Needle in a Timestack

Did You Know?

• On Rotten Tomatoes, the film has an approval rating of 37% based on 51 reviews.
• Metacritic assigned the film a score of 42 out of 100, indicating 'mixed or average' reviews.

Plot

In the near future, time travel known as 'time jaunting' is available only to the very wealthy. Time shifts caused by these jumps are common, and industries have emerged to help people store their memories. Nick Mikkelsen, an architect, is married to Janine, a photographer. After experiencing a third time shift in a year, Nick begins to feel that something is wrong. He believes they previously owned a dog, but now have a cat. He suspects Janine's ex-husband Tommy, also a college friend of Nick's, is altering the past to win Janine back. Janine no longer loves Tommy but grows frustrated with Nick's fixation. Nick visits Tommy under the pretense of catching up, hoping to learn if Tommy has been tampering with the past. Tommy does not confirm or deny it, but says he wishes his marriage had turned out differently. Nick begins storing his memories with a memory company to prepare for future shifts. Nick's sister Zoe tells him that her partner Sabila died in a rock climbing accident. Nick tells Janine he plans to see Tommy, then discovers she has also visited him. After a few days of tension, Nick asks Janine to travel with him indefinitely. She agrees, but a massive time shift occurs as they are leaving. Nick suddenly finds himself alone in a car. He tries to call Janine but cannot find her in his contacts or by her maiden name. Janine soon calls Nick, saying they were married and had a cat, but she cannot recall where they lived. She says she has been with Tommy for nine years; Tommy succeeded in changing the past. Nick's car takes him home, where he is now married to Alex. Alex senses that Nick is different, but over time he appears to remember their life together, repeating the same sweet phrases he once said to Janine. Zoe tells Nick that Sabila is alive again, but later admits Sabila had died; Zoe spent all her money to time jaunt and change the past so Sabila would not go rock climbing that day.

Production

John Ridley was set to write and direct a movie based on Robert Silverberg's "Needle in a Timestack" in April 2017, with Miramax originally handling distribution. By June 2018, Miramax had dropped out and Bron Studios came on board. That same month, the cast was announced: Leslie Odom Jr., Freida Pinto, Cynthia Erivo, Orlando Bloom, and Jadyn Wong. Filming occurred in Vancouver from June 18 to July 24, 2018. Silverberg later noted that the film spent over a year in editing and re-editing.