Primer

Primer (2004) is Shane Carruth's science-fiction thriller, available to watch online on iFILM. Four engineers tinker in a garage after work, building gadgets to sell — until they accidentally make a time machine.

Abe and Aaron notice something odd in their device and realize time inside the metal box runs differently from time outside it. Their first move is the stock market: loop back, already know the prices, pocket the difference. Then they start duplicating themselves. Which double is the real one, whose move has already happened and whose is still ahead — the two men lose track, and the audience loses track with them. The film explains nothing and holds no hands.

Carruth wrote, directed, scored and starred in it, all on a budget of roughly seven thousand dollars. It won the Grand Jury Prize at Sundance and has since become a puzzle people chart out frame by frame to follow the timelines. Stream Primer (2004) online on iFILM.