Trancers (1985)

User Rating:

6.2/10   

Director:

Charles Band

Writers:

Danny Bilson (writer)
Paul De Meo (writer)

Release Date:

May 1985 (USA)

Genre:

Action | Sci-Fi

Tagline:

2247 collides with 1985 . . . when a 23rd century crime fighter heats it up in L.A., today

Plot:

Jack Deth is a kind of cop/bounty hunter in the bleak Los Angeles of the future. He's become obssessed with chasing Whistler...

Plot Keywords:

Punk | Time Travel | Police | Spoof | Christmas

Cast

Tim Thomerson	...	Trooper Jack Deth / Phil Deth
Helen Hunt	...	Leena
Michael Stefani	...	Martin Whistler / Police Dective Weisling
Art LaFleur	...	McNulty (as Art La Fleur)
Telma Hopkins	...	Engineer Ruth 'Ruthie' Raines
Richard Herd	...	Chairman Spencer
Anne Seymour	...	Chairman Ashe
Miguel Fernandes	...	Officer Lopez (as Miguel Fernandez)
Biff Manard	...	Hap Ashby
Peter Schrum	...	Santa Claus (Murray) (as Pete Schrum)
Barbara Perry	...	Mrs. Santa Claus
Brad Logan	...	Bull
Minnie Summers Lindsey	...	Mom (as Minnie Lindsay)
Richard Erdman	...	Drunken Wise Man
Wiley Harker	...	Dapper Old Man

Also Known As:

Future Cop (Philippines: English title)
Trancers I (Australia) (DVD box title)

Runtime:

76 min

Country:

USA

Language:

English

Color:

Color

Aspect Ratio:

1.85 : 1

Sound Mix:

Ultra Stereo

Certification:

Singapore:PG | Belgium:16 (video rating) | Australia:M | Norway:16 | UK:15 | USA:PG-13 | Canada:13+ (Quebec) | Canada:AA (Ontario)

Filming Locations:

Los Angeles, California, USA

Company:

Altar Productions

Goofs:

Continuity: The "long second" device is supposed to stretch out 1 second of time to appear as 10 seconds. The first time, it lasts for some 90 seconds, and we see a bullet moving at well under 1 mph, indicating a reduction factor of much more than 10. The second time, the effect lasts for about 45 seconds.

Quotes:

[first lines]
Jack Deth: Last January, I finally singed Martin Whistler out on one of the rim planets. Since then, I've been hunting down the last of his murdering cult. We call them "Trancers:" slaves to Whistler's psychic power. Not really alive, not dead enough. It's July now, and I'm tired. Real tired.

Movie Connections:

Featured in Stephen King's World of Horror (1986) (TV)

Rules are for Jokers, This Jack Is the Reel Deal!

His Empire May Have Crumbled And the Full Moon might have slightly dipped behind the shadows, but Charles's Band's Legacy of Classics will always begin and end with this vision of Jack Deth, a rogue cop fighting for his right to live and breath in the city of angels in the year 2247.

My first introduction to the cinema of Charles Band began with the Low Budget riff on Gremlins in the shape of Ghoulies, nothing that great, just a slight distraction for eighty odd minutes, now this being the 1980's the video shops were littered with all sorts of mindless dreck cluttering up the shelves, and being of an age, with an enquiring mind, in short and even still to this day, a sucker for a good looking cover i stumbled upon Trancers, not really knowing that it was made by the same producer.

Now Comparisons have been made down through the years, that Band was lurking in the shadows of Roger Corman as the pretender to the thrown as King of the B Picture, Alas my own take on that notion, is that Corman was from another time and age, that while he still maintains a presence in the Low Budget Genre Market with all the Various Dinosaurs, Carnosaurs and bubble headed Muscleman pictures, Charles Band was the man with plan and so it was, and so it began with Trancers.

Now everyone seems to think that this movie should be compared to the likes of The Terminator, However remember this being the 80's what film didn't compare just a little like something they had just watched. This Movie written by the combo partnership of Bilson & DeMeo [the writers behind the just as brilliant Zone Troopers] had concocted a hard boiled vision of the future whereby Tim Thomerson essays the spirit of a down at heel gumshoe caught between a rock and hard place and hell hath no fury if you come between him and the answers that he seeks in his quest to save the future.

At a mere running time of 82 minutes, the standard running time for the majority of all Empire and Future Full Moon Movies, the movie benefits from a crackerjack script, bubbling over with witty one liners[Spoken by the Tim Man Himself]ably assisted on his travels by the elf like Lena, the sexy santa helper from the north pole shopping mall. I never thought about it back then, but as this arena of film-making has become Tim Thomerson's bread and Butter, does Helen Hunt still care to remember her early hike up the Hollywood Ladder by appearing in such a low budgeted but very high spirited movie.

Back then ofcourse, who knew? Then Again who was i to say that, when i was just a teenager, i would find myself hooked on low budget B movies or to be more precise, the low budget B Movie that rolled of the Charles Band Conveyor belt all those years ago and even still to this day, and it all began with the first adventure of a future cop called Jack Deth, he who said that dry hair was for squids.

The many sequels that followed down through the years may not have surpassed the class and feel of the original, but they still had Jack Deth as the main protagonist, in his world rules were for jokers, he lived by his own rules. My all time favourite from the Charles Band.

This Jack is the reel deal.If you haven't already seen it, which i seriously doubt, do yourself a favour and give it another watch, you'll see what i mean.