The Most Bad-Ass Adam Project Characters, Ranked By Fighting Ability
Content Warning: The following article contains spoilers for the Netflix film The Adam Project.
Director Shaw Levy delivered a thrilling blend of sci-fi and action with Netflix’s The Adam Project. The time travelers from 2050 have been trained to defend against any threats they may come across while correcting the time stream, but some of them are unsurprisingly better fighters than most.
Through the exciting action sequences in the movie, fans can easily see who has the best moves among the talented characters. While people like Ellie Reed (Jennifer Garner), young Adam Reed (Walker Scobell), and Louis Reed (Mark Ruffalo) aren’t trained like Adam (Ryan Reynolds) and Laura Shane (Zoe Saldaña), they still manage to showcase their own fighting abilities in certain scenes.
7 Ellie Reed
As a mostly clueless character from 2018 and 2022, Ellie never gets a chance to show off any physical fighting abilities she may have, but she does prove that she’s a badass mom through a scene near the beginning of the film.
When young Adam gets in trouble for “that mouth” of his, Ellie fiercely defends him against the school administrators. She reminds them that “it’s barely been a year” since they lost Louis, and Adam is understandably lashing out. She likely won’t be able to reason her way out of a confrontation with Christos (Alex Mallari Jr.) or Maya Sorian (Catherine Keener), but she at least shows that she’s capable of defending her son against unfair policies.
6 Young Adam Reed
Scobell’s entertaining performance in The Adam Project made his role as Adam’s younger self believable – it’s impossible not to laugh at his witty lines. Unfortunately, the 12-year-old isn’t as great at fighting as he is at comebacks.
Audiences see young Adam get beat up by bullies more than once, as he’s an easy target who doesn’t really know how to defend himself just yet. Even with his older self’s guidance, Adam struggles to overpower other kids. That said, he is good at controlling drones that can take out soldiers from the future, as he has experience from the video game Louis designed for him.
5 Maya Sorian
Despite being the supervillain in the sci-fi movie, Sorian doesn’t excel in hand-to-hand combat. She relies on goons like Christos to do the dirty work and fight on her behalf. Sorian mostly stays on her ship and fires her guns from the safety of the pilot seat.
The one time fans see her physically threaten someone is when the particle accelerator deteriorates and she points a gun at Louis who refuses to give her the hard drive. Even that moment is an epic fail, as Sorian doesn’t take into account how the accelerator’s magnetic field would affect her bullet. She may be able to threaten kids and kill people like Laura from afar, but it’s clear she’s no match for characters like Louis and Adam on an even playing field.
4 Louis Reed
Just like with Ruffalo’s role as The Hulk, he acts as a rational scientist who is wary about the rules of time travel in The Adam Project. Louis mostly uses his intelligence to win battles, which viewers first see when he makes a quick decision to ram his car onto the soldiers attacking Adam.
It’s his fight with Sorian that truly emphasizes how he uses his brains to overcome brawls. He doesn’t seem worried at all when Sorian fires the gun, as he confidently states how she “never understood the science.” He may not win in hand-to-hand combat situations, but he surely has the advantage in scenarios where he can use scientific concepts to gain the upper hand.
3 Christos
Since Christos works closely with the powerful sci-fi villain Sorian, it’s not surprising that he’s an excellent fighter. He’s first introduced when Sorian’s team attacks the two Adams in their home, and fans learn that he went to “the academy” with future Adam and Laura.
Christos can match Adam’s moves effortlessly and it’s clear he has received training that exceeds what the regular soldiers know and practice. Only Laura can take him on without flinching, as even Adam struggles to keep up with his attacks. He may be a forgettable character, but he at least knows how to bring out the protagonist’s fighting abilities.
2 Adam Reed
Adam has done everything he can to be the best fighter he can be. He even admits at one point that he has distanced himself from his 12-year-old as much as possible, and one of the ways he has done that is to trade brains for brawns.
Whether it’s in outer space or on the ground with hand-to-hand combat, Adam can masterfully overcome most foes he encounters in the movie. The only other character who has better fighting abilities is Laura, as she is able to use her intelligence and strategic thinking in a way that Adam can’t.
1 Laura Shane
Laura is obviously a cut above the rest in The Adam Project. From her badass entrance to her heartbreaking last scene, she has shown that she knows how to fight, strategize, and outsmart her enemies every single time.
It makes sense that they wouldn’t include Laura in the final action sequence with the particle accelerator, as it would have been easy for her to take out Sorian and her goons. Laura and Adam are an unstoppable force together, but she likely wouldn’t have much trouble taking him out on her own if she ever had to.