A little girl saves the future human race by sending some of her DNA to them through time transport. Rhiannon Leigh Wryn plays the lead character of Emma Wilder. She goes on a family vacation for Easter with her brother Noah (played by Chris O'Neil) and her mother Jo (played by Joely Richardson) and her father David (played by Timothy Hutton). The stay in a house on an island near Seattle, Washington. The two children discover a mysterious metal box on the beach in the surf. When they bring it onshore it responds to their touch. It opens like a puzzle box to reveal its contents which include mineral rocks, a machine device of some kind and a stuffed bunny rabbit. Emma knows what to do with the things because she can hear things told to her by the bunny rabbit who she calls “Mimzy” after the rabbit tells its name to her. She shows her brother the rocks are called “spinners” and she gently turns each one like a top. They levitate in a pattern and reveal a cloud of sparkling, swirling lights, which are a time portal. Noah has a piece of green glass from the box. To others it looks like plain stone, but in Noah's hands he is able to communicate with nature, hearing the sound of the ocean, trees, rocks, and insects. He also starts to see complex patterns of construction. He finds a spider making a web and realizes he can communicate with it with what Emma calls “spider speak.” Noah begins drawing complex geometric patterns in his school binder. He also starts to have superior insight and intelligence, which seems odd to both his mother and to his science teacher Nathanial Broadman (played by Michael Clarke Duncan). Mr. Broadman notices a drawing Noah has made on the back of a test paper. He recognizes the drawing. He ask Noah about it. Noah says he has made lots of them and shows his teacher pages of them. Mr. Broadman takes them home to show them to his wife Sheila (played by Kirsten Williamson). He is especially interested in one, which he is certain he has seen before. They find the exact drawing in a book of Tibetan art Mandelas and it is over 1,000 years old. Mr. Broadman is having strange dreams about this Mandela and even in one of them was given the 6 winning lotto numbers which he told his wife about but they failed to buy the winning ticket for a multi-million dollar prize. Ever since the first dream his wife asks him about any numbers in his dreams.
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There is a science competition. Noah, who was only a C-average student, presents his idea for the construction of an advanced bridge based on designs he gets the spiders to create by speaking with them using frequency vibrations. Everyone is amazed, including Mr. Broadman and Noah's parents. Noah also suddenly has the ability to play golf perfectly. Later the babysitter sees Emma playing with her floating minerals and watches her hand dissolve when she puts it in the colorful cloud. The babysitter runs screaming from the house.
Mr. Broadman and his wife Sheila visit Noah's mother. They tell her about Noah's ability to draw Mandalas even he has no idea what they are and they show her he drew a perfect copy of one from a book which is estimated to be 1,000 years old. The Broadmans have made some study of this Tibetan art and the culture, having visited Tibet in the past. They tell Noah's mom there are special children called “Tulkus” who have rare gifts. They tell her there are markings on the children to indicate this and you can see them in their hands. Sheila is gifted in palm-reading so she offers to look at Noah's hands. She does not see anything special, but then Emma offers her hands and Sheila is astounded. Emma clearly has the marks of a “Tulku” and then Emma tells them the Tibetan Mandala they are looking at is called “The Ten Mountains.” When asked how she knows this, and the answer is correct, Emma tells them Mimzy told her. This is a bit too much for Noah and Emma's mother, who acts the Broadmans to leave.
Noah plays with the machine device to see what it does and he accidentally shuts down the power grid for the Seattle area. This causes an investigation to begin for terrorist activity by the Homeland Security. Emma's father asks for some sugar at the breakfast table. Emma causes the sugar grains to fly up into the air in a swirling crowd and move over to her father's bowl where it all lands perfectly. Emma also shows them she can levitate. The Wilders call the Broadmans back to their home to tell them what happened. They decide as a group to take Emma in for testing. They take her to a neurologist who tells them Emma's brain has unprecedented mental activity in ways never documented before.
Emma tells Noah she must look through the cloud which she calls it the “looking glass” based on her understanding of the book of “Alice in Wonderland.” She shows Noah a bunny exactly like Mimzy in a drawing in the “Alice in Wonderland” book. When Emma sticks her face into the colorful cloud, she sees a scientist in the future working with desperation in a laboratory. When Noah pulls her back, Emma has a seizure. Her parents are called to the room. When Emma recovers she tells them she is frightened and they are running out of time.
The government agents discover the source of the energy surge was the house where the Wilders are staying. They raid the house and arrest the family. They take them to a research center for evaluation. They discover the “toys” the children have and take them all away from the children. When examining the bunny, they figure out it is an advanced artificial life device and even find an Intel logo on the electronic chips on a nano-technology level. Emma is compelled to help Mimzy. Mimzy is calling her to help because she is dying. In the night, while everyone else is asleep she wakes Noah using telepathy. She convinces Noah to help her. Noah blocks the video camera surveillance using his “spider speak” to get bugs to crawl in front of all the cameras. They get all the things form the lab including Mimzy. Emma cries because Mimzy is very weak. A single tear drop from the little girl's eye, lands on the bunny in the perfect spot to be captured for safekeeping. They realize they must go back to the house because some of the mineral rocks are there and they need all of them. They steal a laundry truck parked outside the research facility. Noah can drive it because he says it is easier than his car-racing game. On the way to their house they run out of gas in the middle of nowhere.
At the Broadman's house the science teacher Nathanial suddenly wakes with a start. He tells his wife he had a dream and it told him to go to a certain location. He wants to go back to sleep, but she insists they go to the spot. When they arrive, they find the two children there. They kids ask them to drive them to their home. At first Nathanial is reluctant to do this, because it seems like kidnapping, but his wife insists whatever they are doing is much more important than such a worry. They take the children to theie home. The children run upstairs, get the missing mineral rocks. They return to the yard and set up a pattern with the rocks. Meanwhile, the kid's parents and the police have figured out they went to their home. The parents and police arrive just in time to see what is happening. The swirling cloud builds up in the yard. Emma puts the bunny in the center of it. Noah gets the machine device going, which builds the energy. Emma's hand gets stuck in the cloud. Noah saves her by pulling her back. The cloud flies up. It makes a huge Mandala pattern then transports the bunny back to the future. Everyone is amazed. The government official apologizes to the family and offers to do anything they need to help them, now he knows the children were telling the truth.
In the distant future, a teacher tells her students this is how Emma saved them all. By sending her pure DNA to the future, they were able to reinvigorate the human genome and Emma became the mother of them all. The future children are delighted with the history lesson and when it is over, they levitate and fly off in the air.
Best part of story, including ending:
This story has an amazing premise of a device, which may be sent back in time, to save the future of all humanity and they need to attract the attention of a special little girl who is pure of heart and has pure DNA. This is quite a remarkable idea.
Best scene in story:
I like the scene when Emma demonstrates her ability to make things levitate and her parents are shocked, but she accepts it as simply fun. Emma's calm playful reaction, as opposed to her parent's being frightened by what happened, is very charming.
Opinion about the main character:
Emma becomes more and more interesting as the movie progresses because her powers increase, yet her sweetness stays the same becoming more genuine.
