Elias is faced with the ultimate choice. If he turns off the machine, Sarah dies (again), and the grief he has suppressed for three years will hit him all at once. If he keeps the machine on, he dies, erasing himself from existence, and the memory of her becomes a glitch in the matrix.

As they parted ways, Emma couldn't shake off the feeling that she had just met someone special. She decided to take a chance and asked Jack if he'd like to meet up for coffee before she left the city. To her surprise, he agreed.

Elias demonstrates the tech for a government oversight committee. He places a glass on a table and smashes it with a hammer. But the glass doesn't break. It hangs in the air, shattering in extreme slow motion, invisible to the naked eye but visible on his monitors. "I have delayed the kinetic impact by 48 hours," Elias explains. "The energy is stored. The break is inevitable. But it is not now ."

Ria’s voice pierces through the simulation: "The machine is overheating. If you don't release the delay, the shockwave will kill you instantly when it finally hits. You’ve compressed three years of grief into a single second. If you don't face it, it will shatter your mind."

Would she choose love now or later?

The movie opens on a rain-slicked highway at night. Screeching tires. A blinding flash of headlights. A crash.

"I don't want it to be 'Later' anymore," Elias weeps, holding Sarah’s hand. "I want it to be 'Now'. I want the pain. It means it was real."

He looks at the monitor. The amber light on the Chronos-Anchor turns red, then dies. The delay is over.