TIME TRAVELING CONTRADICTION IN LIGHT OF GRANDFATHER PARADOX IN THE FILM X-MEN: DAYS OF FUTURE PAST

Abstract

Time traveling is an important aspect of the present-day world literature, particularly the cinematic manifestations. However, its practicality and logical understanding have always remained questionable within the boundaries of the laws of physics. To answer this, science has come with the idea of possible casual loops or temporal paradoxes comprising of bootstrap, consistency, and Newcomb’s paradoxes in case of actual time travel through theoretical assumptions. Later, these paradoxes have paved way for further research. These paradoxes have helped with the considered understanding of possible time travel phenomena and its implications for the practical usage if it becomes possible and use of this phenomenon in fiction. In the same manner, this research will analyse the film X-Men Days of Future Past through the idea of “Alter Ego” by Hugo Gernsback in the field of Grandfather Paradox which is part of consistency paradoxes and studies the effect of time travel activity on space and time continuum. To do so, the actions and dialogues in the film are used to understand and analyses the possible logical flow of space and time continuum with the possible outcome for the altered timeline and find the contractions as per the law of casualty. In doing so, the concept of alter ego is given the central focus for the construction of the new timeline through positivism paradigm. After the analysis, the study concludes that the resulting new timeline presented in the film is not accurate to the events in the alerted timeline but rather a sugar-coated utopian fairy tale ending through Deus ex Machina in violation of the laws of physics.