(CNS photo/Doane Gregory, Netflix)

In The Adam Project, a time-traveler from 2050 ends up in the wrong year:2022. In this year, Adam must team up with an unlikely partner to help save the future, and his 12-year-old self. While the audience doesn’t see much of the future world, he uses the pop culture reference of The Terminator to compare what 2050 is like on a good day, which means Adam is traveling back in time to save the future.

What starts off with older Adam looking for the love of his life suddenly turns into necessity for time travel to be eliminated. Now, it will take the older Adam and the younger Adam to ensure the survival of humanity.

The Adam Project took more than a decade to reach the streaming services as production for the film started in 2012 before heading into “development hell.” Screenwriters know that movies aren’t made overnight, and they should take comfort in knowing that blockbuster films can take years—if not decades—to go from script to screen.

The Adam Project stars Ryan Reynolds, Jennifer Garner, Mark Ruffalo, Catherine Keener, Zoe Saldaña and Walker Scobell. It was written by Jonathan Tropper, T.S. Nowlin, Jennifer Flackett and Mark Levin, and was directed by Shawn Levy.

Here are five screenwriting takeaways from The Adam Project.

1. Make the first few minutes count

The Adam Project opens with an exciting, outer space race to a time travel wormhole. Older Adam (Reynolds) is accused of stealing a spacecraft and tries to outrun the speed and the weapons of his pursuers. He opens the wormhole that sends him back in time, making the jump just before the bad guys catch him.

This exhilarating, visually stunning opener sends the viewer right into the film. This is important, especially for streaming content. It’s constantly expressed that attention spans are decreasing and when people are looking for a movie to watch on any number of streaming services, those first few minutes—if not seconds—are critical.

Writers can see how the writers engage the viewer immediately, which is important not only to maintain viewership but also an expectation of more action to come. The next action set piece doesn’t even occur for nearly a half-hour, but that doesn’t matter because they have already hooked the audience.

2. Adam vs. Adam

If there’s one thing you should never do when time traveling, it’s to visit yourself in the past. It’s a lesson learned in Back to the Future with repercussions seen in Back to the Future II. But in The Adam Project, the older Adam must be in contact with his younger self.

Even though 28 years separate them, there are a lot of similarities between the two Adams. In the first few minutes of the movie, we find both Adams being chased by bad guys who want to hurt them. For the older Adam, he’s chased by the people who are trying to stop him from traveling back in time, and for younger Adam (Scobell), he is chased by bullies.

They’re both alone in their respective worlds: older Adam having lost his wife and younger Adam having lost his father (more recently than older Adam) while his mom is trying her best but must leave Adam on his own. Young Adam is independent and mostly fearless outside of school. In school, he’s afraid of girls and the bullies tormenting him.

Writers can take a look at both Adams and study how the filmmakers created two distinctly different characters with varying goals and outlooks on life even though they are technically the same person.

3. Writing for the movie star

If you’re a writer, hopefully one day you’ll be able to put your words into a movie star’s mouth. It would be incredible to have someone like Ryan Reynolds recite the dialogue you wrote for him.

But one thing that writers must be aware of is that movie stars have their own voice, and that means changing the dialogue to make it sound like them. Think about some of the biggest stars over the past few decades. While many have varying roles, there are lots of similarities in their on-screen persona.

While Tom Cruise jumps and runs, he will be forceful and cocky in what he says. Tom Cruise is Tom Cruise in his movies. Melissa McCarthy is very much in-your-face. She’s a comedic goofball who’s not afraid to say something a little gross and is a bit of a loveable loser. And Ryan Reynolds will use his sarcastic wit consistently and have tender moments when it matters. Other stars who have an expectation based on their stardom are Chris Pratt, Robert Downey Jr. and Dwayne Johnson.

What writers can see in a movie like The Adam Project is not just how Ryan Reynolds plays to the expectations of the audience, but also how they were to build that type of character into a 12-year-old version of himself.

4. The character arc

How do you give a character an arc when that person lived their life? Better yet, how do you give their younger self an arc when you know who they will become?

The younger Adam realizes what lies ahead for his life: a wife, a pilot, time traveling! It all sounds pretty exciting especially when he looks at his life as a loner who gets bullied, that is until he hears that he will be socially awkward in high school, barely get through college and lose the woman he loved. It’s not something a struggling 12-year-old wants to hear about their future.

For older Adam, he realizes what he missed as he was growing up. Older Adam’s arc is the main driver of the film. He gets the chance to see himself at 12 years old, know what his life will be like and make small moves to correct it—including a tender scene between him and his mother, who obviously doesn’t recognize her son. Both are the loners who team up to save the world and realize they must fight for something much bigger than themselves.

The main characters of the film always have an arc of some kind. Even the supporting characters change in some way to make them different than who they were at the beginning.

5. A rollercoaster ride

The Adam Project is a rollercoaster ride of good and bad. Just when something good is about to happen, it all goes to hell. But right after the disaster, things get better. This up and down helps drive the story forward and keep the audience engaged.

In the first scene, Adam escapes his enemies and time travels. This is great. Except his spacecraft crashes four years later than when he originally wanted to land. Not to mention, he was shot on the way there. That’s bad. Luckily, with the help of his 12-year-old self, he can give himself First Aid. That’s great news, but his spacecraft won’t work because it won’t allow someone who is injured to fly. Just in these first few moments, writers can see the ups and downs of the scenes.

When you watch other movies, try to see how the filmmakers use this type of storytelling to constantly provide challenges to the main character, giving them victories before snatching it away and forcing them into an even harder conflict.

The Adam Project is now streaming on Netflix.