Time Trap (2017)
Directed by Mark Dennis
No — Time Trap is not woke, scoring 6 out of 100 on our wokeness meter.
Time Trap is a 2017 science fiction adventure in which a group of students descend into a Texas cave and discover time dilation, a fountain of youth, a caveman horde, and a dying spaceman from a Mars colony.
Consciousness Markers
Cara and Jackie are capable, active characters who climb, fight, and drive the plot, but this is standard adventure-movie competence rather than any articulated feminist agenda.
The cast is a conventional ensemble of mostly white actors with no evident effort at inclusive or representative casting; diversity is neither a goal nor a talking point.
The exposition is heavy but purely mechanical, explaining time dilation and cave physics rather than delivering any social or moral sermon.
A throwaway plot detail mentions humans abandoning a dying Earth for Mars, but this is background worldbuilding, not an environmentalist message or climate crusade.
There are no LGBTQ+ characters, relationships, or themes anywhere in the film.
Race is never addressed or thematized; the story is a time-distortion puzzle with no racial consciousness whatsoever.
There is no economic critique, class commentary, or anti-capitalist theme in the film.
Body image, size, and physical self-acceptance are never touched upon.
No character is depicted with or discussed in terms of neurodivergence.
The film invents its own sci-fi mythology rather than revising or reinterpreting historical events.
Why it received this score
Time Trap is a 2017 science fiction adventure in which a group of students descend into a Texas cave and discover time dilation, a fountain of youth, a caveman horde, and a dying spaceman from a Mars colony. The premise is ingenious in a bargain-bin way. The execution is earnest. The result is a film that wants to be The Goonies with a physics lecture, and it mostly succeeds at being the latter.
The film's social consciousness is minimal. The cast is a standard assembly of white actors, and the screenplay never pauses to comment on that fact. LGBTQ lives and relationships are absent. Cara and Jackie are capable, active, and frequently in peril, but their competence is the generic kind found in any adventure movie. It does not amount to a feminist statement. Race never enters the frame. A passing reference to humanity abandoning a dying Earth for Mars functions as worldbuilding, not as an environmental warning. Economic critique is absent. So are body-image reflection and neurodivergent representation. The film invents its own mythology and leaves real history untouched.
The exposition is heavy, but it is mechanical. Characters explain time dilation, cave physics, and the rules of the portal. They do not explain how we should vote, feel, or repent. That is the film's saving grace, if saving grace is the right term. Time Trap is a modest puzzle box with a few clever turns and a lot of running. It does not lecture. It does not represent. It does not crusade. It simply traps its characters in a cave and lets the centuries roll by. For a certain kind of viewer, that is enough. For our purposes, the needle barely moves.
Analysis generated by our Consciousness Algorithm
Synopsis
A group of students become trapped inside a mysterious cave where they discover time passes differently underground than on the surface.
Questions about Time Trap
Is Time Trap woke?
No — Time Trap is not woke, scoring 6 out of 100 on our wokeness meter. That earns it a verdict of Ultra Based.
Does Time Trap have any woke elements?
Very few. None of the 10 markers reaches 30, the level where a marker counts as present; the highest is Feminist Agenda at 12.
How does Time Trap compare to other 2017 movies?
It ranks #224 of the 309 films from 2017 we've scored; their average is 19. The wokest is I Am Not Your Negro (92).
How is the Woke Score calculated?
An AI-assisted process researches the film and its reception, scores it 0–100 on ten markers, then combines those into one 0–100 Woke Score. It measures a specific set of 2020s cultural themes, not film quality.