| Director | Andrew Stanton |
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A family of Neanderthals consists of father Thorn, pregnant mother Hera, daughter Lark, and younger child Ebb. However, a bad fall leaves Thorn in critical condition, and he barely survives thanks to Hera's efforts. Tragedy strikes nonetheless when Lark finds Ebb dead, leaving the family grief-stricken, and again when, after giving birth to a healthy baby, Hera fails to recover from the process and passes away, leaving only Thorn, Lark, and the newborn child.
The family later spots a group of other people; they attempt to flee, but the group catches up with them. Thankfully, those people, who are homo sapiens, are friendly and welcome them to their village. The family of Neanderthals live in harmony with the homo sapiens for many years, with Lark marrying one and having children of her own. After a long, fulfilling life, Thorn passes away in his sleep, and his buried with a family heirloom in hand: a fire-making tool made in the shape of an acorn.
In 2025, Claire is an American PhD student in anthropology at Princeton researching the remains of a Paleolithic man, in what she believes might be game-changing research. She is in the early stages of a romantic relationship with Greg, who studies statistics, but she struggles with opening up and tends to shun or even avoid him. As they finally grow closer, Claire learns that her mother is dying, and must move to Canada to care for her in her final years. Although she strongly considers breaking up, she and Greg instead transition to a long-distance relationship.
An unknown amount of time later, after Claire's mother has passed, Greg moves in with her in Canada, from where she continues to work remotely on her research. By 2030, the two have a son together named David and Claire is pregnant again. Many years later David, now an adult, leads the research started by his mother and announces to the world that the project has finally culminated in a way to extend human life expectancy to a degree far beyond its current state. His parents, who proudly watched the presentation, gift him with the item held by the Paleolithic man on whom her research had started, a tool in the shape of an acorn. The couple happily grows old together, until Greg dies, and then Claire.
In the distant future, as the world is ending, a last-hope mission is launched, sending scientist and astronaut Coakley, engineered to live an extended life, on a 226-year mission in the sole company of AI co-pilot Rosco. They are meant to, upon closing in on a new hospitable planet, Kepler-16b, give life to embryos in stasis that are to establish a new home for humanity. Because prolonged life was eventually ruled detrimental by humanity, these new humans would have lifespans similar to those prior to the discovery of life-extending methods.
When the greenhouse meant to produce oxygen for the ship suffers a contamination, the only two last-chance scenarios Coakley and Rosco come up with to secure the future of the embryos include the death of one of the duo. Both want to be the one to sacrifice themselves, but Coakley is eventually convinced to follow Rosco's plan: to permanently turn off Rosco and use the IA room as a backup greenhouse. Coakley reluctantly does so, tearfully sharing farewells with the AI.
About a century later, as the ship closes in on its destination, Coakley brings the embryos to life, naming the firstborn V, to whom she gifts a trinket in the form of an acorn, meant to represent humanity's future. The ship lands, and the planet is hospitable and fitting to the mission's plan.
Many years later, humans have established a stable and harmonious colony. V dies an elderly woman, with the trinket still worn on a collar around her neck during her funeral. Still having many years left to live, Coakley delivers a eulogy in which she reflects on V and humanity, which has come so far despite being, relative to the lifespan of the universe, as brief as the blink of an eye.