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men in black - Why wasn't Agent J still injured?


Towards the end of the third installment of Men in Black:



Agent J rushes the older Boris the Animal, getting his several times with his spike weapon. They both fall a great distance, Agent J activates his time machine, and then he reverts back to just a few seconds before attacking Boris (and miraculously healed).



Why wouldn't Agent J still be injured from his encounter with Boris the Animal?




Answer



After having read multiple interviews with the Director and Producer (such as this, this, this, this and this) claiming that their inspiration for the time travel sequences was "Back to the Future" the only conclusion I can draw is that the ending was just a straight ass-pull, one assumes as a result of the persistent script problems that plagued the film and the writer's inability to come up with a workable ending for the film.



  • There's absolutely no indication that the "time jumper" has the ability to send a person back along their own timeline.

  • There's absolutely no indication that the body of someone travelling along their own timeline would 'de-age'

  • There's no indication why someone whose body has de-aged would remember the events that immediately preceded the time jump

  • There's no indication why this effect only works on J and not Boris

  • There's no indication how J was able to work out this amazing new feature despite having only had a few seconds training on how to use the device.


In the words of Barry Sonnenfeld




"We knew starting the movie that we didn’t have a finished second or third act. Was it responsible? The answer is, if this movie does as well as I think it will, it was genius. If it’s a total failure, then it was a really stupid idea.”






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