| Timecop | |
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Theatrical release poster |
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| Directed by | Peter Hyams |
| Produced by | Moshe Diamant Sam Raimi Robert G. Tapert |
| Screenplay by | Mark Verheiden |
| Story by | Mike Richardson Mark Verheiden |
| Based on | Time Cop by Mike Richardson and Mark Verheiden |
| Starring | Jean-Claude Van Damme Mia Sara Ron Silver Gloria Reuben |
| Music by | Mark Isham Robert Lamm |
| Cinematography | Peter Hyams |
| Editing by | Steven Kemper |
| Studio | Largo Entertainment JVC Entertaiment Dark Horse Entertainment Renaissance Pictures |
| Distributed by | Universal Pictures |
| Release date(s) | September 16, 1994 |
| Running time | 98 minutes |
| Country | Canada United States |
| Language | English |
| Budget | US$27 million[1] |
| Box office | Domestic: $ 44,853,581 Foreign: $58,793,000 Worldwide: $ 103,646,581 |
Timecop is a 1994 science-fiction thriller film directed by Peter Hyams and co-written by Mike Richardson and Mark Verheiden. Richardson was also executive producer. The film is based on Time Cop, a story written by Verheiden and drawn by Phil Hester and Chris Warner which appeared in the anthology comic Dark Horse Comics, published by Dark Horse Comics.
The film stars Jean-Claude Van Damme as a U.S. Federal agent in the late 1990s and early 2000s, when time travel is possible. It also stars Ron Silver as a rogue politician and Mia Sara as the agent's wife. The story follows an interconnected web of episodes in the agent's life (or perhaps lives) as he fights time-travel crime and investigates the politician's unusually successful career.
Timecop remains Van Damme's highest grossing film (breaking the $100,000,000 barrier for a worldwide gross). It was also regarded as one of Van Damme's better films by critics who usually derided his acting ability.
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In 1863, gold bullion is stolen from Confederate soldiers by a highwayman using machine pistols. Then, 131 years later, the U.S. government creates the Time Enforcement Commission (TEC) to combat misuse of the new discovery of time travel, after discovering that the same gold bullion was used in a recent arms purchase. Senator Aaron McComb (Silver) volunteers to oversee the commission, and shortly afterward, police officer Max Walker (Van Damme) is offered a job as a TEC agent. Later that evening, Max is attacked by intruders at his suburban home and his wife Melissa (Sara) is killed in an explosion.
Ten years later, Walker is now an experienced TEC Agent, and is sent to 1929 to arrest his former partner Atwood (Jason Schombing) for taking advantage of the U.S. stock-market crash, Atwood reveals that he is working for McComb, who needs money for his presidential campaign. Terrified by McComb's threat to murder his ancestors, meaning he would never have existed, Atwood tries to kill himself by jumping out a window. Walker catches him as he falls and takes him back to 2004, but Atwood refuses to testify against McComb and the TEC agency sends him back to 1929 to the same point where he jumped previously, this time falling to his death. Having being haunted by his memories of Melissa's murder ten years previous, Walker vows to stop McComb.
Walker is then partnered with agent Fielding (Gloria Reuben), and sent back to 1994, where they find a young Senator McComb arguing in the McComb/Parker Systems building with Jack Parker about their company's new computer chip. Parker offers to buy McComb's share of the company, but at that moment, the older McComb arrives from 2004 to warn the younger McComb that the chip will make huge profits. A fight ensues when Walker is then double-crossed by Fielding, who reveals she works for McComb. McComb then kills Parker, wounds Fielding while attempting to kill Walker, and manages to escape back to 2004.
When Walker returns to 2004, he finds that things have become worse. McComb owns the computer company, with no record of Parker. He is almost guaranteed the Presidency with his finances and approval rating. The TEC is shutting down due to budget cuts. There is also no record of Fielding having ever existed. Realizing that he has to fix things, Walker commandeers the original prototype time machine (which McComb and company were using for their illegal trips into the past) with the help of Matuzak, who sacrifices himself when McComb's men try to stop Walker from escaping.
Finding himself once more in 1994, Walker finds Fielding in a hospital, where she agrees to testify against McComb. Whilst trying to find Fielding's DNA from a blood sample in the lab, Walker finds a sample of Melissa's blood and it indicates she is pregnant. Walker realizes her death occurred later that night, and he decides to stop it. After going back to Fielding's room, he discovers that she has been murdered and he was being chased as the alleged murderer. He goes to the mall where he and Melissa met that night. Eventually Max finds her and manages to convince her he is from the future.
That evening, McComb's thugs break into Walker's home, just like before, only this time the older Walker is waiting for them. Without the younger Walker knowing, he is helped by his older self in eventually defeating the thugs, though the younger Walker is wounded. McComb then takes Melissa hostage. When the older Walker finds the older McComb is holding Melissa, McComb sets a time bomb. He then shoots Melissa, just before the young McComb appears, having been tricked by a fake message from Walker. According to the story, two versions of the same matter cannot occupy the same space at the same time (compare to the Blinovitch Limitation Effect). Walker grabs the young McComb and pushes him into the older one, causing them to become a writhing, melting mass of blood and flesh which disappears into nothing.
Walker carries Melissa out of the house just before the bomb explodes. Walker returns to 2004, and the timeline has been corrected. The TEC still exists, Fielding is alive, and McComb does not exist, having "vanished" ten years earlier. As Walker returns home, he is happily shocked to find Melissa alive and their 9-year-old son waiting to greet him. Melissa has something announce to Walker, implying that she's pregnant again.
Timecop was released on September 16, 1994, where it opened at the number 1 spot with $12,064,625 from 2,228 theaters and a $5,415 average per theater.[2] In its second week, it took the top spot again with $8,176,615.[3] It finished its run with $45 million in total U.S. Overseas, it grossed even more, with the total gross at $103 million.
Critics were mixed on Timecop, noticing its various plot holes and inconsistencies.[4] Roger Ebert called Timecop a low-rent Terminator.[5] Richard Harrington of the Washington Post said, "For once, Van Damme's accent is easier to understand than the plot." David Richards of the New York Times disparaged Van Damme's acting and previous films but called Timecop "his classiest effort to date".[6] Timecop currently holds a 44% rating on Rotten Tomatoes based on 39 reviews.
The film made Entertainment Weekly's Underrated Films list in November 2010, mostly because of Van-Damme's acting.[7]
The film, which was originally based on a comic, was adapted into a two-issue comic book series.
A TV version of the same name was spun off, running for nine episodes in 1997 on ABC.[8] It starred T.W. King as Jack Logan and Cristi Conaway as Claire Hemmings.
Timecop 2: The Berlin Decision, a direct-to-DVD sequel was released in 2003, starring Jason Scott Lee and Thomas Ian Griffith, and directed by Steve Boyum.[9]
A game based on the movie was developed by Cryo Interactive and released on the SNES in 1995.[10]
A series of tie-in novels by author Dan Parkinson published in 1997–1999 featured the Jack Logan character from the television series.
In 2010, Universal announced a reboot of the film.[11]
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