By Robert Scucci
| Published
Imagine how cool it’d be to steal $7 million in a heist with your sibling, but only before running into a safehouse that takes you to an alternate timeline where you can hide out until everything blows over. Surprisingly, things don’t turn out so cool for Joseph (Adam David Thompson) and Sidney (Riley Dandy) in 2024’s Things Will Be Different, a movie that will make you reconsider bending space and time so you could become a time fugitive with your estranged, formerly familiar someone. No matter what side of the law you’re on, your escape plan will never work if you’re unable to follow the rules, and you’ll soon see that unlike the familiar timeline you used to occupy, the rules are not meant to be broken.
A Heist Gone Wrong, Gone Right, And Gone Wrong Again
Things Will Be Different hits the ground running like Sidney, who ducks into a diner where her brother, Joseph, is already hiding. With sirens blaring in the distance, the estranged, but now reunited brother and sister, quickly converse about what’s at stake, and what their next moves will be. Resolving to run to a remote farmhouse he heard about from one of his clients, Joseph fills Sidney in on a convoluted process that involves following the series of instructions in his notebook and walking through a closet, allowing them to live in an alternate timeline within the residence, which by extension allows them to lay low in a different plane of existence while the police are in hot pursuit because they’ll probably give up after two weeks.
To the surprise of Sidney and Joseph, their plan works, and Things Will Be Different changes its setting, but not really. Intending to live in obscurity for the next 14 days – as instructed by the notebook – before reverting back to their regular timeline with their money, the siblings talk about the good old days, while Sydney can’t get her daughter, Steph, out of her mind. Knowing that they’ll be locked up for a long time if they get caught, they both wonder if they did the right thing, but figure a two-week sentence in a time rift is nothing compared to a lifetime in jail, and that the $7 million will go a long way in providing for whatever kind of life they want to have when all is said and done.
After the 14 days pass, Sidney and Joseph find that the closet they need to return to their regular timeline has been boarded up, and there are new conditions (they’re stuck in some sort of time loop) that will force them to stay within the alternate timeline until the next steps reveal themselves. Speaking to disembodied voices through a tape recorder that’s locked up in a mysterious safe, they’re told to wait for and kill an unwanted visitor who will eventually show up when the right opportunity presents itself.
Spoiler alert: they’re going to have to wait a very long time for this strange visitor to arrive
Tense And Uncomfortable, But There’s Plenty Of Groceries
As Things Will Be Different continues to operate on the fringes of reality, Sidney and Joseph grow despondent, wondering how much longer they’ll have to remain in hiding after a year of waiting. While living in the worst version of Groundhog Day, they wait to be confronted by the unwanted stranger, who is the key to getting everything back to normal so they can get on with their lives. Fortunately, the farmhouse always seems to replenish itself with groceries, smokes, and liquor in two-week intervals, allowing them to sustain themselves indefinitely while they wait for whatever outcome’s in store for them to finally happen.
As the siblings become increasingly suspicious of one another, it’s only a matter of time before the timeline they’re living in falls apart, for better or for worse.
Streaming Things Will Be Different
Things Will Be Different is hardly about a heist at all, but rather a brother and sister overcoming their personal demons in a strange and unfamiliar place where they learn they’re just puppets having their strings pulled by some unknown antagonist who needs their help to carry out its unfinished business. The barren landscapes that surround their humble, mysterious, and formerly temporary abode seem to always be watching their every move, as if one misstep in following their instructions will leave them doomed to carry out their existence in total isolation instead of returning to their regular timeline.
Sprinkling a breadcrumb trail of clues along the way, Things Will Be Different never fully lays all of its cards out on the table, and as motives become muddled by the monotony and mystery behind the farmhouse, it’s only a matter of time before the true nature of what Joseph and Sidney are experiencing reveals itself.
Constantly leaving you in the dark, even during the bright overcast of winter, you can stream Things Will Be Different with an active Hulu subscription as of this writing.
