Very confused
Was so lost throughout the movie. Need to watch again as the couldn’t keep up with the time travel and what the impact was of Actions
shareYes, it was a bit tricky to keep track of. They (initially & IMO, cleverly) made it seem like Paris and Ellie are living in the same time, but Ellie is actually in the present (around 2024) and Paris' scenes are from about 20 years earlier (around 2003/4).
Anna, who goes missing as an 8 year old girl in 2024 is actually Paris' mom. Paris is Ellie's father, which makes Anna Ellie's grandmother and Daniel, Ellie's great grandfather (which is why in the end, she tells him that they are family, through Anna).
A rough timeline (after re-watching a few scenes):
Ellie lives with her mom Celeste, her stepdad Daniel and stepsister Anna (daughter of Daniel, but not Celeste). The beginning of the movie (original time where Anna goes missing) is around 2024.
Anna, Paris and Ellie run into the time tunnel and emerge at different times. Anna gets hurt and Paris finds her in 1952. Paris hands her over to some people to take her to a doctor. Anna gets stuck in that timeline and grows up, marrying Paris' dad and giving birth to him.
1999 - Anna dies in the car accident / drowning (1st scene), while her son Paris survives
~2003 - Paris' scenes - working on the boat, hooking up with Celeste and getting her pregnant
2005 - Ellie exits the time tunnel in this year, runs into her mom carrying the toddler version of Ellie. The mother (Celeste) thinks Ellie is a woman Paris is having an affair with and tells her to let him know he has a daughter (she originally tells adult Ellie about this after Anna goes missing). Ellie checks up on Anna's life in the internet cafe and realizes the truth
2024 - Paris re-enters the time tunnel in 1952 after handing Anna over, exits in 2024, gets arrested, carjacks Daniel & Celeste (who recognizes him), tries to escape from the cops and dies. Ellie enters the time tunnel again in 2005 (after internet cafe) and comes back to her correct timeline in 2024 - tells Daniel that they are family and lets her mom know Anna survived.
I could be off with the 2024 guesstimate (it could be a couple of years give or take), but otherwise, that's how I saw it happening. As many have pointed out (and I myself recognized), this was basically Dark's premise. Good, entertaining movie with a decent cast - I rate it an easy 7.5/10.
Thankyou for that, makes a lot of sense now. Think it was change of actors for different people I was getting confused about and who’s who now and before
shareYW. I had to re-watch a few scenes to follow the thread. Will no doubt pick up more clues when I watch it again down the line.
Also, Zeesha below pointed out the current year was 2022, not 2024 as I assumed, so that would make Paris' scenes occur around 2001/2.