There appear to be two main timelines in this film - Timeline A (set in 2050-2051), in which the doomed war with the Whitespikes takes place, and Timeline B (set in 2022-2023), in which soldiers are drafted and sent to the future.
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Events common to both timelines
- Pre-946: The spacecraft containing the whitespikes crashes in Russia.
- 946 AD: The Millennium Eruption of 946 occurs, distributing ash across China, Korea, and Russia. The ash from this eruption is later discovered on one of the claws of a whitespike kept as a souvenir by Dorian.
- November 1st, 1955-April 30th, 1975:
- The Vietnam War occurs. James Forester fights during this conflict, which gives him PTSD that affects his relationship with his family moving forward.
- November 11th, 1982 AD: James Daniel Forester Junior is born.
- 2008 AD: Dan Forester ends his military career as a squad leader in the Army Special Ops Command, deployed in Iraq, to become a science teacher.
- 2014 AD: Muri Forester is born.
Timeline A: The Future War
- 2024 AD: Dorian dies of cancer.
- 2026 AD: Dan and Emmy Forester separate.
- 2028 AD: Dan and Emmy Forester divorce.
- October 13th, 2030 AD: Dan Forester dies following a car accident in Georgia.
- 2048 AD: The Whitespikes begin to rampage across the Earth after their ship is thawed out due to global warming. They overwhelm the planet in three years.
- 2050 AD: Realizing that they are losing their war, humanity decides to send back a platoon of soldiers using the Jump Link technology to enlist aid from the past in efforts to defeat the Whitespikes.
- 2051 AD:
- D Force and R Force (consisting of Dan, Dorian, and Charlie, among others) are deployed in Miami. Due to an error, the forces are deployed several hundred feet too high above the surface, and many soldiers perish. Dan Forester and Company make contact with Colonel Muri Forester, who orders them to attempt a rescue of her research team and their data. The team successfully recovers their data and escapes before Miami is carpet-bombed by the military.
- Dan Forester, Dorian, and Charlie wake up in an encampment in the Dominican Republic. He meets Colonel Muri Forester, realizing that she is his daughter, and accompanies her on a mission to retrieve a female whitespike from one of their nests. Once they succeed, they move to Deepswell-9 to conduct research to develop a toxin that is effective in killing female whitespikes.
- Charlie hides for the rest of his tour to avoid being killed by the Whitespikes.
- On the final day of Dan's tour, the Foresters develop a vial of toxin that is effective. However, the female whitespike awakens and calls a legion of males over to Deepswell-9 to free her and wipe out the humans. The station is overrun and Muri falls to her death mere moments before Dan Forester is sent back.
- The Jump Link machine is disabled by the whitespikes permanently.
- In the following days/weeks/months, Humanity is presumed to have been rendered extinct by the Whitespikes.
Timeline B: The "Present"
- December 2022: During the World Cup 2022 Qatar, soldiers arrive from 28 years in the future to warn the world about the war against the whitespikes, and plead for aid.
- December 2022 - December 2023
- Jump Link stations are built around the world to send soldiers forward in time to 2051.
- World leaders agree to implement a global draft to conscript civilians.
- The first wave is sent to fight the Whitespikes in Russia. Dorian is among them, who signs on for two more tours after discovering that he has cancer.
- December 2023:
- Dan Forester, Charlie, and Dorian, among others, are drafted as part of D Force and R Force.
- D Force and R Force are sent to 2051. The Jump Link station experiences an error when transporting the troops but is unable to correct it in time.
- A fraction of D Force and R Force return one week later, including Dan Forester, who has a whitespike-killing toxin produced in the future. Dan Forester hands the toxin off to be manufactured in greater numbers.
- The Jump Link cannot contact the future, meaning that the whitespikes have overrun Deepswell-9 and humanity in 2051 has been wiped out. Riots erupt across the globe at the news, and NATO is disbanded.
- Dan Forester and Emmy Forester realize that the whitespikes may have already arrived on Earth. Dan Forester assembles a team to determine where the whitespikes are in the present, and kill them with the toxins before they can escape in 2048.
- Dan's team locates the crashed ship in Russia, and attempts to kill the unhatched whitespikes on the ship. However, they are awakened by the efforts to poison them, forcing Lt. Hart and Dorian to sacrifice themselves and blow up the ship. One whitespike female escapes but is tracked down and killed by Dan Forester, Charlie, and James Forester.
- Dan Forester returns home, and introduces Muri to her grandfather.
