Nerds That Geek Movie Review: ‘Paradox’

Written by Scott Edwards 

It seems like everybody has a plan for what they would do if time travel is ever discovered.  I know that many people would like to make as much money as they can by playing the stock market, but what if money was not an issue and you could do something else? You could go and visit some of history's greatest minds or your idols from the past and see how they really were versus what you have read about in books. Maybe take a trip to the future to see your grandbaby’s grandbabies. There are so many things that could be done if and when time travel is created, but then you would have to think about what would happen if you did decide to change the past or future.

Getting a late call in for Project 880, Mr. Landau leads in his crew of top minds to get it up and off the ground. With time not being on his side, Landau wants his team to fire up the portal that they have created and prove once and for all that time travel can be accomplished. But before the test can get underway, there is a quick change in the lineup when it comes to time travelers. The man that was supposed to go through the gateway first, Bill, is swapped out for Jim and not knowing what will happen with this being the first human test, the group is anxious to see and hear what the future is actually like.

Even though Jim is not prepared for the jump, he cannot pass up the opportunity.  With Gale by his side, Jim believes that everything will go alright, but has no idea what the future holds. Entering the device and being sent an hour forward in time, Jim is shocked to see a bloodbath in the lab and when hearing that the self-destruct system has been set off, he needs to leave the building as soon as possible to save himself and hopefully save his friends. Arriving back mere seconds after leaving, Jim tries to explain to everyone that they are going to die if they do not leave the building, but there is one problem as the power has been knocked out for over forty blocks from their experiment.

Bringing a video camera back from the future with him, the group is now able to see what happens in their future hour and try to prevent anyone’s death from occurring. Knowing that there is a killer on the loose in the sealed off facility, the group is in a race against time to find out who he is before their time runs out. As Lewis is able to keep analyzing the camera and finds more and more clues as to who the killer could be, he is also able to find out who the killer is not. Trying to keep their heads about them, Gale comes clean about being an NSA agent who was assigned to this case a couple years back and has no regrets. But this insight only fuels the fire about who can be trusted in the facility and who will walk out alive when the secrets of time travel are actually revealed.

This is quite the time travel movie as you get to see the dark side of moving through time. With clues being handed out as to who the killer actually is during the film, you will never guess the ending as it delivers a huge twist that will leave your mind blown. The group of scientists are fantastic in this movie and while they may love and hate each other, they all do have a respect for what they are doing, even if it could be a bad thing. The idea of being able to travel into the future is really cool, but as this movie goes to show, the future is already written and no matter what you do, you cannot change the result.

---