Synchronic

During a routine paramedic call in New Orleans, Steve is pricked by a contaminated needle. Subsequent tests reveal not only a potential infection but an aggressive cancer in his underdeveloped pineal gland. The diagnosis sets a clock ticking on how far he can push to uncover the truth about Synchronic.

Driven by the diagnosis, Steve tracks down the designer of Synchronic to learn who’s behind the drug and what it does. His search uncovers a project shrouded in secrecy and a trail of deaths tied to the substance. The pursuit marks the start of his obsession with the timeline-bending effects.

Steve learns that Synchronic alters the pineal gland’s perception of time. Users are sent backward through history, with children experiencing full travel while adults appear as ghost-like figures in the past. The mechanism explains the strangest clues surrounding the drug’s victims.

Dennis’s teenage daughter Brianna disappears, triggering a frantic search. The stress brings down his marriage as he blames Steve for neglect and what he sees as an addiction, straining their long friendship. The case sets a personal stake backdrop for Steve’s investigations.

Steve experiments with Synchronic to chase answers, stepping briefly into Louisiana’s past. He encounters remnants of colonial and post-Civil War eras, including a conquistador and, later, Ku Klux Klan figures. Each jump reveals how time travel reshapes the present’s understanding of history.

Steve uses his dog Hawking as a guide while mapping where and when the next pill will take him. The detective work shows that the act of taking Synchronic determines the destination year. Hawking’s presence anchors him to the journey, even as danger follows.

Tragically, Hawking is pulled into the 1920s during one of Steve’s trips and cannot accompany him back. The loss of his loyal companion complicates Steve’s efforts to chart a safe return. The dog’s absence heightens the stakes of every subsequent jump.

Steve deduces that physical contact with objects can anchor someone to a specific time. He tests this concept by attempting to ground his presence through tangible anchors in the park. The discovery reframes how he plans to navigate Brianna’s disappearance.

Returning to a time when humanity is still in its infancy, Steve encounters prehistoric tribesmen during a jump near the park. The encounter demonstrates how the past is vivid and dangerous for anyone who uses Synchronic. Brianna’s fate now feels entangled with the fabric of time.

Steve’s return to the present leaves him with the unsettling possibility that Brianna might have wandered off before she ever took Synchronic. He continues to search the park and surrounding areas, hoping for a concrete lead. The ambiguity fuels both the mission and his urgency.

Steve opens up to Dennis about his cancer diagnosis, and the two men reconcile. They review time-travel footage together and acknowledge the danger Synchronic poses. They decide to search with renewed resolve, linking past, present, and Brianna’s fate.

From the cemetery where Steve’s family rests, they move toward the park to resume the search. The sequence blends memory and time-travel mechanics as they prepare for a final confrontation with the past. The goal remains Brianna and a return to the present.

Within the chaos of the Battle of New Orleans, Steve locates a terrified Brianna among the fighting and confusion. The war’s fury intensifies the stakes as time travel becomes a race against a violent, time-warping device. Brianna’s safety hinges on Steve’s quick choices.

A looter threatens them, mistakenly seeing Steve as a runaway slave. Steve sacrifices himself so Brianna can use his last Synchronic pill to return to the present. He is fatally injured, and a landmine ends the looter’s life as Steve carves ALLWAYS into a boulder.

Dennis comforts Brianna as Steve’s spectral presence lingers nearby. The two men acknowledge each other across time, and the film ends with a close-up of Brianna and Dennis’s hands clasped together in the present. Steve’s memory, symbolized by the carved boulder, remains with them.