When Abe first constructs his fail-safe, he cannot imagine that it is fully functional when it turns on. His decision to be a good distance from the box when it powers up leaves him in the dark. When Abe turns on the fail-safe on Sunday evening and drives away, he should have stopped in the parking lot to see if he would indeed be exiting the U-Haul. It was his assumption that it could only be himself since he has not told anyone about this part of the experiment.
If Abe had observed himself exiting from the fail-safe on Sunday, prior to his construction of the second or daily box, he may have become fearful. What event caused me to use the fail-safe? What went wrong? Instead, based on the film, Abe would have observed Aaron exiting the facility. This would cause him to include Aaron in the project of the boxes.
Abe is also convinced at this point that it would be dangerous to contact anyone who exits the box from the future. The film shows this to be both beneficial and harmful. However, if Abe were to see Aaron exiting, he could turn around, look behind him, and observe another Abe watching him. If he left a note on the box for the person exiting, would he find 1300 notes when he returns? If he throws them all in the trash, would there be a huge pile of previous notes there?
When did déjà vu first hit you while watching Primer, the bench scene, the engineer’s joke, or with Granger? I would love to have a video of myself watching Primer for the first time. Everyone sees Abe on the roof before going down to talk to Aaron on the bench, the first time. When you watch it again, you say, "There are two Abes. Abe(2) is on the roof watching Abe(1) talking to Aaron. And Aaron has an earpiece, so it must be Aaron(2)."
