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Sounds like some kind of nightmare." |
- « "You know I was going to join the Army; seemed like the only way to get off the estate. But then Evan showed up with a better offer. And then that guy, the Army guy I was supposed to be... got erased." »
- — The new world timeline Mac Rendell on himself and his alternate, ARC self.[src]
Mac Rendell was a soldier for the Anomaly Research Centre, who was erased from the timeline after travelling back to 2006 Vancouver to combat an Albertosaurus.
Biography
Background
Mac originally lived in council flats in East London, and viewed his life there negatively. He planned to join the British Army so as to get off the estate. (Truth)
Anomaly Research Centre and death
Mac eventually did join the British Army as he had planned, and at some point became a soldier for the Anomaly Research Centre. At some later point, Mac travelled through a Spaghetti Junction to a for-lease warehouse on 15 September, 2006 in Vancouver, taking an EMD and an Anomaly timer with him.
The alternate Mac shoots at the Albertosaurus. (Truth)
Mac arrived in the 2006 warehouse just in time to pull Evan Cross out of the way of an attacking Albertosaurus, but Mac was himself fatally injured by the creature when it headbutted him into a wall. After driving the Albertosaurus back through the Anomaly to the Junction, Mac begged Evan to send him back through as well so that he could go home and couldn't alter the past. However, the Anomaly closed before Evan could take Mac through. With his dying breaths, Mac apparently whispered his name and his location in London into Evan's ear, before succumbing to his injuries in Evan's arms. (The New World, Truth)
Post-mortem
The alternate Mac's frozen body in 2012. (Truth)
After the incident with the future Mac in 2006, Evan visited Mac's younger self in his Evan's time, and recruited him as a Cross Photonics employee; in the process changing Mac's history and negating the timeline the ARC Mac came from. Evan would later explain that he'd deliberately altered the course of Mac's life to try and avert his future death by the Albertosaurus, to return the favour from when the ARC version of Mac had saved Evan's life. Evan subsequently kept the alternate, ARC Mac's body hidden and cryogenically preserved in the warehouse in Vancouver after it was bought by Cross Photonics.
Six years after the death of the alternate Mac, the new version of Mac which worked with Cross Photonics instead of the ARC discovered his alternate self's frozen body at Cross Photonics, exposing the truth about why Evan had recruited Mac to him and the rest of the Special Projects Group. (Truth) This revelation had severe consequences on the Cross Photonics Mac's confidence and his friendship with Evan, causing him to suffer a sort of crisis of identity and causing a rift between him and Evan over how the latter had taken Mac's life off its destined path. When Cross Photonics was taken over by Project Magnet, the Special Projects Group, at the Cross Photonics Mac's request, removed the alternate Mac's body and gave him a proper burial. (Breakthrough, The Inquisition)
The Alternate Mac's Gravestone (The Inquisition)
The ARC version of Mac was presumably fully erased from all of the timeline when the Special Projects Group used the same Spaghetti Junction which he had travelled through to 2006 to redo and ensure the 2006 Albertosaurus incursion happened as it was meant to; the earlier erasure of the ARC Mac's timeline meaning that in the new version of events, he never came through to 2006. (The Sound of Thunder: Part 2)
Personality
Little is known about what the alternate Mac Rendell, specifically how similar or different he was compared to the Cross Photonics version of Mac; however, the alternate Mac was shown to be brave and selfless when saving Evan from the Albertosaurus in 2006, and was serious about his job but also seemed to yearn to see his home time again before dying.
Other references
The New World
Connor Temple travelled to Vancouver to collect the alternate Mac's Anomaly timer from Evan Cross.
Breakthrough
When the Cross Photonics Mac Rendell was suffering an identity crisis after discovering the other Mac, Toby Nance broke into the old freezer room to show and convince the current Mac he was separate from the Mac frozen in the freezer and that he should be grateful to Evan for saving his life. After she successfully convinced the current Mac, he asked her to help research the A.R.C. patch on the other Mac's jacket.
The Inquisition
The current Mac claimed that he was searching for answers about the other Mac and not sulking when he took time off from the Special Projects Group.
The Sound of Thunder: Part 1
Toby found out that the A.R.C. patch stood for Anomaly Research Centre and told the current Mac, that his alternate was working an Anomaly combating team just like the current Mac.
The Sound of Thunder: Part 2
When Connor Temple came to the Special Projects Group's present from his own, Mac asked Connor about the alternate Mac and what he was like, but Connor apparently did not know the alternate Mac due to the erasure of the ARC Mac's timeline, and encouraged Mac to focus on his current life and not his alternate self's.
Appearances
- The New World (first appearance of corpse, flashback)
- Undone (indirectly mentioned)
- Truth (corpse, flashback)
- Breakthrough (corpse)
- The Inquisition (mentioned, latest appearance of corpse)
- The Sound of Thunder: Part 1 (mentioned)
- The Sound of Thunder: Part 2 (mentioned)
Trivia
- In The Sound of Thunder: Part 2, although Connor claimed that he didn't remember the alternate Mac Rendell, some fans have argued about whether or not Connor was being truthful about this, due to Connor's prior knowledge in The New World that Evan Cross possessed the alternate Mac's Anomaly timer. Also Connor appeared to recognise the current Mac as he quickly walked away when he noticed Mac approaching.