“The Adam Project Review & Ending“. Shawn Levy, Netflix’s director of The Adam Project, uses a lot of pop-culture references as well as enough dad rock to make it seem like you don’t care what year you live in. In this high-concept, emotionally stirring motion picture, Levy uses an everything-but-the-cinematic-kitchen-sink mentality, directly referencing ’80s-era sci-fi flicks like Amazing Stories, Starman, The Last Starfighter, and Star Wars — basically, anything with “Star” in the title.

This type of quippy performance is probably something you’ve seen from Ryan Reynolds before. But not exactly. It’s a little different this time. His performance is a bit more emotional than usual, and transforms it into a rich, thematic commentary on loss, love, and grief. Before we get into the details of this time heist, let’s do a quick recap.

What is the Adam Project?

The title of the movie is not the Adam Project. It refers to the magnet particle accelerator that causes havoc at the end. This is part of Louis’ work that eventually leads us to time travel. He explained to Adams that Louis believed that “with a strong enough pulse, we can generate utilitarian space wormholes.” This basically means that portals can take you from one place in time to the next.

Big Adam’s memory of the film isn’t there because he met his younger self in the present. He should technically have the memories in the future. It’s explained that when someone returns to their fixed time, they reconcile their past memories with what happened in the present. Big Adam will only remember his trip to the past when he returns from the future at the end.

What exactly is a fixed time for a person? This is also explained. Big Adam says that a person can only be in one place at a time and on a quantum level. Everyone has an anchor point in the timeline that they belong to – as shown at the end. Once time travel is overthrown, both Adams will shift back to their original positions.

What made Adam travel back in time?

Hotshot pilot Adam Reed ( Ryan Reynolds ) is on a mission with his wife Laura (Zoe Saldana). He breaks the rules set by Maya Sorian (Catherine Keener), his superiors in a dystopian future 50. Instead of going back to 2018, he hijacks a plane and goes back in time to find Laura. However, he accidentally ends up in 2022, where he meets his adorable but snarky 12-year-old self (played here by Walker Scobell). His tiny frame, asthma problems, and “punchable” face are far from Future Adam’s tall, handsome, and incredibly ripped self.

Adam realizes he has misjudged time jump by four years and is unable to accept the difficult situation in which he finds himself. Young Adam also treats Ellie (Jennifer Garner) badly after his sudden death. Adam’s anger and grief has been transferred from his mother to his deceased dad’s legacy. It turns out that Louis (Mark Ruffalo) was the one who invented time travel. This caused a chain reaction that resulted in a very dark future for Adam.

The Time Jet

Future Adam grits his teeth and buckles down. He realizes that he needs Young Adam to fix the damaged ship. The controls of the time jet work by recognizing the user’s DNA. The jet won’t allow Adam to fix the damage nor fly the ship because he is injured. Young Adam’s DNA, which isn’t injured, will work in a pinch. This will allow Adam to heal and take control of the ship once repairs are completed. Adam can’t heal and jump back to 2018 so Young Adam must stay.

Meanwhile, Sorian, a villainous woman, and her crew of clean-up workers track the time jet back into the past to find Adam, who has temporarily escaped from her clutches.

The Ending Explained

Louis and Adam embark on their mission to finish their mission. However, Future Sorian intervenes to stop them from changing their future and threatens to kill Young Adam. Louis tries to talk with her, but she fails. Sorian accidentally breaks the electromagnetic seal that contains the MPA. The reactor begins to crumble as magnetic items draw towards it.

Future Sorian then attempts to kill Louis and steal the hard drive. But the armor-piercing shot deflects towards an MPA and kills her younger self, thus removing Future Sorian’s name from the timeline. Louis is confused by the fact that the two versions of his son linger in the past, when they should have disappeared. However, the pair assure him it is happening, though more slowly than with Sorian.

Louis realizes that he will soon be gone, leaving Adam with his mother. As he is already conflicted about the future of time travel, let alone his future path, he refuses to listen to critical information. However, he uses the time he has left to make peace with his sons and play one more game of catch before Adams disappears.

Young Adam is told by Future Adam that he should appreciate his mom and that his attempts to forget the painful memories of his youth are futile. Louis comes to the realization that he needs to spend more time with his loved ones before he dies.

In 2022, Young Adam starts to form a loving relationship with Ellie. We see that Laura was right to believe that Adam and Ellie would still be together in the future. In flashback, we also see their meeting at the academy under the same circumstances as Adam described earlier in the film.

Time Travel Logic

Young Adam is eager to meet his older, more experienced self. However, he is also naturally confused and curious about time travel. Adam wants to know if Adam can remember everything, as they are the same person. Perhaps this is a multiverse scenario where Adam has influenced the past and these events are launching a new timeline.

Adam dismisses his younger self with as many questions as possible. He mocks him for having seen too many movies (the MCU shaking). He tells him that when he returns to the future, his memories will be restored and he will know what happened. But right now, he doesn’t know how this all ends or how big of a mess the timeline is. It is fixed on a quantum level.

Yes, Adam, unlike the pesky Avengers Endgame time travel rules, can change the future by going back to the past. His quest to discover what happened to Laura could lead him to do so.

Laura, Adam’s wife

Adam tells Young Adam about how he met Laura while still at the academy. She arrived late for a lecture, and was not in the right building. He offered to take her to the right place and she fell in love.

Adam learned that Laura had not returned from a time jump in the future and that her jet was damaged on re-entry. Because Laura was their best pilot, he refused to believe it. He found out that her flight logs had been altered by someone who wanted to conceal the truth. That’s why he decided to go back to 2018 to investigate her fateful mission.

Adam suspects Future Sorian in Laura’s disappearance. Young Adam is confused. Young Sorian, to him, is his lovely business partner.

Laura finally shows up to fight Adam in 2022, while Adam’s younger self tags along. For the past four years, she has been hiding in order to wait for Adam to find her. Laura tells Adam that her 2018 mission went wrong when she started investigating jump logs. These logs indicated that someone was visiting the point in history and wiping out the data.

Laura explains that Future Sorian was the one who had been working with time travel development during the first months. She has given her younger self tips and tricks on how to make it work. Sorian, with her tech skills and past relationship with Adam’s dad, has already made a difference in the future. This future is the only one Adam can see. It’s…not good.

It is clear that Adam must go back to 2018 to stop time travel from ever happening, even though it means losing Laura forever. Future Sorian then takes Laura’s place, keeping Young Adam busy until they can escape to 2018.

Sorian’s Deal

Future Sorian pursues Adam into the past to eliminate him and ensure that he doesn’t interfere with her glorious future as Queen of Pretty Much Everything.

Sorian, through her time jumping schemes, has become extremely powerful and made a lot of Adam’s father’s time travel technology. She will have control of the most precious resource on Earth in the future: time travel. What is the point of all this? She did this because, in her past, which she now understands, in the wake Louis’ death, the government took time travel tech and research from her. She felt like she had made a huge sacrifice for the company and that all of the money she spent was pointless.

Also read: Choose Or Die Review & Ending Explained : What’s Happened ?

The MacGuffin

Louis, Adam’s father, invents the magnetic particle accelerator around 2018 while Sorian is working. His research is called “The Adam Project” (hey! That’s the name for the movie!) Future Adam must convince him to end all he has worked for in order to stop time travel technology evolving.

It is not an easy task. Louis and Adam had a difficult relationship as children. Louis was always busy at work and Adam felt neglected. The two of them get into a fight when they meet. But Louis eventually realizes that The Adam Project is the only way to save humanity and prevent Sorian from destroying it.

In order to close down The Adam Project, Young Adam, and Louis enter the Sorian Technology facility. They only need to destroy the core of the magnet particle accelerator’s crystal hard drive. Louis has never shared the algorithm behind it with anyone.