Genre: Thriller/Sci-Fi
Director: Jeremy Saulnier
Writers: Jimmy Ellis & John Malone
Cast: Alden Ehrenreich, Shailene Woodley, Dan Stevens, Cameron Monaghan, Jeffrey Wright
Plot: The charismatic Tim Herod (Dan Stevens) is on a pulpit talking to hundreds of people, he calls them his Elysian Children. He talks about the prophecy that a being from the future will arrive a give them the key to the universe, and with that key they will be able to transcend space and time and live freely anywhere in the cosmos. He ends the speech by saying that the prophecy is at risk of being unfulfilled as the future being does not have enough life force to make it to them at this time. He commands his children commit a ritual sacrifice to provide the being with their life forces so that he may reach them yet. Mary Simons (Shailene Woodley) gets up onto the pulpit and grabs a knife. She tells the children to follow her through the ritual. She slices both of her wrists and blood pours from the cuts. Everyone in the crowd grab a knife and slice their wrists also. One by one they begin to drop to their knees and die. Tim thanks his children and slices his wrists, dropping to his knees and looking to the sky.
Eli Simons (Alden Ehrenreich) is seated in his dorm room working on his thesis. Eli attends MIT and his Thesis’ title reads, ‘Temporal Displacement’. Eli takes a break and falls asleep in front of the television. When he wakes up, the evening news is announcing that a cult calling themselves the Elysian Children have committed a mass suicide. Eli remembers that his twin sister went to Montana to find herself. He hasn’t talked to her for a few years now, as they have grown distant after the passing of their parents.
Eli decides to try to call his sister to make sure she is alright, the phone goes straight to voice mail. Eli begins to panic and rings her again. A reporter on the news begins reading off a list of those who took their own lives on the Montana cult compound. The last name she says is, Mary Simons, Eli drops his phone and cries. He believes that the leader of the cult must have brainwashed her into believing she needed this death to be free. He wants his revenge on the leader but hears that he is also dead. The faces of the dead are shown and he sees his sisters face which causes him to break down even more. He decides that he is going to save his sister.
Eli runs to his professor’s office. Professor Shem (Jeffrey Wright) answers the knock at the door. Shem asks Eli if he is alright. Eli talking quickly asks him if he thinks it’s possible. Shem has no clue what he is talking about. TIME TRAVEL, Eli yells. Shem shakes his head and tells Eli that he is one of the brightest minds he has met, but that he needs to focus on more practical matters, not time travel. Eli walks out and tells Shem that he will prove him wrong. Shem says that he hopes he does.
Returning to his dorm he decides to start work on his device that will be able to go back in time. He re-reads his thesis and gets materials. He begins building this device but falls asleep at his desk. In waking up the next morning Eli is shocked to see that his device is built. He speaks to himself trying to figure out how it was built, however comes to the conclusion that he built it himself and just forgot because of everything that has been going on. He exits his room, a silhouette is seen behind a pole outside the building. He then runs to a park to test his device.
Eli sets the location and time coordinates into the device and crosses his fingers as he activates it. The particles of his body begin breaking apart into a vortex surrounding the device. The particles are then sucked into the device. Eli suddenly appears in a field outside of Bozeman, Montana. He is out of breath and disoriented. He starts walking into Bozeman. He checks a newspaper and finds that it is the day before the mass suicide. He buys a gun in town and begins walking away from town toward the direction of the Elysian Children compound. He walks straight into the compound and right up to Tim Herod. Herod is confused about who the young man is, but then Eli pulls out a gun and shoots Herod square in the chest. Herod gasps his last breath and collapses dead. Eli expects Herod's flock to descend upon him for vengeance, but instead they begin bowing down before him. One of the flock, Aaron (Cameron Monaghan), proclaims that Eli is the future being from the prophecy. Mary comes to see what the commotion is about and sees her brother standing there with a gun. Aaron asks about the key to the universe, but Eli just stares at him incredulously. Mary tells Aaron that Eli bares no such key. Aaron grabs Herod's dagger and tells everyone that the future being is going to need their life forces in order to take them to the cosmos, Herod told him so. Herod slashes his wrists with the dagger and passes it down. Once the dagger reaches Mary, she takes one last look at her brother, and slashes her wrists as well. Eli runs over to her and holds her in his arms as she dies.
Eli gets up and looks upon the countless bodies in horror. Suddenly, Eli is surprised by another version of himself that has also traveled back in time. He tells Eli that he failed and shoots him in the head. Eli then wakes up in the field outside Bozeman, once again out of breath. He is more disoriented than ever. He goes to a diner in Bozeman and gets some food. He asks the waitress what she can tell him about the Elysian Children cult. She tells him that they mostly keep to themselves, but sometimes their leader comes to town with a few women for supplies. Eli heads to the gun store again, but this time he buys a knife. He heads back to the Elysian Children compound. He sneaks through the compound and into Herod's quarters. Herod is excited to see him, believing him to be the future being of the prophecy. Eli pulls out the knife and is about to attack him when Herod pulls out his dagger. Herod quickly stabs himself in the stomach and dies in front of Eli. Eli hides Herod's body and leaves Herod's quarters.
Eli walks through the compound looking for his sister. He finally finds Mary. She is surprised to see him. Eli claims he just wanted to visit her before he gets too busy with his thesis at school. Mary tells her brother that the compound is no place for simple visits and that he should leave before their leader Herod spots him. Eli then asks his sister to leave the compound with him then, at least to Bozeman for lunch. She tells him that this is not an option as she is a vital member of Herod's flock. He starts to pull her toward the compound gates, but she begins fighting against him. She tells him that he can stay if he wants, but that she will not go anywhere with him.
Aaron runs out of Herod's quarters, announcing that he is gone. He is frightened that their leader has abandoned his flock. Mary takes to the pulpit and calms the crowd. She tells him that Herod knows what is best and that he must have left them in order to communicate with the prophesied being. She urges them to rest well tonight as they will carry out their plan tomorrow, with or without Herod. Eli is stunned that his sister would speak like that. He realizes that he was wrong about his sister. Clearly she's not just some brainwashed young woman, she is a leader among the cult.
Eli tries to talk to his sister. He reveals that he knows what the cult's plans are and that he came to stop them from happening. She asks how he could possibly know such a thing. Eli then reveals that he came from the future and only knows about the plans of the Elysian Children because he saw the aftermath on the news. Mary says that she knew Herod's prophecy was right, but she never expected that the future being from the prophecy would be her own brother. Eli pleads with his sister to not have the cult carry out the mass suicide. He says there is no prophecy, no future being, no key to the universe, just hundreds of people who don't have to die. Mary tells Eli that she'll have to think about that and has Aaron take him to a shack where he may stay the night.
In the morning, Mary speaks from the pulpit as the flock eats breakfast. She announces that Herod has been found. He sacrificed himself to bring the prophecy closer to frution, and it will be their job to join him when the time comes. The hundreds of cult members all cheer for her words. Mary puts a plate of food in front of Eli, telling him that he said he wanted to have a meal with her so now is last his chance. Eli tells her that if she tells the flock the plans are off they will listen to her. She asks why she should mislead the brothers and sisters like that. Herod gave them the prophecy, and she plans to do everything in her power to make it happen so that she may join her love in the cosmos.
Mary takes the pulpit once again and tells the flock that the time has come for them to join Herod in the cosmos. Eli runs up onto the stage and begs his sister not to do this. She ignores him and continues speaking of the prophecy to the flock. Eli pulls out his knife and stabs his sister in the stomach, telling her that one dead is better than 300. Eli cries over his sister's body once again. The flock is stunned, unsure of what to do. Eli stands up and tells them that there is no prophecy. Herod and his sister made it up because they were sick. He sets fire to the pulpit and tells everyone to leave the compound at once. Eli walks out of the compound in a crowd of cult members. Outside of the burning compound the flock looks to Eli for direction. He tells them to go back to their families and forget all about Mary Simons, Tom Herod and the Elysian Children. Eli heads back to the field and accesses his device. Once again his body is particlized and sucked into a vortex around the device.
Eli arrives back at MIT but is wary of where his past self would be. He sees his past self running from Professor Shem’s office back to his dorm. He waits a while until he knows that his past self is asleep. He then sneaks into the dorm and finishes the device, he then leaves the room and hides outside. The past Eli wakes up and is wondering how his device was built. He comes to the conclusion that he built it last night but just forgot. He then leaves to save his sister by running to the park. From behind a pole comes Eli who was hiding all night. He goes into his dorm room and destroys all of his research and his thesis on temporal displacement. He then runs to Professor Shem’s office, and knocks on the door. Shem answers and wonders what Eli is doing back and at a late a time as it is. Eli says that he is sorry for the time. He tells Shem that his thesis on temporal displacement is nonsense and claims that time travel is impossible. Shem has a little disappointment in his voice but thanks Eli for coming to his senses on the matter.
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