‘The Adam Project’ Ending Explained: Breaking Down That Confusing Time Travel Plot

Warning: This article contains major The Adam Project spoilers. As in, pretty much every spoiler there is.

The Adam Project—the new Ryan Reynolds time travel adventure film—began streaming on Netflix today, and it’s sure to be a fun watch for both kids and their parents.

Directed by Shawn Levy, who is best known as an executive producer and director on the hit Netflix series Stranger Things, the original sci-fi movie stars Reynolds as a man from the future named Adam who travels back to the year 2022 and confronts his younger self. The film was written by Jonathan Tropper, T.S. Nowlin, Jennifer Flackett, and Mark Levin, and if it is anywhere near as popular as the Upside Down was for the streaming service, then it’s sure to be a win for Netflix.

The Adam Project begins by informing audiences, via text on the screen, “Time travel exists, you just don’t know it yet.” But as fun as it is to make movies about time travel, it can also be confusing. Can you change the past? Are you making multiverses? What about the Butterfly Effect? My head is spinning already.

But don’t worry, Decider is here to help. Read on for The Adam Project plot summary, and The Adam Project ending, explained.

WHAT IS THE ADAM PROJECT ABOUT? THE ADAM PROJECT PLOT SUMMARY:

The year is 2050, and a pilot named Adam Reed (Ryan Reynolds) has just stolen a spaceship. His boss Maya (played by Catherine Keener, more on her later) warns him that if he doesn’t turn around, she will shoot him out of the sky, and track him down if he tries to time travel. But Adam has done something fancy to block her trackers, he says. He flies into a wormhole and disappears.

Back in the year 2022, 12-year-old Adam Reed (played by Walker Scobell) is running away from bullies at school. They catch up to him, and, much like an adult Ryan Reynolds, Adam can’t keep his mouth shut. He takes a beating, and his mom Ellie (the lovely Jennifer Garner) has to come to pick him up from the principal’s office. We learn that Adam’s father Louis (Mark Ruffalo) recently died and that Adam has had a hard time coping.

One night, when Adam’s mom is off on a date, Adam’s dog Hawking (yes really) takes off running and barking into the woods. When Young Adam chases after the dog, he discovers debris from his future self’s crashed spacecraft. When he returns home, he hears a noise from the garage… and discovers Old Adam, injured and bleeding.

After exchanging some classic Ryan Reynolds quips with himself, Young Adam learns the truth about Old Adam: that he’s him, that he time traveled from the future, and that he meant to go back to 2018, not 2022, as part of a rescue mission. He also explains the rules of time travel and memory for the purposes of the movie: When Old Adam goes back to his fixed time—aka the time where he belongs—both his memory and Young Adam’s memory will reform to reconcile what happened. But it won’t happen while he’s there, it will only happen once he returns to his correct time. You’ll want to remember that—it’s important for later.

Unfortunately, Old Adam can’t access his “time jet” to go to the correct year, because it’s coded to his DNA, and it senses that he’s injured (seems like a pretty big design flaw, but whatever). Basically, it just means that Young Adam and Old Adam have to work together because Young Adam’s DNA can open up the ship. After doing fun 2022 things like standing up to Young Adam’s bullies and having an emotional conversation with his mom (who thinks he’s a stranger), Old Adam is tracked down by that boss Maya from the opening scene. Young Adam knowns Maya Sorian as a family friend and former co-worker of his dad, but Old Adam knows Maya Sorian as a corrupt supervillain who has exclusive control over time. As it turns out, Adam’s dad invented time travel. Also, Old Adam is convinced she had his wife Laura (Zoe Saldana) killed. That’s why he’s here—to save Laura.

Using a weapon that is definitely a lightsaber, Old Adam faces off with some robot army guys and Maya Sorian. He’s not doing so hot, but then, out of nowhere, his wife Laura comes to his rescue. She’s alive! Yay! Laura and both Adams escape to a remote location to hide out for a bit.

Laura explains that future Maya time-traveled back to November 2018, which is when “The Adam Project”—which was the name of the project helmed by Adam’s father to invent practical time travel—first launched. Laura thinks Old Maya traveled back in time to give Young Maya stock tips in order to amass a fortune, as well as tips to gain control over the time travel project. Maya changed the past, and as a result, things are in total disarray in 2050. Old Adam describes the future “on a good day” as Terminator. Laura has been living in the past for four years alone.

In order to fix the world, Laura wants the Adams to travel back to 2018 and prevent their dad from ever launching the Adam Project. Adam hesitates—if he stops the invention of time travel, he and Laura will never meet—but ultimately agrees. Both Adams make the jump to 2018, and, after a very Star Wars chase scene, they find their dad. Their Dad, Louis, is furious at them for breaking time travel protocol by trying to change the past, but he listens to Old Adam’s story about how time travel has ruined the future. He apologizes for what he did, but refuses to undo anything, as he still believes protocol should be followed.

There’s some emotional stuff in which Old Adam realizes that his dad wasn’t as bad as he remembered, he just convinced himself to hate him because it was easier than grieving. Meanwhile, Old Maya pays a visit to Young Maya in order to warn her that Adam is trying to undo the invention of time travel and take away her legacy. Old Adam decides to destroy time travel himself, by blowing up the facility where Louis and Maya conduct their research. Dad shows up to help, and together they go into the building to stop time travel.

WHAT IS THE ADAM PROJECT ENDING EXPLAINED?

Louis informs his son that the only way to stop time travel is to destroy the algorithm he designed to stabilize the wormholes. Apparently, he has never written the algorithm down, and never told it to another person, so it’s only in his mind and in a super-secure hard drive in the basement. But of course, Old Maya and Young Maya show up to stop them.

In what looks like the Death Star, the two Adams and their dad face off with the two Mayas and some more robot guys. The big magnetic core thing (because of course there is a big magnetic core thing) gets destroyed, and everything metal starts flying into it. Old Maya shoots at Louis with an armor-piercing bullet, but it serves, due to the magnet, and kills Young Maya instead. Oops! Old Maya kills her younger self, thus erasing her future self, too.

Time travel has successfully been un-invented, but Old Adam and Young Adam are still in 2018 with their dad. “It probably takes a while for 30 years of changed time to sort itself out,” is the reason that Old Adam gives. Sure! Louis and the Adams go back to their house, and Louis tells him he knows that he must die in the future, but that he doesn’t want to know how or when it happens. Then dad and the two Adams play catch in the backyard (awww!) until both Old Adam and Young Adam disappear and go back to their fixed time.

Back in 2022, we see Young Adam in a scene from the beginning of the film, when he was teasing his mother for her disorganized filing system. This time, however, before he leaves for school, he freezes, then turns around to give his mother a big hug. We can infer that, at that moment, he just got sent back to his fixed time, and his memories reformed, just like Ryan Reynolds said they would.

In the future, Old Adam is attending a lecture. Laura his former wife enters and sits down next to him. Old Adam starts to flirt with her, and when, he discovers she’s in the wrong building on campus, he offers to walk her to the right place. “I’m lost,” she says. “Not anymore,” Adam replies. “I found you.”

While it’s not explicit, we can infer that Old Adam did in fact recognize Laura, because even though time travel does not exist, he should have his memories of meeting her as a child. He should, in theory, also have the same memories of Old Adam of the events of the movie, because the memories supposedly “reform and reconcile.” They walk off together, and the movie ends.

My advice? Don’t think about it too hard. Time travel plots are always a time-wimey mess. Just go with it!

IS THERE A THE ADAM PROJECT END CREDITS SCENE?

No. There is no scene during or after The Adam Project credits. Go to bed!

Watch The Adam Project on Netflix