History Literature / TimeLine

* CloningBlues: How "time travel" works is by disintegrating a person in one universe and essentially making the target universe replicate that body down to the subatomic level - you're no longer you, the person in the "past" isn't you, and the person who come back isn't you, technically. Any error in the system will cause trauma, which [[spoiler:is why Robert de Kere is such a psychopath - he accumulated one too many errors, warping his brain.]]

A film adaptation was released in 2003 directed by Creator/RichardDonner and starring Creator/PaulWalker, Creator/GerardButler, Frances O'Connor, Creator/BillyConnolly, Creator/MartonCsokas, Creator/AnnaFriel and Creator/DavidThewlis, among others.

* AssholeVictim: [[spoiler:Doniger]].
* AsYouKnow: This is used frequently, with the exact words, all throughout the book.

* BigBad: Lord Oliver.
* BloodKnight: De Kere.

* BlackWidow: Lady Claire, in the novel. This aspect is entirely stripped out in the film.
* BornInTheWrongCentury: André. [[spoiler: He later effectively rectifies the situation by choosing to stay behind.]] [[spoiler: Robert Deckard too, arguably.]]

* CoDragons: De Kere and Sir Guy are this to Lord Oliver.
* TheCorruption - The technology that powers the not-quite Time Travel involves scanning the entire human entity [[AndIMustScream including the consciousness residing in it]] down to the subatomic level and then transmitting the results through the [[ShownTheirWork actually-what-they-call-it "quantum foam"]], the uneven surface structure of spacetime. When it arrives at the intended destination it is reconstructed [[spoiler: somehow, nobody knows how, they theorize it might be another machine in a different universe that nobody in this reality has invented yet.]] Every step in that process can introduce [[DisasterDominoes tiny transcription errors]]. Most transcription errors result in a row of atoms just a bit out of line, but the worse the errors get the more pronounced the effects get. Particularly bad errors can cause [[BodyHorror physical mutations, duplications, or fatal internal bleeding]], but even tiny, microscopic errors can have massive effects on brain tissue. And no matter how well shielded from cosmic rays ([[TruthInTelevision the main source of transcription errors]], see the other wiki about [[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Data_degradation Data degradation]]) at least some transcription errors will happen. And, [[LogicalWeakness of course]], any return trip from, say, the past is not going to be shielded during the transcription process. Every trip causes some damage, and everyone who uses the technology enough either suffers the physical symptoms, possibly fatally, or goes mad.

* CutLexLuthorACheck / ReedRichardsIsUseless: A lot of the technologies that had to be developed to make this time travel system work, like quantum computers that ran millions of calculations in parallel and down-to-the-atom body scanners, would have probably made more money than the actual plan ever could if they had just sold those. [[JustifiedTrope Justified]] in that Doniger didn't ''care'' about the money (he's already a billionaire), but rather the applications of the technology.
* DisguisedInDrag: [[spoiler:Kate]] and [[spoiler: no-one else]] because guards were looking for three foreigners; two males and one female. Guess what they did to fool them. Lady Claire also cross-dresses around the countryside.
* DisneyVillainDeath: [[spoiler:This happens to Sir Guy while chasing after Kate]].

* EvilGenius: Doniger is this, in a Bill Gates vein.
* EvilVsEvil: Arnaut and Lord Oliver are both pretty bad, though Arnaut is ALighterShadeOfBlack.

* HappilyEverAfter: [[spoiler: Chris and Kate eventually marry, and Kate is seven months pregnant in the epilogue. Likewise, André stays in the past, marries Lady Claire, and lives a successful life as a nobleman until his death at 54.]]
* HardOnSoftScience - InvertedTrope. The bleeding edge quantum science that makes the time travel possible is put to the use of a cruel technocrat, consumes those who create and operate it, [[spoiler: its creators don't even know how it works]], and generally it's a disaster for anyone who touches it. The archeologists, [[Literature/JurassicPark who did so well in a prior Crichton outing]], barely escape with their lives. It's [[ThisLooksLikeAJobForAquaman the linguist]] who makes it out best of the lot.

* HistoricalHeroUpgrade / HistoricalVillainUpgrade: In-universe, English leader Lord Oliver is regarded by modern historians as "almost a saint," while French leader Arnaut is remembered as TheCaligula. In truth the two's personalities are somewhat reversed: Oliver is a massive, gluttonous, sadistic {{jerkass}} and Arnaut, while being indeed as ugly as history remembers him and capable of great cruelty, is a far more ReasonableAuthorityFigure.
* KillItWithFire: [[spoiler: Chris kills Robert de Kere this way during the final battle by spitting on quicklime covering de Kere's body.]]

* RelocatingTheExplosion: In a bad way, the grenade, which kicks off the entire plot.
* SanitySlippage: What happens to people who use the time machine too much and accumulate errors.

* ShownTheirWork: In typical Crichtonian fashion.

* TimeTravellersAreSpies: [[spoiler: Subverted. De Kere is a time traveler himself, and he tricks Lord Oliver into believing the other time travelers are spies in order to take their return markers for himself.]]

* VillainsBlendInBetter - Nobody suspects Roderick de Kere's true nature for a variety of reasons in-universe but, ultimately, [[{{Reconstruction}} it's this trope]].

* DeadGuyJunior: [[spoiler: One of Marek and Claire's three children is named after the slain François in his honor]].

* KillEmAll: It's claimed that armies kill ''everyone'' when an enemy castle falls-even if it means [[TraumaticCSection tearing babies out of their mothers' wombs]]. As much as the team would like to save them all, doing so would have far-reaching consequences in the future.

* TrappedInThePast: It happens to several charcters, for varying levels of "trapped." [[spoiler:Deckard]] has insinuated himself into the court of one of the warring nobles after being left behind, becoming [[spoiler:de Kere]]. [[spoiler:Marek]] ultimately chooses to stay behind voluntarily. Finally, [[spoiler: Doniger]] receives this treatment as a sort of temporal ThrownOutTheAirlock, being sent back to the midst of the Black Death pandemic.[[note]]In his case, it's stated he keeps a return marker on him at all times in his shoe, but it's stuck in too far for him to remove it with his own hands. It's only when Doniger looks for tools in the town to do so that he realizes when he's been sent, and that it's too late for him to do anything.[[/note]]

* ArrowsOnFire: Used in the siege scene.

* MohsScaleOfSciFiHardness: Pretty hard, but for an obvious lack of quantum transfer machines on a large scale in real life.

* BadassNormal: Andre Marek, who can hold his own against battle-expierenced knights in a joust due to being a fanatic historical reenactor.

* AffablyEvil: Arnaut de Cervole may be ruthless, is impeccably polite, keeps his word, and is far more reasonable than Lord Oliver.

* TimeTravellersAreSpies: [[spoiler: Subverted. De Kere is a time traveler himself, and he tricks Lord Oliver into believing the other time travelers as spies in order to take their return markers for himself.]]

* AffablyEvil: Arnaut de Cervole is impeccably polite, keeps his word, and is far more reasonable than Lord Oliver.

* {{Jerkass}}: Robert Doniger, big time.

* OffWithHisHead: How [[spoiler: Gomez]] gets killed.

* TimeTravellersAreSpies: [[spoiler: Subverted. De Kere is a time traveler himself and he identifies the other time travelers as spies ForTheEvulz.]]

* TrappedInThePast: It happens to several charcters, for varying levels of "trapped." [[spoiler:Deckard]] has insinuated himself into the court of one of the warring nobles after being left behind, becoming [[spoiler:de Kere]]. [[spoiler:Marek]] ultimately chooses to stay behind voluntarily. Finally, [[spoiler: Doniger]] receives this treatment as a sort of temporal ThrownOutTheAirlock, being sent back to the midst of the Black Death epidemic.[[note]]In his case, it's stated he keeps a return marker on him at all times in his shoe, but it's stuck in too far for him to remove it with his own hands. It's only when Doniger looks for tools in the town to do so that he realizes when he's been sent, and that it's too late for him to do anything.[[/note]]

* UsedToBeASweetKid: By all accounts Robert Deckard/Roderick de Kere was a NiceGuy, but too many errors turned him into an AxCrazy {{Jerkass}}.

[[folder: 1999 Novel]]

[[folder: 2003 Film]]

[[folder: In The Novel]]

[[folder: In The Film]]

* TragicVillain: Decker was abandoned in the past by Gordon, with too many transcription errors to ever safely return. It's no wonder he became a ruthless knight to survive, or kills Gordon after seeing him. Gordon's plea about having a family enrages Decker, since ''he'' had a family too. His FamousLastWords are "Take me home".

An old man has been found in the midst of the New Mexico desert, and is soon discovered to have strange deformities and to be an employee of a company named ITC. He is dead within a day of his discovery, and is quickly cremated by request of the company. One of the items found in his possessions is a architectural drawing of a long-destroyed French monastery. Meanwhile, a group of researchers in the Dordogne region of France, exploring a medieval archaeological dig at the ruins of that same monastery, make an astounding discovery. Their financial patron, ITC, contacts them and reveals its greatest secret - tapping quantum technology to effectively travel through time...

''Timeline'' is a 1999 novel by author Creator/MichaelCrichton. It involves quantum physics effectively applied as time travel (though it is more complicated than that), set in UsefulNotes/TheHundredYearsWar.

** Marek voluntarily stays behind when the rest of the group returns to the present.

* YeGoodeOldeDays: Marek has this view of life in the medieval era, saying people's lives had honor and purpose. The actual period shown is pretty brutal though, with little of honor. Nonetheless, he chooses to stay in the end.

* BadassNormal: Andre Marek who can hold his own against battle-expierenced knights in a joust due to being a fanatic historical reenactor.

* ForTheEvulz: Robert de Kere, who kills people out of simple enjoyment.
* GrandfatherParadox: When one of the travelers asks this exact question, Doninger explains that one person couldn't make the Mets beat the Yankees: i.e. a single person can't significantly change the course of history. But when the questioner presses the point, we get a HandWave.
* HappilyEverAfter: [[spoiler: Andre and Claire.]]

* FanOfThePast: Most of the main characters are historians of the medieval era. One of them is a lifelong enthusiast who's trained himself in period-era blacksmithing and swordplay. Early on in the film, he describes the life of a knight and concludes with the mildly {{narm}}y "The past is ''where it's at!"''

* DeadGuyJr: [[spoiler: One of Marek and Claire's three children is named after the slain François in his honor]].

* AdaptationNameChange: Robert Deckard AKA de Kere's name in this film is changed to William Decker AKA [=DeKere=].

* BigNo: Marek lets one out when [[spoiler:[=DeKere=] stabs Frank Gordon to death]].

* CardboardPrison: Instead of putting them in a dungeon, which would be far harder to get out of, Lord Oliver's men instead put the group in the top room of a thatched house. This means they can just push through a hole in the roof to escape. Similarly Claire and Merek escape by breaking through a thin wall.
* CompositeCharacter: Steve Kramer combines the roles of the book's Diane Kramer and John Gordon, who are both high-ranking corporate officers in ITC who later [[spoiler:turn on Doniger]]. William [=DeKere=]'s role also includes elements from another of Oliver's lieutenants in the book, Guy de Malegant.

* TheBigDamnKiss: In the film, Andre Marek and Lady Claire, when Marek [[spoiler:[[IChooseToStay chooses to stay in the past]]]] at the Battle of Laroque.

* TragicVillain: Decker was abandoned in the past by Gordon, with too many transcription errors to ever safely return. It's no wonder he became a ruthless knight to survive, or kills Gordon after seeing him. Gordon's plea about having a family enrages Decker, since ''he'' had a family too. His last words are "Take me home".

* AdaptationalAttractiveness: In the film, he's portrayed by the suave Michael Sheen. In the book, however...

* TrappedInThePast: Happens to several charcters, for varying levels of "trapped." [[spoiler:Deckard]] has insinuated himself into the court of one of the warring nobles after being left behind, becoming [[spoiler:de Kere]]. [[spoiler:Marek]] ultimately chooses to stay behind voluntarily. Finally, [[spoiler: Doniger]] receives this treatment as a sort of temporal ThrownOutTheAirlock, being sent back to the midst of the Black Death epidemic.[[note]]In his case, it's stated he keeps a return marker on him at all times in his shoe, but it's stuck in too far for him to remove it with his own hands. It's only when Doniger looks for tools in the town to do so that he realizes when he's been sent, and that it's too late for him to do anything.[[/note]]