Timerider: The Adventure of Lyle Swann

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Timerider: The Adventure of Lyle Swann

Timerider: The Adventures of Lyle Swann DVD cover
Directed by William Dear
Produced by William Dear
Written by Michael Nesmith
Starring Fred Ward
Peter Coyote
Belinda Bauer
Ed Lauter
L.Q. Jones
Richard Masur
Music by Michael Nesmith
Cinematography Larry Pizer
Editing by R.J. Kizer
Distributed by Atlas
Release date(s) 11 December 1982 (premiere)
Running time 94 min.
Country United States
Language English
All Movie Guide profile
IMDb profile


Timerider: The Adventure of Lyle Swann, directed by William Dear, is the 1982 time travel movie starring Fred Ward as Lyle Swann, a cross country dirt bike racer. It was the first official appearance of Julianne Moore.

Contents

[edit] Plot

When Swann goes miles off course he stumbles across a time travel experiment that utilizes two "cannons" that fire temporal energy to send each other back in time. Swann gets sent back to 1877 but rides off before the time cannons can return him to the future. Unsure of what has happened to him, Swann rides across the wild west in red motorcycle leathers and a red dirt bike, scaring local Mexicans who think he is the devil.

Swann meets a beautiful woman and sleeps with her, but she is later kidnapped by a ruthless criminal, Porter Reese (portrayed by Peter Coyote) and his gang of rapists, thieves, and murderers. They also manage to capture Lyle Swann's dirt bike, leading to a series of hijinx, while Swann gets help from a posse trying to capture or kill the gang of criminals.

Spoiler warning: Plot and/or ending details follow.

In a final showdown, Reese and Swann face each other atop a plateau. Just as a helicopter sent by the builders of the time machine shows up to take Swan home, his dirt bike falls off the side of the plateau, distracting Reese. He gets mangled by the copter's tail rotor, leaving only a pair of bloody boots behind. It is then that Swann spots his lover holding up a pendant he had been wearing, handed down from his great-grandfather... and he realizes that he is his own great-grandfather.

[edit] References

  • Possibly related to this film is the Futurama episode Roswell That Ends Well, in which Phillip J. Fry goes back in time to become his own grandfather.
  • In the South Park episode "Goobacks," where various time-travelling techniques in movies are compared, this movie's time-travel rules are described as being "Just plain silly."

[edit] Trivia

  • The writer of the film's screenplay and soundtrack was Michael Nesmith, who was formerly a member of band The Monkees. He appears briefly as one of the Baja 1000 officials in the beginning of the film.
  • The film is an example of the predestination paradox.

[edit] External links

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