I found a philosophical flaw in X-men: Days of
Future Past.
The world is caught up in an all-out war of
Sentinels vs mutants. Wolverine and company decide that the historical event
that triggered this timeline was Mystique’s killing Trask. To avert this
all-out war, Wolverine and company send Wolverine’s consciousness back in time to
take over the mind of the younger Wolverine, so he can persuade the younger
Professor X and the younger Magneto to help him prevent Mystique killing Trask.
Events then unfold. When the critical killing moment comes, Professor X has
control of Mystique’s mind, and is in a position to force her body to walk away
from the opportunity to kill Trask. Instead of doing that, Professor X releases
Mystique’s mind, saying she must make that decision for herself. He gives her
free will.
There are of course the philosophical questions of
(1) whether consciousness exists apart from body, (2) whether consciousness can
travel through time, and (3) whether consciousness can be transplanted into
another body. But let’s allow all these as literary licence. There is still a
philosophical flaw, and it’s a logical flaw – which is very much harder to “literary
licence” away.
To say that one specific historical event triggers a
given timeline, and further to say that changing that one specific historical
event will change the eventual outcome many years hence presumes the
philosophical doctrine known as determinism – which says that every event is
caused, and that, given complete information, every event can be predicted. There
is no freedom in the causal chain. Let me be specific: there is no free will in
the causal chain.
Giving Mystique the free will to decide whether to
kill Trask contradicts this philosophical presumption. If Mystique has free
will, then so does everyone else along that timeline. There is then no guarantee
that the war will be averted.
This is the philosophical flaw in the movie. But it
is, nonetheless, a wonderfully entertaining movie.
END
