Alice Johnson
05-20-2008, 05:20 AM
I think the Trancers films are great. Tim Thomerson is one of the finest actors of all time. He also played the 13 inch alien cop Brick Bardo in Dollman.
The movies are about this 'trooper' called Jack Deth. He lives in Los Angeles in the 23rd Century. LA is renamed Angel City, and a dangerous criminal mastermind called Whistler has stolen a time drug, and went back in time to 1985, so he can hunt down and wipe out the ancestors of the city council. This is done so he can return to and claim Angel City for himself. Jack persues him in the past, but he doesn't exactly get to Whistler in time.
The story is somewhat like both Blade Runner and The Terminator, but with a very low budget. It certainly shows in the 76 minute running time. It's never fully explained just how trancers come to be trancers. Although we're lead to believe that they were humans who just offered themselves up to the main baddie, who has some mind control powers.
Tim Thomerson's character explains that you must be weak-minded and willing before you can be tranced. However, there are different kinds of trancers in every film. Part III has military trancers enhanced by a drug, while IV and V take Jack Deth into an alternate universe under the reign of vampires.
I finally got to see Trancers 6, which was released on DVD in 2002. Instead of bringing Tim Thomerson back, the film features a girl acting out the role of his daughter, who is also his great grandmother, due to the fact Jack's actually stranded in the body of his ancestor, Phil. Anyway, Jack's daughter is called Jo, and Jack ends up inside her body. I liked that twist, but it just wasn't the same without Tim Thomerson. I just don't think the film was that successful because Thomerson was not involved.
I hope one day Thomerson and Charles Band make a better sequel.
The movies are about this 'trooper' called Jack Deth. He lives in Los Angeles in the 23rd Century. LA is renamed Angel City, and a dangerous criminal mastermind called Whistler has stolen a time drug, and went back in time to 1985, so he can hunt down and wipe out the ancestors of the city council. This is done so he can return to and claim Angel City for himself. Jack persues him in the past, but he doesn't exactly get to Whistler in time.
The story is somewhat like both Blade Runner and The Terminator, but with a very low budget. It certainly shows in the 76 minute running time. It's never fully explained just how trancers come to be trancers. Although we're lead to believe that they were humans who just offered themselves up to the main baddie, who has some mind control powers.
Tim Thomerson's character explains that you must be weak-minded and willing before you can be tranced. However, there are different kinds of trancers in every film. Part III has military trancers enhanced by a drug, while IV and V take Jack Deth into an alternate universe under the reign of vampires.
I finally got to see Trancers 6, which was released on DVD in 2002. Instead of bringing Tim Thomerson back, the film features a girl acting out the role of his daughter, who is also his great grandmother, due to the fact Jack's actually stranded in the body of his ancestor, Phil. Anyway, Jack's daughter is called Jo, and Jack ends up inside her body. I liked that twist, but it just wasn't the same without Tim Thomerson. I just don't think the film was that successful because Thomerson was not involved.
I hope one day Thomerson and Charles Band make a better sequel.