Timeline

Imagine some smart scientists digging up old castles in France and finding a super-secret company that can send people back in time like magic through tiny wormholes. Their boss professor gets stuck in the year 1357 during a big knight battle, so his students zoom back to save him, but it's super dangerous with swords, arrows, and grumpy kings everywhere. They have to dress like old-timey helpers, learn to fight, and not mess up history, or they might never get home—it's like a wild adventure video game but for real!

In Michael Crichton's 'Timeline,' a team of Yale archaeologists excavating a medieval site in France's Dordogne Valley is approached by the enigmatic International Technology Corporation (ITC), which has developed quantum-based time travel technology allowing instantaneous transport to the past via micro-wormholes. Led by Professor Edward Johnston, the team—including brilliant grad student André Marek, level-headed Kate Erickson, and reluctant computer whiz Chris Hughes—discovers a cryptic message from Johnston himself, trapped in 1357 during the Hundred Years' War amid the brutal siege of the fortified town of Castlegard by English forces under Lord Oliver. ITC offers to send a rescue team back, but the technology is unstable, with risks of quantum 'echoes' and irreversible stranding. Once in the past, the modern scholars must navigate a vividly reconstructed 14th-century world of chivalry, treachery, and savagery, adopting disguises as squires and adopting archaic customs to blend in while evading deadly knights, archery volleys, and the chaos of battle. Facing linguistic barriers, cultural shocks, and the realization that history isn't static—small changes could alter the future—the team endures grueling trials, including river crossings under fire and infiltration of enemy camps, highlighting Crichton's signature blend of rigorous historical detail, cutting-edge pseudoscience, and pulse-pounding action. Their desperate bid to retrieve Johnston exposes the perils of tampering with time, culminating in a high-stakes clash that tests human ingenuity against medieval brutality.