Testing Time Inversion

To test Nolan’s concept of time inversion, I devised a fictional scenario in which a character named Bob uses a turnstile to assist himself as a getaway driver during a heist. There are two theoretical ways a person could “help himself” using a turnstile:

1. Bob + inverted Bob: They operate simultaneously, but this is extremely impractical because, for example, an inverted Bob would have to drive a car backwards through traffic.

2. Bob + reinverted Bob: Bob inverts, travels backward, then reinverts so that both versions operate in normal entropy. This is far more feasible.

The scenario below uses the second method.

The Setup

Bob co owns a storage unit facility near the harbor. At 11:15 a.m., his business partner Linda calls him from across the street, where she owns an office building. She reveals that she has secretly developed a time inversion device (a turnstile) and explains its basic function. Bob is bewildered, skeptical, and overwhelmed. Linda hands him special equipment, the building keys, and tells him to experiment with the device when he’s ready. She then leaves to meet her husband for lunch.

Bob asks her to drop him downtown, where he plans to eat as well. As Linda’s car disappears, Bob receives a WhatsApp message from himself. It is 11:30 a.m. The message instructs him to rob the bank next to his favorite restaurant at exactly 12:00. A getaway car will be waiting outside, driven by himself. This will be possible if Bob uses the turnstile, travels backward in time, steals a car, and assists his earlier self. The message also tells him to wear a red hat when he drives the car so the two versions can be distinguished.

Bob looks up from his phone and notices a parked car nearby. The driver is wearing a red hat.

The Heist (Forward Bob)

Bob enters the bank casually and observes the scene. It’s almost lunchtime; the last customers leave around 11:55. He approaches the cashier, demands the money, and bolts out the door. The getaway car is waiting. He jumps into the back seat, and the car speeds toward the harbor.

At 12:30, the driver drops Bob at the storage facility. Bob hides the money in an abandoned garage and at 12:45, he crosses the street to Linda’s office building and uses the turnstile to invert himself.

Bob Inverted

Time now runs backward for Bob. He feels cold. The ground seems slippery. He breathes through a special mask. The wind pulls at the back of his head instead of hitting his face. Sounds reach him muffled, like a record spinning in reverse. Gravity feels slightly “wrong.”

He hides in the abandoned garage, where he finds an old red hat. At 11:00 (in inverted time), he returns to the turnstile (avoiding himself on the way out of the storage unit facility and Linda in the office building across the street) and reinverts himself.

Bob Reinverted (Back in Normal Entropy)

Now moving forward again, Bob no longer needs the mask. Still avoiding himself and Linda, he puts on the red hat, steals a car, and drives downtown. He parks near his favorite restaurant and sends himself the WhatsApp message. In the rearview mirror, he sees his earlier self getting out of Linda’s car and reading it.

Bob pulls the hat low over his face and watches his earlier self walk toward the bank. Just before 12:00, he pulls the car in front of the entrance. Moments later, his earlier self bursts out with the bag of money and jumps into the back seat.

Bob drives him to the storage facility and drops him off at 12:30.

He then abandons the car in the same place where he stole it (carefully wiping it down) and retrieves the money from the garage, where his earlier self has just hidden it. He drives home in his own car. It is now 12:45, and his earlier self has already reached the turnstile and inverted. After 12:45, only the reinverted Bob remains, because the earlier Bob has inverted and vanished.