tstone1227

No no, come on, we can figure this out. Let's put our thinking caps on. OK, so you're positing a time map section like the one below... that could work. But don't you think it's maybe a little more fitting if Timeline 1b is a loop? That is, goons kill Mia Sara -> JCVD becomes grizzled TEC agent -> Silva gets greedy and JVCD gets suspicious -> Silva sends goons to kill JCVD -> goons kill Mia Sara -> JCVD becomes grizzled TEC agent... etc etc. That way, Silva's time meddling is kind of coming back to bite him in the ass, by getting Timeline 1b stuck in a loop. It's only JCVD who has the buns and splits necessary to go back and avert the loop, forcing the creation of Timeline 1a. I think that's more heroic and probably more in tune with the director's original vision. YES YES YES I LOVE IT OK I didn't follow that, but I think you had it the first time: Fielding tells JCVD, after all, that her father thought Timecopping was the most important career of the future. So that obviously had a huge influence on her, Silva or no Silva. In all timelines, she is a hard-working ambitious law enforcement agent with her eyes on the TEC. In Timeline 1b, Silva uses his sway with the agency to get Fielding a position on the condition that she works with him as a double agent. In Timeline 1a, there is no Silva, so someone with better moral character is running the agency and identifies Fielding as a dedicated, hard-working agent who deserves the job anyway. In Timeline 2, Silva is still running the agency but is rich from the cryo-chip, so when Fielding comes to apply he has no need for double agents nor hard-working diligent Timecops, so he puts the kibosh on her application and she doesn't get the job. Well, you know, Mia Sara is a dedicated historian of architecture, so when she commissioned the rebuild she really went for the whole effect, peeling paint and all. I think I can also explain the scar finally. It's mentioned earlier in this thread that Future Silva is shown complaining about the thing on his face before the injury to Past Silva actually takes place. That post chalks this up to bad editing. But I think we are obviously meant to glean from this that 2004 Timeline 1b Silva is putting on some kind of prosthetic scar, since he's been here before and knows that JCVD is going to injure 1994 TImeine 2 Silva, and he wants to fuck with JCVD's head a little. When the scar seemingly appears, that is Silva doing some sleight of hand to remove a piece of makeup hiding the prosthetic.

Guys, guys, chill, I got this. First of all, there doesn't need to be a timeline where JCVD's house doesn't blow up (although, of course, there is such a timeline, just as there is a timeline where everything is exactly the same except Ron Silva is just an actor and not an activist, or one where Future JCVD's mullet has one more inch of party in the back, etc etc - it's just that we don't need those timelines to explain the events of the film). The great irony is that Silva sending those goons in the first place was his own undoing (at least in one of the timelines) - it was that event which led JCVD to become a grizzled TEC agent, eventually setting him on the path to uncovering Silva's plot and creating Timeline 1a in which Silva dissapears in 1994. Secondly, the house existing in 2004 Timeline 1a even though it was destroyed in 1994 Timeline 1a is simply due to the fact that master architect Mia Sara had it rebuilt. She had 10 years and The Timeline 1a happy TEC agent JCVD had plenty of government income to make it happen. Thirdly, the reason 2004 Timeline 1a JCVD doesn't recognize his kid is because that is actually the consciousness of 2004 Timeline 1b JCVD implanted in the body of 2004 Timeline 1a JCVD (note the clean shave). Indeed, whenever TEC agents "return to the present", if they happen to return to the present in an alternate timeline they unfortunately supplant the consciousness of whoever or whatever is their equivalent time-replica is in that timeline. Some more explanation: According to my replica of the director's original time-map for this movie (see below or here: http://imgur.com/JkzMJX8), the JCVD we see at the beginning of the film is the JCVD from Timeline 1b. The goons that kill Mia Sara in Timeline 1b were sent from 2004 in Timeline 2, the timeline in which Sarah Fielding is not a TEC agent and in which Silva is rich. He is rich in Timeline 2 because 2004 Silva from Timeline 1b went back to 1994 Timeline 2 to kill his tech partner and gain control of the cryo-chip company. The key potential paradoxes (paradoci? I need some clarification here people) that this map unravels are the following: 1) Silva's goons kill both Fielding and Mia Sara in one trip. So that means that Fielding was injured at the cryo-chip plant, which means Silva is the sole owner of the cryo-chip patent and is rich, which means that Silva doesn't need to send goons back to kill the cryo-chip partner, which means Fielding is not injured, which means that the goons never come back to kill Mia Sara at the beginning of the movie! 2) Fielding is killed in 1994, but it is the FUTURE Fielding that is killed. Presumably there is still a 16-year-old Fielding in that time, macking it with Bobby or whatever, who grows up in 10 years to become TEC Agent Fielding. So why, when JCVD returns to 2004, are there no records of Fielding ever having existed? That is to say, killing a person FROM THE FUTURE in the past does not erase their existence - you would have to kill their PAST self to accomplish that. The map solves (1) by realizing that, off-camera, the first event in Timeline 1 is one where Fielding and JCVD go back in time from 2004 Timeline 1b and manage to thwart 2004 Timeline 1b Silva, preventing him from killing his chip-partner and meeting his past self. Thus, Timeline 1 Silva goes to his meeting in 1994 having never met his future self and naively agrees to oversee the TEC as a broke-ass junior senator. However, the goons still need to come back and blow up Mia Sara's mansion, so obviously 2004 Timeline 1b Fielding is still injured in 1994 Timeline 1, necessitating the arrival of the goons. So the goons still come and kill Mia Sara, but Silva is still poor in 2004 Timeline 1b. We can also resolve (2) quite easily by positing a Timeline 2 in which Fielding never becomes a TEC agent. This is the timeline in which 2004 Timeline 1b Silva manages to kill his chip-partner in 1994 and becomes rich. Timeline 2 is also the timeline to which Timeline 1b JCVD returns briefly and realizes that in this timeline he is not best buds with his direct supervisor. There is a fork right at the end of Timeline 2. In Timeline 2b, JCVD doesn't make the launch back to 1994 - presumably the soldiers manage to kill his boss before he can initiate the launch. Thus, Timeline 2b is the reason why JCVD never gets back to 1994 to thwart the goons in Timeline 1b. However, the timeline we see in the movie is Timeline 2a, in which JCVD gets launched to 1994 Timeline 1a, thwarting the goons and executing Silva. One issue that remains unresolved is how 2004 Timeline 1b gets a scar from 1994 Timeline 2 Silva's injury... those are different Silvas!!

Guys, I figured it out. At first, I was like, my God this movie makes no sense and is full of time-travel paradoxes (paradoci?). But then I sat down and spent several hours (paid, at work) thinking about it more closely, and I think I have come up with a coherent time-map of the movie that makes sense. Obviously this must have been what the producers were working with. It is included in the post below, here is a link to it as well: http://i.imgur.com/tMyRAV4.png. Events in the timelines are in text boxes, and time-travel events are represented by stars. The main JCVD time-travel events are colored red, and numbered according to the order in which they appear in the movie. The non-linear movie chronology is represented by the bold arrows. The map assumes that time-travelers are able to jump between distinct timelines, both in traveling forward and backward in time. We also assume that when a time-traveler arrives in the future, no matter what timeline, he or she immediately inhabits the body of whatever future self exists in that timeline, a la Chunkstyle's comment above. This map shows that there are four distinct linear timelines. The main fork in the timelines is whether or not Fielding becomes a TEC agent. In the timeline where she does not become an agent, Future actor/activist Ron Silva appears in 1994 from an alternate future to kill his partner in technology and mortally wound Fielding, who has also come with JCVD from the same alternate future as Future Silva. Thus, Silva becomes rich, and coincidentally little girl Fielding never grows up to become a TEC agent (this has nothing to do with the fact that alternate-future Fielding was wounded in this timeline, of course; it just means that her past self in this timeline decides not to become a TEC agent). This is the timeline that JCVD visits briefly in 2004, where the nerdy porn guy is wearing a sport jacket and his boss doesn't know that JCVD likes his wife's succotash or whatever. This no-Fielding timeline splits in 2004; in one parallel timeline, JCVD manages to go back to 1994 again to try and steal Fielding's blood; in another, JCVD never makes it out of the launch room and his absence in 1994 spawns the events that lead to his wife's death. The other main parent timeline is the one where Fielding grows up to be a TEC agent. In this timeline, when JCVD and Fielding return from the future to the chip company in 1994, they manage to prevent Silva from meeting his past self. This all happens off camera. Thus, past Silva still sells his share in the lucrative cold-tech chip company, and in 2004 will be low on campaign cash necessitating his trip to the past to kill his chip-making partner. However, Future Fielding is still injured in 1994 in this timeline, prompting Future Silva to send Hoop-Earring Goon and Company back to finish Fielding and take out JCVD. This main parent timeline then further splits in two. One split is the fork we see at the beginning of the movie, when the goons follow JCVD home from the mall and blow up his house with Mia Sara inside it. This is the timeline where Future JCVD failed to make it out of the launch room in 2004, thus leading to the death of his wife in 1994. JCVD becomes a grizzled TEC agent, and since Future Silva never managed to kill his chip partner in this timeline, the actor/activist is broke and needs to engage in time shenanigans to make money for his campaign. JCVD becomes suspicious and goes back in time with Fielding to engage Silva. No one ever returns to this timeline's future. The other fork is what we see at the end of the movie, when 2004 JCVD comes back to steal Fielding's blood but gets distracted by Sara's blood instead. Then JCVD kills both 1994 Silva and 2004 Silva, and saves Mia Sara's life. In this timeline JCVD becomes a happy, fulfilled TEC agent and has a child. In 2004, Future JCVD returns to this timeline from 1994 after saving his past self and his wife. His consciousness inhabits the body of his past self at that moment (note the clean shave). Then he goes home to be startled by the fact that his son is developmentally disabled. PUT A BRA ON IT!!!! EDIT: This doea not explain why the house is intact at the end of the movie, but I think we can safely assume master architect Mia Sara had it fully restored. More importantly, the map does not explain why Future Silva got a scar on his face as soon as Past Silva was cut, since those two Silvas are actually from distinct timelines. In that scene Future Silva is from Timeline 2 (reading left to right on the map), while that Past Silva is from Timeline 4 (the no-Fielding timeline). The map can't explain this magic scar.