Future Cop

Trancers is a breathtaking film. Made on a minute budget, the sets clearly suffer from costings yet despite this the film is consistently humorous and riveting. Tim Thomerson blasts his way through many bad Trancers dude in his sarcastic and wry style - the scene where he tells a well toned body-builder (Michael McGrady) that his tan suits Christmas well is brilliant as are many of the daft remarks. Featuring a pre-fame Helen Hunt as Leena and a great range of supporting actors we also have to be grateful to the writers, Danny Bilson and Paul De Meo (later to concentrate on computer games understandably) who tone the film in ways that Charles Band (as director) could never have done alone.

This low, low budget sci-fier is somewhat derivative, but it's kind of a take-off on Bladerunner-type movies, rather than a ripoff of them. Jack Deth (Tim Thomerson) is a detective in the future who's sent back to 1985 to stop a madman who's decided to kill the ancestors of the city council of Deth's time. With the help of Lena (a young Helen Hunt), Deth fights Trancers (who have fallen under the control of the madman) and his own culture shock.

It's a short movie (76 minutes), and things move pretty quickly; plot isn't so much of a focus as a annoying gnat that appears from time to time. But for being so short, the characters are pretty well developed - and one huge bonus is that Deth isn't an no necked, shoot-first idiot, as renegade cops are often portrayed.

Trancers is original, often-funny sci-fi cheese. It's great to see Thomerson and Hunt - especially Hunt, who looks great.

Jack Deth (Tim Thomerson) is a cop in 2247 with old Los Angeles now under water. He is hunting down the last of Martin Whistler (Michael Stefani)'s people after he singe Whistler. Whistler's psychic power turns people into psycho killers under Trance. Trancers can seem normal until they're scanned or activated. Then the council calls in Jack Deth telling him that Whistler had actually escaped down-the-line into the body of his ancestor Police Detective Weisling in 1985. Whistler intends to kill every member of the council by killing their ancestors. They send Jack Deth into the past into the body of Phil Deth with two vials to send both him and Whistler into the present. He's also given a watch that stretch a long second into ten. Leena (Helen Hunt) is Phil's one-night stand from the previous night. This is packed full of great sci-fi ideas. It may be one too many but it's all easily understandable. I love the hard-boiled Jack Deth character. It's a relatively low-budget affair. With a few more bucks and some imagination, this would be a great sci-fi classic. Instead it's a campy cult classic.

In the Twentieth-Third Century, in Angel City, the trooper Jack Deth (Tim Thomerson) hunts down the criminal Martin Whistler (Michael Stefani) that killed his wife and turns weak-minded people into Trancers to follow his command. Jack is assigned by the government to travel to 1985 to chase Whistler that has fled to the past to kill their ancestors and assume the government. The way to travel in time is injecting a drug that makes the consciousness of the user traveling through ancestors. Jack learns that Whistler left his body in the Twentieth-Third Century and took over his ancestor, L.A. Police Detective Weisling. Before traveling to the past, Jack destroys Whistler's body to trap him in the past. Jack awakes in the body of the journalist Phil Dethton that had one night stand with the sexy photographer Leena (Helen Hunt). Jack teams up with Leena to look for the the ancestors of the member of the government, but Whistler has the power of the police. Will they succeed?

"Trancers" is a cult sci-fi film directed by Charles Band in a film- noir style. The idea of traveling in time through ancestors is unique and the story has action and humor in right doses. Helen Hunt is very cute and shows great chemistry with Tim Thomerson). My vote is six.

Title (Brazil): "Trancers – O Exterminador do Século XXIII" ("Trancers – The Terminator from the Twentieth-Third Century")

This sci-fi entry comes across as a charmingly trashy amalgam of BLADE RUNNER (1982) and THE TERMINATOR (1984) – not as good as either, sure, but arguably more entertaining. It involves an unshaven, raincoat-clad police detective from the 23rd century (the film, in fact, was re-issued as FUTURE COP) chasing the leader of a group of Trancers (gullible "squibs" who turn vicious and expire fluorescently in a pile of ashes) back to the present day, where the latter intends to exterminate the ancestors of the three council members who brought about his downfall.

Except for a young Helen Hunt, I was unfamiliar with the main cast – though craggy-faced lead Tim Thomerson evokes the perfect blend of machismo, world-weariness and bewilderment the role requires. The film is also refreshingly tongue-in-cheek – with the funniest bits being the hard-boiled hero lighting a match against his own teeth and when, on entering a discotheque frequented by punk rockers, he deadpans "It looks like a room full of Trancers to me". As a matter of fact, the sharply-written script has a fair amount of amusing one-liners: when Thomerson complains about the implausibility of a name like Peter Gunn upon catching an episode of the vintage series on TV, Hunt quips, "What kind of a name is Jack Deth?" (i.e. the character played by Thomerson himself).

While the special effects afforded by the modest budget could best be described as quaint, the action sequences are adequate enough – including a couple in which the hero manages to halt time (via a James Bond-like gadget wrist-watch) in order to flee the presence of Trancers who have him cornered and, then, to save the heroine from certain death. Though perhaps too low-key for its own good and somewhat under-developed at 76 minutes, the film seems to be deserving of a cult reputation (for what it's worth, it was followed by two sequels also featuring Thomerson) – but, alas, hasn't been served at all well by the DVD format so far (this viewing came by way of the no-frills fullscreen R2 edition from a budget label). I, for one, wouldn't be averse to a more exhaustively packaged and properly framed re-issue...