12:01 (1993 film)

12:01 is a 1993 television film directed by Jack Sholder, and starring Helen Slater, Jonathan Silverman, Jeremy Piven, and Martin Landau. It originally aired on the Fox Network in the United States.

It is an adaptation of Richard Lupoff's short story "12:01 PM," published in the December 1973, issue of The Magazine of Fantasy & Science Fiction. The story had previously been adapted into an 1990 Academy Award nominated short film starring Kurtwood Smith.^[1]

Plot

Expanding on the original's premise of a one hour time loop, this version saw the main character reliving the same 24-hour period, which would restart at one minute past midnight (rather than midday as in the other versions).

Lowly clerk Barry Thomas is very interested in his co-worker and scientist Lisa Fredericks who barely notices him. That night Barry witnesses her death in a drive-by shooting as he heads home from work. Much later as he laments her death, he receives an electrical shock at exactly midnight. The next morning he slowly becomes aware that all the events of the previous morning are repeating themselves. The shock has caused him to be aware of the time loop, while everyone else is oblivious to the repetition. Over several loops, Barry learns how to save Lisa while in the process getting fired and arrested for being in the wrong place and for superior knowledge of events, a problem that often occurs in time travel stories. In some loops he gets much closer to Lisa than others, though there is a general theme of progression of the relationship. Barry eventually learns that Lisa’s boss, Dr. Thadius Moxley, illegally and unethically proceeded with a prohibited scientific experiment involving faster-than-light particle acceleration that caused the time loop. Dr. Thadius Moxley’s henchmen are also behind Lisa’s murder, as she had uncovered aspects of his illegal activities. With the help of an undercover government agent. Barry and Lisa must stop her boss and prevent him from ever activating the machine again or the world will remain trapped in a time loop forever.

It also contains a happy ending, as the protagonist ultimately finds a way to correct the time loop over the course of the film’s 94-minute running time. The movie was released on DVD in the United States on November 28, 2006.

Legal action

The film Groundhog Day, which has a similar time loop premise, was also released in 1993. The writers and producers of 12:01 believed their work was stolen by Groundhog Day.

According to Richard Lupoff:

A brilliant young filmmaker named Jonathan Heap made a superb 30-minute version of my short story "12:01 PM". It was an Oscar nominee in 1990, and was later adapted (very loosely) into a two-hour Fox movie called 12:01. The story was also adapted—actually plagiarized—into a major theatrical film in 1993. Jonathan Heap and I were outraged and tried very hard to go after the rascals who had robbed us, but alas, the Hollywood establishment closed ranks. We were no Art Buchwald. After half a year of lawyers' conferences and emotional stress, we agreed to put the matter behind us and get on with our lives.^[2]

References

External links

• 12:01 at the Internet Movie Database