Timer – 2009

Of all the world’s mind-distorting movies, Timer has got to be among everyone’s Top 5 top mindbenders of all time. A “Timer” is implanted into a willing individual’s wrist and upon implantation begins a count-down of the days until the day on which the implantee finds true and genuine love.

Timer follows the story of Oona O’Leary, who having had a Timer successfully installed in her own wrist, suddenly is confronted by the dilemma of having to navigate life knowing her soul mate (as of yet unidentified, of course), has not yet had a Timer of his own implanted. The result is what’s known as a “blank Timer”.

Oona eventually grows fed up with the blank Timer issue and decides to throw all caution to the wind by allowing herself to fall for a local supermarket clerk. There’s only one problem: the young man’s Timer countdown shows a reading of still 4 months remaining until such time as what he can “expect” to meet the real love originally “destined” to love him back.

Coherence – 2013

Coherence draws on the mystery that is the uncertainty behind the theory of Schrodinger’s Cat. Its just another night and a group of friends get together for a dinner party. Unbeknownst to the party of eight, an astronomical anomaly passes by close to Earth at the same time as the start of their own get-together.

The result is a sequence of truly strange and mysterious events. The friends soon realise that nothing previously assumed real or everyday is quite as “to be expected” as once thought. Nobody seems to be who and what the others once knew.

Waking Life – 2001

As far as mind-benders go, Waking Life is hard to top. The story is about a boy who dreams that he can float. The problem is that unless he holds on for dear life, he will ultimately end up drifting away and off into the sky. The idea occurs at various stages of his life growing up, even after he’s old enough to enjoy placing bets at mobile betting sites.

The on a particular day, he is involved in a strange accident. After the accident, he journeys through what he suspects may in actual fact be only another dream. The “dream” makes him to move in and out of alternating situations and realities. He encounters a melee of interesting characters during this time. Unsettling is the fact that everyone he meets seems to be only interested in discussing the life of dreaming and waking and the increasingly blurring line between being asleep and being awake.

He eventually becomes so confused due to the dream/wake altering state of being that he becomes petrified of the possibility of never ever waking from what he perceives to be a confusing dream. The movie inspires in the viewer the possibility of such a scenario happening to him or her. Being confronted with the notion of losing touch with reality by no longer being able to differentiate between dreaming and real-life is a concept that plagues many people.