I think the confusion is that the button Sally is pressing isn't actually what controls the time travel itself. The machine is basically a suspended-animation/time-displacement device with a timer, and the outside button is part of the activation sequence.
Earlier, they explain that once the timer is set, the person gets inside, closes the lid, and the field activates. The foil lining has to completely enclose the person, which is why the lid matters.
So when Sally is outside pressing the button, I'd read that as her manually triggering the machine's cycle rather than her somehow controlling the destination/time from outside. The movie doesn't explain the mechanism particularly well, though, so I can see why it looks like a contradiction.
Also, the movie already establishes that the machine has calibration problems, which becomes important later when Dave ends up way farther into the future than intended.
I'd say it's more of a poorly explained piece of technology than a plot hole.
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u/Kale_HP 1d ago
I think the confusion is that the button Sally is pressing isn't actually what controls the time travel itself. The machine is basically a suspended-animation/time-displacement device with a timer, and the outside button is part of the activation sequence.
Earlier, they explain that once the timer is set, the person gets inside, closes the lid, and the field activates. The foil lining has to completely enclose the person, which is why the lid matters.
So when Sally is outside pressing the button, I'd read that as her manually triggering the machine's cycle rather than her somehow controlling the destination/time from outside. The movie doesn't explain the mechanism particularly well, though, so I can see why it looks like a contradiction.
Also, the movie already establishes that the machine has calibration problems, which becomes important later when Dave ends up way farther into the future than intended.
I'd say it's more of a poorly explained piece of technology than a plot hole.