Trancers

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Trancers

Directed by	Charles Band
Produced by	Charles Band
Written by	Danny Bilson Paul De Meo
Starring	Tim Thomerson Helen Hunt Michael Stephani Art LaFleur Telma Hopkins Richard Herd Anne Seymour Biff Manard
Music by	Phil Davies Mark Ryder
Cinematography	Mac Ahlberg
Editing by	Ted Nicolaou
Distributed by	Empire Pictures
Release date(s)	May 1985
Running time	76 minutes
Country	USA
Language	English
Budget	US$400,000 (estimated)
IMDb profile

Trancers is a 1985 science fiction film. It was directed by Charles Band and stars Tim Thomerson and Helen Hunt. It is the first film in a series of six others: Trancers (1985), and the direct-to-video releases; Trancers II (1991), Trancers III (1992), Trancers 4: Jack of Swords (1994), Trancers 5: Sudden Deth (1994), and Trancers 6 (2002).

Tagline: "His name is Deth. He hunts Trancers. Even in the 20th Century."

Spoiler warning: Plot and/or ending details follow.

Jack Deth, (Tim Thomerson), is a police trooper in the year 2247. He has been hunting down Martin Whistler (Michael Stefani), a criminal mastermind who uses strange psychic powers to make people into zombies and carry out his every desire. Deth can identify a tranced victim, (who appear normal at first, but once triggered, become savage killers), by scanning them with a special bracelet.

Before he can be caught, Whistler escapes back in time. Using a bizarre drug-induced time travelling technique, Whistler leaves his body in 2247 and travels down his ancestral bloodline arriving in 1985. His ancestor at that time is a Los Angeles police detective named Weisling.

Once Deth discovers what Whistler has done, he destroys Whistler's body (effectively leaving him trapped in the past with no vessel to return to) and chases after him through time the same way, ending up in the body of one of his ancestors, a journalist named Phil Deth.

With the help of a punk rock girl named Leena (Helen Hunt), Phil's girlfriend, Deth goes after Whistler who has begun to "trance" other victims and plots to eliminate the future governing council members of Angel City, (the future name of Los Angeles), who are being systematically wiped out of existence by Whistler's murder spree of their own ancestors.

Deth arrives late and must now safeguarding Hap Ashby (Biff Manard), a washed-out former pro baseball player, who is the ancestor of the last surviving council member, Chairman Ashe. Deth is given some high-tech equipment which is sent to him in the past: his sidearm, (which contains two hidden vials of time drugs to send him and Whistler back to the future), and a "long-second" wristwatch, which temporarily slows time stretching one second to ten. The watch has only enough power for one use. He receives another watch through time later to pull the same trick again.

During the fight with Whistler, one of the drug vials in Jack's gun breaks, leaving only one vial to get home. Now Jack must make a choice to kill an "innocent man" Weisling (who is possessed by the evil Whistler), or use the vial to send Whistler back up the line. Jack instead, injects Weisling with the last vial, sending Whistler home with no body to return to effectively destroying him. Jack decides to remain with Leena in 1985.

[edit] Cast

Tim Thomerson - Trooper Jack Deth/Phil Deth
Helen Hunt - Leena
Michael Stefani - Martin Whistler/Police Detective Weisling
Art LaFleur - McNulty (as Art La Fleur)
Telma Hopkins - Engineer Ruth "Ruthie" Raines
Richard Herd - Chairman Spencer
Anne Seymour - Chairman Ashe
Biff Manard - Hap Ashby

[edit] Trivia

This film uses an innovative method of time travel: People can travel back in time by injecting themselves with a drug which allows them to briefly take over the body of an ancestor. When Jack Deth arrives in 1985, he is in the body of his ancestor, a journalist; Whistler assumes control of his ancestor, a police detective; and Deth's supervisor, McNulty, borrows the form of his own forebear, a young girl.

A similarly innovative method of traveling to the past was used in the Days of Future Past storyline in X-Men comics several years earlier. In 1982's Avengers I#225, it was established that Dane Whitman's mind time-travelled back into an ancestor's body.