FAQ About Time Travel

''Frequently Asked Questions About Time Travel'' (stylised as ''FAQ About Time Travel'') is a 2009 British comedy science fiction film directed by Gareth Carrivick from a script by Jamie Mathieson, starring Chris O'Dowd, Dean Lennox Kelly, Marc Wootton and Anna Faris.

The film follows two avid science fiction fans (O'Dowd and Wootton) and their snarky mate (Kelly) as they attempt to navigate a time travel conundrum in the middle of a British pub, where they meet a girl from the future (Faris) who sets the adventure in motion.

It was released in the UK and Ireland on 24 April 2009. On its television premiere on BBC Two on 1 August 2010, the film was dedicated to its director Gareth Carrivick, who had died a month before the film's release.

Plot

Ray (Chris O'Dowd) has been fired from his job as a costumed guide in a theme park attraction. That evening, Ray and his friends Pete (Dean Lennox Kelly) and Toby (Marc Wootton) go to the cinema, later complaining about the film on their way to the pub.

At the pub, they compose a "Letter to Hollywood" with tips on how to stop making bad movies, on the back of a sheet from Toby's "brilliant ideas" notebook. Ray meets an American girl named Cassie (Anna Faris), with dark brown hair, who claims to be a member of a future organisation that fixes "time leaks", who warns Ray about "Editors": people who travel in time to kill famous artists immediately after they've created their greatest work, to avoid a later decline in quality. Cassie tells Ray that future books will be written about him, and refers to him as "Ray the Great". Ray assumes that his friends have set him up with Cassie to make him feel better after losing his job, and after a brief conversation Cassie leaves. When Ray relates this entire story to Pete and Toby, they think he's invented the entire encounter.

Pete leaves them to use the "Gents" toilet, but when he returns the bar is full of dead bodies, among them a bearded version of himself. At first he hides back in the toilet, but when he re-enters the room it has returned to normal. He tells his friends what happened, assuming it must be related to Cassie's time leaks. Ray assumes that his friends are trying to take his mind off losing his job.

The three of them jump 30 minutes back in time and find their earlier selves, just finishing the composition of their "Letter to Hollywood." Ray realizes that Cassie is still there, talking to an earlier version of himself. He stops her before she leaves, explaining that they found the time leak in the men's toilet. She returns one second later, with a different hairstyle, having spent six months rectifying the time leak. Cassie claims everything has been fixed, but when a couple enter the garden ahead of schedule she leaves to investigate.

Pete, Ray, and Toby assume everything is resolved, but when they leave the toilet they find themselves in a post-apocalyptic version of the pub. Pete decides to flee back into the women's toilet again, but emerges from the door of the men's toilet, bearded, filthy and traumatised. He repeatedly insists that that he doesn't want to talk about his experiences, but later describes some of the things he's seen and been through. Strange sounds cause them to run for the toilet again, so that they miss seeing a building-sized ant eat a man, who is pushing a shopping trolley with a loud squeaky wheel.

Ray and Toby try to stop Pete from warning earlier versions of themselves, and creating a paradox that will make them cease to exist. When he runs out after one solo version of himself, they follow him out into a themed-night party at the pub. An earlier version of Toby is discovered writing in a page of his notebook, and they reason that whatever was on the other side of that piece of paper is how they became famous. In the crowd at the party they meet a second time traveller named Millie (Meredith MacNeill), and urges them to accompany her to a parallel universe. Ray eventually talks a reluctant Pete and Toby into going with him through the portal.

In a mid-credits scene, Ray emerges from behind a wall with Pete. Ray says that it appears the earlier versions of them have gone. However when Pete tells Toby he can come out, a second Pete emerges instead. In an end-credits scene, two Tobys pass by Ray and the two Petes, one fleeing from the other, with one of the Petes remarking: “This is all getting a little bit too complicated.”

Cast

* Chris O'Dowd as Ray
* Dean Lennox Kelly as Pete
* Marc Wootton as Toby
* Anna Faris as Cassie
* Meredith MacNeill

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