The Adam Projectdirector and producer Shawn Levy laid out the rules of time travel that are prominent in his and Ryan Reynolds' latestNetflixmovie.
Way before the creative pair were attached to the film, T.S. Nowlin’s spec script had been obtained by Tom Cruise. Cruise did have the original intention to star in the film. Paramount Pictures at the time was pining after the rights to the film - under its past title,Our Name is Adam. However, the plans forOur Name is Adamultimately stayed stifled amongst the mess of production and subsequently was lost in the shuffle. That is untilNetflixfinally picked up the rights to the film instead, this time with producer Levy and star Reynolds on board.Reynolds is the lead inThe Adam Project, portraying main character Adam Reed. Reed is a time-traveling test pilot who ventures back to meet his younger self and his late father in an effort to come to terms with his past - while also fighting to save the future from an unknown threat.The Adam Projectdisplays the race against time and explores the many ways in which the concept of the past and future can sometimes lead to a distortion of reality. Actor Walker Scobell stars alongside Reynolds, as he plays the younger Adam.
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The Adam Projectalso starsJennifer Garner and Mark Ruffalo as Adam’s parents, along with Catherine Keener, Zoe Saldana, and Alex Mallari Jr. Reynolds and Levy recently sat down with IGN to talk about their new movie. When prodded about the film’s complicated time travel rules, Levy kept it quite vague to keep any spoilers at bay and hidden until the release date. However, he did reveal that he approached the concept of time travel in a way that hasn’t been done much before in cinema. He shared, “I’ll start by saying that Ryan and I are not time travel genre wonks, so the goal was to make a time travel movie that felt really grounded and foregrounded character and fun and adventure and heart that didn’t get too mired in the rules. To the extent that there are rules that I couldn’t eliminate, basically, a person doesn’t have their memories reconciled, i.e., they don’t remember something that has happened to them until they get back to what we, in this movie, call their fixed time."
“Grown up Ryan doesn’t remember having gone back until and if and unless he’s able to get back to his fixed time, which is the time period that he belongs in. We try to get the rules out of the way so that people can enjoy the ride and have a visceral experience rather than a cerebral experience,” Levi continued. The director then noted how he and Reynolds devised a way to avoid making the deaths too goryinThe Adam Project. He said, “Our rule is that if you die out of your fixed time, you just have this molecular smear, what Ryan called ‘digital skittles.’ So, suddenly, making up a time travel rule, which we’re allowed to do, freed us up to do all kinds of action that probably would have been too gory if we were actually doing literal death. So, just the freedom of writing the rules was very, very fun.”
The paradox of Levy finding freedom in the ability to craft and create rules, which are usually used as a weapon of authority or control, is quite compelling. The tone that could emerge within the film from having this balance of past vs. future, while at the same time playing around with notions of rules and rebellion, could further emphasize the consequences of time jumps. Luckily, fans don’t have much more time left towait forThe Adam Projectto be released.
The Adam Projectwill be available for streaming on Netflix starting June 19, 2025.
