Dexter Christine Cavanaugh is deep in his lab, guarding the Neurotomic Protocore when his rival Mandark makes a bold move to steal the invention. Dexter thwarts the heist and heads back to his workbench, only to be irritated by his sister, Dee Dee. In a rare moment of exasperation, he tells her to go away, and she wanders into a time machine tucked away in the lab. Moments later, mysterious robots slip through the same device, and Dexter wastes no time in destroying them. The sequence leaves him convinced he’s “The One Who Saved the Future” the machines mentioned, and curiosity about his own legend pushes him to test time travel to see how he becomes so impressive.
Driven by a wish to understand his rising fame, Dexter and his older, wiser self set out into the streams of time. They quickly discover that the future version of Dexter is not the confident hero he imagined; he is weak-willed and, in fact, living under the shadow of Mandark, now a powerful corporate boss. In this future, the Neurotomic Protocore sits idle inside a cubicle, stored away in a box. The younger Dexter is persuaded to journey further ahead, to glimpse how their shared fate is really secured, leaving the Protocore resting on the floor of the cubicle as they push onward into unknown eras.
Far in the distance, they find a utopian society where Dexter is revered as an omnipotent leader, while Mandark has been reduced to nothing more than a brain in a jar. When they encounter their senior self, they learn he is too old and senile to recall the specifics of how the future was saved. The trio then jumps back to a period between Dexter’s corporate life and this glittering utopia, only to confront a dystopian reality where humans have lost much of their intelligence and society lies in ruin. Drone-like robots threaten everyday life, and it is up to a muscular, bearded, quick-witted fourth Dexter to help the survivors regain a foothold.
The investigation reveals who is behind this bleak timeline: Mandark, who uncovers the Protocore within the cubicle and triggers a chain of events that spirals into chaos. In response, the Dexters unite to build a colossal robot from the ruins of Dexter’s laboratory, aiming to end Mandark’s iron reign. Mandark counters with a cadre of his own counterparts plucked from different timelines, sparring in a four-on-four clash that tests every genius among the group. The battle is intense, and the small, determined child Dexter is weighed down by the sheer number of versions arrayed against him, unable to reach the switch that would flip the Protocore’s output from negative to positive.
Amid the chaos, Dee Dee materializes via the time machine and presses the correct button, tipping the scales and saving the future. Her action infuriates the Dexters, who had hoped to be the ones to save the day themselves, and they order the machines to destroy “The One Who Saved the Future.” The act of saving creates a causal loop, as child Dexter looks on and realizes the consequences of his own meddling. He bids farewell to his future selves and returns to his own era, only to find himself locked in a familiar confrontation with the same robots he just built. The experience leaves him bewildered by time travel, and he ultimately resigns himself to a simple, ordinary craving—a quiet moment to eat something and regroup.
