Stephen Hawking said the best argument against time travel is a lack of tourists from the future.

But according to George Clarke, a filmmaker from Belfast, all bets might be off.

He was watching the extra features from Charlie Chaplin's 1928 film The Circus when one figure stood out. It was a recording of the film premiere at Grauman's Chinese Theatre in Hollywood, and in the background a heavy woman with a coat stepped across the screen, holding a mysterious object next to her ear and appearing to speak to no one present, before turning her head and spotting the camera before the shot fades out.

So Clark screened the video at the Belfast Film Festival and eventually put it on YouTube with a provocative question. Could she be talking on a cell phone? And if so, does this mean she's a time traveler?

The first complaint to the theory has been that there would be no cell towers to use the phone with in 1928, a flawed argument that commentator Messiah_UK nicely puts to rest: "[None] of you guys had thought that someone with the technology to travel through time would also have the ability to communicate via a cell phone type device without the need for cell towers? So time travel is fine but the prospect of talking cell to cell without a tower is just too crazy?"

To expand on his theory, if time travel is possible in the future, and cell phones without towers or networks are possible, then shouldn't future life forms have invented a way to meet friends at a historically significant movie premiere without having the most annoying conversation ever on their cell phones?

"Hey, I'm at the movie. Are you here?"
"Yeah, I'm here. Where are you?"
"I'm by the door on the right."
"What door? My right or stage right?"
"Oh my god, do not say stage right. The door with the zebra."
"Ohh, I see you. OK I'm coming over, put your cellphone away before the natives notice."

Clearly avoiding this mess should be on scientists' agenda well before tackling the space-time continuum.

The most popular explanation online is that the woman is holding some sort of portable hearing device. Seimens marketed one about the size of a cell phone that was held to the ear starting in 1924, and Western Electric began manufacturing their 34A audiophone carbon hearing aid in 1925.

"Looking remarkably like the original iPod, the 34A measured just under 20 centimeters by 10 centimeters and weighed less than a kilogram," reports The Toronto Star.

It's a theory that even Clarke admits has some validity, but he still questions why she would be talking into it.

Drawn from grainy footage that's over 80 years old, it's impossible to say anything about the mysterious woman with certainty. Is she talking into the mysterious object? Does she purposely turn and look into the camera? Do her big feet and unkempt appearance hint that it's a man in disguise? An alien?

CultureMappers, what do you think?