Hot Tub Time Machine and Me
or: And You May Find Yourself Overly Invested In A Fan Theory
Hi there reader,
Today, I wish to talk about the 2010 film “Hot Tub Time Machine. While this may seem a strange film to write a critical essay about, it actually made serious impression on me when I saw it as a teenager. R-rated studio comedies were my first film obsession. I adored Seth Rogen (the story of him and Evan Goldberg writing the first draft of Superbad as middle schoolers sparked my interest in screenwriting) and worshipped at the altar of Judd Apatow. Between the ages of 12 – 17 I vivaciously sucked up any material produced by that corner of the American comedy industry,
Strictly speaking, Hot Tub is not an Apatow or Rogen film but it undoubtedly belongs to the same trend and was therefore briefly an object of my obsession during my adolescence.
Even as my tastes have matured and my palette has become more refined, this crass and commercial introduction to both the film industry and film theory has meant I have retained an appreciation for “dumber” or “schlockier” films. I sincerely believe any film is a complicated text, capable of teaching the viewer something if they only know where to look. Hot Tub just so happened to teach me two, one was a lesson in editing and the other in criticism.
Hot Tub follows three middle aged buddies, Lou (Rob Corddry), Nick (Craig Robinson) and Adam (John Cusack). After Lou is hospitalised for carbon monoxide poisoning, the three high school friends reunite and embark on a trip to a ski resort they frequented in their young adulthood (Adam’s nephew Jacob (Clark Duke) also tags along but is largely inconsequential to the topic of this essay). Whilst there, they hop into the film’s titular hot tub and are magically transported back to 1986 where they reinhabit their younger bodies and relive a foundational weekend in their lives.
Much of the film is then devoted to the characters retracing their past steps so as to avoid altering their present due to the Butterfly Effect. This goes well enough until the film reaches its climax and it’s time for the crew to travel back to 2010. When presented with the prospect of returning to his sad adult life, Lou admits to his friends that his carbon monoxide poisoning was in fact a suicide attempt. He tells them he cannot return to his miserable life. Instead, he’ll stick around in the past and live his life over again, avoiding his prior mistakes and capitalising on his knowledge of the future.
When the other characters return to their present, it’s drastically different to the one they left. They are no longer the mid-life disappointments from the film’s beginning, they’re now rich and famous, having benefited greatly from Lou’s meddling with the time space continuum.
Lou is now the billionaire founder of internet search engine “Lougle”, Nick is a world famous record producer credited with conceiving almost all the popular songs of the nineties and noughties and Adam is happily married to his old flame April. In the reality of the film, this is presented as a happy ending and for all intents and purposes it would be, if it weren’t for one crucial editing decision.
The film’s closing sequence is cut to art-pop classic “Once In A Lifetime” by Talking Heads. By no means a deep cut, the song is of a piece with the others on the film’s 80’s soundtrack and its upbeat funk vibe is perfectly suited to a happy ending montage. Things only start to get weird when you pay attention to the lyrics.
The song’s lyrics are oddly relevant to the events of the film. The most obvious connection is with the action unfolding on screen as the song plays. Each character is waking up to a new, idyllic life they have no memory of creating and the lyrics reflect this perfectly.
And you may find yourself living in a shotgun shack
And you may find yourself in another part of the world
And you may find yourself behind the wheel of a large automobile
And you may find yourself in a beautiful house, with a beautiful wife
And you may ask yourself, "Well, how did I get here?"
It's incredibly rare for a film to have such an on-the-nose needle drop. Beyond being just related to the events on screen, it almost feels like singer David Byrne is commentating on the film itself. And there’s more parallels too, remember the entire film is constructed around the characters traveling through time in a magical hot tub. Another way to describe this might be something like —
Letting the days go by, let the water hold me down
Letting the days go by, water flowing underground
Byrne is singing about the hot tub! Bizarrely even specific visuals from the film are mirrored in the song’s lyrics. The 1986 finale where Lou decides to stay behind in the past is set during a storm and the hot tub spins its passengers around furiously as it readies to travel through time, it finally lifts them into the sky, still spinning. It looks like a typhoon… or maybe a twister.
hey let's all twist our thumbs
Here comes the twister
These connections alone mightn’t be all that notable but if we take the commentary metaphor further and really examine what Byrne is saying about what we’re watching, the use of the song becomes haunting.
And you may ask yourself, "How do I work this?"
And you may ask yourself, "Where is that large automobile?"
And you may tell yourself, "This is not my beautiful house"
And you may tell yourself, "This is not my beautiful wife"You may ask yourself, "What is that beautiful house?"
You may ask yourself, "Where does that highway go to?"
And you may ask yourself, "Am I right, am I wrong?"
And you may say to yourself, "My God, what have I done?"
These passages suggests Nick and Adam will question their new reality and possibly even reject it. This is after all, not their life but only a version of it. The lyrics argue that the material goods and social status the pair had for so long coveted may not prove all that rewarding, especially given the fact they are unearned. Eventually, this sequence hints, their new lives will become just as unfulfilling as their old ones. Even with the all the advantages time travel has given them, their central problems — their basal nature — will remain the same.
Same as it ever was, same as it ever was
Same as it ever was, same as it ever was
Same as it ever was, same as it ever was
Same as it ever was, same as it ever was
If I was being salacious or looking to start an argument, I might say the use of this song gives Hot Tub Time Machine one of greatest sad, nihilistic endings in comedy film history, putting it right up there with The Graduate or Dr. Strangelove. And honestly, that braver version of myself may be right. I’ve yet to see another film so effectively undercut its own supposed messaging just by choosing the perfect soundtrack.
The editing technique I’m describing is a variation of soundtrack dissonance or ironic soundtracking. Another example can be found in the previously mentioned Dr. Strangelove finale wherein nuclear bombs are detonated across the globe to the sound of Vera Lynn’s “We’ll Meet Again” (Kubrick was quite fond of this technique and used it again in A Clockwork Orange, that time “Singin’ In The Rain” is juxtaposed against Kubrick’s ultraviolence).
Whereas in Dr. Strangelove, the film’s apocalyptic ending is contrasted with a nostalgic song, in Hot Tub, the film’s happy ending is undercut by Byrne’s lyrics. It’s a subtler variation and a more multifaceted one. For instance, not only does Byrne prophesize the characters’ upcoming problems, he even offers a solution.
Yes, amidst the closing sequence of Hot Tub Time Machine, David Byrne unknowingly pitches a sequel.
Into the blue again, after the money's gone
Once in a lifetime, water flowing underground
He suggests that Lou, Nick and Adam will blow through their newfound wealth and, possibly motivated by a combination of guilt and regret, will feel compelled to re-enter the hot tub and correct the mistakes of their past selves, stopping the timeline from ever being changed.
This sequel idea sets up some interesting possibilities. Of course, it brings to mind the sequel of the most beloved time travel film in history, Back To The Future wherein Marty McFly revisits the events of the first film to keep his universe’s continuity in check.
My younger self became convinced this was how a theoretical Hot Tub Time Machine 2 would play out. I felt clever, like I unlocked a puzzle embedded into the film, I felt like I was in on a joke. It was maybe my media criticism awakening, a symptom of the sort of interest that led to me writing these essays, posting on Film Twitter, producing Video Essays and working in media. I was overjoyed when I heard a sequel was going into production for a 2015 release and I smugly looked forward to having my theory vindicated.
But reader, when I finally watched Hot Tub Time Machine 2, I was deathly disappointed.
All the promise setup by the original’s ending is squandered by Hot Tub 2. The sequel explores none of the pathos I found in the first film and instead finds itself bogged down in a hopelessly complicated and convoluted plot centred around a JFK style assassination of Lou. (Actually, dear reader, if you ever for some reason need to replicate the experience of a concussion or other serious head injury, I highly recommend trying to parse Hot Tub 2’s Wikipedia plot summary — it is a mess.)
In short, Hot Tub Time Machine 2 was precisely the kind of dumb comedy I was reticent to write it off as. Not only was it a bad film, but its very existence invalidated my reading (and therefore, love) of the first film.
This prompted me to question both my interpretation of Hot Tub’s ending and the filmmakers’ intentions. Was there really anything there in the sequence that had sparked my imagination? — was “Once In A Lifetime” chosen on a lark?
I was further discouraged when I researched Hot Tub and found absolutely zero discussion online about the relationship between the film and song. Maybe I had simply overanalyzed it and deluded myself into believing something which wasn’t true?
I think these sort of doubts are inevitable when in the habit of thinking critically about media. There always exists the temptation to act as a detective and finally “solve” a particular piece or artist, to unearth all the reasoning and logic that brought an artwork into being. But ultimately querying the “truth” of a theory or opinion is a fool’s errand. A good critic rejects definitism and cherishes ambiguity. I will never fully know the filmmakers’ intentions or have my interpretation deemed “canon”. Without this external validation I can only rely on, and communicate to you, my own thoughts and feelings.
The ending of Hot Tub Time Machine was impactful to me, it inspired me to speculate and extrapolate to my own conclusions. I think there’s worth in that, indefinable worth, but worth nonetheless. I know I got enjoyment from the experience, I know it inspired further interest in film theory, I know it has informed some of my own editing decisions, I know it resulted in me writing this essay.
So even if the filmmakers did not intend for this song choice to carry quite the amount of significance I projected onto it, even if I was the only viewer in the world who was gobsmacked by Hot Tub Time Machine’s ending, my time with the film was still well spent. The lessons I took from the film will stay with me forever and continue inform my work. And as a burgeoning critic, Hot Tub allowed me to flex muscles I was only learning how to wield and coaxed me further down the route of studying film theory and history.
Even writing this essay was its own reward, I truly learned a lot about my younger self as I agonised over multiple drafts and explored innumerable tangents. Hopefully it will encourage the reader to continue enjoying art critically and engaging with different works regardless of their place in the canon — but I have no control over that.
Same as it ever was,
Gavin
Housekeeping
Hi, thanks for reading — I intended to get this sent out earlier in the week but I’m still settling into a schedule with my new job (which is going super well thus far) so apologies for the delay. In the near future, I aim to get another post out before Christmas and maybe a year in review sort of thing after that, follow me on twitter to keep in the loop. Sincerely, thank you so much for reading.