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‘Synchronic’ Review: Twisted, Trippy Trips Through Time
The filmmakers Justin Benson and Aaron Moorhead bend reality in this drug-fueled sci-fi horror.
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By Glenn Kenny
There’s brainy sci-fi, and then there’s very brainy sci-fi. It’s rare that very brainy sci-fi packs a genuinely emotional, or even just sensationalistic, wallop. But the filmmaking team of Justin Benson and Aaron Moorhead (of 2017’s “The Endless”) are working up an impressive batting average in this department.
Their new movie, “Synchronic,” is inspired, at least to some extent, by the wreckage wreaked by designer drugs of dubious legality (the ostensibly synthetic marijuana called K2, for instance). Here, a couple of overworked New Orleans paramedics, Steve (Anthony Mackie) and Dennis (Jamie Dornan), discover casualties of the pill that gives the movie its title. Some die of mishaps, like falling down an elevator shaft, but one woman expires of a snake bite. Not necessarily uncommon — except she was in a hotel without any venomous snakes on the loose.
As we get to know the central characters better, their circumstances feed a story line that gets curiouser and curiouser. Steve has a brain tumor he’s keeping secret. Dennis’s rebellious teenage daughter disappears after going to a drug party. The proximity of Steve’s tumor to his pineal gland and the average age of Synchronic users both prove significant. And Steve’s dog is named Hawking.
After Steve discovers that Synchronic is in fact a “time-travel pill,” it’s off to the races. Mackie’s character puts his life — which he considers expendable — on the line to help find his friend’s child, whom he suspects has become stuck in another, more hostile, time.
“The past sucks!” Steve discovers on his journey. Moorhead and Benson don’t overlook the more amusing aspects of the scenario: The expressions Hawking makes each time Steve goes into the past are droll, for example. And the duo deliver shocks, scares and a resonant payoff.
Synchronic Rated R for language and violence. Running time: 1 hour 36 minutes. In theaters. Please consult the guidelines outlined by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention before watching movies inside theaters.
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‘Synchronic’: Risky time-travel drug keeps two EMT’s busy in a gritty indie
A great buddy relationship is at the center of a film full of big ideas and psychedelic journeys..
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The weird emergencies being handled by a pair of EMT’s (Jamie Dornan, left, and Anthony Mackie) seem to trace back to a new lab-produced drug in “Synchronic.”
Well Go USA
For the second time in the movies this year, the city of New Orleans is reeling from the introduction of a powerful synthetic drug with supernatural sci-fi side effects.
First there was “ Project Power ,” in which a mysterious pill granted you a superpower for five minutes — but you wouldn’t know the nature of that superpower until you took the drug, and it might result in your violent death.
Now comes “Synchronic,” and this time around, the synthetic drug will give you a high that goes beyond heroin and even alter the space-time continuum — but there’s also a strong chance you’ll wind up on a paramedic’s gurney on the way to the hospital, or murdered at the hands of someone from another century. Talk about a trip.
Even before we learn about the dangerous and mysterious drug in “Synchronic,” something about New Orleans feels … off. The skies above the city swirl and glow in strange ways, and it always feels as if it’s 2 a.m. and there’s nobody on the streets, and bad things are happening in and around the dilapidated houses in the city’s worst neighborhoods. The camerawork adds to the feeling of disconnect and impending despair; we weave this way and that as we follow veteran EMTs and best friends Steve (Anthony Mackie) and Dennis (Jamie Dornan), who find themselves responding to increasingly bizarre emergencies. They find drug overdose victims who are babbling incoherently and often suffering from grotesque injuries, sometimes with fatal results. A bite from a snake that hasn’t been seen in this region for decades. A compound fracture suffered by a victim speaking in tongues. A spontaneous combustion. A stab wound — from a centuries-old sword. The only thing the victims have in common is they’ve all ingested a lab-produced drug known as Synchronic.
Co-directors Justin Benson and Aaron Moorhead (“Resolution,” “V/H/S: Viral”) do a brilliant job of giving us a visceral ride through the experiences of a Synchronic trip, in which you’ll find yourself on your sofa but suddenly your sofa is in the middle of a swamp a century ago, or you wake up in the Ice Age, with a woolly mammoth trudging by in the background. Mackie’s Steve, who once dreamed of becoming a scientist (his beloved dog is named Hawking) and has a passionate interest in quantum physics and unexplained phenomena, manages to track down the last several packets of Synchronic. (The chemist who created the drug has had a crisis of conscience and is no longer making it.) When Dennis’ teenage daughter Brianna (Ally Ioannides) goes missing, Steve makes it his mission to take one dangerous and potentially life-sapping Synchronic trip after another in an effort to find out where and WHEN she is and bring her home safe.
“Synchronic” is filled with big ideas played out on a relatively small canvas. It’s about best friends who envy each other’s lives and don’t appreciate what they have. Dennis found the love of his life (the always terrific Katie Aselton) and is still married to her, but he’s allowed the relationship to stagnate and he tells Steve the problem with finding the love of your life is you’ll never again have that feeling of first discovering her. Steve rightfully calls bull---- and laments being alone, especially when he finds out he’s sick. Really sick.
Anthony Mackie and Jamie Dornan both have been parts of blockbuster Hollywood franchises — “The Avengers” and “Fifty Shades of Grey,” respectively — but they comfortably slip into this gritty, indie vehicle and deliver some of their best performances working together. Through the psychedelic journeys and the blood-spattered crime scenes and the brooding atmosphere, “Synchronic” is at heart a good old-fashioned buddy movie about two friends who will risk all for each other.
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Synchronic ending explained: what happened to steve.
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Warning! Spoilers for Synchronic below.
Synchronic 's ending left viewers with a lot of questions, the most pressing of which is what happened to Steve (Anthony Mackie). Synchronic follows paramedics and lifelong friends Steve and Dennis (Jamie Dornan) . And throughout the course of the film, the pair run into more and more gruesome accidents during their shifts, which they eventually learn are tied to a designer drug called Synchronic.
Dennis' teenage daughter Brianna goes missing early on in the film, with her disappearance tied to Synchronic. In order to help his grief-stricken friend, Steve vows to find Brianna. He learns that Synchronic allows those with an underdeveloped pineal gland, like teenagers, to literally travel back in time. Early in the movie, Steve discovers he has a brain tumor that led to his pineal gland remaining underdeveloped. Because of that, he is able to take the drug and travel back in time in hopes to find her.
Related: The Most Anticipated Movies of 2021
Steve buys out New Orleans' remaining stash of Synchronic in order to perform experiments to help him find Brianna. Those experiments help him to better understand the drug, which leads him to believe that he can travel back and find Brianna. He's eventually successful and manages to find her and bring her back to her parents in the present. But that comes at a devastating price for Steve.
How Synchronic Works
Steve has a run-in with the chemist behind Synchronic who provides convenient exposition as to how the drug works. Dr. Kermani tells Steve that those who take Synchronic are able to see time as is, instead of linear. He uses a needle on a record player to explain this further; one can drop a needle anywhere on a record to play that particular section of music. There's no specific need to go in chronological order because the other parts of the record exist simultaneously. The doctor compares Synchronic to that needle - it allows a user to drop in at any specific moment in time.
Kermani is unsure why, but only users with a non-calcified, underdeveloped pineal gland can experience the effects of the drug. As Steve's cancerous brain tumor stopped his own pineal gland from calcifying, he is able to travel through time with Synchronic, unlike other adults. He learns that the drug physically transports him back in time for seven minutes. The movie never explains why, but the specific location that he stands in his living room dictates which era in time he travels back to. For example, one spot in his living room sends him to a swamp and the other sends him back to the ice age. Steve also discovers he can bring things back in time with him, as long as he is holding on to them when the pill kicks in. But the catch is that things may not return to the present in the same way. Steve uses all the information he gathers in his final mission to rescue Brianna.
What Happened to Brianna
After a series of trial and error, Steve realizes where he needs to go in order to find Brianna. In an earlier scene in Synchronic , Steve and Brianna talk on a boulder in a park during her little sister's birthday party. The boulder notably had "ALLWAYS" carved onto it. After explaining his experiments with Synchronic to Dennis, Steve thought Brianna may have carved that in the past as a message to the two of them. Steve took Synchronic at that exact spot and traveled back to a Civil War-era time period. He found Brianna relatively unharmed and managed to send her to the present in order to be reunited with her dad. Synchronic never reveals what happened to Brianna during or after being sent to the past. That's because, frankly, it doesn't matter. Synchronic is Steve's story; the movie is all about Steve coming to terms with his own mortality in order to see what really matters - saving Brianna helped him to get there.
Steve's Fate Explained
Brianna's safety came at a grave cost to Steve. When he reaches Brianna, she appears to be on a battle field in the middle of the Civil War. They nearly execute their plan to return safely to the present, but Steve is shot in the leg by a soldier who believes he is a slave. The soldier holds Steve at gunpoint while Brianna manages to escape. She is tearfully reunited with her dad when they turn around to see a ghostly version of Steve sitting on the boulder in present day. Steve and Dennis shake hands before Steve fades away into oblivion. Synchronic ends immediately after Steve disappears. While his fate is never spelled out, the movie strongly implies that he is stuck in the past. Not only does he have an aggressive cancer, but he is a Black man stuck in the time of slavery. Sadly, that means Steve likely won't last long in the past. But in his eyes, the sacrifice was worth it. Steve never had a wife or family of his own, so Dennis was like his family. Making sure his fractured family was reunited was more important to Steve than saving himself. So while the mission ultimately cost Steve his life, that outcome would have made it worth it to him.
Who Carved ALLWAYS onto the Boulder
When Steve finds Brianna in the past, he tells her that they found her message on the boulder. She has no clue what he is referring to, meaning that she didn't carve "ALLWAYS". As that location held significance to Steve during Synchronic , he is the most likely candidate for the carver. But ultimately, the identity of the carver doesn't matter — it's the message behind that word. Synchronic directors Aaron Moorhead and Justin Benson told Comic Book Movie that the specific message on the boulder appeared in Synchronic out of sheer coincidence. The pair always knew that some kind of message was going to be carved there. Originally, it was meant to " anything ;" whichever word they chose was going to be misspelled in order to make it more memorable. Moorhead and Benson were walking around on location in New Orleans and happened to see a cafe called the All Ways Cafe. That inspired the message on the boulder.
The message represents the fluid way in which time moves. Synchronic deals with the infinite possibilities that time presents, specifically shown in the ways that Steve easily moved through time. Once someone moves beyond the understanding that time moves linearly, the world expands into infinite possibilities — anything is possible. That's exactly what "ALLWAYS" represents in the time travel movie. By sacrificing himself in order to save Brianna in the end of Synchronic , Steve gave back a world of infinite possibilities to his best friend.
More: Which Sci-Fi Movies Have The Most Accurate Depictions Of Time Travel
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Synchronic review: A genuinely hair-raising time travel thriller
By Bethan Ackerley
9 February 2021
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Jamie Dornan (left) and Anthony Mackie
Signature Entertainment
When they’re not busy being the darlings of indie horror cinema , Justin Benson and Aaron Moorhead are, by their own admission, armchair enthusiasts of astrophysics, philosophy and futurism. That heady cocktail of interests has influenced all their films to date, but perhaps none more so than Synchronic , their latest and most ambitious creation .
The film stars Anthony Mackie and Jamie Dornan as paramedics and friends Steve and Dennis, who are called out to a series of unusual drug overdoses across New Orleans. Though the victims are found in very different circumstances – one has been stabbed by a centuries-old sword, while others have been burned or frozen to death – they have all taken Synchronic, a designer drug based on the hallucinogen DMT.
Aside from those grisly accidents, the first third of Synchronic is a slow-burning drama about the quiet miseries that Steve and Dennis are mired in. Steve is a disaffected womaniser who has recently been diagnosed with a brain tumour, while Dennis’s marriage is strained by a new baby and his daughter Brianna’s teenage angst. If their lives don’t sound very interesting, that’s because they aren’t. Thankfully, these personal troubles are just a vehicle for a much more intriguing concept.
When Brianna vanishes after taking Synchronic at a frat party, Steve starts to buy up the remaining supplies. He eventually meets the drug’s creator, Dr Kermani, who matter-of-factly reveals that Synchronic manipulates your pineal gland, the same region of the brain as Steve’s brain tumour. It is reminiscent of the resonating device in H. P. Lovecraft’s From Beyond , which lets the user see alternate planes of existence. But instead of seeing eldritch monsters from another dimension, Synchronic changes how you experience the flow of time .
Read more: The Mandalorian review: How special effects made the Star Wars series
Kermani explains that time isn’t linear and instead works like a vinyl record: you play one track, but the other grooves are always there. “Synchronic is the needle,” he says, letting people travel to the past while physically remaining in the present. The catch is that you have no control over where you end up, and if you manifest in the middle of a forest fire or in the path of a rampaging bull, you will still die in the present.
As soon as Steve starts experimenting with Synchronic in an attempt to find Brianna, the film’s real potential emerges. He approaches the task methodically, rationing out his limited supply to establish the rules of the drug. I won’t reveal much about which time periods Steve travels to, but his encounters are surreal and upsetting in equal measure. The past is a particularly dangerous place for a Black man, and the film is at its best when it explores how time travel is disproportionately terrifying for Steve.
While there are a few holes in the plot – why does the drug never take people to the future, for instance – the potential of Synchronic ’s central conceit is obvious. Unfortunately, while the film-makers are no strangers to small budgets, Benson and Moorhead’s ambitions were clearly hamstrung by a lack of funds.
The environments in the past are severely limited, with a few brief glimpses of deserts and snowstorms being about as adventurous as the film-makers can afford. Though they make up for that with some clever tableaus and eerie, roving camerawork, you still sense that Synchronic would have benefitted immeasurably from having twice as much cash – and twice as much time spent mining the horrors of history.
All that said, Benson and Moorhead have still created a grim, uneasy thriller with genuinely hair-raising moments. For all I mourn the potential of the concept, Synchronic is yet more evidence that these film-makers should be given the tools with which they can fully realise their mind-bending ideas.
Available to rent on Amazon*
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‘Synchronic’ Movie Ending, Explained
Where to stream:.
- Synchronic (2020)
- Anthony Mackie
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Synchronic is the latest mind-bending movie on Netflix that has everyone talking. This movie has everything: Anthony Mackie making quips, Jamie Dornan doing an American accent, an adorable dog, and, to top it all off, time travel.
This 2020 science fiction horror film—which was written by Justin Benson, who also co-directed the movie with Aaron Moorhead—was quietly released in theaters in October 2020, went to digital this January, and then came to Netflix on April 16. Since its debut on the streaming service, Synchronic has shot to the top of Netflix’s own trending titles lists. As of Tuesday, it was No. 1 on Netflix’s “Top 10 in the U.S.” list .
But, as is common when it comes to movies about time travel, the Synchronic ending has caused some confusion. If you found yourself lost, don’t worry—Decider is here to help. The final moments of Synchronic are ambiguous but, read on for a breakdown of the Synchronic ending, explained.
What is the Synchronic plot?
Steve (Anthony Mackie) and Dennis (Jamie Dornan) are two best friends who work together as paramedics. Steve is a lonely bachelor who can’t commit to a relationship, while Dennis married young and has two children, 18 years apart. Lately, Steve and Dennis have been responding to a lot of 911 calls involving a new designer drug on the scene called “Synchronic.”
Meanwhile, Steve is diagnosed with a brain tumor on his pineal gland. His doctor casually mentions that Steve’s pineal gland is more like a teenager than an adult’s, which might mean that Steve is enlightened with a third eye. What a fun, cool thing for a doctor to say to a cancer patient!
Steve and Dennis respond to yet another call where a “Synchronic” drug package was found, this time a group of teens who took too many drugs. Among those teens were Dennis’s 18-year-old daughter Brianna, who has gone missing.
Steve, in a fit of rage, goes to the local head shop and buys them out of Synchronic, presumably to keep other people safe. He is followed out of the store by a man who begs to buy it off of him, but Steve says no. Later that night, that same man shows up in Steve’s house and tells him he created Synchronic as a DMT-like drug, using a red flower that grows in the California desert. He explains that Synchronic “messes with the pineal gland, so you experience time as it actually is.” He says that events in time are like the tracks on a record—they are all always there, and you can drop the needle wherever you want. Synchronic, he says, is the needle. Because kids’ pineal glands are not yet fully developed, sometimes the drug will make them permanently time travel.
So, to sum up: Synchronic is a drug that makes kids sometimes travel through time. The chemist was trying to get rid of all of the drugs, and the ones that Steve bought are the last of the supply. Steve tells the chemist that he flushed the Synchronic, but we see he wasn’t telling the truth.
Steve eventually takes the Synchronic, which places him somewhere in the past. Don’t forget: Steve’s doctor told him he has a pineal gland similar to a teenager. Steve records a video explaining what happened to him, and his intentions to continue taking the pills to try to find Dennis’s daughter Brianna. His experiments teach him that: the exact place you take the drug determines the time you go back to, that you have exactly seven minutes in the past, that you can’t be late for your return, and that you have to be touching someone to take them with you.
Steve’s dog, Hawking, gets stuck in the past, but Steve does see a flicker of Hawking outside of his house because Hawking was so close to the spot where he needed to be to go back. (Fun fact: Real-life physicist Stephen Hawking was very interested in time travel, and conducted several experiments. We’re guessing that’s who Steve’s dog is named after.)
How does Synchronic end?
Steve only has two Synchronic pills left to find Brianna, but he does not the exact location of where she was when she disappeared. Steve shows Dennis the tapes he’s been making, and the two of them team up to try to find her.
Steve and Dennis realize that Brianna has left them a message in the past of where to look for her—a carving on a rock by the river that says “Allways,” a rock that Brianna had been sitting on earlier in the movie. “Always,” was the last thing Dennis said to Brianna, he says.
Steve sits on that rock and takes the pill. He ends up in a war zone, with fires raging and canons exploding, presumably during the American Civil War. He finds Brianna in a trench filled with dead bodies. She is confused as to how Steve found her—she doesn’t know about any message. Steve gives Brianna the last Synchronic pill to get back to the present. He could have gone back with her if they had been touching, but at the last minute, they are confronted by a confederate soldier. Steve diffuses the situation, but misses the time to go back, and gets stuck in the past.
However, as we saw happen with Hawking, Steve appears as a flicker, and is able to say goodbye to Dennis with a handshake.
What does the Synchronic ending mean? What is the Synchroni c ending explained?
My interpretation of the Synchronic ending is that Steve is stuck in the past, just like his dog. We never saw any proof that Steve was able to get back to the future unless he was in the exact same spot where he was in the present. We also know that someone left the message on the rock, and it wasn’t Brianna. It’s possible the message was left by Steve.
However, directors Justin Benson and Aaron Moorhead leave a kernel of hope that Steve might return to the present with that handshake. Previously, Steve had not been able to touch other people in the past—when he is attacked by an old man from the 1800s, the man passes right through him. The handshake we see Dennis give Steve is a firm one, which could suggest that Steve is headed back to the present-day, after all. Maybe some random person carved “Allways” into the rock, which might explain the misspelling. (Maybe “always” used to be spelled “allways” in the olden days? I’m not a linguist!)
The Synchronic ending is intentionally left open-ended, and half the fun is debating it with your friends. So call up a pal and rewatch the film. Why not?
Where to watch Synchronic
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- Entertainment
More People Need to Watch This Dark Netflix Time Travel Thriller
Synchronic is a dark indie gem with flashes of brilliance.
![time travel drug movie time travel drug movie](https://www.cnet.com/a/img/resize/b1a652bc8e30b35ffa9291f61d8ad83264f3675c/hub/2020/03/17/3e9e8bbf-6c80-466b-873a-dbb0c9ddddb9/id-pic-work.jpg?auto=webp&fit=crop&height=96&width=96)
- Best New Journalist 2019 Australian IT Journalism Awards
![time travel drug movie synchronic-2](https://www.cnet.com/a/img/resize/4db851d6b56908887171ab4debfc45036d266d92/hub/2022/02/28/1fae6b0d-6379-43b4-8c3f-4ad9823bd9ac/synchronic-2.jpg?auto=webp&fit=crop&height=675&width=1200)
Synchronic stars Anthony Mackie and Jamie Dornan.
Before hitting play on 2019's Synchronic , there's one thing you should know.
It's not that it's a low-budget sci-fi film with an intriguing premise. It's not that it stars Anthony Mackie and Jamie Dornan as best friends. It's not that its directors helmed a couple of episodes of Marvel's Moon Knight .
It's that Synchronic will really, really annoy you with its plot holes and inconsistencies and nonsensical time travel mechanics that loop around in your head until a miraculous counterargument emerges from the haze and convinces you that everything makes sense after all.
![time travel drug movie time travel drug movie](https://www.cnet.com/a/img/resize/2e65b4c94dc7bb4e818473ef17d29c0b46c2f4ab/hub/2022/08/30/d0d918b3-215a-4e9b-881b-482e855664d7/synchronic-well-go-usa-justin-benson-1340x754-4.jpg?auto=webp&fit=crop&height=108&width=196)
Surprisingly, this is a recommendation to watch Synchronic. A frustrating, divisive, dark indie gem with flashes of brilliance. It's yet another taste of the exciting talent of directors Justin Benson and Aaron Moorhead (check out 2017's The Endless for a twisted horror flavor). Just lean into the anger Synchronic inspires, and eventually -- on the other side -- you'll have a rewarding experience.
Mackie and Dornan play Steve and Dennis, two remarkably laid-back paramedics working in New Orleans. They're called out to treat a series of people who're spouting incoherent stories after taking a drug called Synchronic.
![time travel drug movie synchronic-well-go-usa-justin-benson-1340x754-1](https://www.cnet.com/a/img/resize/98268a1ba383ff15e2bac439676ca9c4cdb350ac/hub/2021/10/13/1a914797-54e2-4d8e-b819-2ac51e651c13/synchronic-well-go-usa-justin-benson-1340x754-1.jpg?auto=webp&width=1200)
Jamie Dornan and Anthony Mackie star as Dennis and Steve.
Steve and Dennis investigate the drug's origins and impossible time travel capabilities, while also dealing with their crumbling personal lives. Steve is a jaded ladies man, and Dennis is stuck in a dysfunctional marriage.
The best parts of Synchronic involve the actual sci-fi element itself. The discovery . Steve and Dennis walking along a dark road in the middle of the night, chatting away about their normal lives, until they enter a house and discover a shocking scene out of a horror movie, where someone's been stabbed and a medieval sword is inexplicably sticking out of a wall.
Thanks to a couple of plot devices, eventually Steve takes the drug himself. This is where Synchronic becomes thrilling in an impressively visceral way.
![time travel drug movie synchronic-well-go-usa-justin-benson-1340x754-2](https://www.cnet.com/a/img/resize/afc933a613feadcf5d6b8e6f2262d539a9a2d5bc/hub/2021/10/13/ce5af3d5-6a80-4105-bcd3-68bc4fd239f1/synchronic-well-go-usa-justin-benson-1340x754-2.jpg?auto=webp&width=1200)
Paramedic pals.
Starting from its low-key grounding point, the flick sends Steve, and us, off into the frightening unknown. The threat of sudden and violent death hovers over everything, because in this time travel story, Steve is a Black man, and going back to certain places comes with a whole other layer of danger.
The mechanics of how the time travel drug works are compellingly teased out as Steve conducts experiments. An analogy involving a record player is worth one character's appearance alone. At one point, directors Benson and Moorhead shake things up by giving us Steve's first-person perspective, placing us right in the driver's seat to experience what rears up from the tense and unpredictable darkness of the next location.
Other aspects of the drug, including a minor stretch following who's behind its creation, fizzle out. Plus, while effective in some ways, the general sense of realism can expose just how ridiculous the drug's capabilities are.
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Still, nifty and smart directing and Steve's dry sense of humor delivered with Mackie's deadpan swagger, shine above Synchronic's obvious rougher edges. The story is nowhere near perfect, chaining itself to the thinly developed emotional core, involving Steve, Dennis and Dennis' daughter Brianna. (A horrible scene involving Steve's dog is either an example of poor character decision-making or an intentional yank of our emotional heartstrings.)
Synchronic's bittersweet ending is frustrating but doesn't reduce the impact of its greater parts. Hopefully, the flick will set you off on a spree watching Benson and Moorhead's other movies , four of which form part of a connected universe (some connections are stronger than others).
Synchronic is streaming on Netflix now. It can be slow, with occasionally dodgy dialogue and an ending that'll spin you out of control. You need peak movie-watching attention to absorb subtle details that explain what happens. And yet it's still up to interpretation whether absolutely everything makes sense. Take the plunge? Decide for yourself.
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- Entertainment
Confused by Synchronic's Ending? We've Broken It Down For You
![time travel drug movie SYNCHRONIC, Anthony Mackie, 2019. Well Go USA / Courtesy Everett Collection](https://media1.popsugar-assets.com/files/thumbor/im4IbcFQIB23Q3n5i-UACZ4CizY=/fit-in/792x330/top/filters:format_auto():upscale()/2021/04/20/821/n/1922283/tmp_5vtvmy_1ad66098df706b01_MCDSYNC_EC016.jpg)
Although it was released in October 2020, Synchronic is just now seeing a new life on Netflix . The film, which was written and directed by horror duo Aaron Moorhead and Justin Benson, stars Anthony Mackie and Jamie Dornan as best friends and paramedics Steve Denube and Dennis Dannelly. Set in New Orleans, Synchronic follows Steve and Dennis as they witness a string of horrific accidents and murders. It's not until about halfway through the sci-fi thriller, when the true nature of Synchronic is discovered, that things begin to click. To fully understand Synchronic 's bleak ending, we need to break down its premise, what happens to Dennis, and what happens to Steve.
Synchronic's Premise
Steve and Dennis work as paramedics in New Orleans, leading them to frequently encounter a variety of medical emergencies. During their routes in Synchronic , the pair come across one grisly accident or death after the next. None of these incidents seem connected until Dennis's daughter Brianna goes missing after taking a synthetic drug known as Synchronic. Originally meant to be a substitute for DMT, Synchronic actually allows you to travel to another time period. We learn that all the deaths happened in the past, and the victims are returned to the present as corpses. While adults appear in the past as "ghosts," allowing them to easily come back, adolescents' pineal glands haven't fully calcified yet and cause them to get stuck in the past. As a teenager, Brianna is able to physically travel to the past and get stuck. Unlike most adults, Steve's pineal gland hasn't calcified yet, so he takes it upon himself to find Brianna and bring her back.
![time travel drug movie SYNCHRONIC, from left: Anthony Mackie, Jamie Dornan, 2019. Well Go USA / Courtesy Everett Collection](https://media1.popsugar-assets.com/files/thumbor/YMFRGsniMbpRnpittsfy_f_QoGs=/fit-in/792x329/top/filters:format_auto():upscale()/2021/04/20/822/n/1922283/tmp_8JSAci_b9bbb9a0c0fa4f1b_MCDSYNC_EC014.jpg)
What Happens to Anthony Mackie's Character, Steve?
Steve's ending isn't a happy one. He learns he has an inoperable tumor on his pineal gland and could have anywhere between six weeks and 60 years to live. Because of his diagnosis, he also learns his pineal gland is "like a teenager's." After Brianna's disappearance, he buys up all the Synchronic he can, only to be confronted by the drug's maker, Dr. Kermani. It's Kermani who tells him how Synchronic works, including why it sends people to the past. Steve lies to Kermani about destroying his supply, and decides to use Synchronic to bring Brianna back. Throughout his journeys, he learns that the location in which you take the drug impacts which time period you're sent to, that you can bring things back with you, and that you have to be in the same location you took the Synchronic to go back to your time.
Steve quickly learns that Back to the Future was wrong when it came to romanticizing the past — the past is extremely dangerous for him as a Black man. He even loses his dog, Hawking, on a trip through time when a racist homeowner pulls a gun on them, causing them to get separated. He finally learns where Brianna took the drug with his second-to-last pill, leaving him one chance to bring them both back. Steve is sent to a battlefield where he finds Brianna hiding in a trench. He gives her the final pill and just before they're able to make it back, they're confronted by a person with a gun who claims Steve is their slave. To stop them from shooting, Steve puts his arms up and walks slowly toward them, but gets too far away from the rock as Brianna makes the leap. Brianna makes it back to the present and Steve appears as a "ghost" just long enough to shake Dennis's hand.
Sadly, it doesn't seem like he will ever be rescued, as Dr. Kermani made it clear he'd destroyed all the remaining Synchronic. Dr. Kermani is also the only one able to create more of the drug, and his death from suicide is reported on the radio in the film.
What Happens to Jamie Dornan's Character, Dennis?
Dennis spends most of Synchronic trying to keep his life from falling apart. After the disappearance of Brianna, his marriage is on the rocks and he becomes combative with Steve, claiming Steve has a problem with alcohol. He wants to do anything except go home, and can be seen popping pills to deal with his day-to-day. In the end, he's reunited with Brianna but loses his best friend. As Steve fades away into the past, all he can do is shake Dennis's hand.
![time travel drug movie SYNCHRONIC, Anthony Mackie, 2019. Well Go USA / Courtesy Everett Collection](https://media1.popsugar-assets.com/files/thumbor/6adQgZtl7aWrxNW6K9zfl_H6jh4=/fit-in/792x330/top/filters:format_auto():upscale()/2021/04/20/923/n/1922283/tmp_L8fHRs_725c5f9880dfcaf3_MCDSYNC_EC019.jpg)
- Jamie Dornan
- Anthony Mackie
Synchronic’s time travel drugs bring a novel approach to the genre
![time travel drug movie Liam Maguren](https://blog.flicks.co.nz/wp-content/uploads/liamm.jpg)
Anthony Mackie ( Captain America: The Winter Soldier ) and Jamie Dornan ( 50 Shades of Grey ) star in time-travel horror Synchronic as two New Orleans paramedics who encounter a bizarre drug that produces otherworldly effects. With a concept higher than its budget, Liam Maguren explains why this film’s for time-travel fans looking for something novel in the genre.
Time-travel drugs. That’s a juicy elevator pitch for a sci-fi flick but one that could easily crumble in the wrong hands. Fortunately for reality-warping thriller Synchronic , it’s hands are those of directors Aaron Moorhead and Justin Benson, an indie darling pair known for subverting and refreshing tired concepts to exciting effect. Their 2017 horror The Endless , in particular, managed to do something completely new in the overcrowded time-loop genre.
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The set-up for Synchronic certainly grabs the attention. Anthony Mackie plays Steve, an alcoholic bachelor with a terminal illness who—ironically—saves other people’s lives as a paramedic next to Jamie Dornan’s unhappily married loser Dennis. The two are never short of work living in the dumpster side of New Orleans, especially when the titular drug circulates and leave young people either dead or maimed in mysterious ways.
From sword stabbings to self-combustion, these incredibly odd side-effects seemingly have no link. Somewhat hilariously, the piss-poor police aren’t interested in connecting the dots either. Due to a contrived set of circumstances involving his brain cancer and Dennis’s missing daughter, only Steve can figure out this drug—and he must turn himself into a time-jumping guinea pig to do so.
At this stage, Synchronic ‘s at its best. Making the most of Mackie’s effortless charisma, it’s a giddy joy seeing Steve trying the drug and researching its abilities. It’s a lot like the scenes in 2012’s Chronicle where the boys film themselves messing around with their new superpowers, except it’s a half-drunk Anthony Mackie relaying his understanding of space-time. It’s great, as is the reminder that journeying through America’s past is the whitest of privileges.
Sadly, the concept’s higher than the budget, resulting in a few empty-looking sets and painful greenscreen moments that take away from some otherwise tense sequences in different centuries. It’s mitigated a bit by the film’s trippy depiction of travelling time as well as some inspired transitions that use match cuts and images of the cosmos to convey the sense that time’s not linear. Overall, however, the production quality can’t quite match the film’s ambitions.
Neither can the rapport between Steve and Dennis. Though Mackie and Dornan clearly work well together, as proven by subtle one-shot scenes that let the actors simply act, their budding bromance isn’t given enough to work with. Steve’s alcohol addiction only gets passing mentions (especially weird given his move to down a bunch of time-travel drugs) while Dennis’s childish beef with being a family man is only thinly explored. They spend a lot of time talking about how they don’t talk about their problems, which is a respectable issue to bring up about men but isn’t countered enough with moments of Steve and Dennis supporting each other. As a result, the conclusion—which relies on this key pillar of bromance—feels oddly unmoving.
Ultimately, Synchronic is for people who love time-travel stories and are aching for a novel approach to the genre. Moorhead and Benson deliver enough to put this film above more forgettable fare like Project Almanac and I’ll Follow You Down , though it won’t break your mind like Looper and Timecrimes did.
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‘Synchronic’ Review: Time Travel — The Ultimate Bad Trip
- By David Fear
Something strange is happening in New Orleans — even by Big Easy standards, it’s some bizarro shit. Young folks have been discovered all over the city in highly unusual situations, from being bitten by rare, non-regional snakes to dismembered at the bottom of elevator shafts. Odd bits of detritus (an ancient sword, a centuries-old doorknob, a half-melted Spanish coin) are found at the scenes. “I heard French and the wind,” says one semi-coherent witness to a deadly, er, sabre-stabbing. “Time is a lie” is found scrawled on the wall of a crime scene. The police are baffled. The only connecting factor seems to be a street drug known as “synchronic,” which is new and legal and all the rage.
The more that two EMTs — the single, stay-out-all-night type Steve ( Anthony Mackie ) and the stolid family man Dennis ( Jamie Dornan ) — come across these mystery calls, the less sense any of this makes. When one of these incidents results in a missing-person case that hits close to home for this pair, however, Steve decides to dig a little deeper into what, exactly, is going on with these “fake ayahuasca” pills. He decides to pop a few. The. next thing you know, he’s running from a conquistador in some primitive swamp. Boom, he’s back in his living room. And then things get really weird.
There are some ground rules that Justin Benson and Aaron Moorhead’s Synchronic applies to the nifty, dangerous designer narcotic at the center of its dizzying storyline, and laying them out shouldn’t necessarily count as spoilers. (Should you feel that such gestures do count as spoilers, go ahead and see the movie first before venturing forth. It’s currently playing in theaters and drive-ins; with any luck, it’ll make its way to the safe alternative of streaming/VOD ASAP.) It affects the pineal gland, which apparently tends to be more malleable in teens and twentysomethings. It collapses the quaint notion of looking at things like “years,” and “centuries” and “epochs” as something chronological or linear; per the chemist (Ramiz Monsef) that created it, time is like the grooves on a record and “synchronic is the needle” you can drop anywhere on the slab of vinyl. If you’re holding on to something from the “past,” you can bring it back to the “present” with you. The geography is the same, though where you are when you take it determines what period you end up in — move four feet over, and you could find yourself in the Paleolithic era instead of a pre-Louisiana Purchase NOLA. And if you’re an African-American man like Steve, remember that once you pop those pills, you may run the risk of staring down woolly mammoths or old-timey Klan members.
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That last aspect is, thankfully, never exploited; this isn’t aiming to be Antebellum redux. Nor is it ever really explored as much as you’d like it to be, which is characteristic of Synchronic as a whole, and it’s hard to shake the feeling that a lot of good material got left on the table. The movie is more into the notion of Steve and Dennis as two different versions of modern masculinity — living in a party-all-the-time state of perpetual adolescence and being unhappy; living a domesticated husband-dad existence and being slightly less unhappy — and even that feels like it’s an idea only barely surface-scratched. Benson and Moorhead aren’t prioritizing being psychoanalytic so much as psychotronic here, and if you’ve seen any of their past work (the help-I’ve-fallen-in-love-with-a-Lovecraftian-creature romance Spring, the you-can-never-go-home-again death-cult drama The Endless ), you know that’s where their strength lies. They excel in generating what the kids call “a mood.” This is a premise that seems primed for using various genre elements in the service of something a little deeper, as opposed to wider. What the end result gives you instead is some singularly intriguing left turns, a chance for Mackie to remind you that he’s as much a natural leading man as he is a clutch supporting actor, and some genuinely mind-bending moments.
And what moments they are: a primitive man melting out of a foliage-filled motel wall, the sudden revelation of long-extinct beast ambling through the frame, a long “single-shot” walk through a crime scene that keeps upping the WTF ante, an image of a tiny body falling downward through a vast amount of space. These unsettling, destabilizing, arresting sequences keep things moving even when the narrative gores slack; there’s a sense that you’ve stepped into these time-traveling bad trips and can feel the ground shifting beneath your feet. It’s Synchronic ‘s saving grace. “The past sucks!” Mackie’s character exclaims after coming back from one harrowing hallucinogenic excursion. Indeed — and it’s still apt to bleed into the here and now, not by any means done with us yet.
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1. The A.R.K. Report
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2. Quantum of Vengeance
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4. Men in Black³
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5. Safety Not Guaranteed
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6. Midnight in Paris
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7. Source Code
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8. Ticking Clock
![time travel drug movie Dan Green, Matthew Labyorteaux, and Gregory Abbey in Yu-Gi-Oh! Bonds Beyond Time (2010)](https://m.media-amazon.com/images/M/MV5BMTQ2MzcwMzAyN15BMl5BanBnXkFtZTgwNzEzMTAzMjE@._V1_QL75_UY207_CR8,0,140,207_.jpg)
9. Yu-Gi-Oh! Bonds Beyond Time
![time travel drug movie Ben Kingsley, Jake Gyllenhaal, and Gemma Arterton in Prince of Persia: The Sands of Time (2010)](https://m.media-amazon.com/images/M/MV5BMTMwNDg0NzcyMV5BMl5BanBnXkFtZTcwNjg4MjQyMw@@._V1_QL75_UY207_CR0,0,140,207_.jpg)
10. Prince of Persia: The Sands of Time
![time travel drug movie John Cusack, Chevy Chase, Clark Duke, Craig Robinson, Rob Corddry, Brook Bennett, Aliu Oyofo, and Jake Rose in Hot Tub Time Machine (2010)](https://m.media-amazon.com/images/M/MV5BMTQwMjExODA4Ml5BMl5BanBnXkFtZTcwNTYwMDYxMw@@._V1_QL75_UY207_CR0,0,140,207_.jpg)
11. Hot Tub Time Machine
![time travel drug movie The Disappearance of Haruhi Suzumiya (2010)](https://m.media-amazon.com/images/M/MV5BNjkyOGUzNjctZDlmNy00ZjdmLWI5NjgtNzcxMTAzZGRiOWU0XkEyXkFqcGdeQXVyMTA3MzQ4MTg0._V1_QL75_UX140_CR0,1,140,207_.jpg)
12. The Disappearance of Haruhi Suzumiya
![time travel drug movie Action Replayy (2010)](https://m.media-amazon.com/images/M/MV5BMTMyMDc1MDIwMl5BMl5BanBnXkFtZTcwNDUyMDgwNA@@._V1_QL75_UY207_CR2,0,140,207_.jpg)
13. Action Replayy
![time travel drug movie Will Ferrell in Land of the Lost (2009)](https://m.media-amazon.com/images/M/MV5BOTkzNDg2OTc1NF5BMl5BanBnXkFtZTcwNDcxODE2Mg@@._V1_QL75_UX140_CR0,0,140,207_.jpg)
14. Land of the Lost
![time travel drug movie Jim Carrey in A Christmas Carol (2009)](https://m.media-amazon.com/images/M/MV5BMTM1MTI5ODU4MV5BMl5BanBnXkFtZTcwNTYyNTU4Mg@@._V1_QL75_UY207_CR0,0,140,207_.jpg)
15. A Christmas Carol
![time travel drug movie Anna Faris, Dean Lennox Kelly, Chris O'Dowd, and Marc Wootton in Frequently Asked Questions About Time Travel (2009)](https://m.media-amazon.com/images/M/MV5BYzk1MDZiNGYtNjlkZS00ZTZhLWE1ZTUtMjZlNTQ2OTQ4YzUzXkEyXkFqcGdeQXVyNTE1NjY5Mg@@._V1_QL75_UX140_CR0,1,140,207_.jpg)
16. Frequently Asked Questions About Time Travel
![time travel drug movie Eric Bana and Rachel McAdams in The Time Traveler's Wife (2009)](https://m.media-amazon.com/images/M/MV5BZTllOTBkZWUtNjg4YS00NTU0LWFhMDMtYWNkMGU3ODBjZGQ2XkEyXkFqcGdeQXVyMTUyOTc1NDYz._V1_QL75_UX140_CR0,0,140,207_.jpg)
17. The Time Traveler's Wife
![time travel drug movie Jared Leto in Mr. Nobody (2009)](https://m.media-amazon.com/images/M/MV5BMTg4ODkzMDQ3Nl5BMl5BanBnXkFtZTgwNTEwMTkxMDE@._V1_QL75_UX140_CR0,0,140,207_.jpg)
18. Mr. Nobody
![time travel drug movie Star Trek (2009)](https://m.media-amazon.com/images/M/MV5BMjE5NDQ5OTE4Ml5BMl5BanBnXkFtZTcwOTE3NDIzMw@@._V1_QL75_UX140_CR0,0,140,207_.jpg)
19. Star Trek
![time travel drug movie Stargate: Continuum (2008)](https://m.media-amazon.com/images/M/MV5BOTU3NmIwNGYtMzJmMS00MDM5LWEwMjMtYzE1MmVkYTU2MzcwXkEyXkFqcGdeQXVyNTE1NjY5Mg@@._V1_QL75_UY207_CR4,0,140,207_.jpg)
20. Stargate: Continuum
![time travel drug movie Minutemen (2008)](https://m.media-amazon.com/images/M/MV5BY2RmNWZkZjYtMzNkMC00YWRiLWE0ZmItOWRhZjM2YWQyYWEzXkEyXkFqcGdeQXVyMTIwMjY0NjQz._V1_QL75_UX140_CR0,1,140,207_.jpg)
21. Minutemen
![time travel drug movie Timecrimes (2007)](https://m.media-amazon.com/images/M/MV5BYTFkOGFlNmQtZTI4Zi00OGQwLTk2ODctYmRlOGFiZGNjN2Q2XkEyXkFqcGdeQXVyMTA0MjU0Ng@@._V1_QL75_UY207_CR3,0,140,207_.jpg)
22. Timecrimes
![time travel drug movie Premonition (2007)](https://m.media-amazon.com/images/M/MV5BMTY1MDU1MzAwOV5BMl5BanBnXkFtZTYwMDkzNzY3._V1_QL75_UX140_CR0,0,140,207_.jpg)
23. Premonition
![time travel drug movie Angela Bassett, Tom Selleck, Adam West, Kathy Griffin, Elton John, Nicole Sullivan, Harland Williams, Kristen Alderson, Stephen J. Anderson, Keith Anthony, Steve Apostolina, Kristen Ariza, Bob Bergen, Susan Blu, Paul Butcher, Sebastian Cavazza, Cedric The Entertainer, David Cowgill, Walt Dohrn, Michael Donovan, Terri Douglas, Jackie Gonneau, Daniel Hansen, Tom Kenny, Julie Lemieux, Danny Mann, Dara McGarry, Laurie Metcalf, Christopher Miller, Tracey Miller-Zarneke, Colin Murdock, Don Rickles, Chuck Riley, Lynwood Robinson, Ethan Sandler, Peter Sohn, John Stephenson, Fred Tatasciore, Rob Tinkler, Aron Warner, Joe Whyte, Christopher Knights, Wesley Singerman, Tony Cannavarle, Makenna Cowgill, Michaela Jill Murphy, Shannon O'Connor, Will.i.am, Jordan Orr, Kristen DeLuca, Matthew Josten, Mick Hazen, Jordan Fry, Colette Whitaker, Grace Rolek, Cooper Cowgill, Kelly Hoover, Joe Mateo, Krista Swan, Christopher Lee Parson, Aurian Redson, Nathan Greno, Cameron Covell, Greyson Spann, Don Hall, John H. H. Ford, Cory Doran, and Adam Kirschner in Meet the Robinsons (2007)](https://m.media-amazon.com/images/M/MV5BMjQyNzdmNmUtODkwMi00NWM2LWIzNTAtMWY3OTVmM2Q5NTUyXkEyXkFqcGdeQXVyNjExODE1MDc@._V1_QL75_UX140_CR0,0,140,207_.jpg)
24. Meet the Robinsons
![time travel drug movie Katey Sagal, John DiMaggio, Phil LaMarr, Lauren Tom, and Billy West in Futurama: Bender's Big Score (2007)](https://m.media-amazon.com/images/M/MV5BM2U3NmRiNDItMDQwYy00Y2Q0LWJiYzItNjAzNThkZjFlM2RiXkEyXkFqcGdeQXVyNTA4NzY1MzY@._V1_QL75_UX140_CR0,1,140,207_.jpg)
25. Futurama: Bender's Big Score
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‘Synchronic’ Filmmakers Have More Story Ideas for Their Time Travel Drug
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Jason Momoa and Dave Bautista Will Face-off Against This 'Dracula' Star in New Buddy Comedy
‘trap’ is about to capture a domestic box office milestone, you need to check out the prequel to one of the best zombie horror movies ever.
Directing duo Justin Benson and Aaron Moorhead have been on a very impressive run with Resolutio n , Spring and The Endless , and now they're back with more at TIFF 2019. Their latest film, Synchronic , stars Anthony Mackie and Jamie Dornan as Steve and Dennis respectively, a pair of New Orleans paramedics. One night the duo must tend to what they think is a routine overdose when, in fact, the incident is tied to a synthetic narcotic called synchronic, which is essentially a time travel drug.
With Synchronic celebrating its world premiere at the 2019 Toronto International Film Festival, Benson, Moorhead and Ally Ioannides who plays Dornan's daughter in the movie all visited the Collider Lounge to talk about their experience making the movie. Benson and Moorhead detail the journey from The Endless to Synchronic , share some thoughts on the time travel genre in general, and also add to a prior conversation we had regarding the rise of streaming services. You can catch all of that and so much more in the video interview at the top of this article.
We also need to send a big thank you to our presenting sponsor Nordstrom Canada and supporting partners Marriott Bonvoy and Ciroc Vodka for supporting the Collider Lounge at the 2019 Toronto International Film Festival and helping to make these interviews happen.
You can find a full breakdown of the interview and the official TIFF synopsis for Hope below:
Justin Benson, Aaron Moorhead, Ally Ioannides:
- 00:18 - What is Synchronic about?
- 01:14 - What was the idea that started it all?
- 02:29 - Do Benson and Moorhead have a time travel bible; is there cohesion between all of their films?
- 03:20 - The production timeline for Synchronic .
- 03:57 - Did they have more resources on this film than they've had before?
- 04:14 - How The Endless was key to making Synchronic happen.
- 05:45 - Casting Anthony Mackie and Jamie Dornan.
- 06:25 - Ioannides on working with Benson and Moorhead as actor's directors.
- 07:23 - If they could hop in a time machine, where would they go?
- 10:08 - The game changing experience they had at an independent cinema as young moviegoers.
- 11:45 - Moorhead adds to his thoughts on the rise of streaming services.
- 14:20 - They've got more storytelling ideas for synchronic.
- 15:40 - How they came up with the idea to incorporate Steve's condition.
- 16:35 - Was this story always set in New Orleans?
When New Orleans paramedics and close friends Steve (Anthony Mackie, also at the Festival with Seberg ) and Dennis (Jamie Dornan, also at the Festival with Endings, Beginnings ) arrive on the scene for what seems like a typical overdose, they end up stumbling upon a bizarre plot that will take them down a most unexpected path. The common denominator in a series of grisly, drug-related deaths is a synthetic narcotic known as synchronic, which has some extreme side effects that don't just alter consciousness. When Dennis' teenage daughter (Ally Ioannides) tries synchronic and goes missing, Steve, who was recently diagnosed with terminal cancer, aims to discover the truth behind the killer drug and inadvertently sets off on a journey to find her — one that leaves him reckoning with his own identity. In what is either a bad trip or a breakthrough, Steve dives deeper and deeper, coming face to face with his place in history as well as the present.
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17 Underrated Sci-Fi Movies About Time Travel
Everyone and their mother knows about time travel movies like Back to the Future and Avengers: Endgame , but what about the underrated time travel movies ? It's a sci-fi subgenre with plenty of room to maneuver; there have been virtually countless time travel movies since the dawn of filmmaking. Some films fare better than others - the less said about 2002's The Time Machine , the better - but we're here to focus on some of the hidden gems and/or underrated films of the genre.
From low-budget gems like Primer and Timecrimes to big-budget blockbusters like Men in Black 3 and Deja Vu . From comedies to anime to the foreign arthouse, time travel keeps reliably cropping up. There's a lot of room to maneuver in this particular subgenre, so get ready to dive deep. Remember to vote up your favorite underrated films about time travel.
- New Line Cinema
Does it count as time travel if the only thing traveling back and forth in time are voices? The answer is an unquestionable yes, and though Frequency uses its time travel to tell a by-the-numbers murder mystery, that doesn't make it any less worthy. Buoyed by grounded performances from Dennis Quaid and Jim Caviezel, Frequency ends up being more than the sum of its parts.
There's nothing wrong with a classic thriller, especially when there are time travel hijinks involved. And if you thought Quaid and Caviezel weren't enough, let's bring Andre Braugher and Noah Emmerich to the party. The fact that it was directed by Gregory Hoblit, a man responsible for two of the most underrated thrillers of the past 25 years ( Fracture and Primal Fear) is just a bonus. If you're a fan of any of these Hollywood players or time travel in general, you should give Frequency a look.
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- Buena Vista Pictures
Upon release in 2006, Déjà Vu was a minor hit for Tony Scott, Jerry Bruckheimer, and Denzel Washington. Critics were mixed on the film, and it has ended up as a footnote in the career of one of America's most celebrated actors. But Déjà Vu deserves better. Every film that comes out of Hollywood doesn't have to reinvent the wheel, and sometimes you're just in the mood for a competent, well-made drama. This one happens to be about a man who travels back in time to stop a domestic terrorist strike from decimating New Orleans.
If you keep your expectations at a reasonable level, there's a lot to admire about Déjà Vu . With a cast that features Washington and a host of gifted performers like Val Kilmer, Paula Patton, and Bruce Greenwood as well as competent direction from Scott, Déjà Vu is the kind of big-budget filmmaking that has gone away in the wake of Hollywood's neverending hunt for the next blockbuster franchise. Besides, who doesn't like watching Denzel do his thing?
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Predestination
- Stage 6 Films
Based on Robert A. Heinlein's 1959 short story, "'—All You Zombies—'", 2014's Predestination struggled to make back its minuscule budget of $5 million at the box office upon release and that is a crying shame. Starring Ethan Hawke and Sarah Snook, Predestination is a heady sci-fi thriller that's a bit hard to pin down. It's hard to sum up all of its twists and turns in the limited space here, but suffice it to say, Predestination is a hell of a trip.
This is a film that demands rewatching in order to decode what it's trying to say with its themes on gender and fate, and even then it can be difficult to decipher at times. But that's okay! The journey is fun enough to make it all work. As Richard Roeper said in his review , "As soon as the credits rolled on Predestination , I wanted to watch it again . It was even more of a mind-dance the second time around."
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Flight of the Navigator
- Buena Vista Distribution
It may be hard to imagine now, but there was a time not so long ago when the Walt Disney Company was floundering. Before Michael Eisner and Frank Wells came in to turn the company around in the mid-'80s, the House of Mouse was in serious financial straits and the creative side of the company wasn't faring much better. One of the first projects released during the duo's successful tenure was 1986's Flight of the Navigator . This was a few years ahead of The Little Mermaid and Honey, I Shrunk the Kids setting the box office on fire to bring Disney back to the top, but that doesn't make Navigator any less worthy.
Flight of the Navigator is more a story of accidental time travel due to time dilation more than anything else, as the 12-year-old protagonist travels to a planet 560 light years away, and back, causing him to age just over two hours in a span of eight years. He sets off on an adventure to return back to his own time, and family-friendly fun is had by all. To be frank, it's heady stuff for a kid's movie and the special effects were top-notch for the time. A remake has been rumored for years, but for now let's stick with the undeniable charm of the original, thank you very much.
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The Final Countdown
- United Artists
A few years before the iconic '80s song was released, The Final Countdown hit theaters. The film is about a nuclear-powered aircraft carrier that travels through time to the day before Japan's attack on Pearl Harbor. It also stars two titans of cinema, Kirk Douglas and Martin Sheen, as they ham it up in a B-movie blockbuster. The Final Countdown doesn't take itself too seriously and it doesn't expect its audience to, either.
The real star of the show is the massive amounts of actual Navy aircraft aboard the real aircraft carrier the filmmakers got to use for the production. The USS Nimitz , which is astonishingly still in use to this very day, served as a shooting location for The Final Countdown and it is glorious to behold. There are more than a dozen genuine aircraft vehicles that appear in the film and it lends an authenticity that is hard to fabricate. Come for Douglas and Sheen, stay for some awesome Navy realism.
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Primer , Shane Carruth's 2004 sci-fi debut made on an estimated budget of around $7,000 , was one of the first cult hits of the internet age. A cerebral tale of two men who accidentally discover time travel in a garage and subsequently try to exploit it to earn heaps of money, this micro-budget movie was less of a word-of-mouth success and more of a find-via-blog success. Still, Primer feels like an underseen classic in the age of endless streaming services.
Perhaps that has something to do with the density of both the plot and the dialogue. Primer doesn't try to hold your hand, and it makes no apologies for it. To do so would be a disservice to both the film and the audience. More about humankind's ethical dilemmas and less about the time travel itself, Primer is a movie that is both hard to explain and impossible to forget.
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- Magnet Releasing
It's certainly very shocking that a film called Timecrimes has something to do with time travel. But let's just focus on that title for a second, here. Timecrimes ? That is an awesome title for a movie! And Timecrimes itself is a saucy little low-budget thriller. The Spanish film tells the story of a man who becomes part of a time loop thanks to an experimental time travel machine . That's not all, as he also must stop his other selves (who exist in the same plane of existence thanks to the time travel) from continuing to exist.
It's a bit much to wrap your head around, but it all makes sense when you're watching it. Made for under $3 million, Timecrimes is an effective little thriller that you can't help but admire. And if that English-language remake ever actually gets off the ground, perhaps the original will find a bigger audience than it did upon release back in 2007.
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Time After Time
- Warner Bros.
At a fundamental level, using time travel as a storytelling device lets the audience suspend disbelief a little bit more than they usually would. Case in point: 1979's Time After Time . Based on the novel of the same name, this film follows famous British writer H.G. Wells - author of timeless novels like The Time Machine and The War of the Worlds - as he uses a time machine to pursue Jack the Ripper into the future of 1979 San Francisco. It sounds more like fantastical fan fiction than a Hollywood studio film, yet here we are.
Though this movie has largely been forgotten to time, it actually works! Obviously, the film isn't to be taken all that seriously, and that ends up working in its favor. With charismatic leads as affable as Malcolm McDowell and Mary Steenburgen, it's easy to see why it succeeds. It's just delightful. And it's clear to see some people have fond memories of Time After Time as Kevin Williamson, of Scream and Dawson's Creek fame, brought a television version to screens in March 2017.
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Time Bandits
- HandMade Films
If you're in the mood for a kooky sci-fi fantasy featuring an all-star cast, Time Bandits has you covered. Co-written and directed by Monty Python's Terry Gilliam, Time Bandits features Sean Connery, John Cleese, Shelley Duvall, Katherine Helmond, and Ian Holm in an adventure that could only be dreamed up by the man who brought you films like Brazil and The Imaginarium of Doctor Parnassus . Seriously, Time Bandits is nothing if not a whole mess of fun.
Made for kids (and everyone who used to be kids) with vivid imaginations, Time Bandits follows 11-year-old Kevin as he becomes embroiled in a loopy time travel escapade. You know what kind of film this is going to be when an armored knight on horseback comes billowing out of Kevin's closet. It is so much fun. And hopefully you like dark comedy, because the ending of Time Bandits has a grueling fate in store for Kevin's parents.
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- Well Go USA
Some time travel films are light and breezy, meant to delight fans both young and old with capricious tales of science fiction. Synchronic is not one of these films. Unless stories about cancer and missing children are "light and breezy" to you. Alas, Synchronic remains a criminally underseen film from Justin Benson and Aaron Moorhead (who are absolutely perfect choices to direct episodes of Disney+ MCU show Moon Knight ).
New Orleans paramedics Steve and Dennis, played by Anthony Mackie and Jamie Dornan, become embroiled in a weird mystery surrounding Dennis's missing daughter and a new drug that somehow causes its users to travel in time. Benson and Moorhead manage to keep everything dark and moody despite the odd premise of the film, and it ends up being a ride worth taking.
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Bill & Ted's Bogus Journey
- Orion Pictures
Bill & Ted's Excellent Excellent Adventure is the well-regarded original, while Bill & Ted Face the Music is the unexpected franchise revival. This means Bill & Ted's Bogus Journey is the unfortunate middle child too often dismissed as inferior. In many eyes, however, Bogus Journey is unfairly maligned by the movie-going masses. The screenplay may not be as tight as Excellent Adventure and it may lack the nostalgic punch of Face the Music , but don't go sleeping on Bogus Journey .
It's a juvenile comedy that also spoofs The Seventh Seal - what more could you possibly ask for? It has something for everyone, provided you go into a viewing with the right mindset. Keanu Reeves and Alex Winter are as game as they were in Excellent Adventure, but it's ultimately William Sadler who steals the show as Death incarnate. Roger Ebert put it best in his positive review , saying it is for "lovers of fantasy, whimsy, and fanciful special effects. This movie is light as a feather and thin as ice in spring, but what it does, it does very nicely."
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Men in Black 3
- Sony Pictures Releasing
Men in Black will forever remain a '90s classic and, well, the less said about Men in Black II , the better, but Men in Black 3 has quickly become an underrated movie - even though it grossed a monstrous $624 million at the worldwide box office. The sci-fi threequel follows Will Smith's Agent J as he goes back in time to team up with Agent K's younger self to save the world from evil aliens.
Josh Brolin is delightful as he does his best young Tommy Lee Jones impression as Agent K, and Jemaine Clement is just tons of fun as the villain, Boris the Animal. Is it a bit derivative of the first two? Yes, but sometimes you're just in the mood for some popcorn comfort food and Men in Black 3 is certainly that. Besides, it's much better than 2019's soft reboot, Men in Black: International .
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In the Shadow of the Moon
The problem with releasing a genre picture on Netflix is that they usually get lost in the shuffle. If it isn't something Netflix thinks it can market to a wide audience, it just sort of gets released with little-to-no fanfare. This certainly was the case with 2019's In the Shadow of the Moon . From director Jim Mickle, known for little-seen critical darlings like Cold in July and We Are What We Are , this sci-fi thriller is about a cop who tries to stop a serial killer who reappears every nine years to strike again.
We don't want to give the twist away as to how this involves time travel, because doing so kind of ruins the whole point of the film. If you've got a Netflix account, it's worth a watch and is just waiting there for you. The Detroit News ' Adam Graham puts it best : "[W]hen you least expect it, In the Shadow of the Moon delivers a powerful message about the roots of hate and the dangers it poses to society. Don't let this one stay in the shadows for long."
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- Argos Films
What is there to say about La Jetée ? From the fact that it is a 28-minute-long French film from 1962 almost entirely made up of still images, it's safe to assume all but the most fervent cinephiles haven't seen it. Of course, if you're game for its aesthetic, all there is a lot to love about La Jetée. And if you're a fan of 12 Monkeys , a film it directly inspired , then you're sure to have a good time.
The film follows a prisoner in post-apocalyptic Paris right after World War III as he is used as a test subject in a time travel experiment. Throughout the events of the film, the protagonist is sent both back in time before WWIII and way out into the future, where he meets a race of technologically advanced beings. Had it been shot traditionally, it isn't hard to see an alternate timeline in which La Jetée became one of the most popular foreign films of all time.
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The History of Time Travel
- Pineywood Pictures
The History of Time Travel is a 2014 movie written and directed by then-film student Ricky Kennedy. It's a mockumentary that tells the story of the men who created the world’s first time machine and the unintended ramifications it has on world events. If this were all the film was, there wouldn't be much more to talk about. But The History of Time Travel has more up its sleeve than being a fake documentary about false events.
The brilliance of the film resides in its clever use of time travel ramifications. As the film goes on, subtle changes begin to appear on screen as more information about the time travelers' exploits is revealed. Of course, the people being interviewed don't realize these changes are happening to them because, why would they? We wouldn't be aware of changes to our past because they would just become our history (at least, in the universe of this film). The History of Time Travel is quite low-budget and it shows, but it is still a rollicking good time for anyone in the mood for a new take on time travel.
The Girl Who Leapt Through Time
- Kadokawa Herald Pictures
Time travel and anime seem like they were made for each other - though couching the time travel in a coming-of-age story for young adults is a bit of a twist on the formula that's easy to get behind. And with a title like The Girl Who Leapt Through Time , you kind of know what you're getting yourself into. This film is your average young adult fare with a sci-fi twist, which totally works.
There's not much else to say about The Girl Who Leapt Through Time without giving the whole plot away. It's a film that was pretty much universally adored by critics and audiences alike as its infectious energy can't be denied. If you recall the plights of your teenage years with any sort of whimsy, jump into The Girl Who Leapt Through Time . You'll be glad you did.
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Je t'aime, je t'aime
- Kino Classics
2001: A Space Odyssey is often heralded as a film before its time - and rightly so - but there was another 1968 sci-fi film that dared to break the mold and challenge viewers to think outside the box. A supposed influence on Michel Gondry's landmark Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind , Alain Resnais and Jacques Sternberg's Je t'aime, je t'aime is about a suicidal man who volunteers for an experiment that causes him to experience his past through a series of disjointed memories.
Je t'aime, je t'aime is not a happy film. By the end, we discover that our protagonist has killed his terminally ill partner to ease her pain and he ends the film about to perish from a self-inflicted gunshot wound. We do not get to see whether he actually makes it or not, but that is beside the point. Je t'aime, je t'aime is a heady film about love, loss, and mental illness. It is both a relic of its time as well as highly forward-thinking in both its subject matter and its technique.
- Entertainment
- Time Travel
- Watchworthy
As they say in well-written scripts, "You mean... like time travel?" + also a few bizarre stories about real people who have claimed, despite every law of physics, they have traveled through time.
32 Movies Great Movies About Time Travel With Completely Different Rules
Prepare for some serious stipulations.
![time travel drug movie Marty McFly and Doc Brown in Back to the Future testing out the time machine](https://cdn.mos.cms.futurecdn.net/mBsX3eSwQpesMT7mtsCezX-320-80.jpg)
Is there ever a bad time to watch a time travel movie? Some of the best sci-fi movies in history have tackled this frequently explored topic, and new wrinkles in the fabric of the concept have made the subject more exciting over time. So why don’t we take a look at the different rules these flights of fancy have introduced? Should you be stuck in a time loop, we apologize if this list is starting to get old.
![time travel drug movie Christopher Lloyd's Doc Brown and Michael J. Fox's Marty McFly in Back to the Future](https://cdn.mos.cms.futurecdn.net/59hGoFCwzVn4LL5K8PsgUA-320-80.jpg)
Back To The Future
Everyone loves to talk about how Back to the Future’s time travel works , but there’s one aspect we take for granted throughout the whole trilogy. Doc Brown ( Christopher Lloyd ) may have given Marty McFly ( Michael J. Fox ) the keys to travel through the past, present, and future; but you seriously need to consider the exact spot you’re traveling to. Otherwise, you might find yourself altering history in some intriguing ways. R.I.P. Twin Pines Mall.
![time travel drug movie Malcolm McDowell traveling through time in Time After Time.](https://cdn.mos.cms.futurecdn.net/ZreSWVqwA3YGfgv9HErXH8-320-80.jpg)
Time After Time
A novel adventure starring the father of time travel H.G. Wells (Malcolm McDowell), Time After Time actually introduced an interesting mechanic to temporal transport. Let’s just say that if you don’t use the Time Machine properly, you could find yourself stuck in your final destination. Or worse, falling through the time-space continuum, without a way back home.
![time travel drug movie A scared Linda Hamilton driving with an angry MIchael Biehn in The Terminator.](https://cdn.mos.cms.futurecdn.net/7DWEYLWEE5Rh38XutnVh58-320-80.jpg)
The Terminator
The Terminator's time travel will forever be a head-scratcher, as the existence of John Connor is the ultimate ontological paradox. How else can you explain Kyle Reese (Michael Biehn) being sent back to the 1980s to save the world…and make sure the person who sent him is born in the first place?
![time travel drug movie William Shatner smiles while talking to Leonard Nimoy in Star Trek IV: The Voyage Home.](https://cdn.mos.cms.futurecdn.net/Ydfpu2mH76quNuuZsC5Et7-320-80.jpg)
Star Trek IV: The Voyage Home
The oldest method of time travel in the Star Trek movies, 1986’s The Voyage Home saw Captain Kirk ( William Shatner ) and his crew trying to save the whales through a time heist. This wouldn’t have been possible if it wasn’t for the Enterprise crew using a Klingon Bird of Prey, a slingshot orbit around the sun, and a lot of engineering power to do it.
![time travel drug movie David Sullivan and Shane Carruth in Primer](https://cdn.mos.cms.futurecdn.net/3ToAQUKSeXqWwYa8gQnBWU-320-80.jpg)
2004’s Primer is still hotly discussed among time travel aficionados, and it’s not hard to see why. The shenanigans in this test case involve multiple versions of a singular traveler (Shane Carruth) existing in a single timeline, which creates one of the most chaotic timelines ever depicted.
![time travel drug movie Ryan Reynolds, Mark Ruffalo, and Walker Scobell walking together in The Adam Project.](https://cdn.mos.cms.futurecdn.net/Et2yKWH6J6bPj364YG7qAd-320-80.jpg)
The Adam Project
Story-wise, The Adam Project is pretty cozy when it comes to how it handles time travel. But when it comes to traveling in style, the older Adam Reed ( Ryan Reynolds ) has a Time Jet that’s specifically coded to his DNA! Not many temporal travelers HAVE that, and it prevents so many mistakes other adventures of this sort use for story purposes.
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![time travel drug movie Robert Downey Jr listens as Chris Evans gives a briefing in Avengers: Endgame.](https://cdn.mos.cms.futurecdn.net/cSBTBejhUuh2ZYEtvXAss5-320-80.jpg)
Avengers: Endgame
How Avengers: Endgame’s time travel works is rather unorthodox, to be honest. Instead of overwriting the past into a more pleasing result, the MCU’s finest are only allowed to use it in the name of stealing/returning the Infinity Stones. Timelines can still create tangent histories, and 2014 Gamora takes over for her slain variant in the films, but you can’t stop “The Snap.”
![time travel drug movie Jared Harris speaks urgently to William Hurt in Lost In Space.](https://cdn.mos.cms.futurecdn.net/Af84PrExqM83eyPiSLE4o6-320-80.jpg)
Lost In Space
If all time travelers had the device Older Will Robinson (Jared Harris) built in 1998’s Lost in Space , they’d have it made. While only one person can travel at a time, exact coordinates in time and space are required; so you can go to a very specific spatial location on the timeline.
![time travel drug movie Ashton Kutcher in The Butterfly Effect](https://cdn.mos.cms.futurecdn.net/7HMJ9uF9LmEtA6jWkEsRdL-320-80.jpg)
The Butterfly Effect
The Butterfly Effect's time travel works on rules similar to that of Quantum Leap . Evan ( Ashton Kutcher ) can indeed change history, but it’s only within his own life’s timeline. Unfortunately, thanks to the multiple trips leading to continued alterations to the fabric of events, it all adds up in terms of severe physical wear and tear.
![time travel drug movie Brook Bennett, Jake Rose, Aliu Oyofo, and Clark Duke look at their reflections in Hot Tub Time Machine.](https://cdn.mos.cms.futurecdn.net/mvyt4rx34XacGDp96rqpb6-320-80.jpg)
Hot Tub Time Machine
Hot Tub Time Machine is a very special case when it comes to time travel. To be fair, the comedy ensemble franchise gets points for having its protagonists travel only within their own bodies. As for how one can actually travel with said titular device, apparently you need an energy drink, the right hot tub with the right temperature, and some convenient writing.
![time travel drug movie Paul Dano and Joseph Gordon Levitt cruising by in a red car in Looper.](https://cdn.mos.cms.futurecdn.net/Q9aKtRU5YwV4bYAheQxsoP-320-80.jpg)
Real-time bodily damage. That’s probably one of the most unique additions to Looper’s usage of time travel , as we see people incur damage in the past, only for it to show up on their future selves. Poor Seth ( Paul Dano ) demonstrated that lesson the hard way in Rian Johnson ’s sci-fi masterpiece.
![time travel drug movie Malcolm McDowell stands flanked by Patrick Stewart and William Shatner in Star Trek: Generations.](https://cdn.mos.cms.futurecdn.net/8dSh7DzASdhJPd9tv5rRi7-320-80.jpg)
Star Trek: Generations
What if you could wish really hard to create an alternate timeline? Or what if you could send yourself back to your best memory, and never leave? That’s what The Nexus from Star Trek: Generations could do, and both Captains Kirk (William Shatner) and Picard ( Patrick Stewart ) got a taste of that sweet life, before ultimately using their new power to stop the villainous Dr. Soren (Malcolm McDowell).
![time travel drug movie Alex Winter and Keanu Reeves smiling together in Bill and Ted's Excellent Adventure.](https://cdn.mos.cms.futurecdn.net/NpVitZAsVSGVcB9rTJjj36-320-80.jpg)
Bill And Ted’s Excellent Adventure
If you ever want to bring a figure from history home for dinner in the present, do it in the universe of Bill and Ted’s Excellent Adventure . There are little to no consequences, especially when it comes to our heroes (Alex Winter and Keanu Reeves) whisking away two medieval princesses to become betrothed in the 1980s. Seriously, how did that not start a war?
![time travel drug movie Rachel McAdams and Eric Bana talk while standing in front of a window in The Time Traveller's Wife.](https://cdn.mos.cms.futurecdn.net/gS7icjYkKzhF4iRrLaETf8-320-80.jpg)
The Time Traveler's Wife
“Chrono Impairment” is a seriously rare affliction, but it’s enough of a headache that it prevents Rachel McAdams and Eric Bana’s clock-crossed lovers from ever enjoying a normal life. Such is the nature of The Time Traveler's Wife , which invented that affliction to send Bana’s character Henry on unpredictable trips at unforeseeable intervals throughout his life.
![time travel drug movie Harrison Ford and Phoebe Waller-Bridge in Indiana Jones and the Dial of Destiny](https://cdn.mos.cms.futurecdn.net/Fk8tkvBgexiXsbqK4Zc7jf-320-80.jpg)
Indiana Jones And Dial Of Destiny
For Indiana Jones and the Dial of Destiny's time travel to actually happen, the world of Harrison Ford’s iconic archeologist needed specific hardware. Aided by some very precise calculations to try and take the Nazis to where they were trying to go, it wasn't as simple as jumping into a car and gunning it to 88 miles per hour.
![time travel drug movie Jonathan Frakes and Patrick Stewart look ahead with concern in Star Trek: First Contact.](https://cdn.mos.cms.futurecdn.net/LxPwC6SqSvkRan4wm2fXW7-320-80.jpg)
Star Trek: First Contact
For a franchise that uses temporal transit as much as the Star Trek series does, there sure are a lot of different ways to go back in time. And if you’re not satisfied with The Voyage Home’s method of a slingshot orbit around the Sun, then you can always do what Star Trek: First Contact did. While I wouldn’t personally recommend waiting for a Borg invasion to cause a temporal wake you can just hitch a ride on; you do you.
![time travel drug movie John David Washington](https://cdn.mos.cms.futurecdn.net/Vg55XAoPvpzSmoyS8GmfXS-320-80.jpeg)
Ok, so technically Tenet’s shenanigans involving time is “time inversion,” rather than time travel. Which only makes the journey, and the resulting reality The Protagonist (John David Washington) lives in all the more complicated. It also makes for some classic Christopher Nolan mind melts.
![time travel drug movie Paul Walker with a painful expression in Timeline.](https://cdn.mos.cms.futurecdn.net/MA3TUFLafMPLfVGgKAnYV8-320-80.jpg)
Would this really be a sci-fi party if author Michael Crichton didn’t show up? Timeline’s time travel is a lot of fun, if you consider using a “human fax machine” to send yourself to medieval times “fun.” In which case, try not to abuse it too much, as every trip has the chance to leave you with transcription errors in your reassembled DNA. Again, we’re working with a fax machine here.
![time travel drug movie Christopher Reeve stands surprised while dressed in period garb in Somewhere In Time.](https://cdn.mos.cms.futurecdn.net/WDkX4Jv5qNGV2mDc2XCpB7-320-80.jpg)
Somewhere In Time
It’s the moment you’ve been waiting for Christopher Reeve fans! Somewhere in Time just had to be on this list, as it's pretty unique in how it sends a person back through the ages. In the case of Reeve’s playwright Richard, all he needs is a really powerful hypnotic focus to zoom back to 1912.
![time travel drug movie Chris Pine sits on the bridge with a determined expression in Star Trek.](https://cdn.mos.cms.futurecdn.net/Ns6B64zGEXBh3iQcDgCcM7-320-80.jpg)
Star Trek (2009)
It’s kind of fitting that the 2009 Star Trek reboot would use time travel, given that the series has continually danced with that concept on TV and in movies. For this J.J. Abrams-directed venture, the destructive and inexact force of a black hole is what’s used to accidentally alter time so vastly that William Shatner turns into Chris Pine.
![time travel drug movie Denzel Washington smiles while sitting in a lab in Déjà Vu.](https://cdn.mos.cms.futurecdn.net/yJENDekxeMd2TSUpJfHbE6-320-80.jpg)
Déjà Vu
Tony Scott’s 2006 action-thriller Déjà Vu is a big movie with a relatively limited scope. With intelligence gathering, and ultimately one human transport, that can only go as far back as four and a half days, Denzel Washington’s work was kind of cut out for him on this caper.
![time travel drug movie Chris Pratt sits with a look of concern in The Tomorrow War.](https://cdn.mos.cms.futurecdn.net/jRTP96XCi8kKTsCPnnHgcP-320-80.jpg)
The Tomorrow War
The Chris Pratt-starring time travel ensemble adventure The Tomorrow War has some pretty huge stipulations when it comes to recruiting an army for the future. The largest among them was, of course, you had to be dead according to the records of the future hellscape that pitted humanity against some very nasty creatures.
![time travel drug movie Hugh Jackman in X-Men: Days of Future Past](https://cdn.mos.cms.futurecdn.net/b3wquUpkzBCL6hTgTc8Mi-320-80.jpg)
X-Men: Days Of Future Past
Going from here to there in the then and now in X-Men: Days of Future Past requires a serious amount of power. With Wolverine (Hugh Jackman) going back to his past body, the key to how it all happens lies in the phasing abilities of Kitty Pryde (Elliot Page). So this story uses a very physical, and incredibly vulnerable, method to execute its vision.
![time travel drug movie Bruce Willis in 12 Monkeys](https://cdn.mos.cms.futurecdn.net/4MmNcsV8kq8awN4yzh7NM7-320-80.jpg)
Out of all the time travel universes we’ve seen on screen, perhaps the one I feel the most sorry for is the one shown in 12 Monkeys . The basic rule of this Bruce Willis epic’s temporal transit is “hope for the best,” thanks to the method of being shot through time and intending to land in the right place going wrong more often than you think.
![time travel drug movie Owen Wilson looks ahead with horror in Midnight In Paris.](https://cdn.mos.cms.futurecdn.net/49muXoLpJqyV4Wu6Dtmox6-320-80.jpg)
Midnight In Paris
Reminiscent of many other vehicular-based time travel films like Back to the Future , any character that travels through time in Midnight In Paris just needs to catch the right ride, at just about Midnight. The experience is bespoke to whoever is traveling, as the period of time that suits them best also dictates the method of transportation provided.
![time travel drug movie Kirk Douglas in The Final Countdown](https://cdn.mos.cms.futurecdn.net/pNYFvRFp8t3yhNkLa2oupf-320-80.jpg)
The Final Countdown
Dropping an aircraft carrier from the 1980s into the moments before Pearl Harbor, The Final Countdown delivers a moral dilemma plenty of time travelers have tangled with. But the real difference with this underrated sci-fi movie is the fact that the time-traveling storm that is responsible for the trip is inescapable. You’re going home, whether you want to or not.
![time travel drug movie Domhnall Gleeson and Bill Nighy in About Time](https://cdn.mos.cms.futurecdn.net/PiVsjS5W88uCzRECQZBgSY-320-80.jpg)
Sharing a similarity with the romantic classic Somewhere In Time , Richard Curtis’ About Time allows any potential traveler to jump into the past with merely intense concentration. However, certain caveats are in play, like the recommendation of not traveling past certain life milestones, or the fact that only the men of the Lake family can actually use this gift.
![time travel drug movie Jake Gyllenhaal in Donnie Darko](https://cdn.mos.cms.futurecdn.net/JDgbL5b4jzHzrAcSLRCBdj-320-80.jpg)
Donnie Darko
Donnie (Jake Gyllenhaal) can’t exactly travel through time in Donnie Darko , but he does have a special temporal ability that’s kind of funny and kind of sad. With the ability to open a wormhole between the present and the past, Mr. Darko can send objects through time; the skill that gives Richard Kelly’s movie its bittersweet ending.
![time travel drug movie Hugh Jackman and Meg Ryan and Kate & Leopold](https://cdn.mos.cms.futurecdn.net/TH5oVU7kapTbp6byzx2oLD-320-80.jpg)
Kate & Leopold
Kate & Leopold’s usage of a localized time portal is a method as old as time. However, the big difference with this Meg Ryan/Hugh Jackman rom-com is that the journey Leopold (Jackman) takes to the “future” of 2001 robs us all of elevators. Also, there’s a ticking clock on this specific portal’s usage, which only complicates things further.
![time travel drug movie Andie MacDowell and Bill Murray in Groundhog Day](https://cdn.mos.cms.futurecdn.net/wYj8dBRLwXwijVA9LL5rmb-320-80.png)
Groundhog Day
Perhaps the movie that nailed the time loop into the consciousness of the world, Groundhog Day brought us a charming Bill Murray rom-com mixed with a time travel story. Its misanthropic lead needed to change, even as the world around him stayed the same. The rest was sci-fi history in the making.
![time travel drug movie Jessica Rothe in Happy Death Day](https://cdn.mos.cms.futurecdn.net/JDMsUPHYyVZhUW2LgdVPDk-320-80.jpg)
Happy Death Day
What happens if you make a Groundhog Day-style time loop into a deadly game? You get a movie like Happy Death Day , in which our initially unlikable lead Tree (Jessica Rothe) is being stalked through a single-day time loop. The big kicker in this variant is that, unlike your standard time loop, Tree has a finite number of cycles before she possibly dies for good.
![time travel drug movie Josh Hutcherson wearing retro futuristic sunglasses in Detention.](https://cdn.mos.cms.futurecdn.net/PF4wJsqcDcfrnBgcbeRoR6-320-80.jpg)
Where does one start with director Joseph Kahn’s Detention? Well, how about the fact that the teenagers in play (including a pre- Hunger Games Josh Hutcherson) use a stuffed bear as a time travel capsule? Or the fact that a mother/daughter pair can body swap on a permanent basis, and with no consequences?
And with that, our supreme sampling of time travel trips has come to a close. Which more than likely has left you with a want to watch some of these movies again, or for the first time. That's totally natural, because this is a subgenre that always leaves us with one question: is there ever a bad time to watch a time travel movie?
Mike Reyes is the Senior Movie Contributor at CinemaBlend, though that title’s more of a guideline really. Passionate about entertainment since grade school, the movies have always held a special place in his life, which explains his current occupation. Mike graduated from Drew University with a Bachelor’s Degree in Political Science, but swore off of running for public office a long time ago. Mike's expertise ranges from James Bond to everything Alita, making for a brilliantly eclectic resume. He fights for the user.
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Synchronic: Directed by Justin Benson, Aaron Moorhead. With Anthony Mackie, Jamie Dornan, Katie Aselton, Ally Ioannides. Two New Orleans paramedics' lives are ripped apart after they encounter a series of horrific deaths linked to a designer drug with bizarre, otherworldly effects.
Synchronic is a 2019 American science fiction horror film directed and produced by Justin Benson and Aaron Moorhead.Written by Benson, the film shares continuity with other films by Benson and Moorhead, following Resolution and The Endless. Synchronic stars Anthony Mackie and Jamie Dornan as paramedics who investigate a series of inexplicable deaths and their connection to a new designer drug.
Their new movie, "Synchronic," is inspired, at least to some extent, by the wreckage wreaked by designer drugs of dubious legality (the ostensibly synthetic marijuana called K2, for instance ...
'Synchronic': Risky time-travel drug keeps two EMT's busy in a gritty indie A great buddy relationship is at the center of a film full of big ideas and psychedelic journeys.
The movie Synchronic focused on the drug Synchronic, which allows young people who take it to travel back in time, but they don't necessarily die from it. Synchronic's world is by and large just like the real world, except for the concept of time travel, which proves bewildering for Steve and Dennis - a pair of EMTs played by Anthony Mackie and Jamie Dornan.
Synchronic deals with the infinite possibilities that time presents, specifically shown in the ways that Steve easily moved through time. Once someone moves beyond the understanding that time moves linearly, the world expands into infinite possibilities — anything is possible. That's exactly what "ALLWAYS" represents in the time travel movie.
Dennis, who can't time-travel, still feels unmoored as he loses his family; Steve, whose unique condition allows him to take the drug to its full potential, is a Black man living in the American ...
Time travel is a drug and the results can be deadly. Anthony Mackie (Avengers: Infinity War) and Jamie Dornan (50 Shades of Grey) star in the new sci-fi film Synchronic as two best friends, and ...
Justin Benson and Aaron Moorhead's new movie Synchronic cleverly turns this premise on its head by telling a time travel story where the lack of control is built into the premise and the larger ...
Aside from those grisly accidents, the first third of Synchronic is a slow-burning drama about the quiet miseries that Steve and Dennis are mired in. Steve is a disaffected womaniser who has ...
Well Go USA has released a trippy new trailer for Synchronic, the latest sci-fi movie from The Endless filmmakers Justin Benson and Aaron Moorhead . Anthony Mackie and Jamie Dornan star as best ...
So, to sum up: Synchronic is a drug that makes kids sometimes travel through time. The chemist was trying to get rid of all of the drugs, and the ones that Steve bought are the last of the supply ...
Jan. 22, 2023 4:16 p.m. PT. 3 min read. Synchronic stars Anthony Mackie and Jamie Dornan. Netflix. Before hitting play on 2019's Synchronic, there's one thing you should know. It's not that it's a ...
Synchronic, which became available on Netflix April 16, stars Anthony Mackie and Jamie Dornan as paramedics in New Orleans dealing with a time-travel drug.
Time-travel drugs. That's a juicy elevator pitch for a sci-fi flick but one that could easily crumble in the wrong hands. Fortunately for reality-warping thriller Synchronic, it's hands are those of directors Aaron Moorhead and Justin Benson, an indie darling pair known for subverting and refreshing tired concepts to exciting effect.Their 2017 horror The Endless, in particular, managed to ...
The police are baffled. The only connecting factor seems to be a street drug known as "synchronic," which is new and legal and all the rage. The more that two EMTs — the single, stay-out-all ...
The most complete list of movies in which time traveling or time looping are a prominent plot device. Time travel is the concept of moving between different points in time in a manner analogous to moving between different points in space, generally using a theoretical invention known as a "time machine". Let's face it, the time traveling concept was always an preoccupation in literature and ...
4.3 (7.1K) Rate. A young man tries to revive his parents' wilting marriage by traveling to the 1970s when their romance was budding and make it bloom: something more complex than he expects. Director Vipul Amrutlal Shah Stars Akshay Kumar Aishwarya Rai Bachchan Aditya Roy Kapoor. 14. Land of the Lost.
One night the duo must tend to what they think is a routine overdose when, in fact, the incident is tied to a synthetic narcotic called synchronic, which is essentially a time travel drug. With ...
Based on Robert A. Heinlein's 1959 short story, "'—All You Zombies—'", 2014's Predestination struggled to make back its minuscule budget of $5 million at the box office upon release and that is a crying shame. Starring Ethan Hawke and Sarah Snook, Predestination is a heady sci-fi thriller that's a bit hard to pin down.
Anyway, the movie, low budget one, is probably not very highly rated or watched at all ( probably around 6/10 imdb). The main character is young and has long-ish hair. He gets involved in drugs or drug dealing I cant remember but at one point he does two things im sure: - Get involved with the girlfriend of the drug dealer.
Fast-forward in time, without touching the remote. 11 Best Time Travel Movies to Stream in Your Past, Present, and Future - Netflix Tudum Travel without leaving home while watching these films that will have you jumping through time.
The oldest method of time travel in the Star Trek movies, 1986's The Voyage Home saw Captain Kirk (William Shatner) and his crew trying to save the whales through a time heist. This wouldn't ...
Works created prior to the 18th century are listed in Time travel § History of the time travel concept . A guardian angel travels back to the year 1728, with letters from 1997 and 1998. An unnamed man falls asleep and finds himself in a Paris of the future. Play - A good fairy sends people forward to the year 7603 AD. [1]