The Adam Project begins in the year 2050, but the events of the film take place decades before then. The time-travel adventure skips around through the 21st century, with our titular hero landing in 2022 and 2018 before returning to his rightful place in the future. Just a couple of quick stops along the timeline in order to save the world! No big deal. But in case you want a clearer picture of how, exactly, the events that led to Adam’s big escape transpired, we’ve documented the story in chronological order below. Just a warning: There are many, many spoilers ahead. Like, a whole movie’s worth of spoilers. Read at your own risk!
2010 The action all begins in the heady days of 2010, when Adam, played in 2022 by Walker Scobell and 2050 by Ryan Reynolds, is born. Ke$ha’s “TiK ToK” topped the music charts, and Toy Story 3 made moviegoers around the world cry a whole bunch.
2017 Adam runs into a table on the patio and gets 12 stitches in his chin, a fact that will come in handy when Ryan Reynolds’ Adam introduces himself to his younger self.
2018 In November of this year, Adam’s father, Louis Reed (Mark Ruffalo), makes a key discovery that is the first step toward practical time travel. His magnetic particle accelerator finally goes online, and he calls this experiment “The Adam Project.” (Yes, the title of the film!)
Two other key events happen this year, too: Future Adam’s wife, Laura (Zoe Saldaña), crash-lands in the future on a time-travel mission, and she’s reported dead on reentry. But that’s not true — she’s being trapped there as a cover-up for the other key event: Louis Reed’s boss, Maya Sorian (Catherine Keener), has actually gone back in time to give her 2018 self key information that ends up changing the very fabric of time. Ultimately, the movie is about stopping Maya’s control of time travel and preventing a very dystopian future from playing out.
This is also when the film’s big climax takes place: Future Adam and 2022 Adam both head to 2018 to prevent Maya from getting ahold of their father’s discovery — which ultimately involves blowing up his lab. Luckily, since Louis has been working on theories of time travel throughout his career, he immediately recognizes that both Adams are telling the truth, and he works with them to take down the lab. Even though it’s been four weeks since the project launched — and he can’t believe his close collaborator Maya would ever willingly change the time stream — Louis recognizes that this is about something bigger than his own discovery. It’s about the future — and his son’s future.
2020 (ish) Although an exact date isn’t stated, this is around the time when Louis dies in a car accident — which is why seeing 2018 Louis is so moving for both versions of Adam.
2022 The two Adams meet this year — a loser middle-school Adam being raised by his widowed mother (Jennifer Garner) and a ripped time-traveling fighter pilot Adam who steals a ship to travel back in time and look for his wife. But while hiding out in the garage, future Adam realizes his calculations were off and he’s jumped to 2022 instead of 2018. When Maya’s evil henchmen come looking for him, an off-the-grid Laura steps in and saves the day — she distracts the bad guys long enough that the Adams can jump to 2018 and complete their mission.
2027 Something happens during Adam’s freshman year of college that results in his arrest and the loss of his scholarship. While these events are blows to his ambitions, they ultimately prompt him to join the Air Force and become one of the best pilots the time-travel program ever sees. If Adam didn’t go to flight school, he wouldn’t have met Laura when she accidentally walks into the wrong lecture.
2030-something Laura shows up to the wrong classroom, and a gallant Adam shows her to the right place — sparking a romance that will seemingly survive any timeline.
2040 In an aside, future Adam mentions in 2022 that he still gets sick to his stomach thinking about how badly he treated his mother during their shared time of grief. This comment inspires past Adam to consider his mother’s feelings and treat her better in the present.
2050 And now, we’re back to our opening scene where future Adam races through the sky in a stolen jet and “initiates wormhole sequencing.” He travels back in time and starts the sequence of events we follow in the film!
