Choose Your Own Adventure In These Project Almanac TV Spots

By Brent McKnight | Published

This article is more than 2 years old

Now that it’s 2015, prepare yourself for an entire year’s worth of Back to the Future 2 jokes and people lamenting the fact that we don’t have hoverboards. But if you’re into time travel movies, you’re in luck, because January has a couple to choose from. The Spierig Brothers’ Predestination drops next week, and later this month, the found footage time jumping adventure Project Almanac opens, and that film just released a ton of new TV spots.

The story follows a group of high school friends who discover that one’s father designed and built a time machine. Being impetuous teens, they use the newly discovered device to get up to all kinds of mischief. As with stories of this ilk, everything starts off all sunshine and puppy dogs, only to take a dark, serious turn as unforeseen consequences pile up around them. As an aesthetic choice, the found footage thing is hit and miss and will likely turn some viewers off, but if nothing else, story wise, Project Almanac at least seems like it’s trying to do something different.

This first TV spot is unique in that you can pick what you would do if you had access to this technology. The choose your own adventure nature of this video gives you four options: get the girl, win the lottery, change history, or get payback. We’ll have to wait and see if these kids use this device wisely or solely for their own benefit, but I think I know what they’re going to do. (More on this later.)

Every time travel movie has its own unique set of rules. Project Almanac is no different, and this video lays out the ones this group comes up with: don’t change anything, never meet your past self, never jump alone, and don’t draw attention to yourself. You can already see all of these guidelines for harmonious time travel being broken. That’s not going to end well.

At least as far as movies go, time travellers rarely take into account the full range of possibilities when jumping around through time. Here you see some of the dire circumstances and unexpected tragedies that occur as a result of messing with history.

The mystery at the core of Project Almanac kicks off when one of the kids sees his current self in the background of a video of his seventh birthday party, and they have to figure out what the hell is going on. Also, what teenager just sits around watching videos of his past birthday parties?

This last video is a fairly standard TV spot, laying out the situation, giving you the bare bones of the plot, and trying to get you to plunk down your hard-earned money at the theater box office. We’ll see how it goes when Project Almanac opens everywhere January 30.

And just in case you were wondering, here’s what you get with each option from the “choose your own adventure” spot, and the consequences of the various decisions. You can get the girl…

…win the lotto…

…exact a little revenge…

…or change history. Be careful.