Genre Character of the Week: Ray, the Imagineer

Last weekend I finally got around to watching a movie my BFF Mike had been telling me to check out called Frequently Asked Questions about Time Travel. I had seen the trailer a few years back and although I had been looking forward to the movie, it still isn’t available in region one format – luckily it does play on HBO so I was able to watch it.

Short story – excellent film, quite funny and uses most of the tropes you can expect from a time-travel story. Also it introduced me to my next genre character of the week, Ray played by Chris O'Dowd (pictured left, with Cassie, played by Anna Farris)

Ray is a nerd (sorry, imagineer) that is, a huge fan of Science (or Speculative) fiction. He’s also a pretty swell guy who gets in over his head when a time leak occurs in his local pub.

As Ray is a well known SF (sorry again, Science/Speculative Fiction fan) his friends automatically assume he will know what to do in such a situation.

PETE: Well what do we do? I mean, this is your s**t...

RAY: This isn’t my s**t. My s**t is sitting on my arse reading this s**t...

Anyway, as Ray and his friends Pete and Toby get thrown back and forth across timelines and their own pasts, the film does an excellent job of mixing the last act of Back to the Future II with Bill and Ted’s Excellent Adventure. If you have the opportunity to check it out, I definitely recommend it.