Plot synopsis
Jack is a single, successful businessman. He tells Cash that he has everything he wants and there is nothing missing in his life. Cash laughs as he watches Jack drive off in his Ferrari and says, “You asked for it!”
Jack wakes up the next day and finds he is living a parallel life. Instead of having left his college sweetheart, Kate, to pursue a career in Europe, he had stayed to settle down with her and now they have kids.
His experience of this alternate history is only temporary, as he returns to his own timeline but not before he has become attached to this family life.
On returning to his bachelor life of financial success and loneliness, he seeks out Kate, and discovers that she is also unmarried and financially successful. He then tells her about his experience in their parallel life and tries to see if they can rekindle their relationship.
My comments
This film does not explain how the alternate world is created and accessed; so we are left to assume that Cash is some kind of angel like Clarence in the film, It’s a Wonderful Life (1946).
Jack compares his two parallel pasts and then makes a decision. This changes his future and causes the timeline to split into two. These two futures co-exist in parallel alongside the alternate reality from which he has just returned.
This film uses a similar concept to Me Myself I (1999).
Summary of time travel
We can see that more than one parallel past exists, but as Jack does not travel back in time in either timeline, the past of both timelines is undefined.
Jack returns from the alternate timeline armed with new knowledge, which causes him to make changes to his life. This causes the original timeline to split, and his presence on the alternate timeline has also created a split.
Note: the original futures still exist in parallel to the new ones.
Category of time travel
Psychological: angels.
Model of time
Undefined past, open future with a parallel timeline.
