[daishi424]

Wormhole devices in movies keep puzzling me for quite some time - why does a significant number of them look like rings rotating around each other? Contact is one example, another is Event Horizon. The Terminator also had a similar looking time machine.

[at_a_remove]

I've often thought about this.

Currently, our sole way of manipulating spacetime is by cramming a heck of a lot of matter in one spot, which is to say that we don't really do much of it. Any way short of crushing down mountainsful of matter into a thimble would necessarily be more complex, with more moving parts. I can only think that rotation would come into play, and if one dimension is good, three would have to be better if you want to shred spacetime.

I don't think it's doable but in the sense that you want something to visually convey it, it may as well be the equivalent of lightning to stand in for electricity.

[goldenkey]

Pretty sure it mostly stems from initial illustrations for The Time Machine by H.G. Wells.

[magicalhippo]

Not sure if there's some pseudo-physical explanation, but I've imagined it has something to do with visualizing the three dimensions that are manipulated.

Interestingly both Event Horizon and Contact (movie) are from 1997...

[hnlmorg]

I suspect the reason is as simple as it looks cool and dramatic on screen.