By Marc Smeehuijzen
Logline
Accidentally thrown back in time 35,000 years, Robert Parker struggles to survive in Europe’s prehistoric wilderness and realizes the price we pay for our modern lifestyle.
Synopsis
Robert Parker, 28, has problems combining a demanding job at a computer chip company with a healthy and satisfying personal life. He is overweight, stressed out, has superficial relations with his colleagues, and his wife and young son feel neglected. He travels with two colleagues from New York to Bordeaux, France, to close a business deal at a French tech company.
Meanwhile, scientists at the European Organization for Nuclear Research (CERN), on the Swiss-French border, start the first test of the world’s largest particle accelerator. Because of a freak accident, the accelerator pipeline leaks power and, unknowingly to the scientists, creates a small worm hole in the company Robert is visiting. During a break, Robert accidentally falls through the worm hole and ends up 35,000 years into the past.
Exploring the prehistoric wilderness, Robert slowly realizes he ended up in the past but is unable to return because the wormhole disappeared. Hungry, exhausted and barely surviving the dangerous ancient wildlife, Robert takes a bad fall and is seriously injured.
Just in time, he is rescued by a hunter-gatherer tribe called the Kush Wabeki who help him recover. Through trial and error, Robert learns their language and way of life and gets along with everybody in the tribe except the talented hunter Bunak.
After a spectacular hunt on a megaloceros (giant deer), in which Robert proves his worth to Bunak, he and the hunting party are violently ambushed by an evil hunter-gatherer tribe called the Danatrak. The Danatrak steal their meat and also demand Robert’s ‘magical sound maker’ of which they heard (Robert’s cell phone). Because Robert left the phone back in camp, the Danatrak imprison Robert and demand the cell phone in exchange for his release.
In captivity Robert discovers the Danatrak recently raided another tribe and enslaved their women, including Umbala, a relative of the Kush Wabeki. With her help he manages to escape his nasty prison pit and returns to the Kush Wabeki with Umbala and the other women.
The Kush Wabeki realize it is only a matter of time before the Danatrak will attack again. Since they are heavily outnumbered, the only option seems to move away but then Robert has an idea. Using his knowledge of modern technology he builds an ingenious weapon and devises a smart defensive strategy. Soon the Danatrak launch a massive raid and Robert is able to lead the Kush Wabeki to victory and finds romance with Umbala.
Then the wormhole reappears and Robert decides to take the plunge back to modern time. There he discovers only one day has passed. The CERN scientists are performing their second test run of the particle accelerator which, this time, leads to the total destruction of the accelerator pipeline.
The worm hole gone, nobody can explain Robert’s one-day absence and his exotic looks, and they do not believe his incredible story. In addition Robert experiences an intense culture shock adapting again to the modern world. Then he slowly realizes that the prize we pay for modern technology and its comforts, is an individualistic, impersonal and unhealthy lifestyle. He decides to change this, starting with him self.