Time After Time

As I've stated before, I am a sucker for a good time travel story. There is just something about the idea of time travel, as well as the narrative possibilities of it that appeals to me. One of my favorites of the genre was Nicholas Meyer's inventive Time After Time, which has recently been remade as a T.V series (one of six series this year focusing on time travel!). I'm struggling to see how the film with such a self contained storyline can be stretched to a television series. So, before giving the series a try, I decided to take a look back at the film that inspired it.

In 1893 London, Jack the Ripper has made a sudden return to the scene, offing another prostitute in a dark alley. Not too far away, H.G Wells (played by Malcolm McDowell) is hosting a dinner party for some friends and is awaiting the arrival one last guest, physician John Stevenson (played by David Warner) before making an exciting announcement. Once he does, H.G reveals that he has invented a time machine that he proceeds to show his astonished and disbelieving friends, including a unique failsafe key that if the machine is operated without it, the machine will automatically return to it's place of origin. After the presentation, there is a knock at the door with the police searching for Stevenson, who they have identified as Jack the Ripper. The police quickly search the house, but find no trace of Stevenson and leave, believing he has escaped. Soon, H.G makes the horrifying discovery that Stevenson did indeed escape...in Wells' Time Machine. Since it was operated without the key, the machine soon returns to H.G's laboratory. Gathering up all the valuables he can find in the house, he follows Stevenson in time, forward to 1979. Much to his surprise, he lands not in London but in San Francisco. Furthermore, he is shocked at how the future has turned out, seeing it less of the utopia he imagined and more of a chaotic world of automobiles, crime, violence and world war. Reasoning that Stevenson would need to change his British money to American currency, Wells begins visiting area banks to ask about Stevenson, hoping to find a clue to finding him. He finds a lead from bank employee Amy Robbins (played by Mary Steenburgen), who in the process becomes an ally in Wells' pursuit of a deadly killer unleashed on San Francisco.

Nicholas Meyer wrote the film based on a story by Karl Alexander as well as directed the film. The central concept of the film is actually quite clever. Usually, time travel stories start in the present and then have the traveler going to either the future or the past, but here instead finds a unique perspective of having someone from the past traveling to our present. This allows Meyers to give a unique ability to examine how our culture has grown and changed over the past 86 years. It also allows for some unique character moments, such as H.G's disappointment that the future is not the utopia he envisioned but rather a world more suited to the violent Stevenson (Stevenson admits as much, saying that in 1893 he was a freak, in 1979 he's an ameteur, after seeing the worldwide destruction various wars have caused). And yet, for a film focusing on the pursuit of Jack the Ripper, there is a certain light hearted sense of humor to the film as H.G contends with the baffling new world he has landed in. There is also a sweetness to the burgeoning romance between H.G and Amy as well that helps offset the more suspenseful parts of the film as well.  

The performances from the three main actors are quite good as well. I really enjoy Malcolm McDowell in this film. He got typecast playing villains after A Clockwork Orange and it's so refreshing to see him playing a good guy, in particular a good guy who is non-violent and does the best he can to avoid violence at all costs over the majority of the film. The film also gives McDowell a nice arc to work with as throughout the film he refuses to resort to violence to capture Stevenson. Amy even asks him point blank if they should get a gun and he refuses. But as the film goes on and the circumstances escalate it becomes clear to H.G that the only way to stop Stevenson and protect Amy is to kill him. David Warner makes for an effective villain as well and is more than just a mindless slasher. He genuinely believes that he belongs in the future, that it is his time. At the same time, he still views H.G as a friend and doesn't want to hurt him if he doesn't have to. Still, he does give in to his compulsion to kill others, which he does throughout the film (although for a movie with Jack the Ripper in it, it is not particularly violent). And then there was Mary Steenburgen. She does well in the film as H.G's love interest and partner in his pursuit of Stevenson. She fills the role with a certain spunky charm, along with some decent chemistry with Malcolm McDowell. I also have to mention that this film has an interesting parallel with the Back to the Future trilogy, especially Part III, which Steenburgen also starred in and in that one plays the opposite of her character in this. In this one, she's a 20th Century woman falling for a 19th Century time traveler and in the other film she's a 19th Century woman falling for a 20th Century time traveler. It makes a fun little connection between the films (also, this film shares a connection with the original Back to the Future. In both films, the date they travel to is November 5th, although the years are different, obviously). 

Time After Time remains a fun little sci-fi adventure film. Sure, the special effects may be a bit dated today, but I don't feel they detract from the film very much. The central story remains as exciting and charming as ever. I do find it curious that they chose to adapt it into a T.V series now some 28 years after it first came out. I struggle to see how they can create a compelling and long running series from a film with such a satisfying and self contained storyline. Regardless, the movie is well worth checking out.