellphone rings, he picks up and says "Hi Rachel". At this point, we dont know how many times the box has been used (once at least, as we saw an Abe clone entering), but I wonder if Abe already went to Granger, got his approval, ran a few tests, and got the funding, thus showing Aaron the results?

Answer 5

This is a very old thread but I'd like to post my opinion.

I think Thomas Granger is Abe. In the end of the movie Abe tells Aaron to never come back here. I think Abe goes back (way back) in time to prevent Aaron from ever going back farther. Abe effectively decides to travel as far back as he can.

This explains why Thomas is a millionaire and why he has those shakes.

Answer 6

The entire Granger sub-plot is a mystery. Why does it matter in the story that Rachel is trhreatened by her ex? It doesn't add any value. Also, Thomas...why does he use the box and who told him about it and why?

We know that Aaron builds a bigger box in France at the end of the movie. I think that he needed money to fund this and went to Thomas. Thomas said something like, "not unless I know what the money is for". At which point Aaron had to fess up. Thomas didn't belive him (a time machine?). So Aaron had no way of proving it unless he sent Thomas back in time. The "emergency" discussion was a lie to Abe so that Abe wouldn't figure this out. When we see Thomas #2 in the past, he is not addressing any kind of emergency...he's following the boys and observing what they are doing. He's gathering information. The "Rachel being threatened" thing is a red herring.