A bullied teen invents a time machine that rewinds ten minutes, giving him the chance to undo every insult, prank, and humiliation. But each time he changes the past, things spiral in unexpected ways.

‘SPOILER ALERT’

The date is September 3rd, 2005, and it’s the first day of highschool for childhood friends Virgil, Derek, and Stephanie. The two boys arrive at Summerton High School first, and Stephanie shows up minutes later.

With their futures ahead of them, Derek plans to try out for the football team and manages to convince Stephanie to try out for the cheerleading squad. All three of them then head to class that morning and reconvene on the pitch for Derek and Stephanie’s tryouts.

The moment Virgil arrives, he pulls aside a bunch of players and cracks them up with jokes. Meanwhile, Derek can’t throw a ball to save his life. After failing to pass the ball multiple times, his coach advises him to take a breather.

From the distance, Stephanie shoots him a smile, and Virgil comes closer for moral support. They’re still talking when they notice a kid driving a rocket car of his own creation, and losing control of it. It’s none other than Charlie, the child genius. He slams into everything stationary on that field, forcing cheerleaders and players to jump out of his way as he screams and forges forward.

That’s until Derek knocks him out of the car using a ball.

This earns the respect of his coach and peers. However, the other jocks hurry to Charlie’s side, not to help him, but to literally toss him around. Virgil pushes his way to their middle in a bid to help poor Charlie but gets tossed around too.

Unfortunately, both boys are forced into cheerleader outfits and hung from the horns of the school mascot – a bronze ram – with lipstick smeared on their lips. There, they get acquainted and become friends. This day will come to be known as the day of the incident.

Fast forward three years and things have switched up a bit. Charlie and Virgil are still friends, but Derek and Stephanie have become so popular in school that all they do is greet Virgil from a distance.

That morning, as Charlie and Virgil walk to class, the youngster comes across Zeke, a pseudo delinquent, pulling up in a power bike. Of course, Charlie feels obligated to warn him that he’s not supposed to drive that to school but Virgil is quick enough to shut him up.

During lunch, all Virgil can do is watch Derek and Stephanie’s relationship, seeing as he has a little crush on the girl. He practically zones out looking at her, only regaining himself after realizing he’s a lame senior still sitting at the nerd table with the likes of Chester and Eugene.

Sadly, Virgil has been ostracized since being hung from the school mascot. The nerds are still talking when Jeanette, a weird girl with a thing for Charlie, stops by. For some reason, he doesn’t feel the same way about her.

Moving on, Virgil catches a glimpse of Stephanie by the vending machine and walks up to her. They catch up in the few minutes before the bell rings, only for her to return to Derek shortly after.

In class, Virgil’s physics teacher goes on about Nicola Tesla, a famous scientist, but Charlie barges into his class. He fakes an AV club emergency and pulls Virgil away. As they approach the AV room, the little genius hints at a big project he’s been working on, explaining that he used the quantum accelerator from the rocket propulsion engine from the day of the incident.

The moment they step into the av room, all the other boys take a break to salute Charlie, but Virgil couldn’t care less. Eventually, Charlie shows his friend a simulated representation of practical time travel, but Virgil refuses to believe him.

He continues to bug Virgil about it during P.E, and even during their cooking assignment. The little genius explains his need for a hardware guy but can’t say a word when Jeanette drops by their cooking station. Noticing that Virgil and Charlie are failing to do any proper cooking, she hands over her meringue. More proof of her love for the little guy.

Sadly, Charlie is only concerned with science. He continues to bug Virgil about the time machine, and he does it so much that he gets his way. Virgil agrees to help him out, but he’ll retain the right to choose where and when they travel to. Charlie wastes no time agreeing to these terms.

As they stroll down the hallway, they come across Zeke welding an engine, and Virgil proposes that they recruit him as their hardware guy. Apparently, Zeke’s dad builds monster trucks, and he notices the geeks outside the class workshop.

All three of them, and Charlie’s cat, head to Virgil’s home, where Zeke looks over the design for the time machine. Just then, Amy, Virgil’s little sister, comes downstairs in search of cute boys, only to head back disappointed.

Seconds after, Zeke announces that he’ll take on the project, mostly because he likes a challenge, and of course, the free food.

They head to Thompson’s cycle cemetery, a scrapyard for bicycles with a workshop attached to the side.

Zeke works on the machine there and they discuss where to go first. Virgil suggests they go back for the lottery, but Charlie is totally against it. In response, Virgil cashes in on Charlie’s promise that he’d get to choose where they go, leaving the little genius no choice but to agree.

Zeke then warns that the machine will consume a lot of power and space, and Charlie knows just the place.

The next day at school, they track down vice principal Tolkan to the vending machine. There, they propose forming a new club, only to notice that Chester is stuck inside the vending machine. Mr. Tolkan has no plan to do anything about it, given that he’s  more preoccupied with getting the machine to accept a twenty dollar bill.

He’s frustrated but listens as Charlie’s requests Room 77 for their club. He turns them down once again, so Virgil hands him a couple of quarters, and this is enough to buy him over.

They have to go through a bunch of old and abandoned crap before arriving at the door to room 77. Apparently, it hasn’t been used for ages as evidenced by the clutter they find in it. Together, all three boys begin to transform the space, peeling off cobwebs and moving useless equipment around.

After this, they go hunting for equipment, stealing spare parts and computers from wherever they can. They combine the materials over time, joining heads together to make things work. Eventually, Charlie declares that the machine is ready. He switches it on and an array of purple light twirls in the air above the machine, forging a vortex.

They take a second to celebrate, but none of them are bold enough to go first.

Mr Felinestein, Charlie’s cat, becomes the perfect scapegoat, and when Charlie’s not looking, Zeke attaches a rope, a pair of goggles, and a watch to the cat. He then throws him into the vortex.

Charlie almost loses his mind when he finds out, so they quickly pull the cat back in. Mr Felinestein is covered in snow but the watch attached to him shows a minute difference in time.

This is all the proof the trio need and they go on to celebrate the success of their project by screaming like a bunch of sorority sisters.

At Pacific tech, one of the workers, Doctor Connors, notices a weird fluctuation coming from the sensors at Summerton. He thinks something is wrong, but his underachieving colleague, doctor Winthorp, makes him believe it’s nothing.

In the library the next day, Derek and Stephanie argue over him being too familiar with a girl named Jocelyn. Virgil overhears, waits for Derek to leave, and then sits beside Stephanie. Together, they reminisce about old times and she assures Virgil that Derek really tried to stop the seniors on the day of the incident.

Later on, Virgil, Zeke, and Charlie all change into thick jackets in anticipation of the cold temperatures of the vortex. They also prepare the lottery numbers.

Anyway, it turns out that they can only risk spending ten minutes in the past. Charlie activates the time machine soon enough, and one after the other, they bounce off a diving board and into the vortex. Charlie almost chickens out, so Zeke just grabs him and jumps.

As a result, all the lights in school begin to flicker, and soon, everything rewinds.

The trio get spat out of the vortex like a baby having lemons for the first time, and they agree that they’ll have to work on their landings. Meanwhile, Charlie can’t stop dancing and yelling that they’re time travelers.

They head to the closest corner mart and request a lottery ticket. Unfortunately, only people above 18 can buy one and none of them are. Desperate, they head outside where they beg a robot man who looks like the silver surfer from Fantastic four.

Mid-negotiation, Charlie warns that they have only 2 minutes left. With this, they tell the robot man that they’ll be back by 12pm the next day, and then they run like hell.

At Pacific tech, doctor Connors registers another fluctuation in the grid, and once again, his colleague convinces him that it’s nothing.

By the next day, reporters and passersby gather in front of the corner mart, congratulating the robot man for winning the lottery. Shortly, Charlie and the other two arrive as planned, only to be disappointed by the sight.

They return to their timeline dejected, but Virgil is still holding out hope of buying another lottery ticket. This time, Charlie puts his foot down. He climbs a bench in the locker room, slams Virgil against the lockers, and yells at him to stop thinking about using the time machine for selfish reasons.

Meanwhile, Chester has the misfortune of having his clothes stolen. The poor dude has to go into the hallway with nothing but a towel, and even that gets swiped. Vice principal Tolkan sees this and does nothing to help Chester. Just like that, an idea is born.

Charlie and Virgil approach Zeke with a plan to be the unsung heroes to uncool kids. Virgil even comes up with a group name – the Minutemen.

Charlie likes it, but Zeke thinks it’s much too lame.

Anyway, their next mission is at hand but they need to make adjustments to the time machine while they’re in the past. It becomes obvious that one of them will have to stay behind, and twice in a row, Charlie draws the short straw.

They’re still arguing when Jeanette suddenly shows up, wielding a form to join the club Charlie formed just to get room 77. This gives Virgil an idea. He’d like Jeanette to be the one making adjustments while they travel through time, but Charlie doesn’t want to hear it.

They eventually wear him down and he teaches Jeanette what to do. She turns off the machine almost immediately, disgusted by their outfits. In turn, she fetches them white snowsuits courtesy of her rich father.

Shortly after, the three of them jump into the vortex and arrive just as Chester discovers his clothes have been stolen. The nerd thinks they’re there to bully him, but soon realizes that they just came with new clothes.

In the hall, Chester’s bullies are waiting to laugh at him. They get the disappointment of a lifetime when he comes out looking like a rapper with cash to spare.

At this point, the trio runs through the hall, confusing the bullies even more. That’s when people start referring to them as the snowsuit guys. Down the hall, Mr Tolkan is busy admiring his precious diorama, only to have it shattered by Charlie and the others.

They escape safely, arriving back at room 77 just as planned. After changing into their usual clothes, they overhear Mr Tolkan over the public address system promising to find the people responsible for destroying his diorama.

Later on, Zeke visits the burger place bear school. Jocelyn approaches Eugene, a geek working as a cashier there, and convinces him to deliver their food to the table himself. Excited, Eugene hurries up, and while he’s not looking, Jocelyn removes the “wet floor” sign. This results in Eugene slipping and spilling a bunch of food on himself.

Everyone in the diner laughs at him, except Zeke.

He takes the case to the minutemen and they show up just in time to catch Eugene, drop the food gently, and spill dirty mop water all over Jocelyn and her friends. Once again, people hail them as the snowsuit guys.

Meanwhile, Mr Tolkan ambushes the ski club with two officers, thinking they’re the snow suit guys. Of course, the club gets cleared of all allegations. From then on, it becomes a regular occurrence for Charlie and the others to save the innocent.

They wipe a poor girl’s drool, save a dude from being stuck in the vending machine, and another dude from carrying around a disposable toilet cover.

Unfortunately, the doctors at Pacific tech are now certain that something is going on at Summerton High School. Agents get sent out to tail the Minutemen, taking pictures of Zeke at the scrapyard, following Virgil around the supermarket, and tailing Charlie from a black van.

Something weird happens at school: everyone they’ve saved cops an attitude, starting with Eugene. Even Chester refers to Charlie and the others as doorknobs. They’re still wallowing when Stephanie comes in wearing a “snowsuit guys” t-shirt. She’s so excited that she hugs Virgil, screaming that she got into UC Belmont.

Well, she’s on track for a cheerleading scholarship and UC Belmont will be sending a scout to check her out. Derek interrupts her conversation at this point, so she says goodbye to Virgil.

The moment he sits down, he can tell something’s wrong with Charlie. The little genius then opens up about a little problem in the time travel formula. Apparently, he hacked into NASA for the last piece of the formula.

The others begin to freak out about going to prison and it gets so bad that they all hurdle up under the table. By the time they come back up, everyone in the cafeteria is staring.

The weekend goes by in a flash, and Virgil comes to lunch on Monday to find Stephanie with a broken leg. Apparently, she fell off the pyramid, making her ineligible for the cheerleading scholarship. She locks eyes with Virgil as he enters and he can’t bear to see her like that.

He proposes to the other members of his team that they go back in time to help Stephanie, but Charlie reminds him that they’re being watched. Somehow, he convinces them to help out, so they dress up and Jeanette sends them on their way.

Mere seconds after their arrival, Zeke steals an idle vehicle, and Charlie and Virgil get on. As they drive across the field, they fall within the sights of Vice principal Tolkan. Immediately, he stops his car and gets out in the middle of the street.

While he’s busy, Eugene mistakenly kicks a ball straight at Stephanie’s head, knocking her off the top of the pyramid. At this point, the minutemen are mere inches away, so Virgil dives and catches Stephanie before she hits the ground. Just like that, he saves her leg.

Not knowing who he is, Stephanie admits that he’s amazing, but one word that he utters leaves her suspicious. Just then, Mr Tolkan climbs the mesh fence, but not in time to catch the minutemen.

After their return, things go haywire. Chester, who used to be bullied, is now the bully, and right before Charlie’s eyes, he gets into trouble with Mr Tolkan. A nearby newspaper reveals that robot man is suing an old lady, and it’s the straw that breaks the camel’s back.

Charlie begins to freak out, certain that their jumps through time are causing a negative chain reaction. He storms off after yelling, leaving Virgil to explain to all the onlookers.

School closes as usual and Virgil heads home, where he sweeps some leaves off his front lawn. Just then, Stephanie shows up, claiming that she came to thank him for saving her. Virgil tries to deny it, but gives in after Stephanie presses him some more.

She’d concluded that the minutemen were psychics, but Virgil lets slip that they’re time travellers. This piques her interest even more.

Moving on, Charlie, Virgil, and Zeke attend a game where the Summerton Rams play the Hamilton Hornets just in case some poor kid needs their help. With six seconds left on the clock, Coach calls Derek aside for a pep talk, urging him to be the ball.

The game continues, only for Chester to appear wearing only boxer shorts and running along the sidelines. This distracts Derek long enough for him to be tackled, and ultimately, the Rams lose the game.

Stephanie, having known Virgil’s secret, has an idea. She reveals this secret to Derek and they both pay Virgil a visit the next day. Together, they beg Virgil to go back in time and stop Chester from streaking.

Determined, Derek pulls out all the stops, reminding Virgil of the time they spent as close friends, and even reenacting their special handshake.

It works.

Virgil takes the plan back to Charlie and Zeke. The former still believes their time traveling is unraveling space time, while the latter could care less. Either way, Virgil gets them to oblige.

They get dressed and he slips footage of Derek’s previous loss into his suit as he jumps into the vortex. Minutes later, they all return and Jeanette shows them the newspaper. They’d successfully changed Derek’s fate and helped the Rams to victory.

Virgil then shows the tape to Stephanie and Derek later on, and it blows their minds that he can really change the past. He’s hellbent on celebrating, so he invites Virgil to a party at his place.

Virgil is supposed to meet up with Charlie but he blows him off for the party. It’s filled with so many students but he weasels his way through the crowd just to sit beside Stephanie. They’ve not talked for long when Derek shows up and sits between them, ruining the mood with his presence.

In a twist, Virgil forgot to cancel his hangout with Charlie, so the little genius stops by Derek’s party later that evening. From the window, he catches Virgil dancing his heart out, and walks home dejected.

After school the next day, Virgil calls to apologize for standing Charlie up, only to have a call come through during his 50th apology. It’s Stephanie and she’s crying like she lost someone. Almost immediately, Virgil dumps the phone call and hurries over to her place.

Upon arrival, he climbs up the side of the house, shattering a vase on his way in. Still crying, Stephanie explains how she caught Derek with Jocelyn after practice. She goes on to call him an amazing friend, oblivious to his crush on her.

Worse off, Derek calls during their conversation, so Virgil has to climb down the same way he came. He falls over like an action figure with one leg.

That night, the school field glitches for a split second. It’s the same phenomenon that Dr Connors from Pacific tech tries to explain to his boss. Dr Winthorp adds how it’s all coming from Summerton, and his colleague wonders if they have any contacts at the FBI.

At the cafeteria, there’s an agent skulking around, watching as Derek asks Virgil to go back in time to rectify his mistake with stephanie. In response, Virgil excuses himself, promising to think about it.

On his way home, a black van suddenly stops and FBI agents pop out to nab him. They drive until they arrive at a hideout, where he sees that Zeke and Charlie have already been caught.

Agent Rehnquist, the squad leader, introduces himself. He then breaks into a tale of what happened in 1960. Apparently, the United states tried their hand at time travel, only to shut the project down a few years later. The files from that project remained untouched until Charlie got his hands on them two months ago.

Upon hearing this, Charlie almost has an outburst, but Zeke quickly stops him. In turn, Virgil challenges the agent for holding them without tangible cause, so Mr Rehnquist just lets them go, hoping to gather more information.

Outside the hideout, the trio break into an argument. Zeke and Charlie accuse Virgil of dumping them for his popular life, and he insults both of them for it. Within minutes, Charlie leaves Virgil to his devices and Zeke does the same, claiming that he’s always been better on his own.

That night, Charlie runs a simulation to find out the effects of their time traveling. Unfortunately, his computer is too slow to produce instant results. On the other hand, Virgil gets a call from Derek, and he agrees to help him change the past.

Come daybreak, Jeanette shows up in Charlie’s room, shaking him awake. He doesn’t listen to a word she says before noticing that the results from his test are out. He checks it out, only to discover that they’ve created a wormhole.

Almost immediately, he races down to the FBI hideout, where he meets doctors Connors and Winthorp explaining things to agent Rehnquist.

Both scientists seem to have a handle on things, but are shocked when Charlie mentions a black hole. Taking the reins, the little genius explains how the rifts created by their time traveling didn’t disappear. Instead, they blended together to form a giant black hole.

Instant panic spreads across the room at the possibility of the world getting sucked into a black hole. By Charlie’s calculations, they have only four hours left to do something to change their fate. Consequently, Agent Rehnquist reaches out to the White House.

Charlie has a plan that can turn things around, but he’s scared that it might be a long shot.

Meanwhile, students of Summerton High School troop into the decorated gym for their annual school dance, oblivious to the black hole glitching on the field outside. Virgil gets to go with Stephanie, while Zeke sits around flexing his biceps for the ladies.

Derek links up with Virgil just to confirm that they’re still on to change the past. Virgil, being a wimp, agrees. He comes across Stephanie soon and almost tells her about Derek’s plan, but thanks to Mr Tolkan, he doesn’t. The vice principal then takes the stage, adjusts the mic, and after a few minutes of telling terrible jokes, announces the king and queen of the school dance.

It turns out to be Virgil and Stephanie, so they both get on stage to receive their crowns. Hands intertwined, they step down, only for Virgil to admit that he went back in time and stuffed the ballot boxes in his favor.

Stephanie isn’t even mad about it. Instead, she just slow-dances with Virgil until Derek comes to steal him out of such a beautiful moment.

Charlie and Jeanette arrive at the school dance in a hurry, but can only find Stephanie. After a short conversation, Charlie realizes that Virgil could be trying to change the past once again, so he runs down the hall in search of him.

Meanwhile, Virgil refuses to help Derek any further, and it becomes obvious that it’s because he likes Stephanie. Things don’t have a chance to get more heated, seeing as Charlie interrupts their conversation with news of the world ending in an hour.

Just then, Zeke, Mr Tolkan, and the other students flood the hallway. In no time, agents from the FBI, CIA, and bureau of weights and measures join them. The ground begins to tremble beneath their feet, so the officials move most people outside, only to find the early stages of a black hole plastered in the middle of the field.

All hell breaks loose after this, and a bunch of scientists alongside the Minutemen make their way to room 77 where Charlie reveals his plan.

Apparently, they’ll have to go into the black hole and close it by using a remote pack to reverse its polarity. Charlie cooked up a way to control the time machine from the other side, and hands the remote pack to Zeke. On the other hand, Virgil thinks he should go alone, so they end up fighting until agent Rehnquist puts an end to it.

Eventually, all three minutemen decide to go together. They suit up and step into the hallway, where they’re cheered on by a bunch of reporters and students.

On the way, Charlie explains that once they fix the rifts in time, the blackhole could close in a few minutes, or even instantly. Not to mention the fact that they could return to a different point in time entirely. Zeke and Virgil take the news pretty well, and mock Charlie for being so negative.

It’s time to say their goodbyes. Zeke gets hugs, Charlie freezes after his goodbye to Jeanette, and Amy asks for her big brother’s room if he doesn’t make it back. Lifting Charlie off the ground, Zeke and Virgil make it out onto the school field, only to find another crowd of supporters.

Virgil then takes a second to say goodbye to Stephanie, and the team pull up their hoodies as the crowd chants their name.

Holding hands, all three minutemen jump into the black hole, swirling in a soup of time and space. It takes a few moments, but they eventually fall out of the sky and land in a park across town.

The kids playing there are intrigued to say the least, certain that Charlie and the others are from space. Zeke has to yell at the kids to get some quiet, and without wasting time, they unzip the remote pack.

The antenna is set up, the reversal sequence begins, and stability protocol follows suit. Just then, a vortex shoots out of the remote pack and merges with the black hole still in the sky. It only takes a few seconds to achieve stabilization, and shortly after, the team high five over their little victory.

At this point, they only have to wait twenty minutes for the vortex to touch the ground. Then, they can return home.

Curious, Virgil picks up a newspaper from a nearby bench, but discovers that they’re three years into the past. Worse off, it’s September 3rd, 2005, also known as the day of the incident. Apparently, Charlie’s rocket car was the beginning of the whole interaction between quantum acceleration and the space time continuum.

While he rants about this, Virgil suddenly makes a run for the school field. In a few minutes, he bursts in through the side entrance, ready to change his dreadful past. Charlie and Zeke catch up to him soon enough, all in an attempt to get him to see the light.

To Charlie, the day of the incident was the same day he made a true friend, and he’d like Virgil to remember that. Zeke has no beef with this dreaded day, so he just bids Virgil farewell. After they leave, Virgil overhears Derek bringing up suggestions on how to bully him and Charlie, and he realizes who his true friends are.

Meanwhile, Zeke and Charlie are walking back to the park when the genius gets a notification. The vortex seems to have gone into overdrive and will close much sooner than expected. To avoid getting stuck in the past, the two boys run like hell, only for Charlie to stumble.

He’s already given up making it in time when Virgil pulls up in his rocket car. It’s smiles all around as Virgil apologizes for messing up, followed closely by a special handshake. Zeke has to remind them of their dire situation for everyone to get back into panic mode.

They all strap their seatbelts on and race through traffic like the brakes don’t work, slamming into multiple vases and barely missing cars.

Virgil drives so fast that they blow past their next turn. Without uttering a word, Zeke pulls out his trusty grappling hook and clasps it on a nearby street light. They then use the momentum to make a screeching U-turn. Now back on track, Virgil hits the gas as though taking his foot off would kill him.

The vortex comes within view at this moment, decreasing in size with each passing second. Luckily, the rocket car moves fast enough to slip into it just before it closes.

Three years into the future, the school field is silent with only some students jogging. This silence is disrupted when a vortex opens up and spits out the Minutemen like worn out gum. Sadly, only one tire survives from Charlie’s rocket car.

Just then, the coach shows up, oblivious to the fact that they just saved the world, and forces them to jog. Of course, they boycott gym class and head into the hall. There, they see Mr Tolkan but he doesn’t remember the havoc they caused.

It’s at this moment they realize that they’ve been taken back to the first day they time traveled. Pissed off, Virgil crosses paths with Derek and gives him a piece of his mind.

He proceeds to take Stephanie outside and uses time travel as a metaphor to confess his feelings for her. Fortunately, she feels the same way. They’re still basking in this moment when Charlie rushes in with an idea. He’d like to attempt teleportation, but Virgil and Zeke don’t even want to hear it.

In turn, they drag him out of Stephanie’s presence, and thus went the lives of the minutemen of Summerton High School.

Virgil never would have met Charlie if he wasn’t betrayed. Even with such a humiliating introduction, both boys went on to achieve time travel with a third weirdo – Zeke. They faced all kinds of trouble together, and also solved them together. This goes to prove that with the right friends, anything is possible.

Minutemen 2008 .