SYNOPSIS:

A crew extending the L.A. subway toward Santa Monica unearths an ATV with the remains of four scientists that became mired 30,000 years ago in what is today the La Brea Tar Pits. Dr. Alan Smith, the paleontological monitor of the project from the nearby Nelson Museum of Paleontology, and colleague, Dr. “Sherry” Sherwood, along with five paleontology interns, demuck the ATV and discover, among other things, video of the scientists actually doing field work in the Pleistocene Era. Oddly, a fifth member of the expedition shows up in the video: attractive scientist Dr. Christine Brell. (Her husband, Dr. Jeffrey Brell, came up with the Brell Equation that made the expedition’s time travel possible.) Because of the four bodies, the museum must call the county coroner and he, in turn, brings in a federal forensics team. The museum is ordered to turn the ATV, the bodies and the videos over to the feds. When her colleagues died, Brell tried to get back to her world of 2038 (Long Beach), but she fell short, ending up in 2009 L.A. In 2012, Smith recognizes her, even though she is disguised, among a group of volunteers at the museum. Brell suspects that her Timetracker device, which allows her to time travel, may be in the museum’s basement storeroom since she was separated from it when she landed on the museum grounds. (It was secured by a drunken night guard.) Unless she can recover it, she will never be able to return to the six-year old boy she has in Long Beach. Just when Smith and Brell are becoming emotionally entangled, government agents descend on the museum, suspecting that Brell could be in the area. Smith finally must tell Brell that he knows who she is and that she is in danger of being arrested. The feds want her for what she can tell them about the future. Meanwhile, the canny interns outwit the flat-footed agents at every turn. Brell begs Smith to come with her to 2038 Long Beach. Although Smith loves her, he says he can’t be a forty-year old man running around with a blonde girlfriend in Long Beach while his colleagues in L.A. are entering their late 60s. During the night, Smith helps Brell launch herself from the museum grounds into the future while the interns distract the feds. In 2038, Smith, now much older, stands on a balcony of the museum and witnesses the occasion of Brell’s return to the Tar Pits and to her son.

THE BRELL EQUATION (FEATURE)