Extinct (2021) Timeline Explained – Every Event in Order

Op was seen as a misfit because her tendency toward mishaps made life in the colony feel wobbly and precarious. Her constant accidents created instability for the entire group, causing the other Flummels to keep a wary distance from her despite her genuine good intentions.

Foreshadowing: The community's initial rejection of Op sets up her eventual redemption when she becomes the hero who saves them all.

• Op
• Flummel
• misfit
• community
• ostracized

Op and Ed stumbled upon a peculiar, luminescent flower in the Galápagos that acts as a portal. When they touched it, the flower swallowed them and transported them through time to modern-day Shanghai, completely by accident.

Foreshadowing: The same flowers Dr. Chung later studies at the Time Terminal are the key to time travel throughout the film.

• time travel
• flower
• portal
• Shanghai
• Op
• Ed

The Flummels went extinct after Charles Darwin visited their island and discovered its destruction by a volcanic eruption. Darwin recorded this in his findings, leading scientists to believe the species had died out.

Foreshadowing: The volcanic eruption that destroys their home is the very event Clarance later manipulates to erase them from history.

• extinction
• Darwin
• volcano
• Galápagos
• Flummels

The Time Terminal is a pavilion in Shanghai where Dr. Chung studies flowers and seeds with time-traveling properties. These seeds can open portals to different time periods, allowing travel through history. One seed can send someone back to their era while another can pull the island forward to the present.

Foreshadowing: The malfunctioning seeds create the cascade of events that sends Clarance to Antarctica and drives much of the film's conflict.

• Time Terminal
• seeds
• time travel
• Dr. Chung
• Shanghai

Op accidentally knocked a seed loose during a malfunction at the Time Terminal. This caused the machine to go haywire, accidentally sending Clarance to 1915 Antarctica along with the seed that was supposed to guide the Flummels home.

Foreshadowing: This event strands Clarance where he gets captured by Shackleton, fueling his resentment toward the Flummels.

• Clarantine
• Antarctica
• 1915
• seed
• Shackleton

Clarantine was originally adopted by Dr. Chung but felt overlooked when Chung became charmed by the Flummels' cuteness. His jealousy twisted into revenge, leading him to push Dr. Chung into a flower, destroy the return seed, and plant a drone bomb that would trigger the volcanic eruption and erase the Flummels from history.

Foreshadowing: Clarantine's betrayal explains why he imprisoned Op when she returned to warn her community about the eruption.

• Clarantine
• villain
• betrayal
• jealousy
• extinction

The Extinctables are extinct animals assembled by Dr. Chung to support the time-travel mission: Dottie the dodo, Burnie the Tasmanian thylacine, Alma the Macrauchenia, and Hoss the Triceratops. They join Op and Ed to help navigate the seeds, find Clarance, and save the Flummels, each bringing their own quirks and strengths.

Foreshadowing: Dottie's gift of the blue egg at the end hints at a new future for the team.

• Extinctables
• Dottie
• Burnie
• Alma
• Hoss
• extinct animals

Op returns to her own time through the Time Terminal to warn her fellow Flummels about the impending volcanic eruption. However, Clarance discovers this and imprisons her, revealing his role in orchestrating their extinction.

Foreshadowing: This betrayal forces Ed and the Extinctables to take desperate action to save both Op and the entire species.

• Op
• volcano
• warning
• imprisonment
• Clarance

Ed and the Extinctables launched a seed that moved the entire Galápagos island from the past into the present day. This relocated the Flummels away from the volcanic eruption before it could destroy them and their home, effectively giving them a second chance at survival.

Foreshadowing: This drastic measure changes everything, allowing the Flummels to live on in a new timeline.

• island
• present day
• volcano
• seed
• Flummels
• save

Dottie lays a blueish egg shaped like a Flummel for Ed one year later. This represents new beginnings and the possibility of life beyond the island's old myths, a mysterious new creature that hints at the changed world's potential for new species and future adventures.

Foreshadowing: The egg's unknown contents leave the door open for future stories in this altered timeline.

• blue egg
• Dottie
• hatching
• ending
• mystery

In the mid-credits scene, Op pulls Wally into the Time Terminal, and he excitedly declares they have much to talk about. This teases future adventures and suggests Wally may become involved in the time-traveling shenanigans, leaving the story open for potential sequels.

• Wally
• mid-credits
• Time Terminal
• sequel
• teaser