Some ideas are:
- You branch off into another timeline and your actions make no difference to the previous timeline
- You’ve already taken said actions but just didn’t know about it so nothing changes
- Actions taken can have an effect (so you could suddenly erase yourself if you killed your parents)
- Only “nexus” or fixed events really matter, the timeline will sort itself out for minor changes
- something else entirely
I’d totally forgotten about 12 monkeys. I had that VHS of this when I was 11 or 12 years old, I probably watched it 30 times and I never fully understood it. 25 years later I think it’s time for me to rewatch this
Rewatched it recently, it held up really well!