We would be hard pressed to name any time travel movie or television show that doesn’t touch on the dangers of running into your past or future self. It’s basically the bread and butter of the time travel genre. Mistakes happen, timelines change, and wrongs must be righted. Oddly enough, most movies and TV shows tend to correct things with an unusual sense of urgency, as if the characters aren’t aware of their recently utilized control over time itself. Marty, you’ve got the time machine—sit back and relax. Take in a show at Biff Tannen’s Pleasure Paradise Casino & Hotel. You’ve literally got all the time in the world.
The comedic denizens over at Improv Everywhere took our collective love of the time travel genre and gave a New York subway car a glimpse at something we’ve, until now, only seen in TV and movies. Starting rather innocuously when a man pleads to the subway car for money for his time machine. The people in the car are generally dismissive—anyone who lives in the big city will occasionally experience a strange and creative plea for cash on public transit from someone down on their luck.
Things start to get weird when the man’s double arrives “from the future” to warn him of the impending disaster his invention causes. Roping a couple into the interaction after they give the first man some money, they too are met by their doubles to warn them not to do such a foolish thing. The strangeness continues as onlookers seem incredulous as yet another set of twins come into play.
Frankly, a video like this is just plain brilliant. Executing the bit with multiple sets of twins all interacting in some way with the kerfuffle, layers the spectacle of it all. Most anyone would take the first set of twins as just playing a joke. The second two sets make things weird. The fourth and final set drives it home with a “this can’t be real” moment while it also remains a bit unnerving just seeing that many sets of twins in one place. It’s just not that common. Unless you count that other time they messed with people by filling a subway train with twins in their Human Mirror video.
Well done, Improv Everywhere. And we’re happy you didn’t really destroy the space-time continuum.
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HT: Gizmodo
Image: Improv Everywhere
