Timecop
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| Timecop | |
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 Theatrical release poster |
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| Directed by | Peter Hyams |
| Produced by | Sam Raimi Robert Tapert |
| Written by | Mike Richardson Mark Verheiden |
| Starring | Jean-Claude Van Damme Mia Sara Ron Silver Bruce McGill Gloria Reuben |
| Music by | Mark Isham Robert Lamm |
| Cinematography | Peter Hyams |
| Editing by | Steven Kemper |
| Distributed by | MCA/Universal Pictures |
| Release date(s) | September 16, 1994 |
| Running time | 98 min. |
| Country |  United States/Japan |
| Language | English |
| Followed by | Timecop 2: The Berlin Decision |
| IMDb profile | |
Timecop (1994) is a science fiction thriller feature film directed by Peter Hyams based on the comic of the same name.
Timecop stars Jean Claude Van Damme, Ron Silver, Bruce McGill and Mia Sara, set in the future (actually 2004) where time travel is possible. Van Damme plays a Time Enforcement Agent, part of a specialized police organization. He is conflicted, because he knows it is possible to prevent his wife's death, but his job as a Time Enforcement Agent prevents him from acting on such a prevention.
Timecop remains Jean Claude Van-Damme's highest grossing film (breaking the $100,000,000 barrier for worldwide gross) and his last commercially successful film. It was also regarded as one of Van Damme's better films by critics who usually derided his acting ability.
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[edit] Plot summary
The beginning of the film shows a party of Confederate soldiers transporting gold bullion to General Robert E. Lee in 1863, the middle of the Civil War. They are stopped on the road by a man, who first politely asks for the gold, but then guns them down with two submachine-guns. In 1994, George Spota confers with the Senate Oversight Committee about Dr. Hans Kleindast’s successful experiments with time travel, and what precautions should be made to guard against tampering with such powerful material. The Time Enforcement Commission (TEC) is created, with DCPD Commander Eugene Matuzak (Bruce McGill) chosen as the director. The up-and-coming Senator Aaron McComb (Ron Silver) appoints himself to the oversight committee.
Max Walker (Jean-Claude Van Damme) is a TEC Agent in the year 2004. Ten years prior to working at the TEC, Walker's wife Melissa (Mia Sara) was killed in a raid on their home, which culminated in their house being blown up- with her inside. Max is constantly haunted by her memory, particularly something she was going to tell him before her death, and tormented by the idea that it is possible to save her by traveling back. Such an action would bring Max back from the disillusioned, work-intensive state he’s in, but would also defy the purpose of the TEC: to stop those with the capability from altering the past with their own interests.
On a mission to arrest his former partner, Lyle Atwood (Jason Schombing), Max travels back to a few days after the Wall Street Crash of 1929 to discover Atwood using knowledge from the future to buy up large stocks, which will in the future be worth millions. Walker confronts Atwood, who reveals that he has been collecting money for Senator McComb, who is using it to fund his campaign for President of the United States. Atwood pleads with Walker to spare him, and attempts suicide, but Walker saves him in the hope that he will testify against McComb. Atwood stays quiet and is sentenced to death. In a twist of temporal irony, Atwood is transported back to 1929, in the act of falling from his office window. He is therefore thought of as just another investor who lost everything in the Stock Market Crash. Walker then makes a vow to himself: "If I can't go back to save my wife, this scumbag is not going back to steal money."
After returning, Walker is made to accompany Matuzak while he, Spota, and McComb escort new overseer Senator Nelson around the headquarters. McComb inquires about Atwood, and soon deduces that Atwood gave him up to Walker. He tells Nelson that the TEC is a costly and unnecessary department; time travel should simply be done away with. Walker tells Matuzak about Atwood’s confession, which Matuzak believes but is reluctant to follow through on. The following morning, Walker is attacked in his apartment by three of McComb’s thugs, whom he dispatches. Soon after, he is introduced to his new partner, Internal Affairs agent Sarah Fielding (Gloria Reuben); Walker, having been Atwood’s partner, is under cautionary suspicion.
Matuzak accepts Walker’s suspicions about McComb, but again sees no point in pursuing them, as McComb has the power to take the department offline, and there is little proof. Walker and Fielding are sent to investigate a time fluctuation in 1994 at the Parker-McComb computer factory. Also at the factory is a young Senator McComb, arguing with Jack Parker about the marketability of the computer chip they are making, which Parker later makes millions off of and powers the TEC with. Parker, judiciously spending McComb’s money on the chip, gives him a final check, severing their ties, which in history costs McComb greatly. Walker infiltrates the facility just as a future version of Senator McComb arrives. The future McComb explains that the younger McComb needs to take over the company, as it will be worth billions in the future. Walker attempts to arrest the older McComb; however, he is double crossed by Fielding, who reveals that she too is corrupt. A fight ensues as McComb escapes back into the future, first killing Parker and ensuring his ownership of the company. (To illustrate the effects of the TEC agents, Walker kicks the younger McComb in the face during the fight and the effect of the damage instantly shows on the older McComb.)
Walker returns to the future only to find that the TEC is being decommissioned. Everything has changed—McComb, his chip powering all TEC machinery, has become a dominant political force, and removing the TEC gives him total control over time travel—and only Walker knows what has happened. Realizing that it is the effect of McComb's interference, Walker commandeers the time machine and goes back one last time with Matuzak’s help—help that costs Matuzak his life.
He arrives back again in 1994 and seeks out Fielding, who is in the hospital after McComb betrayed and shot her. Fielding agrees to Walker’s suggestion of testifying against McComb. Walker says he needs something to prove she existed, as McComb may travel back and kill her family to prevent her birth. Walker finds Fielding's blood sample, but also discovers his wife's blood sample, which indicates she is—was—pregnant. Walker returns to Fielding, but he is too late: she has been murdered. Realizing that he was to be a father, Walker decides that he must now save Melissa, and most likely stop McComb in the process.
While at the mall searching for Melissa, Walker recognizes two of McComb's thugs, whom he saw ten years before, and realizes that McComb must have changed the past and deliberately caused the death of his wife. Walker confronts his wife and explains that he is a future version of her husband. Bewildered and scared, Melissa still agrees to help out the future Walker by playing along with the younger Walker. Everything goes as it did before (in the beginning of the film), since Walker deliberately avoids telling Melissa about her impending death.
In the final showdown, McComb's thugs show up at the Walker home, but this time there are two of him, though the younger Walker is not aware of the older one. The two Walkers fight McComb's thugs one by one, the younger taking most of the damage while the older plays cat-and-mouse. The two Walkers and Melissa take out the thugs (she manages to shoot one while he's distracted trying to kill the younger Walker). The younger Walker is left half dead (again) as the older Walker confronts the older McComb, who is holding Melissa hostage. McComb sets the bomb to destroy the house and explains that although he will die, his earlier self will still become president; however, Walker has set him up. The younger McComb appears, responding to a message Walker secretly sent. Enraged, the older McComb shoots and wounds Melissa. Walker grabs the younger McComb and shoves him into the older one. As the movie states "The same matter cannot occupy the same space", the two McCombs fuse and implode into a pool of disappearing blood. Walker quickly picks up Melissa and carries her to safety as the bomb explodes and destroys their house.
Walker returns to the future, and is elated when he sees that things are back to normal—and more. Jack Parker runs the datalink company powering the TEC once again, Fielding is alive, Matuzak is a more amiable boss, and McComb apparently “disappeared” ten years ago. Walker arrives home—his rebuilt home—to find his wife, Melissa, and their son, there to greet him.
[edit] Cast
- Jean-Claude Van Damme - Max Walker
- Mia Sara - Melissa Walker
- Ron Silver - Senator Aaron McComb
- Bruce McGill - Commander Eugene Matuzak
- Gloria Reuben - Sarah Fielding
- Scott Bellis - Ricky
- Jason Schombing - Lyle Atwood
[edit] Critical & Box office reception
Timecop was released on September 16, 1994, where it opened at the number 1 spot with $12,064,625 from 2,228 theaters and a $5,415 average per theater. In its second week, it took the top spot yet again with $8,176,615. It finished its run with $45 million in total US ticket sales making it the first real solid box office hit for Van Damme. Overseas it grossed nearly double its US box office and making nearly $135 million in all.[citation needed]
Critics were mixed on Timecop noticing its various plot holes and inconsistencies.[who?] While other critics liked the movie for its pure escapism it was widely agreed upon that Van Damme deserved only a passing grade for his acting as Max Walker.[who?] Ron Silver was well noted for his villainous turn as crooked Senator Mc Comb.[citation needed]
Early in the film it is stated that backward time travel is possible but forward time travel is not, simply because "the future hasn't happened yet". Roger Ebert's review takes the film to task for its illogical paradoxes, including, "once you do travel back in time, the present becomes the future that has not yet happened."[1]
[edit] Spinoffs
The film, which was originally based on a comic, spun off into a short-lived television series named Timecop which ran for nine episodes in 1997 on ABC. It starred T.W. King as Jack Logan and Cristi Conaway as Claire Hemmings.
In 2003, a Direct-to-DVD sequel was released titled Timecop 2: The Berlin Decision starring Jason Scott Lee, Thomas Ian Griffith, and directed by Steve Boyum.
A game based on the movie was released on the SNES in 1995.
A series of tie-in novels was published from 1997-1999, by author Dan Parkinson, featuring the Jack Logan character from the television series.
[edit] See also
[edit] References
[edit] External links
- Timecop at the Internet Movie Database
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