| Anna to the Infinite Power | |
|---|---|
| Directed by | Robert Wiemer |
| Produced by | Bruce Graham Ned Kandel (Executive Producer) Robert Wiemer |
| Written by | Robert Wiemer Mildred Ames |
| Starring | Martha Byrne Dina Merrill Mark Patton Donna Mitchell Jack Gilford |
| Music by | Paul Baillargeon |
| Cinematography | Glenn Kershaw |
| Editing by | Peter Hammer |
| Release date(s) | 1983 |
| Running time | 102 min. |
| Country | United States |
| Language | English |
| Budget | $425,000.00 |
Anna to the Infinite Power is a 1983 science fiction/thriller film about a young teenager who learns that she was the product of a cloning experiment. The film was based on the novel of the same name by Mildred Ames. It was produced by Kandell Enterprises & Film Gallery, previously responsible for the popular American syndicated kids' series Big Blue Marble, and many alumni from that program worked on the film. The film was never released theatrically, but was shown on pay cable, and later appeared on home video. The film's signature score "Anna's Reverie" was composed by Paul Baillargeon, who wrote the music for the film and has a cameo scene in which he plays the music teacher of Anna's brother Rowan.
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Anna Hart was always an odd child—a genius desperately afraid of flickering lights, and with strange prophetic dreams. Simultaneously, several strange things begin to happen. A mysterious neighbor named Michaela Dupont (a piano teacher who has been watching Anna, and has kept photos of her and of another girl taken in 1970 who much resembles Anna) moves in next door to the Harts. And, most frightening of all, Anna sees her exact double on television one night (and learns that her double has the same family setting as hers).
As her investigation of the other Anna—Anna Smithson—progresses, she begins to learn the truth: the truth about a woman named Anna Zimmerman who has been dead for twenty years, and most important, the truth about herself: that she was part of a cloning experiment by Zimmerman to create the perfect girl, one who would grow into a duplicate of Zimmerman herself, right down to the traits that Anna indeed shares with her. It also turns out that her mother volunteered for the cloning project but the father wanted nothing to do with it. We also learn, through Anna's dreams, of Zimmerman's past; growing up during World War II as a Jew in Nazi-controlled Germany, where she, like the present Anna, was a pianist and child prodigy who would play a part in the Nazis' plans for the genetic engineering of humans.
But, just as the current Anna is beginning to act normal and learn more about her background—thanks in part to her brother Rowan and to secret assistance from Micheala—we also learn of six other Annas, this after her mother told her that they (the people involved with the cloning project) wanted to re-evaluate Anna for a few days at a facility at Albacore Island. While there, Anna becomes suspicious when the phone in her room is blocked. Also, as she snoops around she notices the experiments they are performing. When Rowan has not heard from Anna, he sneaks into the facility to see his sister. Anna and Rowan confront Dr. Henry Jelliff, the person who kept Zimmerman's genetic cloning experiments alive at Albacore Island, who tells her that she is now a 'normal' person and suggests that she should change her name as a way to start a new life. But, after Anna and her brother were free to go, Jelliff reveals to Michaela, whom he suspected was not following her assignments, that he is secretly grooming yet another Anna to grow up to become the future Zimmerman; they plan to kill the remaining five Annas, including Hart and her family, shortly.
Jelliff's plans to eliminate the girls backfire when Michaela reveals herself to him as Anna Parkhurst, the original product of Zimmerman's cloning experiment (she was the other girl that resembled Anna in the 1970 photo from the beginning of the film); and, like her Mother/Creator, she knows how to create the replicator. Because Jelliff had her parents killed and because she is enraged by the experiments, the adult Anna turns the table on him by offering him the plans for the replicator in return for the safety of all of the Annas. The film ends with Jeliff considering Michaela/Anna's offer.
The opening credits of the television series Big Blue Marble can also be seen in the film; the show's production company also co-produced this film.
The rock band AnnAtotheInfinitePower took their name from the book. They played and recorded music in Chapel Hill, North Carolina, from 1995 to 2000 and were best known for their song "When the World Ends".
In 1986, RCA/Columbia Pictures secured home video rights and released the film on VHS.
On April 27, 2010, Scorpion Releasing released the fim on DVD, with an interview with Martha Byrne.