The Adam Project ending explained

Here’s the emotional, time travelling ending of The Adam Project on Netflix fully explained

Hope they still have Kleenex in 2050 because I am weeping x


The Adam Project debuted on Netflix over the weekend and quickly got to the top of the Netflix top 10 thanks to its positive critical response and thanks to its all star cast that included Ryan Reynolds, Mark Ruffalo, Zoe Saldaña and Jennifer Garner. It’s a time travel action adventure film that stars Reynolds as Adam Reed, who leaves the dystopian 2050 he’s living in to team up with his 12 year old self in 2022 in order to change the future and save the world. It’s a film that toes the line of emotional and hilarious really successfully – here’s a summary of the plot, the ending explained and what the hopeful climax means for the universe in The Adam Project on Netflix.

Timey wimey stuff

The events of The Adam Project are triggered because in the year 2050, a dystopian future, pilot Adam Reed (Ryan Reynolds) steals a jet to try and get back in time to find out what happened to his presumed dead wife Laura (Saldaña). Instead of getting back to 2018 like he intended, he crash lands into 2022 and ends up having to team up with his 12-year-old self to get back to 2018 and find out what happened to Laura.

Another plot point is that Adam’s deceased father, played by Mark Ruffalo, is the one who inadvertently invented time travel and therefore created the dystopian future that Adam and the rest of the world find their lives worse because of.

Laura was hiding in the past

When Adam and younger Adam get to 2018, they find Laura who had been hiding out and monitoring what caused the future to become the bad state that it is – and the answer is Sorian. Maya Sorian is the villain of the film, hunting down Adam at every turn and has basically been feeding information via time travel to her younger self in order for her to make the changes to make her all powerful in the future. Sorian’s younger self was the business partner of Adam’s dead dad Louis.

Via Netflix

When Sorian comes hunting, Laura keeps her busy so the Adams can escape and destroy time travel forever – even though she knows that this could mean that her and Adam may never meet and fall in love in the future. Whilst fighting Sorian, Laura is killed.

The Adam Project ending explained

Louis and the Adams infiltrate Sorian’s Tech facility in order to remove the crystal hard drive at the centre of the magnetic particle accelerator in order to change the future, but 2018 Sorian and her future self show up to stop them. Future Sorian accidentally shoots and ruptures the accelerator, which starts pulling all metal things towards it. She threatens Louis and the Adams with a gun and shoots, but the bullet is pulled towards the accelerator and it kills young Sorian in the process.

Because young Sorian is shot, future Sorian also dies because she no longer exists in the timeline. This allows the three to complete their plan and change the future for the better. Younger Adam goes back to his mum with a commitment to treating her better. Louis refuses to change the course of history and accepts that he’s going to die in the natural timeline. Adam goes to the flight academy and meets Laura organically like they’d hoped, with the two falling in love in the exact same way – in a lovely, hopeful final act.

The Adam Project is streaming on Netflix now. For all the latest Netflix news, drops, quizzes and memes like The Holy Church of Netflix on Facebook. 

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