‘The Adam Project’ reminds me of ‘Free Guy’ – another new film with Ryan Reynolds I already wrote about – not only because of him but mostly because of the message this film sends to us.
At first it might look like this film is about time travel. And it is but at the same time it is also about much more than this. The main focus of this movie is family. Obviously Adam’s connection with his mom is part of this but soon we will see that his relation to his father and to himself are as important. Young Adam is visited (spoiler alert!) by his older version. At first they did not like each other too much. Their relationship is, well… complicated.
With time their relations change because they start to see things through each other’s eyes. Younger Adam reminds his older version of things that he had forgotten. He makes him understand that for them ‘it’s easier to be angry than to be sad.’ And older Adam tells the younger one that he has spent all these years ‘trying to get away from the me that was you. And I’ll tell you what, kid. I hate to say it but you were the best part all along’. So they can integrate and become whole again.
Both Adams are grieving their father’s premature death. They do remember him differently though. Fortunately for them they get a chance to reconcile and their father gets a unique opportunity to tell them what they need to hear. It’s a very touching scene when he tells each of them the exact words they were waiting for all their lives. To have the same kind of closing, we need to give such conciliation to ourselves, as mature adults to our Inner Child. Because we already can travel back in time.
We need to tell our younger self: ‘I love you’. Older version of Adam says he knows but his father replies, rightly so: ‘I don’t think you do’. And he tells him to know it inside his heart and not try to process it through his brain. And finally he tells him not to carry this around anymore. ‘You’re my boys, and you’ll always be my boys. Throughout all time’. Some things will never change, no matter what timeline in the multiverse we are on.
In Free City everything was an illusion. Here, the big question is: If the time stream is changed, would two people remember that they fell in love with each other in another timeline? And if they won’t remember, at least would there be some kind of echo inside of them to remind them?