THINGS WILL BE DIFFERENT
Michael Felker
(2024)
Joseph (Adam David Thompson) calls his sister Sidney (Riley Dandy) to check on her after they split up during a robbery. Sidney tells Joseph that she doesn’t have any money on her. However, Joseph reassures her that he grabbed both bags and that they are with him now. He then instructs her to meet him at the diner at the edge of town, promising that they only need to lay low for two weeks and everything will be fine.
The next morning, Sidney meets Joseph at the diner. When she asks if he has counted the cash, he reveals that there is $7 million in the bags. Sidney is surprised, thinking it was only $5 million. Their conversation is interrupted by the wailing siren of approaching police car. They quickly leave the diner and head into the woods, where they change their clothes and stash their old outfits in another bag before tossing it into a nearby swamp.
Joseph reveals that a regular client from the bar where he works has allowed him to use her farmhouse as a temporary hideout. Sidney becomes suspicious and isn’t convinced that the farmhouse will be as safe as Joseph believes. However, she has no other choice but to go along with the plan.
Joseph and Sidney sweep through the farmhouse, checking every room to ensure they are alone. Upstairs, Joseph discovers a mysterious door, but Sidney’s patience wears thin as the police sirens grow louder. Following his client’s meticulous instructions, Joseph hurries downstairs and starts adjusting the minute hand on one clock while Sidney works on another in the next room. As they finish, the clocks begin to chime in unison. Joseph races back upstairs and finally manages to open the door. They slip inside and shut it behind them just in time, before the police arrive at the farmhouse.
Apparently, there’s more to be done in the pitch-black room. Joseph lights a match, and they discover a rotary dial phone. Following the instructions from the notebook, Sidney dials a specific phone number and waits for the click. Then she speaks the incantation into the phone and hangs up. When they walk out of the room, they find themselves in what seems to be an alternate timeline. The farmhouse, which seemed abandoned when they first arrived, is now clean, fully furnished, and lived-in. The refrigerator is stocked with food, and the kitchen cabinets are filled with snacks and liquor bottles. All they have to do now is wait it out for two weeks before they can safely return to their own time.
However, when the time comes, they are shocked to find that they cannot open the door; it is now nailed shut with a wooden plank. The plank has an instruction carved into it, telling them to go to the mill. There, they discover a corpse leaning against a wooden podium. On the podium, another cryptic message is carved, warning them that they are now in the grip of The ViSE and urging them to comply.
Eventually, Joseph decides to comply, and a mysterious safe appears. Inside, he finds a cassette recorder that allows him to record his voice and listen to responses from a stranger, suggesting that the stranger is also in another timeline. The stranger tells them they are not supposed to be there and intends to wipe them out. Later, the stranger offers them a chance to return to their timeline if they can eliminate a threat — an unwelcome visitor who is coming for the door.
Written and directed by American filmmaker Michael Felker in his directorial debut, Things Will Be Different is a captivating sci-fi thriller that follows two criminal siblings and their time-traveling escapades to evade the police.
The lead actors, Adam David Thompson and Riley Dandy, deliver convincing performances and share great chemistry as estranged siblings: older brother Joseph and younger sister Sidney. Unfortunately, we only get a brief glimpse into their past through a few flashbacks and some irrelevant dialogue, even though they spent nearly a year together in that house.
I can only assume this robbery isn’t their first job, as a flashback reveals that Sidney was caught by the police while Joseph abandoned her and ran. However, the film never clearly explains what crime they committed before or whether that’s what caused their estrangement.
I have always loved the high-concept of time travel, and this film delivered an intriguing premise with thrilling elements that kept me engaged throughout. However the middle section, where the characters are stuck in the house, felt repetitive and muddled, as there wasn’t much for them to do.
The best part is probably the ending, which I won’t spoil, but it really highlights how much Joseph loves Sidney and is willing to do whatever it takes to save her. There was even a brief moment when I thought he might snatch the money and run so that no one would enter the house and become trapped there.
THINGS WILL BE DIFFERENT premiered at SXSW on 11 March 2024. The film was theatrically released in the United States on October 4 and was simultaneously made available on Video On Demand on the same day.
