2067 (2020) Timeline Explained – Every Event in Order

Ethan was chosen because his father Richard Whyte programmed the Chronical to respond only to Ethan's DNA. The radio transmission that arrived from the future was actually a pre-programmed message Richard had set up, specifically requesting Ethan. This DNA lock was Richard's safeguard to ensure only his son could properly operate and authorize the time machine's critical functions.

Foreshadowing: Richard's earlier gift of the wrist device to young Ethan was the key that would one day activate the Chronical.

• ethan whyte
• chronical
• time travel
• dna lock
• richard whyte

The Sickness is a deadly condition caused by the toxic synthetic oxygen that the last surviving city in Australia relies on to survive. This synthetic oxygen was created because Earth's atmosphere had become too contaminated from climate change and nuclear warfare. The Sickness is essentially the slow poisoning of humanity from the very air they breathe, and it has no cure, threatening extinction for the last remnants of humanity.

Foreshadowing: Ethan's wife Xanthe is already afflicted with The Sickness, establishing its terminal nature and driving Ethan's desperation.

• the sickness
• synthetic oxygen
• climate change
• plague
• extinction

Ethan resents his father because Richard abandoned him and his mother when Ethan was a child, leaving them to pursue his work on the Chronical time machine project. Richard died two decades before the events of 2067, leaving Ethan to grow up without a father. This abandonment is why Ethan initially resists being pulled into his father's mission, though his love for his wife Xanthe ultimately compels him to go.

Foreshadowing: Ethan's resentment toward his father creates tension during the Chronical demonstration and affects his initial willingness to trust the mission.

• ethan whyte
• richard whyte
• father
• abandonment
• resentment

The Chronical is a time machine developed by Richard Whyte that allows travel between timelines. However, it has a critical limitation: without an operational link between both timelines, sending living beings through time is impossible. The machine is keyed to a specific person's DNA - in this case, Ethan's - which serves as both the authorization key and the mechanism for stabilizing the temporal transfer.

Foreshadowing: The wrist device Richard gave Ethan as a child is actually a DNA analyzer that can access the Chronical's inner workings.

• chronical
• time machine
• time travel
• dna analyzer
• richard whyte

Ethan discovers the skeleton of another version of himself inside a bunker, wearing the same jumpsuit. This is a chilling premonition of his own fate - he finds his own corpse from a failed timeline. The discovery combined with nearly eating poison berries nearly breaks him, establishing the perilous nature of his mission and the real possibility of death.

Foreshadowing: Earlier, Archie (the handheld device) showed remains that would later be identified as Ethan's own skeleton.

• bunker
• skeleton
• ethan whyte
• future
• death

Jude's betrayal stems from guilt and desperation. Years earlier, Jude had found the remains of Ethan and Archie, and discovered a tape that revealed Ethan's future death. The weight of this knowledge, combined with his own declining life signals tracking Ethan's fatal trajectory, drove Jude to attempt to force Ethan into the reactor to prevent a longer, more painful death. Jude believed he was saving Ethan from suffering by hastening his end, though his actions were clouded by his own emotional breakdown.

Foreshadowing: Jude's sudden appearance to save Ethan from poison berries was motivated by tracking his declining life signals, already hinting at his obsessive monitoring of Ethan's fate.

• jude
• ethan whyte
• betrayal
• reactor
• guilt
• death

Regina Jackson's true plan was not to save humanity but to escape to the future with a select group of people, abandoning the rest of Earth's population to die from The Sickness. She manipulated the narrative to make it seem like a rescue mission while actually using the Chronical as an escape vehicle for elites. Ethan discovered this betrayal through Richard's recorded message, which revealed Regina had killed Richard when he refused to comply with her selfish plans.

Foreshadowing: Richard's holographic message warning about the Chronical's true purpose hinted at the corporate manipulation behind the mission.

• regina jackson
• chronical
• betrayal
• chronicorp
• escape

Ethan changes the timeline by sending a crucial message back to the past containing two things: a video recording proving Regina Jackson murdered Richard Whyte, and a collection of live plants capable of curing The Sickness and restoring Earth's atmosphere. This message arrives in the past before the Chronical is fully operational, allowing evidence of Regina's crimes to reach authorities and enabling the plants to be used for planetary rehabilitation. The act destroys the Chronical in the process but fundamentally alters history.

Foreshadowing: Ethan had access to the lab where the Chronical was located, giving him the opportunity to send materials back through the time machine.

• timeline
• plants
• regina jackson
• chronical
• future
• past

The new future appears empty because when Ethan changed the timeline, he fundamentally altered the course of events. The lush, thriving utopian city Ethan discovers is the result of the plants rejuvenating Earth and humanity being saved from The Sickness - but this occurred in a timeline where Ethan himself no longer exists in the same way. He sent himself back through the altered timeline, meaning the Ethan who witnessed the utopia was essentially a ghost from the old timeline observing the consequences of his own sacrifice.

Foreshadowing: The Chronical's destruction during Ethan's final act meant the timeline was permanently rewritten, with no way to return to his original existence.

• utopia
• empty city
• timeline
• sacrifice
• ethan whyte

The wrist device is a DNA analyzer that Richard Whyte created specifically for Ethan. It serves as the key to accessing and activating the Chronical's core functions. Without Ethan's DNA matched to the device, the Chronical cannot be properly operated or reactivated. Richard designed it this way as a safeguard to ensure his son would be the one to complete the mission and to prevent others like Regina from misusing the technology.

Foreshadowing: Richard gave this device to Ethan when he was a child, embedding the genetic key into his son's possession long before the mission began.

• wrist device
• dna analyzer
• chronical
• richard whyte
• key