RecursionGenre: Sci-Fi/Thriller
Director: Duncan Jones
Writer: Wesley Campbell
Based on the novel by Blake Crouch
Cast: Chris Pratt, Jennifer Lawrence, Michael Fassbender, Raffey Cassidy, Jessie Buckley, Steven Yeun, Emily Hampshire, Dev Patel, April Bowlby, Zach Gilford, Andre Royo, Norbert Leo Butz
Plot: Rushing to the scene, Barry Sutton (Chris Pratt), an NYPD detective, responds to a suicide attempt at the Poe Building's top. As he reaches the top, he attempts to talk a woman, Ann Voss Peters (April Bowlby), off the edge. Refusing to move, she tells him she has a condition called False Memory Syndrome or FMS. The months prior, she suddenly received a new set of memories she'd never experienced before. To understand what's happening to her, she tracked down her false husband, Joe (Zach Gilford), but he didn't know her. Her false memories also had his alternate wife, Franny, jumping from a building. Ann thought if she tried the same, Joe'd rescue her too. When Joe doesn't arrive, Ann throws herself over. Barry watches in horror, frozen in place.
Waking up, Helena Smith (Jennifer Lawrence) experiences some deja vu. She calls her father and asks about mom, who's suffering from Alzheimer's. She goes to work in her neuroscience lab. A man Helena doesn't know, Jee-woon Chercover (Steven Yeun), enters, complimenting on Helena's work with memory. Knowing her Stanford money's running out, he offers her a job. Because she wants her work to help Alzheimer's patients, she considers it.
Barry meets his ex-wife Julia (Jessie Buckley) for the anniversary of their daughter Meghan's death. Barry realizes how much he misses Julia, but then they talk about Meghan, making it a bit awkward. Afterward, Barry meets his coworker Gwendoline Archer (Emily Hampshire) for drinks. He tells her about his failure to save Ann. They wonder about FMS and the many suicides resulting from the condition recently as the public's starting to seriously wondering about it.
Helena flies to Fawkes Station, a rig off the Californian coast, where she meets a famous inventor and scientist, Marcus Slade (Michael Fassbender). They talk about their work together, particularly her devotion to saving Alzheimer's patients' memories.
Barry reads a 15-year-old police report detailing Franny Behrman's attempted suicide, her husband Joe's success talking her off the Poe Building. Curious by it all, he takes a train to the Behrmans.
For 79 days, Helena has been at Fawkes. Along with her team, she's building the chair she has dreamed of, a technology capable of mapping and preserving memories.
On Day 270, the team waits for two processors to arrive. During a video chat w/ her parents, Helena worries about her mother, whose condition worsens. Though the rig's isolated, Helena is grateful for her teammate Raj (Dev Patel).
On Day 312, Helena's excited they'll complete their first human trial in the chair soon. During a conversation with Helena, Slade asks about her inspiration. She explains how relative time is, how memory alters the individual's perception of reality.
Barry arrives at the Behrmans and is shocked to see Franny's indeed alive, making Barry question Joe. When Barry asks, Joe denies any knowledge of Ann. Barry then asks about Franny's attempted suicide; Joe sternly tells him to leave. On his way back, Barry notices a man following him. At a diner, his nose slowly starts bleeding violently. Then he's flooded with false memories; he thinks he caught FMS from Ann.
On Day 500, Slade and Helena argue about the chair's possibilities. Slade seems to know more about Helena's history and work than she remembers telling him. He suggests implementing a deprivation tank and killing subjects to transport them back in time through recorded memory. This idea scares Helena as she saw Slade's dark expression.
As Barry wakes up & exits the diner, Joe Behrman calls to confesses that Franny did jump, and also he did know Ann. He tries explaining that a group of people transferred him in time so he'd save his wife. Joe won't tell him who the people are but gives an address.
Barry drives to the location, called Hotel Memory, and goes to sit at the bar inside. When Barry tells the bartender, he's a cop and inquires about the hotel, the bartender and Vince (Andre Royo) drug Barry dragging him into a room. When he awakens, a man asks him to recall his daughter's death.
When threatened, Barry recounts the night Meghan (Raffey Cassidy) died. He's watching baseball when she asked to meet her friends at DQ. He'd let her go through. It's late; she was killed in a hit and run on her return ride home.
Barry wakes up, almost believing he died. A man explains he stopped his heart, which is why he feels strange. Gradually Barry sinks back into the memory of the night Meghan died. He realizes he's back in the body of his younger self. Suddenly, Meghan stands in front of him, begging to go out. Shortly after leaving the house, he realizes he can stop her death, running after her.
Slade enters Helena's room, waking her. They have the same dialogue they've had before. He explains how successful their trial's been, showing her a video of the test subject's death in the deprivation tank. Shaken, she demands to leave the rig. Suddenly her nose begins bleeding, recalling a new set of memories. With evilness, Slade reminds her how the chair lets people return to their pasts.
Barry chases after Meghan, calling her without an answer. Finally, he sees her, about to cross the street as a car speeds by. Barry calls her and grabs her before she's hit. She doesn't understand why he's so emotional. She hugs him then goes to DQ.
Slade explains that deprivation's capable of sending individuals back into any of their memories. Helena worries about how the chair could be used for evil. Slade scoffs, tells her she's no longer on the original timeline, relieving a memory. He tells her once he worked as her assistant, killing her to rebuild the chair according to his design. Every time they go back into the past, Slade explains, they won't gain access to alternate remembered timelines. Only until they live up to the initial time disruption point, all competing timelines then can merge.
Barry moves through his former home, marveling at being back in his past. He's overcome by emotion. The next morning, he finds he's still in the past. He reconciled how he and Julia initially acted on this day and their present interactions' peacefulness.
Slade and Helena discover that all of his memories became false when they put their test subject, Reed, into the tank. They call these "dead memories." Day 613 days on Fawkes, Slade reports Reed's suicide. Guilt plagues Helena. She realizes there's only one way to escape Slade. Later, she quickly sneaks herself onto the chair before Slade and his goons can stop her.
Helena is back in her Palo Alto lab. Helena leaves the lab, withdraws everything from her bank account, and drives far away. She spends time in the middle of nowhere, eventually landing in Haines Junction, Yukon, to avoid Slade and keep him from recreating the chair and endangering humanity. After several years, Helena returns home to visit her mother. In a moment of clarity, she tells Helena she's proud of her. Meghan graduates and leaves home. Barry and Julia eventually divorce.
Years later, on his way home one night, Barry encounters a police barricade: a woman jumped from the Poe Building. In the middle of the night, Julia comes to his apartment. She thinks she has FMS. She now has memories of Meghan's death. Realizing what's happening, Barry rushes to Meghan. They find her on the floor. She also has FMS, remembering her own death. Though sworn to secrecy, Barry explains the situation, how he's been reliving a previous life. At a bar, he tells his family they cannot tell anyone. Everyone's noses begin bleeding, and even the reporter's on the television. An enormous building's appeared in the middle of the city. Barry realizes everyone's affected by the shifts in time; each individual is flooded with false memories.
Barry meets Gwen, explaining what's happened. They realize changing memories alters reality. They still cannot understand what the chair inventor's up to. Later, Megan texts Barry saying she cannot live anymore. He rushes to Meghan's, but by the time he arrives, their home's aflame. Barry sees her body covered by a sheet on the curb. He rushes to Hotel Memory. Before he can enter, Helena appears and stops him, warning him of the danger.
Helena recounts to Barry all the things she knows about his life. She tells of her experiences with the chair and Slade, warning Barry of the dangers. Helena says FMS is a significant side effect of the chair. Together they drive to Helena's warehouse, where she's independently rebuilding the chair.
She begins telling him things that'll happen soon. She says they've worked together in and another life. In another iteration, they've already attempted raiding Slade's lab, having to jump in time to save themselves. Helena thinks if they work together on rebuilding the chair, they may have a chance of saving the world. She knows if everyone continues remembering their false pasts, they'll be incapable of coping. The brain won't agree with the changes.
Helena remembers the lives she's already lived with Barry. She wishes he could remember what they meant to each other. Later, Helena mentions wanting to be never born, never to have invented the chair. She knows they can never stop cause and effect from governing the world. At the appointed time, they return to Slade's, planning to redo the raid more successfully.
Helena begins initiating a new timeline into which they can escape. Moving towards the lab, they encounter Jee-woon with a gun. They have a shootout. Barry sustains a wound. Helena rushes towards the tank so she can reverse time before Barry dies. Suddenly, dead memories flood him; he recalls his history with Helena, in a flash reliving every moment.
Helena points a gun at Slade, explaining that she has relived the same years to stop him. Slade still doesn't think his work with the chair is negative. He says she's yet to travel the way he has and cannot understand the chair's real power.
Barry reawakens to see Slade fleeing the lab. NYPD officers flood the facility with Gwen's at their head. Attempting to escape from the confused cops, Barry gets shot repeatedly.
Raj and his DARPA team hold Helena captive. He promises they are using the chair for a good, recently having reversed a school shooting. He explains all the government agencies discovered the chair after FMS swept the world. Helena still fears the chair's capabilities. Raj keeps trying to convince Helena her work is saving lives.
The team begins meeting, discussing further possibilities for the chair. They consider reversing mass genocides and other global atrocities. Helena's the voice of reasoning; they may save lives but will also remove others from existence. Over time, they establish ground rules for using the chair. As traumas occur, they work together to decide which makes the most sense to reverse, successfully saving many.
One night, supervisor John Shaw (Norbert Leo Butz) visits Helena. He says the military wants access to the chair, and they don't have a choice. All their work becomes intertwined with military objectives. One day, Helena and two teammates experience conflicting and overlapping tragedies, bridges falling, and buildings crumbling. They realize time's looping over and over in fast succession. Someone outside DARPA is controlling the chair. The news reports a "Mass Memory Malfunction in Manhattan." People en masse begin committing suicide. They hear the same phenomenon is occurring globally. Someone leaked word of the chair to foreign governments. The team decides to send Helena back to her childhood. Aware of all the lives she has lived, Helena records April 16, 2019, as the world's end.
Barry wakes up in the desert with Helena beside him. She tells him he just jumped 33 years of memory. His memory timelines will merge soon as the mass memory phenomenon occurs. Barry starts recalling his old lives, how he met then fell for her, the experience they made together, and their determination to save the world.
He realizes they've attempted to reworking the chair without successfully stopping Slade from unleashing the technology. Barry tells Helena he can now remember he's been in love with her for years. Soon after, they receive word of suicides sweeping the world. Helena tells Barry she'll have to relive her life again. She says he doesn't have to do it with her, that she can choose not to meet him if he no longer wants to be involved. He says he'll live every life with her.
Barry wakes again, this time on a mountainside with Helena. She says they failed also. Barry's flooded with memories, their life together repeated. He realizes how hard it must be for Helena to know they are reliving their relationship while he doesn't. On their phones, they receive word of a ballistic missile threat. They rush to the car, speeding to their home and the tank. Before they make it back, a missile descends. After the explosion, they manage to excavate themselves from the car and race home.
This time, the lab is hidden in the basement. Barry is overcome by emotion, watching Helena descend into the tank despite her wounds. The horrific images of bodies riddled by the attack flood Barry's mind.
Barry wakes yet again, this time near the ocean, and Helena's nowhere around. His memories aren't returning as readily. He makes it back to their town, locating their lab. He finds a series of complicated equations in his handwriting on the wall; he cannot comprehend them without returning his memories. He marvels at memory and time. Helena's sudden presence fills Barry with love. He tells her she is the bravest person he has ever known.
He realizes then that her demeanor is altered, understanding how time is beginning to defeat her psyche. Before she enters the tank, they consider the possibility they will never succeed at stopping Slade. Barry then remembers Slade saying he had traveled differently from others, believing he may possess some knowledge of the chair they don't. So, They decide to locate Slade in the next life.
Barry wakes up at his former desk in the NYPD building. He realizes Helena didn't come to find him in this life. His nose starts bleeding. He admits in this life, and he married Julia. The ballistic missile threat appears on his phone. Online he discovers Slade died the year prior. He looks up Jee-woon and calls him. He asks Jee-woon if he knows how Slade was able to undo dead memories. Jee-woon doesn't know but knows there's away.
Outside, the city is in chaos. Time gradually slows matter floating in the air. He believes Helena is still alive somewhere.
Barry wakes in bed with Helena at their European home. Helena explains why she didn't live in the previous timeline. They talk about how they still haven't succeeded in their mission. Several hours pass, and Barry recalls all his prior lives. Once his memory returns, he tells Helena what he discovered about stopping dead memories, that she needs to find Slade in the next life.
Barry wakes upon in the Marin County countryside with Helena. She leads him to a cell in which Slade is locked. They watch him through the glass; he doesn't know why he's there. When his nose begins bleeding, his memories return. He recalls how they know one another. Barry reminds him of what he said about his knowledge regarding dead memories, explaining how dangerous the chair has become to the world. Slade is unresponsive, which angers Barry. Helena says she must return to the tank.
Slade suggests he and Barry watch the world end together. Outside, Barry asks Slade why he killed Helena on the original timeline. Slade explains that he saw an opportunity to be someone great through Helena's work. They watch as the city descends in explosions. Barry presses him to reveal what he knows. Finally, Slade says Helena has to go back to the event that initially began the loop. The secret is that Helena has to enter a dead rather than a living memory to undo the mass memory effects. Barry worries about mapping a dead memory.
Slade explains he returned to a dead memory to erase Helena's memory, to keep her discoveries to himself. He finally tells Barry that he killed her, urging him to get to Helena before the current timeline ends. Barry races to the house. Helena's already in the tank. He lifts the lid, but it's too late; the world ends before he can tell her Slade's information.
Barry wakes in an unfamiliar facility. Finally, he realizes he's alone on a station in Antarctica. Barry waits anxiously for his memories to return. He pushes play on the TV. Helena speaks on the recording, explaining the circumstances that she's already died.
Barry's memories then return. Helena explains that they decided to give up as her mind's failing her. Barry watches another iteration of himself enter the screen. She assures him everything's okay; they let the mission go as the world is doomed anyway. She tells him not to return for her.
When the video ends, Barry watches news reports of Global nuclear warfare. He considers everything he's learned about time. Moving through the craft, Barry finds Helena's coffin buried in ice. Suddenly he remembers everything Slade revealed, realizing he must go back and tell Helena: there's still a chance of saving the world.
Barry wakes in a stilled world. Moving through a familiar, he realizes he's back on the original timeline, meeting Julia for the anniversary of Meghan's death, admitting he doesn't know Helena in this life.
Barry's overcome by emotion while talking to Julia. He realizes he succeeded; FMS plagues no one on this timeline. Barry talks to Julia about their failed marriage. They both agree their relationship was only for a time.
The next day, Barry travels to California to visit Slade's home. Barry tells him he has investigated a murder that's about to happen, referring to Slade's plan to kill Helena. Slade moves to shoot Barry, but Barry broke in earlier and emptied Slade's gun.
Barry finds Helena at a bar, consumed in her work. He watches her, feeling nervous about introducing himself, hoping she'll love him, who he is now.
