Madelines (2022)-- My take on the movie with Ending Spoilers!
PLOT SUMMARY: Madeline and Owen discover that their time travel experiments have yielded several copies of Madeline that appear every day. It is up to Owen to get rid of them.
Let's assume time travel was attainable and the process easily conducted, would you be willing to go through with it?
If there's one thing several time travel-themed stories have taught us is that there are ALWAYS repercussions. ALWAYS.
In the case of Madelines, the movie takes a different approach to the consequences of time travel. In this, a simple error causes a rather inconvenient side effect.
The side effect in question sounds hilarious on paper and truly, the first half does provide some humorous scenes.
But but but, the second half becomes a bit tangled and repetitive, and quite regrettably, the humor diminishes.
MADELINES Movie Plot
Owen and Madeline are working in their garage on a time travel device. Their attempts are met with small obstacles, mainly exploding mice.
They do have an investor, Rory who is excited about their progress but the husband and wife have yet to make a proper headway.
Disappointed with the failure of the experiment and the gruesome death of the mouse, Madeline decides to tinker around with the code and realizes there was an error made. In her drunken state she corrects in and decides that she needs to try out the changes but will not, absolutely not, put a mouse through the ordeal.
So she hooks herself to the machine and to her surprise, the new code works and she finds herself transported to her yard.
Madeline is elated and the next morning shares her success story with her husband. Owen is pondering on this when he is suddenly attacked by Madeline in the yard. Reflexes kick in and Owen accidentally murders Madeline.
He is horrified by what he did but before Owen can process what happened, Madeline comes along and asks what is going on. She sees the other Madeline and is shocked and disturbed. Owen tries to unsuccessfully hide the body from her but then the couple decide to study the other Madeline.
Madeline proceeds to throw up of her other self as Owen studies the dead self.
Owen later goes to the lab and finds that Madeline had made a mistake in her calculation and now 3600 Madelines will be arriving, one everyday.
At first Owen prepares for the Madelines by standing in the yard with a knife. Eventually he cannot stomach it and sets up a tent and let poisonous gas in it. The Madeline shows up, suffocates, and dies. It seems like an easy method to get rid of them until one of the Madelines arrives with a knife and rips through the tent. She is killed the old-fashioned way but then no amount of tape fixes the tent and has to be tossed away.
Madeline thinks the reason her other selves want to kill Owen is because they know he intends to kill him and are being defensive. This seems like a possible explanation and the couple leaves it at that.
Owen initially spares Madeline from killing her other selves and she appreciates him for it.
One day, she puts on the ring Owen gave her to show that she loves him so much. Owen finds it a touching gesture. As the audience we know the moment is a harbinger of an ominous twist to come.
And sure enough, the other Madeline arrives just in time to turn the knife around so that Owen ends up killing his wife. Everyone is shocked except for future Madeline whom Owen doesn't kill. He does need one Madeline after all.
The other Madeline calls herself Madeline 51 and promises to assist Owen in killing the other selves. Unlike his wife, Madeline 51 takes immense pleasure in killing the other Madelines. She even goes forward to remove the ring from the original one and wear it.
The other Madelines are disposed of by being chopped up in pieces.
Rory grows impatient when he doesn't get any reports. He shows up at their house and Owen tries to get rid of him but Rory wants to speak to Madeline and make sure she's alright because her husband is behaving cagey.
He calls for a meeting. Owen and Madeline show up but Rory only wants to speak to Madeline.
Turns out Madeline has divulged everything that has gone wrong with the experiment thus far. Rory, however, is encouraged by the progress made and wants Owen to make sure the other Madelines are disposed of properly.
Madeline 51 has other tricks up her sleeve. When several Madelines show up, Owen is shocked. Madeline 51 reveals that when they use the machine, the Madeline is transported to a wasteland where there's only a trailer. As soon as they touched it, they would be transported to the house.
Madeline then reveals that when the other versions showed up and didn't touch the trailer, they stayed in the wastelands. Some of them were sad, the others turned on each other, etc. Ultimately, they formed an army and Madeline 51 became the leader.
She brings in all the other Madelines who are appalled that Owen has been killing versions of them. Owen is promptly tied up while the other Madelines live happily in the house...for some time.
Soon the Madelines grow tired of laundry issues, and Rory's interference. One of the Madelines tries to seduce Owen but he guesses the wrong number of Madeline and she is killed by Madeline 51.
MADELINES Ending Explained with Spoilers! ,
The other Madelines become distrustful of each other. Madeline 51 tells Owen he was right and they need to send the other Madelines back. She unties him and sets up the machine so that he can return to the time when the original Madeline made an error in the experiment.
However, the machine malfunctions, and Madeline 51 assures Rory she can fix it.
Owen finds himself in the wasteland, armed with a knife. He enters the trailer and finds a Madeline waiting for him. She tells him she had left a note for the other Madelines telling them that Owen has been killing the Madelines. This explains why all the Madelines who came in would be aggressive and attack Owen.
This new Madeline tells Owen she will deal with the loyal Madeline 51 but first she has to kill him. Owen manages to use the knife on her face before she stabs him. Madeline is left with a scar while Owen is sent in a loop.
He returns to the wasteland with a Stab wound and behind him, several other Owens come running behind him.
The movie ends.
Might we expect a sequel titled Madelines vs. Owens?
Quite possibly. The leader of the Madelines will be the one with a scar on her face to give her a distinguishing feature.
The movie had some interesting and comical parts but wraps up too quickly and conveniently towards the end.
An enjoyable movie nevertheless.
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