The Adam Project combines humor and heart in Netflix’s sci-fi adventure movie. The time travel action comedy stars Ryan Reynolds, Walker Scobell, Jennifer Garner, and Mark Ruffalo. Directed by Shawn Levy, marking the second collaboration between Levy and Reynolds, the Netflix movie centers on Adam Reed, a pilot who encounters a younger version of himself when a time travel mission goes wrong. With the help of his younger self and his late father, they work together in order to save the future. The movie may be packed with laughs, but grounding this larger-than-life concept is a touching story about how both the younger and older versions of a character help each other grow.
Typically, in an organized setting, those with more experience train younger mentees to grow professionally and personally. You see this with organizations like Big Brothers Big Sisters of America, connecting adult volunteers to counsel children so they might thrive in life. Great mentorships not only impact the mentee, but also the mentor. Under the extraordinary circumstances in the movie, Adam is able to meet an older version of himself, which of course changes him forever. The unintentional mentor relationship between Big Adam and Young Adam influences both of them, helping them to heal, and ultimately alters their future for the better.
Editor’s note: The following contains spoilers for The Adam Project.
At the beginning of The Adam Project, the wise-cracking 12-year-old gets suspended from school after instigating another fight. For someone with a big mouth, he’s small, not very confident, and unable to hold his own in a fight. Plus, he doesn’t have the charm to attract girls at school. When his older version crashes into his life, he gets a glimpse of his future. For one, he grows up into a tall, muscled, confident man who can take down a legion of futuristic fighters with a good right hook and essentially a lightsaber. Despite these great attributes, Big Adam teaches his younger self that in order to become the badass down the road he has to lose a few fights. When Young Adam runs into his bullies, Big Adam takes him aside to give some advice on how to fight, but ultimately lets him lose so that he can get better later. Being able to stand up for yourself doesn’t happen overnight. Though it hurts Young Adam’s ego in the moment, he begins to see from Big Adam how these losses will help in the long run. Also, seeing Big Adam hold his own gives Young Adam the confidence to try and fight Christos (Alex Mallari Jr.) in the final battle.
As mentioned early, the younger version of Adam isn’t much of a ladies man. When he meets his older self, naturally he’s curious if he hooks up with girls later on in life. While it does get confirmed that his game significantly improves, particularly in college, he finds out it’s more than that; he discovers that Big Adam is married. Young Adam gets to meet the future love of his life when Laura (Zoe Saldaña) comes in guns blazing to save the day (literally). It’s more than just a passing fancy; he sees his older self in love with his wife and that love reciprocated from her. Seeing Big Adam and Laura interact, Young Adam learns that he has something great to look forward to. However, he also sees the heartbreak and sacrifice that comes with love. After finally reuniting, Laura tells Big Adam that they need to separate in order for him to destroy time travel and save the world. She chooses to stay behind and sacrifice herself. Young Adam sees how the loss of a love like that is devastating, which helps him begin to understand the type of grief his mom is experiencing after losing the love of her life.
When you’re young, it can be difficult to see our parents as people. Young Adam is quick to be a jerk to his mom and slow to show her any affection or empathy. Like Young Adam, his mom Ellie (Jennifer Garner) is mourning her late husband (Mark Ruffalo) yet trying to move forward and keep their family afloat on her own; in fact, she’s more concerned about how her son is grieving than her own. As Young Adam tries to make a cutting remark about his mom, Big Adam quickly reprimands him for it; the way he treated his mom is something Big Adam remains guilty over. Seeing the way Big Adam comes to the defense of his mom allows Young Adam to see his mom as a person, one who needs a hug every so often. His encounter with his older self helps him let go of the bitterness and anger towards his mom, reconciling their relationship.
Mentorship is a two-way street. It’s not just Young Adam who learns something from his older version. At the beginning of The Adam Project, Big Adam has zero compassion for his younger self. Sure, the sarcasm carries his humor, but underneath he’s a man who carries heartbreak with him; he misses his wife, he feels guilty for being a jerk to his mother while she was grieving, he carries resentment toward his father, and he’s spent much of his life avoiding his past. Yes, the time travel plot forces him to face his younger self in order to save the world, but in a deeper sense, he faces his past self in order to heal and save himself.
It’s strange how time and emotions can warp our perspective of the past; it’s one of the many defense mechanisms we use in order to cope and cauterize the deep wounds. For Adam as he grows up, he turns his sadness over losing his dad into anger. For all the flack he gives his younger self for not empathizing with their mom during her grief, Big Adam didn’t do a great job of mourning either. Instead of letting himself be sad that his dad was gone, he turned that sadness to anger which hardened into bitterness. That bitterness started to color in old memories, twisting them just enough to justify that anger he felt. For instance, Big Adam’s memory of how he got pitchback is completely false. He had grown to believe that because his dad was too focused on his work, Louis bought him the pitchback to make up for him not being there. However, Young Adam cleared up that misconception by reminding him how their dad would play catch with him every night after he came home from work. Louis only bought the pitchback because when Adam was young, he begged him to buy it. By shining light on the truth of that memory, Big Adam begins to see his dad the way he’s been trying to avoid for so long, eventually forgiving his dad and letting go of his misplaced anger towards him.
As we grow up, there’s a mistaken belief that we know more once we experience more of life. However, that completely devalues the curious and often insightful nature that’s uninhibited when we’re younger. Young Adam could see past the muscles and confidence of his older self to see the truth: Adam had grown into an angry person. Despite finding the love of his life in Laura, Adam’s future was pretty bleak. Seeing his older self, Young Adam can see where the current path he’s on leads and recognizes how his current coping strategies fall short. Young Adam teaches his older self that there’s a difference between anger and sadness. Because he’s not weighed down by 30 years of life, Young Adam speaks into Big Adam’s life with more wisdom than Big Adam could imagine. Instead of denying his inner child, Big Adam heals by reconnecting with his adolescent self.
The Adam Project starts with both versions of Adam on the run: Young Adam was running away from a fight he started, and Big Adam was running away from Maya Sorian (Catherine Keener) and her armies to find his wife in the past. When the Adams meet, they’re both still running from their emotional pain. Through their time travel adventure together, both Young Adam and Big Adam begin to heal by learning from and accepting each other. It can seem a little too on the nose how self-love can save the day, but it’s a poignant message that packs a more emotional punch than what you typically find in a time travel action movie.