And no, I am not talking about his cool and slick gun.
After the blockbuster Avengers: Infinity War, one of the most awaited Marvel movies, Deadpool 2, is finally out in theaters for everyone to see, and by everyone, I mean 16-year-olds and above. The first Deadpool movie was outstanding, having the right mix of sarcasm, cynical commentary, slow-motion action-packed scenes, and fourth wall breaking. It was one of the best R-Rated films of movie history, being the second highest grossing with a lifetime gross of $363 million, just behind NewMarket Films’ “The Passion of the Christ” with a lifetime gross of $370.8 million.
Now, the “merc with a mouth” has come back one again in the big screens, all the while breaking it to talk to the audience, but now he has made some new friends as well as some new enemies. Before I resume talking about the film, please do keep in mind that this article will talk about major spoilers. If you have not seen the film yet, I recommend watching it before you read this, but if you have read it already, or you just do not care about watching Ryan Reynolds in tight red pajamas, then resume with your heart’s content.
Who is Cable?
The film introduces us to Deadpool’s friends in the Marvel comics, Domino and Cable. Domino is a gal who has the power of probability manipulation, which is a fancy word for being lucky. Meanwhile, Cable is a fighting machine with a mechanical arm and a lot of guns to play with. However, most importantly, Cable’s most important toy for being the plot device of the film is his time traveling device. In the film, Cable’s original timeline is far into the future, after Deadpool’s generation of mutants and humans alike have laid waste on the surface of the Earth, according to Cable himself. He goes back in time to eliminate Deadpool’s newfound friend, the 15-year-old mutant Russell Collins, also known as Firefist. Firefist, in Cable’s original timeline, became a rogue mutant when he grew up and killed off Cable’s family.
As convenient of a plot device it may be, this would be the same device that would create holes in it.
Why Is This a Problem?
Time traveling is a complicated issue and a very hard plot device to control with. If handled poorly, the story would be a poorly written piece of work. If handled exceptionally great, it could become one of the best stories out there. When used, stories tend to get messy with paradoxes, which will then get unresolved or unexplained all throughout, thus creating plot holes. If, however, the whole time-mumbo-jumbo thing is explained well in the film’s premise, then it would all work out if it would make sense in the plot. If not, it would only create confusion and bewilder the audience. One of the common paradoxes encountered in time traveling is the Grandfather Paradox.
The Grandfather Paradox got its name out of this simple setting: if you, by any miraculous ability or means that you can go travel through time, go back to the past and kill your grandfather before he marries your grandmother and bears a child to your father, what do you think will happen? Since you have killed your ancestor who was supposed to bring you forth to life, you would no longer exist. But then again, if you no longer exist, then the whole grandfather shooting event would not have happened, making your grandfather alive again. However, since your grandfather is alive now, he can bear a grandson that would go back in time to kill him and vice versa. There goes the paradox.
How Does This Apply in Deadpool 2?
Let us go back to Cable. Cable went back in time to kill the person who killed his wife and his daughter. While that did not happen, Deadpool managed to stop the person, Russell, to becoming a bloodthirsty wreck later in the future. Thus, Cable’s wife and daughter would not have died. However, since his wife and daughter are alive and Russell was stopped, he did not have any reason at all in the first place to go back in time. Therefore, Cable would have not gone back in time for nothing, which in turn he could have not stopped his wife’s and daughter’s killer, and the paradox goes on.
Let us talk about Deadpool bringing Vanessa, his longtime lover, back to life by killing her killer before he could kill her. Since Vanessa did not die, Deadpool would not have any reason at all to go to the X-Men in despair of losing a loved one, and he would not have met Russell in the first place. If he would not have met Russell, he would not have met Cable, who had the time traveling device. You see where this is going?
In conclusion: never mess with time travel.