Volition (2020) Timeline Explained – Every Event in Order

Jimmy's clairvoyance is actually the result of time travel ability. His foster father Elliot reveals that Jimmy was injected with a time-travel drug, and the ability to move through time and return is what enables his visions. The drug creates a temporal feedback loop that manifests as premonitions.

Foreshadowing: Earlier, Jimmy mentions his childhood trauma witnessing his mother's death in a car accident, which planted his belief that his visions show an unchangeable future.

• clairvoyance
• time travel
• Jimmy
• Elliot
• powers

Jimmy sees a vision of himself accepting the diamond deal, which he interprets as proof that his future is fixed and unavoidable. This belief stems from his traumatic childhood, he saw his mother's death in a premonition and it happened anyway, leading him to think he cannot change what he sees.

Foreshadowing: Jimmy's earlier vision of his mother's death in a car accident established his fatalistic worldview.

• Jimmy
• diamonds
• Sal
• Ray
• deal
• vision

The time travel drug is a silver liquid developed by Elliot, a quantum physicist. When injected, it allows the user to travel through time. Jimmy discovers he has been injected with it during the confrontation at Elliot's house, and subsequent doses enable him to jump between timelines. The drug causes mental strain and fragmentation with repeated use.

Foreshadowing: The mysterious syringe Elliot uses on Jimmy foreshadows the science-fiction element of time manipulation.

• time travel
• drug
• Elliot
• syringe
• timeline

Angela is shot by Ray in multiple timelines, but her fate is not fixed. In the original timeline, Ray fatally shoots her. However, after Jimmy travels back and alters events, a version exists where Angela is only wounded in the shoulder rather than killed, showing that the future can be changed.

Foreshadowing: The moment when Jimmy warns Ray about the double-cross creates the possibility for a different outcome.

• Angela
• death
• Ray
• shooting
• fate

Jimmy changes his fate by traveling back in time and making different choices. After discovering the time travel drug, he returns to the present to intercept the robbery, hands the diamonds to Elliot instead of keeping them, and ultimately warns Ray about the double-cross. These actions create a new timeline where Angela survives and the fatal outcome is altered.

Foreshadowing: Jimmy's vision of Elliot appearing in his mind foreshadows that his foster father holds the key to changing his destiny.

• Jimmy
• fate
• change
• time travel
• choice
• future

Jimmy's mother died in a car accident when he was young, and he saw it happen in a premonition beforehand. This traumatic event shaped his entire worldview, he believes his visions show an unchangeable future because what he foresaw (his mother's death) came true. This fatalism drives his initial decision to accept the diamond deal, thinking he cannot escape his destiny.

Foreshadowing: The vision of his mother's death directly influences Jimmy's belief that free will is an illusion.

• Jimmy
• mother
• death
• car accident
• trauma
• childhood

The time loop operates through the time travel drug, which Jimmy injects multiple times throughout the film. Each jump creates a new timeline while the original Jimmy continues to exist, creating multiple versions of himself simultaneously. Jimmy experiences time loops where he witnesses his own death, fights himself, and eventually fragments mentally from the strain. The loop can be broken by making different choices in the past.

Foreshadowing: Jimmy seeing himself as both the harasser and the drunk man hints at the permeability of identity across timelines.

• time loop
• timeline
• multiple Jimmy
• paradox
• travel

In the final timeline jump, Jimmy travels back to years before they first met and urges Elliot to adopt his younger self, James Odin. This ensures that a future version of Jimmy will survive and that Elliot will have the resources to develop the time travel drug. The adoption creates a self-fulfilling loop that allows Jimmy to eventually save Angela.

Foreshadowing: Elliot appearing in Jimmy's visions before their meeting suggests their connection spans time.

• Elliot
• adoption
• young Jimmy
• James Odin
• foster father

Jimmy survives but at great cost. Throughout the film, he witnesses multiple versions of himself die, experiences mental fragmentation from time travel, and ultimately creates a timeline where he is alive but mentally strained. The ending shows him in a new timeline where Angela survives with a shoulder wound, suggesting his sacrifice created a better outcome despite the personal toll.

Foreshadowing: Jimmy's body fragmenting under the strain of looping through time foreshadows the physical and mental cost of his journey.

• Jimmy
• ending
• survival
• death
• final scene

Jimmy travels through time at least four times: first when injected by Elliot and wakes in 1994, second when he returns to the present to alter events, third when he injects himself again as he dies, and finally when he travels back years to convince Elliot to adopt his younger self. Each journey creates a new timeline branch and contributes to his mental fragmentation.

Foreshadowing: The accumulating visions and disorienting jumps reflect the increasing toll of repeated time travel.

• Jimmy
• time travel
• jumps
• count
• multiple