Breaking Down The Nonlinear Timeline of ‘Into The Soul’

If you’re like me, you were totally blown away by the intricate nonlinear story in the feature film Into The Soul. Also, like me, you were probably left staring as the end credits rolled, wondering to yourself, “What just happened?” Trying to piece together what happened in Into The Soul can be equated to navigating your way out of IKEA without arrows or directions.

Luckily, we have put together a timeline for the feature film that breaks down what happened and when. Since the film tells its story in a non-linear way, our timeline will put the events of the film in order as they happened linearly. Who says film analysis can’t be fun?

The film begins with our main character William who is rudely awakened to two broken legs… in the snow… in the Rocky Mountains… alone… with no memories. The good news is his memories are coming back to him slowly throughout the film. So, how did William get himself into such a predicament? Let’s take a look.

Read More: The Beautiful Cinematography of Into the Soul

A mother and son (William) have a wonderful time together until they learn that the mother is ill. Tragically, she passes away soon after leaving him an orphan with no one to care for him in his early years.

Years down the road, William has grown into an adult and is now employed as a ranch hand. He meets a young woman named Sara, the daughter of the ranch’s owner, marking the beginning of their relationship (uh-oh these never end well).

William and Sara get to know each other in secret because they don’t want her father to find out, just like in daytime dramas. We learn more about them and we see that William doesn’t want to open up about his parents.

At night, they both sneak out to the ranch to stargaze and be rebellious (we all went through that phase). William finally opens up about his mother dying and how he was an orphan who never really had a home.

Inevitably, Sara’s father finds out about their relationship and fires William from working on the ranch. He tells William that he must leave the ranch and never come back, and not to tell Sara. The father of the year award goes to…

In search of a job and shelter, William decided to reconnect with a Captain of a fur trapper company he had once worked for; this man also knew his father. To William’s surprise, the captain has been keeping a secret about his father. William’s father had another Indian family but was slain while defending them from the Blackfeet tribe. A tribe that is located out west near the Rocky Mountains…

William breaks the news and our hearts when he tells Sara he is leaving her to go out west with the fur trapper company. She doesn’t understand why he has to go but he explains that this is something he just has to do.

After seven months of traveling across the country with fur trappers, they have had little luck finding pelts (animals to kill for their fur). A group of fur trappers wants to go into the Rocky Mountains to look for more animals but the captain thinks it’s a bad idea since it’s winter and as we all know hindsight is 20/20. The captain gives the group two weeks with his horses to look in the Rocky Mountains for pelts and William joins the party.

Surprise! The search for pelts in the Rocky Mountains was a failure, and William plans to head back to the Captain with a fur trapper he has gotten close to: a man named Red.

Red and William wake up shocked to find that their pelts, horses, and food had been stolen overnight with no sign of what happened to them. They still have three to five days to get out of the mountains and the snow is only getting heavier.

Sitting by the campfire at night, William tells Red that they are going to shortcut a day by going over the mountain instead of staying low by the river. Red offers to keep watch first since he can’t sleep.

Red did a terrible job keeping watch, and William was awoken by an Indian who tackled him down a mountain, where he broke both of his legs. In a turn of events, the Indian decides not to kill William once he gets a good look at his face!

William wakes up in the snow with amnesia and two broken legs.

He crawls to another body and discovers that it’s Red! He takes his coat and continues moving.

William makes a campfire and continues to dream about the memories from his life.

In a dream, Sara tells him to wake up, and it was a good thing he listened because a wolf was just about to attack him; however, William kills it with a knife.

William has another dream and this time it’s about a little boy. He realizes he is a father and needs to get back home to him. This kicks things into high gear for William and he continues crawling in the snow.

Unfortunately, willpower wasn’t enough to get out of the mountains but the captain and the fur trappers managed to find him!

William wakes up in a cabin and the captain informs him that he had been rescued because of an Indian who happened to be his father’s other son! Plot twist!

William, Sara, and his son are joyfully reunited! We love a happy ending! Well, for everyone but Red.

Watch Into The Soul For Free on Reveel

Into The Soul is about a 19th-century fur trapper who must figure out his past when he awakens all alone in the Rocky Mountains, badly hurt and with temporary amnesia. After reading this blog post, you will go into the film with a completely different interpretation. You can watch it right now on Reveel!