opinionAndrew Miller: Unlike the movies, we only have one shot at getting our health rightAndrew MillerThe West AustralianMon, 16 February 2026 5:00AM
A spoiler filled movie review.
My son was turning three when the cult sci-fi movie Primer was released and won the “Grand Jury Prize Dramatic” at the Sundance Film Festival in 2004. Last week, twenty-two years later, we finally sat down together to watch it.
I thought this was our first time viewing it, but now I’m not so sure of anything.
Time-travel is a common device in storytelling, popping up to assist the plot in everything from Interstellar to Terminator, Harry Potter and Austin Powers.
If the writer decrees that past events are mutable, they can explore what might be fixed, or go exponentially wrong if we were given second or third chances, armed with snippets of knowledge from another period.
In the sadly prescient movie Idiocracy (2006), Corporal Bauers is juxtaposed from 2005 to 2505 where he finds the human race has evolved deeply into stupidity, featuring a crass US President of vastly questionable competence who makes average people seem brilliant. Akin to Umberto Eco’s 2016 warning of an invasion of platformed idiots on social media, it adds impetus to calls for the unmasking and regulation of putrid algorithms, to inflict some factual hierarchy and intellectual moral authority on the commentariat.
Michael J. Fox was launched into superstardom in Doc Brown’s DeLorean in the iconic Back to the Future (1985). Hitting 88 miles an hour sent him back thirty years to 1955, where he accidentally prevented his parents getting together, demonstrating a central paradox of time travel lore as he and his siblings disappeared from a family photo in his wallet.
What would you do differently, if granted a glimpse into the future? You’re straight onto the Lotto, aren’t you?
One of the more common regrets in medicine is that patients wish they had treatment sooner, especially after a diagnosis of cancer. We are urged by public health campaigns to check for issues that may evolve into something harder to fix.
Cassandra, a princess of Troy in Greek mythology, repudiated the unwanted advances of the god Apollo, so the loser cursed her so that she would accurately prophesy the future but no-one would believe her. When patients do not act on evidence-based advice, for example to stop smoking, have a vaccine or get a colonoscopy, Cassandra’s frustration feels very relatable.
The government sends out poo-test kits to people aged 45 to 75 for detection of telltale microscopic bleeding from polyps that might turn malignant, so we can remove them painlessly under sedation. A stitch in time.
The same principle applies to screening for breast, prostate, skin, cervical, and lung cancers for eligible populations. Avantect is a new blood test that looks for early pancreatic tumours. Your GP is an expert in advising when these are indicated.
New treatments for some cancers, such as personalised therapeutic mRNA vaccines, and monoclonal antibodies bound to chemotherapy drugs, offer the tantalising hope of a time machine for some patients who missed the prevention boat.
It’s About Time (2013) is a favourite movie, because it’s largely the story of a man who uses his gift to jump back and spend more time with the son he loves, over and over, until one day his privilege submits to mortality.
We should listen to disenchanted AI researcher Mrinank Sharma, who last week highlighted William Stafford’s great poem: “Nothing you do can stop time’s unfolding. You don’t ever let go of the thread.”
The movie Primer — 8/10 — is hardly for everyone. It’s ultra-low budget, raw and wholly uncondescending in portraying the mathematical physics of multiple intersecting time warps. The plot lines would confuse Gary Kasparov. True fans say it takes many viewings and a whiteboard to properly unravel, but underlying timeless themes of questionable motivations, friendship and trust are crystal clear throughout the superbly restrained performances and production.
I sat with my son, and we took it all in. Spending time with him, on repeat, until the day we have to say goodbye — 10/10.
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