Time Travel? It's irrelevant!

Today I want to talk about one of my pet peeves. The concept of time travel. Now, don't get me wrong. I'm not saying time travel isn't possible, just that it is irrelevant.

Let me explain.

If time travel has been discovered, either now or in the future, then time travelers have already been to our present and to our past. Whatever they did in the time-line has been done and cannot be changed. If they attempted to go back and kill a young Hitler for instance, they have obviously failed, and will continue failing for eternity. You cannot change the past.

There have been numerous movies that has touched on this topic. Think of classics like The Time Machine and even action movies featuring Jean-Claude van Damme like Timecop (I didn't say the movies were good!).

In my opinion the only movie that ever got it right was Twelve Monkeys featuring Bruce Willis. Now please don't confuse this with the weak and annoying series spin-off by the same name. In the move Bruce Willis is sent back from horrible future where Earth has been decimated by a virus released in our present day. His mission is to find the Army of the Twelve Monkeys who claimed responsibility for the devastation.

At all times through the movie the Willis character has dreams and flashbacks about his childhood where he see a man and a women gunned down at an airport. We as the audience don't recognize the man initially as he is wearing a disguise. But as the move progresses towards its futile end, we see the main character trying to escape from his future masters with the woman psychiatrist he has met in the present day.

And at the end in a pivotal moment we see these unfortunate two being chased by police at an airport, shot and killed. There is a pivotal scene where Willis is lying on the ground dying, turns over and looks straight at a little boy watching the whole event. Yes, you guessed it, the little boy is him.

Travelling back in time made no difference. Everything happened exactly the same way it did every time. The never get even close to the real culprit who continues to release the virus at the very same airport.

Traveling in time has no effect on past events that already happened.

It is irrelevant.