The Adam Project was released on Netflix on March 9, 2022. The Adam Project is a science-fiction time travel movie with elements of humour, directed by Shawn Levy, of the Netflix series Stranger Things, fame.
The Adam Project stars Ryan Reynolds, who comes from the future and tries to travel to the year 2018 to fix some inconsistencies caused in the universe due to time travel.
However, instead of 2018, he accidentally travels to the year 2022, where he meets his twelve-year-old self, who helps him carry on his mission.
The Adam Project shows the audience the importance of family and the effects of interfering with the inner workings of the universe.
The Plot of The Adam Project
The Adam Project begins with Ryan Reynolds as Adam Reed, an Air Force time traveller, trying to steal some sort of a spaceship, with another spaceship following and firing bullets at him.
His boss, Maya Sorian, played by Catherine Keener, warns him against it, and he even gets shot at his stomach by Maya’s security chief, Christos. He flies into a wormhole nevertheless.
The scene quickly shifts to 2022, where a young boy, the younger self of Adam Reed and played by Walker Scobell, is trying to run away from some bullies at his school. The bully, named Ray, beats him up, and all the kids, including Adam, get suspended.
Present Adam and future Adam in The Adam Project (Image Credit: Netflix, Vanity Fair)Adam’s mother, Ellie Reed, played by Jennifer Garner, gets called to the principal’s office. She tries to defend her son by mentioning that the school should show some empathy, because it has barely been a year since Adam’s father died.
However, on their way back home, Ellie begins scolding Adam for getting himself into trouble all the time. Later at night, we find Ellie going off on a date with all the customary precautionary instructions to Adam.
Against The Ice Ending Explained: Ejnar and Iver’s Courageous attempt to find the unknown
Adam’s dog Hawking notices something unusual and runs into the woods. Adam chases Hawking and brings him back. On hearing a sound, he goes to the garage, where he finds the older Adam.
Before long, young Adam notices older Adam’s familiarity with the house, the same scar on their chin, and the same watch on their hands, and realises that the visitor is his older self.
Older Adam explains to his younger self that he is on a rescue mission and meant to go back to 2018.
Young Adam wonders that time travellers can change the past and the memories associated with it, to which the older one tells him that his memory will reform itself to reconcile the change of events.
The older Adam gives the bullies a taste of their own medicine after his younger self, meets his mom, and, without revealing his identity, tells her that her son loves her.
Ryan Reynolds as future Adam and Jennifer Garner as Ellie in The Adam Project (Image Credit: Netflix, Netflix Life)It turns out that older Adam needs the help of the younger one to navigate his airship to the year 2018, as his DNA coded ship has sensed that he is injured and is not in his control anymore, which is why he hopes that with young Adam’s DNA, he will be able to control the ship.
Young Adam finds a photograph of a female in older Adam’s phone.
Older Adam is forced to tell him that this is his wife Laura, played by Zoe Saldana, who, after noticing some discrepancies, had time travelled to the year 2018 and was killed by Maya, and that he is here to save Laura.
Maya Sorian tracks down Adam and attacks him with the help of his robotic army. Both the Adams get help from an unexpected source. It so happens that Laura is very much alive and helps them defeat the robotic army.
Laura tells them that she has been hiding in a remote location anonymously for the past four years, hoping that Adam will come someday, looking for her.
Adam’s father, Louis Reed, played by Mark Ruffalo, a scientist and the godfather of time travel, started “The Adam Project” in 2018, which was to make practical time travel possible.
Maya Sorian, who was an ethical entrepreneur at that time, sponsored Louis’s project. However, the older Maya got greedy, and time travelled to give the young Maya some vital insights and stock information, which increased her wealth manifold.
Maya, future Adam, and present Adam in The Adam Project (Image Credit: Netflix)Because Maya changes the past, the present is in chaos, and Laura implores Adam to go back to the year 2018 and stop his dad from launching this project, in other words, “to put the genie back in the bottle”.
Adam is hesitant at first because stopping the invention of time travel might mean that he will never get to see Laura ever again, but later agrees.
The Adam Project Ending Explained
The Adams travel to the year 2018 and track down their father, who instantly recognises them. After listening to them, he feels sorry for the chaos his invention has created, but at the same time, refuses to take it all back, as this would be against the rule of time travel.
Elsewhere, we find an older Maya, warning her younger self about the recent turn of events.
The older Adam decides to blow up the facility where Louis is carrying out his project, where they again have to face the robotic army.
This time, Louis comes to save them and takes the older Adam inside the facility. Louis tells Adam that the algorithm he has created to control the wormholes lies only in his mind as he hasn’t written it anywhere.
It also remains in a hard disc which they need to destroy.
Both present and future Maya turn up to stop them and even have the young Adam hostage.
The Adam Project (Image Credit: Netflix)In the scuffle that ensues, the magnetic core of the facility gets destroyed, and the bullet that older Maya has aimed at Louis hits the young Maya and kills her, crushing her future self as well.
Louis spends some time with the Adams before they disappear into their present. Louis knows that he will die soon, but he doesn’t want to know how and when from the future Adams.
At the end of The Adam Project, we find young Adam reconnecting with his mom and the older Adam meeting Laura during a Physics lecture under the same circumstances they had met before.
Our take on The Adam Project
The Adam Project is a light-hearted, feel-good, and fun movie, ideal for a weekend watch.
Though a science fiction movie, The Adam Project is not too heavy on the science part, and even the children will not have any difficulty in understanding the time travel story. In fact, they are going to thoroughly enjoy the action, especially those involving Maya’s robotic army.
In The Adam Project, we get to see some stellar performances by very well known and talented actors like Ryan Reynolds, Jennifer Garner, Mark Ruffalo, Zoe Saldaña, and Catherine Keener. Even Walker Scobell has done a commendable job playing a young Ryan Reynolds.
The screenplay of The Adam Project is full of wit and humour, not lacking sentiments either, and the cinematography is flawless, a great cinematic experience in all, and quite entertaining as well.
