Time Trap, movie (2017) - Watch the trailer on YouTube
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Article updated: 2023.02.23
The Time Trap (2017) is a contemporary fantasy mystery / thriller film. The movie was reviewed by Kadmon.
Product: Time Trap, movie (2017)
Original title: Time Trap
Series: -
Setting: contemporary fantasy Earth
Product type: Film, Genre: contemporary fantasy mystery / thriller, Style: science fiction, thriller, fantasy, contemporary fantasy, futuristic fantasy, time travel, action, aliens
Release: Premiere: 2017.05.19, Release: 2018.11.13
Reviewer: Kadmon, Type: Male, 40s, Preferences: Immersive, logical story, consistent setting, prefers surprises to spoilers, prefers establishing elements before referencing them
Watched: very recent (2021.03), first time
Rating: Average (2 out of 3 points), Enjoyment: Average (2 out of 3 points)
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This is my review of Time Trap, a contemporary fantasy mystery / thriller movie from 2017. It's about a group of kids trapped in a mysterious cave. The Time Trap film is watchable, I recommend it to fans of the genre.
Time Trap, movie (2017)
image © Synkhole Movie (closed business)
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Review (spoiler-free) - Time Trap, movie (2017)
I didn't know anything about the story, but the premise sounded interesting, and I like fantasy and time travel stories. I didn't watch the trailer.
The Time Trap movie is about a group of kids trapped in a mysterious cave.
The story is good. The pacing is consistent. There are no character arcs. There are some logical problems.
The cinematography is okay. There are some nice scenes. The special effects are good.
The characters are not very well developed, but that was enough for the movie. The actors are not great, but good enough.
The music (by Xiaotian Shi) is okay.
This was a fun movie overall, I think it's great for kids to watch.
Time Trap is a watchable contemporary fantasy mystery / thriller, I think fans of the genre will enjoy it.
My experience
I was mostly satisfied with Time Trap (2017).
Rating: Average (2 out of 3 points). Time Trap is a watchable film.
Enjoyment: Average (2 out of 3 points). Time Trap had some interesting parts.
Rewatchability: Low. It's mostly the surprise of the story that makes you feel interested. I don't think the story or the characters would be engaging enough to make anyone want to watch this multiple times.
Chance of watching it again: Low. Now that I know the story, there's probably no need to watch it again.
Chance of watching a sequel: I'd probably watch it.
Time Trap, movie (2017)
image © Synkhole Movie (closed business)
Will you enjoy this?
If you like mystery or thriller movies, you might like Time Trap.
If you like supernatural or fantasy movies, you might like Time Trap.
If you enjoy time travel stories, you might be interested in this story.
If you prefer visuals over story, this movie might be a disappointment for you.
Watching for plot points
If you are interested in time travel stories, I think it's worth watching the Time Trap movie for the plot points.
Should you watch this on your own screen at home, or is it worth going to the cinema?
The visuals might look better if you watch it in cinema, but the overall experience will be similar.
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Time Trap, movie (2017)
image © Synkhole Movie (closed business)
Review with spoilers - Time Trap, movie (2017)
I mostly liked the Time Trap movie.
The movie was a little bit slow, sometimes it was over-explained. It could have been probably cut to an hour long version, that would have been tighter. The problem was probably with the fact that it's basically a kid's movie, and maybe kids need more explanations? I can't tell.
The pacing was strange, with them watching videos during the movie, and some parts of the story were missing - for example, how did the professor get back into the cave?
The ending was a little abrupt, and there could have been more emotion given to the reunion, but it was okay.
Cover
The cover makes it look like some kind of action movie, with shoot-outs, aliens and cavemen. The film is fun, but it's not as exciting as the cover suggests. Had I seen that cover, I would have been probably disappointed by the lack of action.
The trailer
The trailer is good.
Promise of the first scene
There will be this professor, who found this strange cave, and he'll explore it, probably with the help of his students.
Execution: The professor was basically left out of the story, it was the students who stumbled into strange situations.
Plot summary / Synopsis
A professor (Andrew Wilson as Hopper) is hiking in the mountains, looking for a missing pair (that we later get to know, were his parents), who were looking for the fountain of youth. He finds a cave, that has some strange mirage in it, with a man with a gun standing there without moving, and goes inside.
Some days later his students (Brianne Howey as Jackie, Cassidy Gifford as Cara, Reiley McClendon as Taylor) go after him, with two kids, a boy (Max Wright as Furby) and a girl (Olivia Draguicevich as Veeves). They find the place but they go into a different cave, leaving the boy behind to guard their car. They also run into that strange mirage barrier.
The professor steps in, the man with the guns starts to walk. The professor comes out of the cave, but he finds his car overgrown with vegetation, as if years have passed. He also finds the car of his students.
The students try to get out of the cave, but their ropes (that were outside of the barrier) frays, so they get stuck in the cave. Two of the students get damaged when they fall. They find the dead body of the kid they left outside, who tried to climb down through another shaft when his rope snapped, and he fell to his death. They find his camera, and when they watch it they realise that he had been out alone for days, and climbed down because he started to worry.
One of the students climb out where the kid fell, and she finds the area totally barren, the trees gone, the air is hard to breathe, and there is some kind of space station over the Earth. She climbs down, and there's a slight time delay in the cave for the others. They realise there's something not right with the time. They watch the kids video to the end, and they find out that he didn't die because of the fall, he was killed by someone. (Probably by one of the cavemen.)
A futuristic ladder falls down the shaft, and a humanoid in space suit climbs down. He is attacked by a caveman, that the humanoid disables with some futuristic technology. The students try to flee, but they run into cavemen. The cavemen killed the parents of the professor, and also the man with the gun from the beginning of the film. The cavemen kill (or at least seriously injure) one of the students. The humanoid finds them, takes a vial of water from an underwater spring, then he pulls the injured student into the water, where he rejuvenates. The humanoid is attacked by the cavemen. He disables them, but he is seriously injured. His mask is removed, he looks like a human, and he projects them news about the search for the students. The future human dies.
They find a large battle between the cavemen and Spanish conquerors, frozen in time. The professor is also there, badly injured, so they leave him there. They put the dead kid into the water, hoping that he will be resurrected. They get attacked by cavemen, so they use the future man's ladder to climb out. On the top of the ladder now it's water, and some kind of creature grabs the student.
The creature happens to be an even more futuristic humanoid, and they help them out of the cave, to live on the space station the student has seen. They also resurrect the dead parents of the professor.
The setting
The story starts on contemporary Earth. There's also a cave, with the water of life, that is surrounded by a time barrier.
In a future, the Earth will be barren, with sandstorms raging, and the air is hard to breathe. There's also a triangular space station over the planet.
In a further future, the humans will be taller, and have a hard time breathing the atmosphere in the cave.
In an even further future, water covers the cave. The inhabitants look like some kind of amphibian humans.
Time Trap, movie (2017)
image © Synkhole Movie (closed business)
The time barrier
The barrier seems to be about a meter wide, and it gradually slows the time. From the inside it looks like the sky is constantly flicking, as the days and nights go by, but the deeper they go, the sun starts to leave streaks as it moves depending on the seasons.
If you throw something into the barrier, from the outside it looks like it is stuck there, but if you step in, the thing starts to move slowly, and when you enter the zone, it falls to the ground.
The barrier is felt with the touch.
According to the calculation on IMDB, an hour inside the time barrier is about 900 years outside. That means the Spanish conquistadors were really fast, quickly moving straight to the waterfall to start that battle.
Inside the time distortion zone, there seems to be another time distortion, probably more slower in time. It can be, that the water of life waterfall causes the stronger time distortion, where the battle is, and the water of life spring causes the smaller time distortion that the protagonists were in.
The water of life
There's a spring in the cave with the water of life.
The water can be poured on injured people to heal the wounds in a couple of minutes.
Dead people can probably also be resurrected. If the student was killed by the cavemen, then it also takes a couple of minutes to be submerged into the water to resurrect them.
Beside the spring, we see waterfalls in the distance, and those are probably also magical waters.
The message of the story
I'm not sure there's one.
The structure of the story
The scenes of the Time Trap film are mostly played in sequence, following the same storyline.
There is no single viewpoint character.
It has the usual arc of the dramatic structure - introduction, action, resolution.
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Things I liked
- The basic idea is interesting.
- The spaceman's suit looks good.
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How does it compare to the other works of the creators?
I haven't seen anything else from the writer / director (Mark Dennis).
I also haven't seen any other film from the other director (Ben Foster).
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Time Trap, movie (2017)
image © Synkhole Movie (closed business)
Analysis of the story - Time Trap, movie (2017)
I mostly liked the story, I didn't find problems that would have prevented me from enjoying Time Trap.
Problematic elements
Dust: If things get stuck on the outside of the barrier, it should be totally covered by dust, insects, even birds. When somebody leaves, they should be covered with this dust by the time they get out.
Climbing: The kid who tried to climb down doesn't look like he could climb a rope. Probably a more athletic kid would have been a better choice.
Repeats: Sometimes the movie repeats some parts to emphasise the time delays for the audience to understand, but I think this could have been done better, without repeats to make it boring.
Refusing to use the water: It's strange that they sometimes forget about the healing properties of the water of life.
- Why didn't they try to rejuvenate the future human with the water? They even mention this, before deciding to give up on that.
- After they've seen that they could cure the dead people with the water, why did they just leave the professor?
Timeline: As they've calculated on TVTropes, the cavemen have been in the cave for 2-3 hours, while the Conquistadors have been there for 6-7 minutes, when the kids enter the cave. These Conquistadors must be really quick and feisty to be able to reach the secret cave and start fighting.
Unanswered questions
- What created the time barrier?
- What created the water of life?
- What happened to the professor's dog?
- How and why did the professor get back to the cave, after leaving it? Why did he go back there alone?
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Possibilities of improvement
Add some extra explanations along the way, somehow.
How it could have been better?
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Behind the scenes
Thoughts about the reviews of others
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Time Trap, movie (2017)
image © Synkhole Movie (closed business)
Uses for the film - Time Trap, movie (2017)
Plot
- There's a place where time runs slower.
- There's a place where there's a spring with the water of life that can heal any wounds and resurrect the dead.
Scenes
- The scene where the spaceman fights the cavemen looks cool. It could be used for some time travel story.
Designs
- The spaceman looks good.
Scenario ideas - Role-playing game scenario ideas
Scenario ideas - Wargame scenario ideas
Time distortion zone: There's time distortion in the playing area. You can use a single time distortion zone, multiple zones, or even multiple ones inside each other. When a unit enters the zone, it takes them N turns before the units outside of the zone can take 1 turn.
Playing the turns: First, play a turn for the area outside of the zone. Then, if there's anyone inside the zone, play N turns inside. If a unit leaves the zone during the inside turns, it will start the next outside turn on the border. When the N turns have been played, play the next outside turn.
Calculating the N:
- A constant: A fix number (for example 5), or a random number (d6)
- A known number: A random number rolled each time when the first inside turn starts.
- An unknown number: After the end of an inside turn, roll a d6. On a 6, that was the last inside turn, and you can start an outside turn.
Healing source: There's a healing source in the playing area. If any wounded or dead people is brought there, they get back to the fight in a couple of turns. There might be even multiple sources the players can use to replenish their forces.
Miniatures - 1/50-1/60 (28-32mm scale)
Modern civilians: Human-sized modern human civilians.
Cavemen: Human-sized primitive humans.
Spacemen: Human-sized futuristic humans in protective suits.
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Similar stories - Time Trap, movie (2017)
Novels
Michael Crichton: Timeline (1999): In a contemporary setting, students travel in time to save their professor.
Movies
Timeline (2003): In a contemporary setting, students travel in time to save their professor. Based on the Timeline novel.
TV series & episodes
Into the Labyrinth (1980-1982): In a contemporary setting, children find a cave, that allows them to travel to different time periods.
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Frequently asked questions - Time Trap, movie (2017)
Is the Time Trap film based on a book or comics?
No, Time Trap is not based on either books or comics.
Is the Time Trap film a remake or reboot?
No, the Time Trap film is neither a remake nor a reboot.
Is there a post credit scene in Time Trap? Does Time Trap have end credit scenes?
No, there's no post credit scene in Time Trap.
Where can I see Time Trap? What is Time Trap playing on? What streaming service is Time Trap on? Where can I watch Time Trap online? Is Time Trap available on Netflix? Is Time Trap on Amazon?
As of 2022.02.05, Time Trap is available on Amazon Prime Video, Apple TV, Google Play, Microsoft Movies, Netflix, Vudu, YouTube.
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Resources - Time Trap, movie (2017)
Official
Time Trap: Official website.
https://www.facebook.com/timetrapmovie/
http://www.instagram.com/timetrapmovie
Information
IMDB: Time Trap (2017): Database article.
WikiPedia: Time Trap (film): Database article.
Letterboxd: Time Trap 2017: Database article.
Rotten Tomatoes: Time Trap 2017: Database article.
TVTropes: Film / Time Trap: Database article.
Creation
: Concept art article.¤
Reviews with no spoilers - Time Trap film (2017)
: Review video about the Time Trap film with no spoilers.¤
Reviews with spoilers - Time Trap film (2017)
: Review article of the Time Trap movie, with spoilers. Includes a very detailed plot summary.¤
Analysis - Time Trap movie (2017)
: Analysis video, explaining the finale of Time Trap.¤
Marianna Neal:
https://letterboxd.com/impressionblend/film/time-trap-2017/
https://twitter.com/ImpressionBlend/status/1401041959372955651
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OgteBHGrC14
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Buying the product - Time Trap, movie (2017)
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Have you seen the Time Trap film? How do you like the movie? Would you recommend it to others? Do you know reviews or resources you'd like to add? What further thoughts do you have about it? Tell your opinion in the comments!
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