“It’s dumb. So dumb, in fact, that it makes the science behind Sharknado seem sound.” Says Kevin Carr of 7M pictures on the new movie Project Almanac.

Project Almanac was a cliché teenage time travel movie that was disappointing beyond belief.  In fact the directors should have gone back in time to realize that this PG-13 science fiction film was not worth releasing.

High school inventor David Raskin (Jonny Weston) is admitted into MIT, but is unable to afford its high tuition. Upon learning his mother is planning to sell the house, David recruits his sister Christina (Virginia Gardner) and his overly geeky friends Adam Le (Allen Evangelista) and Quinn Goldberg (Sam Lerner) to go through the belongings of his deceased father, Ben Raskin (Gary Weeks), who died in a car crash on David’s 7th birthday, in the hope of finding something that David can use to get a scholarship.

David ends up finding an old camera with a video recording of his birthday, in which he briefly spots his 17-year-old self in a reflection. The group later find the blueprints of a ‘temporal relocation device’ (time machine) that Ben was developing for the United States military, and use the available resources to build a functional time machine, including parts stolen from their school. David, Christina, Adam and Quinn later use the battery from the car of David’s longtime crush, Jessie Pierce (Sofia Black D’Elia) to charge up the machine, and successfully send a toy car back in time. They end up being caught by Jessie and recruit her to their experiment, which they nickname “Project Almanac.”

The five agree to use the machine for personal gain on the condition that they always use it together. Adam uses it to win the lottery, Christina gets back at her bullies, Quinn aces a chemistry test to secure his academic future, and the group eventually decides to travel back to Lollapalooza three months previous. David hesitates to declare his feelings for Jessie, and decides to travel back in time alone to change that, leading to a future in which they are a couple. However, this creates a ripple effect that causes the school’s star basketball player to have broken his leg and lose the championship, as well as a plane piloted by a classmate’s father to have crashed, killing 77 people. David goes back alone once again and prevents the accident. He returns to the future to learn that instead Adam is in critical condition in the hospital after being run over.

Jessie confronts David, who is forced to admit to using the time machine to win her affection. They travel back in time together to reverse David’s mistakes and save Adam, but Jessie ends up running into her past self and is erased from the timeline, causing an even more devastating ripple effect, leading to worldwide catastrophes. David decides to go back to his 7th birthday to prevent the machine from being created, but is confronted by the police, who suspect him of being connected to Jessie’s disappearance. David escapes to his school to use a hydrogen canister to return to 2004, where he is accidentally caught on camera.

In the basement, David confronts his father Ben, who recognizes him and deduces that he’ll eventually complete the machine. David convinces Ben of the machine’s danger and they destroy the blueprints and a vital circuit together, before David is erased from the timeline. However, his camera is left behind and records the whole thing. Back in the future, David and Christina are once again going through their father’s belongings, when they find the alternate David’s camera with footage of them from minutes before.

FSA Connection Questions

1. Using context clues what can you determine the word ‘deduces’ means.
2. What does the phrase “ripple effect” mean?
3. How does the author’s inclusion of a synopsis strengthen the article?
4. What is an example of a ripple effect?
5. What is the author’s opinion of the movie, Project Almanac?