''I'll Follow You Down'' is a 2013 Canadian

techno-thriller A techno-thriller or technothriller is a hybrid genre drawing from science fiction, thrillers, spy fiction, action, and war novels. They include a disproportionate amount (relative to other genres) of technical details on their subject matter ...

film written and directed by

Richie Mehta Richie Mehta is a Canadian film director and writer. His first feature film, '' Amal'', was released in 2008, and was nominated for Best Motion Picture and Best Director at the 29th Genie Awards. In 2013, Mehta released two films he wrote ...

. Outside the United States and Canada, the film was released as ''Continuum''.

Plot

In 2000, Gabe, a professor from

Toronto Toronto ( , locally pronounced or ) is the List of the largest municipalities in Canada by population, most populous city in Canada. It is the capital city of the Provinces and territories of Canada, Canadian province of Ontario. With a p ...

goes to

Princeton, New Jersey The Municipality of Princeton is a Borough (New Jersey), borough in Mercer County, New Jersey, United States. It was established on January 1, 2013, through the consolidation of the Borough of Princeton, New Jersey, Borough of Princeton and Pri ...

, for a conference but does not return. He is eventually presumed dead, devastating his wife Marika and his young son Erol. Twelve years later, Erol talks with his grandfather Sal, who suggests that Gabe's disappearance might have been the result of a scientific experiment involving

time travel Time travel is the hypothetical activity of traveling into the past or future. Time travel is a concept in philosophy and fiction, particularly science fiction. In fiction, time travel is typically achieved through the use of a device known a ...

. Erol is determined to find out the truth. Erol is a mathematical genius and solves the equations necessary to recreate the time travel machine his father had built to go back in time to 1946. As he works with Sal on this machine and the math and physics of it, Erol's girlfriend, Grace, becomes pregnant and makes him doubt the necessity of this endeavor. However, when Grace has a miscarriage and Marika commits suicide (as a result of her grief and confusion over her husband's unexplained failure to return), Erol realizes that the current timeline is the direct result of his father having left: none of this would have happened if Gabe had come home, so this timeline is a dead-end, and has to be corrected. With renewed vigor, Erol finishes the time machine. He uses it to go back to 1946 and finds Gabe, who is looking for

Albert Einstein Albert Einstein (14 March 187918 April 1955) was a German-born theoretical physicist who is best known for developing the theory of relativity. Einstein also made important contributions to quantum mechanics. His mass–energy equivalence f ...

(because he had finished some work that Einstein had started). Erol reveals his identity to his father and explains the chain of events that had led him to come find him. He tells Gabe to go back home and give his family the life they deserve, and to remember that he, Erol, is what he is because of his father's mistake. Knowing Gabe's mind, Erol realizes this will not be enough to persuade him to return home. So he shoots himself, dying instantly. As he had intended, this burns the message into Gabe's mind that he has to go back and prevent all of this from happening, which he does.

Cast

Gillian Anderson Gillian Leigh Anderson ( ; born August 9, 1968) is an American actress, writer, and activist. She is best known for her roles as FBI Special Agent Dana Scully in the sci-fi series ''The X-Files'' (1993–2002; 2016–2018), Lily Bart in the dr ...

as Marika *

Haley Joel Osment Haley Joel Osment (born April 10, 1988) is an American actor. Beginning his career as a child actor, Osment's role in the comedy-drama film ''Forrest Gump'' (1994) won him a Young Artist Award. His breakthrough came with the psychological thr ...

as Erol *

Rufus Sewell Rufus Frederik Sewell (; born 29 October 1967) is a British actor. In film, he has appeared in ''Carrington (film), Carrington'' (1995), ''Hamlet (1996 film), Hamlet'' (1996), ''Dangerous Beauty'' (1998), ''Dark City (1998 film), Dark City'' (1 ...

as Gabe *

Victor Garber Victor Garber, (born March 16, 1949) is a Canadian stage and film actor and singer. Known for his work on stage and screen, he has been nominated for three Gemini Awards, four Tony Awards, and six Primetime Emmy Awards. In 2022, he was made an ...

as Sal * John Paul Ruttan as Young Erol * Kiara Glasco as Young Gracie *

Susanna Fournier Susanna Fournier is a Canadian actress and playwright whose roles include Grace in '' I'll Follow You Down'' and Zoe Gonzalez in '' Being Human''. Writing Fournier is one of the writers of ''Lulu v. 7: Aspects of a Femme Fatale'', produced in T ...

as Grace

Reception

References

External links

* * {{Rotten Tomatoes, ill_follow_you_down
I'll Follow You Down – Summary, Synopsis and Review (by CultureCrypt)
2013 films Canadian thriller films English-language Canadian films Techno-thriller films Films shot in Ontario 2010s films about time travel Films directed by Richie Mehta Films scored by Andrew Lockington Films set in 1946 Films set in 2000 Films set in 2012 2010s English-language films 2010s Canadian films English-language thriller films