Did Kenneth indeed time-travel?

Belinda told Darius that Kenneth was not her type, that she was just being nice to him. No way is she the type to stay at home while her friends partied, as Kenneth had said to Darius. People with deep crushes often misjudge any kindness done to them by the object of their desire. They probably never really ever dated, but in Kenneth's very creative but emotionally immature mind, he thought they had a relationship.

Perhaps he was the one who crashed into her house in the first place and killed her. I think the story is suggesting, by the wording of the newspaper ad, that he did go back in time and tried to rewrite history - but maybe he didn't travel back far enough and was already in the car (the second time) when the car was about to crash. Maybe this time, with foreknowledge, he was able to slam on the brakes sooner and only caused minor damage to her boyfriend's house. What triggered the first, fatal accident, which in turn triggered Kenneth's devotion to mastering the art of time travel in order to erase regrets and correct past mistakes? Perhaps, in unaltered time, he had been following Belinda home one evening, after work, saw her with her boyfriend, freaked out when his illusions were shattered, slammed his foot on the gas (again perhaps without realizing what he was doing due to his highly emotional state), sending the car smashing into her (or the boyfriend's ) house, accidentally killing her. He seems too mild-mannered to have wanted to actually harm Belinda.

I think Kenneth did travel back in time, did change what happened to Belinda, and maybe now he wanted to go back again to make more changes? When Darius confronts Kenneth with the news that Belinda is alive, he exclaims that obviously his previous stint at time travel had therefore worked. I find it strange that he would not have immediately tried to find this out the results of his time-travel intervention upon his return, for himself, if he was that obsessed with her.

And why advertise for a "side-kick" to go along with him back in time again? To alleviate loneliness? To fit in with the heroic image he had set up of himself as a Doctor Who type hero? Maybe he had gone in search of Belinda when he returned from his first trip back into time and seen that even had she lived, she would not have chosen to be with him. Perhaps he was subconsciously hedging his bets? If, during his second attempt to time travel and change things, he couldn't make Belinda fall in love with him, at least he would have his faithful sidekick?

Actually, I don't think we should over-analyze this movie: this movie is all about the ability to suspend your disbelief and accept that reality - and the past - can be altered, and that not everything is as we think we are perceiving things to be..... Hey, we all have regrets, but one way to rise above them is to acknowledge past mistakes and make sure we don't repeat those same mistakes. Our mistakes and regrets hopefully teach us to be kinder, better people.

There are so many answers already, but I thought I'd chuck my hat into the ring!

Firstly, some information on the background of the film. It was created due to this posting in the classified section of the Backwoods Home Magazine. So as it was posted here, it was always going to be used verbatim in the movie.

That might mean nothing, but it's worth bearing in mind throughout the whole process of answering the question. The inclusion of the line wasn't really up to the director so much as it was staying true to the real story.

The second thing to discuss is did he ever really time travel? This should be obvious to anyone who watched and paid attention to the movie, but in case it's not, this is from an interview with the director:

Throughout the movie, the relationships between the characters are the central focus, rather than the actual time machine itself. I noticed that the machine was so hidden you only get glimpses of it. Was that a conscious choice to have the device in the background for most of the movie?

Yeah. It really isn’t a movie about the time machine. And yes, you do see a part of it very briefly in the middle, but it could be anything. We all wanted to maintain the tension in the movie by really bouncing you back and forth as to whether you believe that there’s really a time machine or not at all. Whether it works or not is another question, but I fell like if there’s a ping-pong thing going on, if you believe it or you don’t, the paddles get closer and closer and by the end you’re like, “Is it?” Then you get the answer to that thing.

To me, the movie ends when Darius chooses to walk across the plank. I think what happens after that is obviously a lot of fun. And emotionally and narratively, the movie is over to a certain extent after that scene, except for the fact that we don't get the answer to, "Is this person crazy or not?" or "Is she getting off the boat with the right person?" [Laughs.] That’s one of the reasons I think the film could be a little too ambiguous to be satisfying.

The way it ends could arguably be unexpected. The whole time you're asking yourself, "Is this real?" or "Is this just going to end up as some lesson?"

Rock and roll. [Laughs.] I did one shot that would allow us to change that outcome because the time machine was always in it and that was always there, so it was just a matter of what happens after he hits that button. It’s a series of making five shots there that are different. In allowing that from technical stand points, from having it being shot with a big, wide camera, we still could play with it and do whatever we needed to do. It left that possibility there.

First of all, when I first brought the possibility up while we were shooting, people were joking and the alternative ending was preposterous at the time. But then you don’t really know what it's gonna be like until you see the movie through. So when we were actually able to see the way the film played out, I felt like that ending was gonna work.

I love a certain kind of film, and because of that I almost felt a responsibility for it to end the way it did. It became very clear at a certain point where I just couldn’t do it any other way. It had to be this way. If not, why did we sit through this hour and a half?

So I'm aware this is all just background to your real question, but I think it's important to give context to the film.

Now your real question: Had Kenneth ever successfully time travelled before?

The answer is that it's left ambiguous and totally up to the viewer to speculate. However, speculate many viewers have. Here is a fantastic thread over at IMDB completely devoted to it.

There are a few arguments in favour of either outcome. The usual argument against him having time travelled before is that he doesn't know he's saved Brenda - so how could he have done it in the past. However, other arguments counter this by saying his act of saving her didn't necessarily mean he knew her.

My views are actually rather brilliantly identical to a poster on the IMDB thread, so I'm quite happily going to quote from his text:

He has travelled before.... Follow me...

I can only speculate that the truth behind Kenneth and Belinda's relationship is really a blend of both their accounts. It's easy to see how a socially awkward man such as Kenneth could build up a friendship to be more than it really was. Conversely it would be easy to see how Belinda may have been more than friends with Kenneth only to have her perception of him change. Therefore...

2001- a. He and Belinda are together, she is killed. (His given account) HER ORIGINAL FATE.... A car struck the house she was in.

Intervention Future version steps in. She is NOT killed.

b. He and Belinda are just friends, he is crazy. (Her given account) HER MODIFIED FATE.... His car struck the house she was in.

2012- He travels back, 1st attmept. He "knows" 2001 "A" to be true. Living with grief and on the run, he develpos a time machine to fix the past...

These efforts cause the events of 2001 "B". However he returns to 2012 unaware that his attempt at saving Belinda was successful and he continues to live as if 2001 "A" was still in effect.

2012- He places the ad and recruits Darius. The film plays out just as we see with her ultimately informing him that Belinda is still alive.

Let me edit this to say that I believe he was responsible for Belinda's death in 2001 "A" and is striving to fix that. The account of events he gives Darius is only a half truth in that he leaves out his responsibility.

However, it's important to stress that the answer is entirely up to the viewer - exactly as the film makers wanted it to be. Remember, in this film time travel as a sci fi medium is much smaller element than time travel as an emotional one - the idea of rectifying past mistakes.

My advice would be to watch the movie and decide which storyline fits your interpretation of the movie best. There are good arguments on either side, but from my point of view, I like the version of events I posted.

Of course he time traveled. He went back once before, saved his ex girlfriend by crashing his car into her house. He must've run the original deadly car off the road before crashing into her house. He wanted to return again so he could prevent himself from crashing into her house in the hopes of getting her back but then he met Darius and he changed his mission to save her mother. Which is where they went in the end. Great movie!

I think that it's supposed to be open ended, but I believe he probably did time travel in one scenario. My other thoughts are that he never time travelled but wanted to because he was in love with the only girl that didn't make fun of him and was going to fix his mistakes. Though by Darius falling in love with him he didn't need to fix his past. My last thought is he was totally crazy and built a suicide machine and this was a very dark ending of two lost souls. In any case I was left wanting more and was left wanting the magazine story or some answers.

He did time travel, but he over shot and changed the time line.

He showed up prior to the two of them dating, and because of that he never got to be with her. The fact that he said he did it once before means he went back to save her life, but now the second time, he is trying to go back in order to save the relationship they had before the time line changed.

He did time travel before to save Belinda but for whatever reason believed his attempt had failed. He so immediately believed that he had failed that when he returned he did not even bother to see if she was alive. His first attempt at saving her likely did not work how he planned it in him expecting his actions to have a direct and immediate effect on saving her (example: he runs drunk driver off the road before it hits her, she lives). But his actions in running the car into her house did save her in an indirect way aka the butterfly effect (example he runs the car into the house accidentally somehow, this causes her to change plans for the day, she doesn't get killed by a drunk driver later on). This is why he is shocked by the news she is alive but did save her.

This may cause some people to ask wouldn't there be a note of in the box if he had thought he failed? There are a couple possible reasons for that but the most likely is that there was a note in the box he just already took it out and read it before he showed it to Darius. When Darius and Kenneth later check the box it's to see if the 2ND mission had gone well. Which it had since there is no note.

After Darius tells him she's alive he still wants to go back because he wants to save her mom and he loves Darius now. He tells her this in so many words right before they finally time travel together at the end.

I think he did time travel to save Belinda and was successful. Perhaps he intentionally crashed his car into Belinda's boyfriend's house sometime before the actual accident that would kill her. By already having crashed into the house, he somehow prevented the future event where the drunk band member would have crashed into the house; thus having saved her. And maybe, in his mind, crashing into the house was the best way to alter future events without having to explain the details to Belinda or anyone.

I believe the key to the movie was when he was stealing the laser. The piece that falls, he knew it was going to fall so he caught it. I think that had played out before. I also believe there was foreshadowing when he stated he had been staking the building out for awhile.

I think, ultimately, the movie makes the "Life of Pi" claim, which is that here are these events, and there's really no objective way to determine what explains those events. There's what we tell ourselves is the more rational explanation, that he did indeed crash his car into the house, it gave him mild brain damage causing him to view that traumatic moment the way he does now, and is therefore driven by this insane fantasy to prevent it, and there is the more fantastical explanation, that he did indeed time travel, and we should believe him. We can't know, as the audience, which is true. So then you have to ask yourself: Which is the better story? After all, the lives we live are just individual stories within the grand narrative of the universe, and every choice we make is ultimately commensurate with: What story do i want to tell? You can pick the more rational, scientific, albeit more cynical approach, and then this movie is ultimately about how a man copes with a traumatic incident in his life, by concocting this time travel nonsense, and seduces a young girl into accompanying him. Or you can choose to believe the protagonist, and the story he is telling, and you come away with, in my mind, a far more rewarding tale.

He didn't time travel before.

If he had successfully saved Brenda, he would have known that he saved her.

Darius caught him off guard when she told him she had met with Brenda and Kenneth retreated back into the fantasy world that he had built after he crashed his car into her house.

However, the video interview of Kenneth seems to have been made after he and Brenda time-travel at the end.

And that's the way it is.

I now believe that he never did the first time travel as stated in the newspaper. As he seems entirely unaware of what to expect for going into the past; as he says things like "safety not guaranteed" and "bring your own weapons", plus all the martial arts training he thought he needed to learn. Also no information about his supposed first travel was ever mentioned or even alluded to ever ACTUALLY happening outside of the newspaper article, plus he seemed to be building the time machine for the first time. And he just wanted a friend because he was afraid.

So the real reason that he put the post in the news paper is because he wanted to go back in time (for the first time, despite the lie in the newspaper article) to see if he can change the fact that he crashed into Belinda's house, and maybe if he does change this, he can still win over Belinda.

Because; to Belinda, the crash seemed to be the final deciding point that Belinda didn't want to see him any more. we know this because she mentions that "the accident" changed everything with her friendship with Kenneth.

Kenneth possibly lied to Darius about a drunk driver killing Belinda because he was ashamed that he got drunk and jealous about the boyfriend and crashed into Belinda's boyfriend's house himself, which lead to Belinda never wanting to see him again.

AND one interesting thing which no one has mentioned is that at the very end, Darius says "i'm sorry, but everything is true except for the story". I believe the specific words "the story" refer to the magazine story about Kenneth. And that she was actually doing everything with Kenneth to actually save her mother, who really did die. That way, it makes sense when Kenneth says "this time i'm going back for you". meaning this time he is going back to save Darius' mother, because he realised that he didn't love Belinda any more, he actually loved Darius. It also makes sense when she lied to the other intern about what she told Kenneth she wanted to go back in time for. She lied and said her parents got divorced because it was too personal to tell him the truth.

So, to make sense of the clip at the end where he talks about needing a partner to go back in time with (as is filmed earlier in the movie by Darius), it was partly in reference to meaning that he needed somebody to stand by his side as he goes into the past for the first time, giving more evidence to the fact that he never time traveled in the first place. I think it's also a kinda nice way to say he needs someone throughout life when "i am doubting myself and when the heat gets hot, has my" back as he puts it, which further shows the fact that he can be a lonely person which is why he might have been so keen on Belinda in the first place, but now he has found Darius.

Also, because the time machine did work. And the box was empty, that means everything went well on their mission.

P.S Quotes may not be exact. But the meaning of what was said at the time is accurate.

This is a movie that is supposed to delight you. Not a heady analysts movie. Whether Kenneth went back or not should not stop you from feeling the exhilaration of his hand reaching out for her and her timid steps across the plank. Neither should it stop you from being completely delightfully exhilarated at the end. I am a big movie analyst but one can ruin this movie for themselves if you think about the time travel (which I love to think about and love when it is well done in a movie or show - like LOST) more than the sense of adventure and emotional intensity the movie evokes. It suspends day to day life and replaces it with a common goal between two people. The magic of a shared goal is far more intense and surprising than the possibility of time travel in this movie.

The ending goes beyond whether or not they LITERALLY time traveled. It's not about going back to change what they've done (running into Belinda's home, "causing" mom to get killed), but about going back to that place and that time that Kennith explains to Darius in the car after stealing the laser. "I have only done this once before" could simply mean being in that place once before, and when they go back in time in the final scene, it's a very science-fiction way of symbolizing that they found time travel in each other. Kennith feels how he did when he (thought he was) in a relationship with Belinda, and Darius is legitimately happy for the first time since her mom died.

I think I would go along with those who say that this is such a wonderful movie about making the most of life and opportunities when we can that we probably should not analyse the time travel element too much.

If the credits had rolled at the point that Darius grabs Kenneth's hand it would all make just as much sense. That we get to see what happened next is unexpected, and outrageous, but in a magical realist way, and exhilarating. We might be conditioned to expect an "well, there was no time machine, but they all learned something, resolution" but to get the journey and the time machine too is beyond satisfying.

The core scene of the move to me is when Darius and Kenneth discuss "Over the Rainbow" and Kenneth talks about getting back to a place where you were happy. And for "place where" you could say "place when". Was it fortuitous that Kenneth's car is the same shade of yellow as The Yellow Brick Road? Longing for what is gone, cherishing what you have and what happens between the dangerous ages of 20 and 40 seem to be the major themes.

Safety not guaranteed, indeed.

Maybe the line "I have only done this once before" isn't about the actual act of time travel. What if he is referring to his life? 'I have only LIVED this once before'. His want for a second chance makes sense if he has only ever done it once before..

I was thinking that the original person who ran into Belinda's house could have been her boyfriend. He could have gotten drunk or something and started driving over to her house and accidentally crashed his car into her house, killing her. Then Kenneth went back in time and crashed his car into her boyfriend's house on the day he was supposed to originally kill Belinda, which ended up changing the events following that so that her boyfriend never got drunk that day.