Incredible But True (2022) Timeline Explained – Every Event in Order

The tunnel reverses a person's age by three days while simultaneously fast-forwarding time by twelve hours. This means if someone enters the tunnel, they emerge appearing three days younger, but twelve hours have passed in the real world. However, the tunnel only affects external appearance, it reverses skin age while the person's internal organs and biological age remain unchanged.

Foreshadowing: Franck initially warns Alain about health risks from overuse, hinting at consequences that later manifest.

• tunnel
• age reversal
• time travel
• supernatural house

Marie confesses her lifelong dream to become a renowned model, which fuels her obsession with reclaiming her youth through the tunnel. The discovery that she can physically appear younger satisfies her deep-seated desire to pursue modeling success. This ambition drives her to repeatedly use the tunnel despite increasing warnings about its dangers.

Foreshadowing: Marie spends most of her time in the tunnel during Gérard and Jeanne's visit, showing her drawn to it from the start.

• marie
• youth
• modeling
• obsession
• tunnel

Doctor Urgent reveals that the tunnel's age-reversing properties work exclusively on the skin, leaving a person's internal organs and biological systems unchanged. This creates a fundamental mismatch where someone can appear externally younger while internally remaining their true age. The couple realizes this limitation too late, as Marie has already become dependent on the tunnel's effects.

Foreshadowing: The rotten apple emerges shiny but is filled with ants when bitten into, an early warning that external appearance doesn't match internal reality.

• tunnel
• skin age
• internal age
• doctor
• physical consequences

The ants symbolize the internal decay and corruption that has been festering beneath Marie's youthful exterior. When Alain bites the rotten apple after it passes through the tunnel, he finds it crawling with ants, foreshadowing Marie's fate. Her body becomes overrun with ants as a physical manifestation of her internal decay, representing how her obsession with external youth has destroyed her from within.

Foreshadowing: The apple test explicitly shows that the tunnel restores appearance but not substance, setting up the horrifying payoff.

• ants
• decay
• symbolism
• body horror
• youth

Gérard represents the film's satirical exploration of modern anxieties about virility and perfection. His electronic penis, controlled via smartphone, embodies humanity's attempts to technologically control and enhance bodily functions. Like the tunnel, this modification ultimately fails catastrophically, his device malfunctions while driving, causing a serious accident. The subplot mirrors Marie's tunnel obsession as another flawed attempt to overcome natural limitations.

Foreshadowing: Gérard nervously admits to the transplant under pressure from Jeanne, establishing his vulnerability about masculinity.

• gerard
• electronic penis
• technology
• satire
• masculinity

Marie repeatedly uses the tunnel over time, each time emerging three days younger. Through continuous use, she physically transforms into a 19-year-old version of herself. Despite her youthful appearance, she struggles to break into the modeling industry, suggesting that external youth alone cannot fulfill her aspirations. This transformation sets the stage for her eventual psychological and physical breakdown.

Foreshadowing: Her frequent tunnel visits throughout the film gradually accumulate, building toward this dramatic transformation.

• marie
• young
• transformation
• tunnel
• modeling

Alain witnesses Marie suffer a severe emotional breakdown and realizes the tunnel is destroying her. When she is hospitalized after cutting herself and doctors discover her body is infested with ants, Alain understands the tunnel has caused irreversible damage. Driven by love and desperation, he makes the painful decision to permanently close the tunnel, ending their obsession with youth reversal.

Foreshadowing: Alain grows increasingly desperate to close the tunnel as Marie's behavior becomes more erratic and her reliance on it intensifies.

• alain
• tunnel
• seal
• closing
• desperation

Marie is hospitalized after cutting herself, revealing that her body has become overrun with ants, a horrifying consequence of her tunnel obsession. Her physical transformation into a 19-year-old masked severe internal decay. The ants emerging from her body represent the tunnel's corrupted effects finally manifesting internally. This disturbing discovery marks the tragic conclusion to her pursuit of eternal youth.

Foreshadowing: The rotten apple scene establishes that the tunnel restores appearance while hiding internal corruption.

• marie
• hospital
• ants
• self-harm
• decay

Gérard's electronic penis malfunctions while he is driving, catching fire and causing a serious car accident. This bizarre incident stems from complications arising from his surgery in Japan, which already required an extended stay for repairs. The malfunction serves as the film's dark comedic payoff to the electronic penis subplot, reinforcing the theme that technological attempts to transcend natural limitations lead to disaster.

Foreshadowing: Gérard initially travels to Japan for repairs after an accident at a shooting range damages his electronic appendage.

• gerard
• accident
• electronic penis
• malfunction
• car

While Gérard is in Japan for repairs to his electronic penis, Jeanne works at a bookstore and begins making advances toward Alain. Eventually, Alain witnesses Jeanne engaging in an affair with one of her coworkers at the bookstore. This betrayal adds another layer to the film's exploration of failed relationships and imperfect people, complementing the central theme of couples struggling with their desires and limitations.

Foreshadowing: Jeanne's assertive advances toward Alain begin during Gérard's absence, establishing her restlessness.

• jeanne
• affair
• bookstore
• gerard
• betrayal

When Marie places a rotten apple in the tunnel to test its effects, it emerges looking shiny and fresh. However, when Alain tastes it, he discovers it is crawling with ants inside. This moment foreshadows Marie's fate, the tunnel restores external appearance while corruption remains hidden beneath the surface. The ants represent the internal decay that the tunnel cannot fix, only mask.

Foreshadowing: This test directly leads to their visit with Doctor Urgent, who confirms the tunnel only affects skin.

• apple
• ants
• tunnel
• test
• foreshadowing

Mimi is Gérard's new girlfriend whom he brings back from Japan after his extended stay for electronic penis repairs. The film presents this as another in a series of romantic complications for Gérard, who previously asked Alain to help manage the situation with Jeanne. Mimi's introduction further develops Gérard's character as someone whose relationships are as technologically assisted and ultimately flawed as his physical modification.

Foreshadowing: Gérard initially instructs Alain to tell Jeanne he is on a business trip, suggesting he planned to return with someone else.

• mimi
• gerard
• japan
• girlfriend
• return