Jason X

Jason X
Theatrical poster
Directed by	James Isaac
Produced by	Noel Cunningham Sean S. Cunningham Geoff Garrett James Isaac Marilyn Stonehouse
Written by	Todd Farmer
Based on	Characters by Victor Miller
Starring	Lexa Doig Lisa Ryder Chuck Campbell Jonathan Potts Kane Hodder
Music by	Harry Manfredini
Cinematography	Derick V. Underschultz
Editing by	David Handman
Studio	New Line Cinema Crystal Lake Entertainment Friday X Productions
Distributed by	New Line Cinema
Release date(s)	April 26, 2002 (2002-04-26)
Running time	93 minutes
Country	United States Canada
Language	English
Budget	$14,000,000 (est.)
Box office	$16,951,798

Jason X is a 2002 science fiction horror slasher film directed by James Isaac. It is the tenth in the Friday the 13th film series and stars Kane Hodder as the undead mass murderer Jason Voorhees, the film made $16,951,798 worldwide with a budget of $14 million. Thus far, it is the last appearance of Kane Hodder in the role of Jason Voorhees.

The film was conceived by Todd Farmer and was the only pitch he gave to the studio for the movie, having suggested sending Jason into space as a means to advance the franchise while Freddy vs. Jason was still in development hell and is set in the future so as not to confuse the continuity of the series.

Plot

In 2008, Jason Voorhees is captured by the U.S. government and is being held at the Crystal Lake Research Facility. In 2010, Rowan LaFontaine, a government scientist, decides to place Jason in cryogenic suspension after several unsuccessful attempts to kill him. While Private Samuel Johnson places a blanket on Jason (who is hanging in chains) Doctor Aloysius Bartholomew Wimmer, Segeant Marcus, and a few soldiers hope to conduct further research into Jason's rapid cellular regeneration and instead try to take Jason. They pull off the blanket of what is supposedly Jason, but find a dead Johnson instead. Having broken free of his restraints, Jason kills the team of soldiers. Wimmer is killed by being impaled with a broken restraint stick thrown by Jason. Rowan then spots Marcus thrown through the door. Before dying, he tells her to run. Rowan successfully lures Jason into a cryonic pod and activates it. However, Jason ruptures the pod with his machete and stabs Rowan in the abdomen, spilling cryonic fluid into the sealed room and freezing them both.

In the year 2455, Earth has become too polluted to support life and humanity has moved to a new planet, Earth Two. Three students, Tsunaron, Janessa, and Azrael are on a field trip led by Professor Brandon Lowe who is accompanied by an android, KM-14. They enter the Crystal Lake facility and find the still frozen Jason and Rowan, whom they bring to their spaceship, the Grendel. Also on the ship are Lowe's remaining students, Kinsa, Waylander, and Stoney. Once there, they reanimate Rowan while Jason is pronounced dead and left in the morgue. Lowe's intern, Adrienne, is ordered to dissect Jason's body. Lowe, who is in serious debt, calls his financial backer Dieter Perez of the Solaris who notes that Jason's body could be worth a substantial amount to a collector.

While Stoney has sex with Kinsa, Jason comes back to life, and kills Adrienne by sticking her head in a sink filled with liquid nitrogen and smashing it against a counter top. Jason then takes a machete-shaped surgical tool and makes his way through the ship. He kills Stoney by impaling him with the surgical tool, and drags him away, to Kinsa's horror. Sergeant Brodski finds out, and leads a group of soldiers to attack Jason. Meanwhile, Jason attacks Dallas and Azrael playing a game. He kills Azrael by breaking his back, and later Dallas is killed after having his face smashed on the wall. He then tries to attack Crutch, but Brodski and his soldiers save him by gunning him down. Jason disappears, and Brodski splits them up. Jason kills them one by one though. Sven is killed by having his neck broken. Condor is impaled on a drill. Geko is murdered after Jason slits her throat. Jason attacks Kicker, but he shoots him, causing him to back up and get impaled on a grappel. While Kicker tells Brodski, Jason unhooks himself and splits Kicker in half, killing him. Brodski tries looking for his soldiers, but comes across the dead body of Briggs impaled on a hook. Brodski is then impaled by two spikes through a wall, injuring him.

Lowe orders Pilot Lou to dock in on Solaris. As he is talking with the Solaris engineer, he is then killed by Jason. With no pilot, the ship crashes through a nearby space station, destroying it, and killing Dieter Perez, and everyone else on the Solaris. The crash damages one of the Grendel's pontoon sections. Jason breaks into the lab, reclaiming his machete and decapitates Lowe.

With the ship badly damaged, the remaining survivors head for Grendel's shuttle, while Tsunaron heads elsewhere with KM-14. After finding Lou's remains, Crutch and Waylander prepare the shuttle. Rowan finds Brodski, but is too heavy for her to carry, so she leaves to get help. Waylander leaves to help with him, while Crutch prepares the shuttle himself. Suddenly, Crutch is attacked and killed by having his head smashed on the control panel. On board the shuttle, Kinsa has a panic attack and launches the shuttle without releasing the fuel line causing it to crash into the ship's hull and explode, immolating her. Suddenly, Seargent Brodski attacks Jason, but is easily overpowered. Tsunaron reappears with an upgraded KM-14, complete with an array of weapons and new combat skills. She fights Jason off and seemingly kills him, knocking him into a nanite-equipped medical station, and blasting off his right arm, left leg, his right rib cage and finally part of his head. The survivors send out a distress call and receive a reply from a nearby patrol shuttle.

Nearly an hour passes, as the survivors begin setting explosive charges to separate the remaining pontoon from the main drive section. As they work, Jason is brought back to life by the damaged medical station. Since much of his biological tissue was destroyed, he is rebuilt as an even more powerful cyborg. Jason then easily defeats KM-14 by punching her head off. As Tsunaron picks up her still functioning head, Jason attacks them, but is stopped by Waylander, who sacrifices himself by setting off the charges while the others escape. Jason survives and is blown back onto the shuttle. He punches a hole through the hull, sucking out Janessa. A power failure with the docking door forces Brodski to go EVA to fix it.

Meanwhile, a hard light holographic simulation of Crystal Lake is created to distract Jason, but he sees through the deception just as the door is fixed. Brodski confronts Jason so the rest can escape. As they leave, the pontoon explodes, again propelling Jason at high-speed towards the survivors, however, Brodski intercepts Jason in mid-flight and maneuvers them both into the atmosphere of Earth Two, apparently killing them both. Tsunaron assures KM-14 that he will build a new body for her while Rowan breathes a sigh of relief.

On the planet, two teens beside a forest lake set off to find where a "falling star" landed as Jason's mask sinks to the bottom of the lake.

Cast

• Kane Hodder as Jason Voorhees/Uber Jason
• Lexa Doig as Rowan LaFontaine
• David Cronenberg as Dr.Wimmer
• Lisa Ryder as KM 14
• Jonathan Potts as Professor Brandon Lowe
• Peter Mensah as Seargent Brodski
• Melyssa Ade as Janessa
• Melody Johnson as Kinsa
• Phillip Williams as Crutch
• Derwin Jordan as Waylander
• Dov Tiefenbach as Azrael
• Chuck Campbell as as Tsuaron
• Kristi Angus as Adrienne Thomas
• Yani Gellman as Stoney

Production

With Freddy vs. Jason in development hell, Producer Sean S. Cunningham was so frustrated that he decided to make another Friday movie. Todd Farmer who was an aspiring writer in Hollywood met with Cunningham about writing a script for the proposed 10th film, which eventually became this project.

Filming

Filming began on March 6, 2000 and ended on April 30, 2000 in Toronto, Ontario. Filming took place in an abandoned military base in the outskirts of Toronto. The special effects were done by ToyBox Canada.

Reception

The film made $16,951,798 domestically, making it the second lowest-grossing film in the series. It earned $3,830,243 foreign for a worldwide gross of $16,951,798.

The film received unfavorable reviews, holding a "Rotten" rating of 21% on Rotten Tomatoes, based on 102 reviews, with the synopsis being that "Jason goes to the future, but the story is still stuck in the past." Metacritic shows the film as having "generally unfavorable" reviews based on 23 critics, with a score of 25/100.

American film critic Roger Ebert wrote a scathing review of the film, quoting one of the film's lines: "This sucks on so many levels."

Soundtrack

Jason X's theme song is "Let the Bodies Hit the Floor" by Drowning Pool from their album "Sinner".

Other media

In 2005, Black Flame, a subsidiary of Games Workshop, began publishing a series of paperback books based on Jason X and aimed towards young adults. While the first book adapts the film, the following books feature new story lines based on the character in the setting established by the Jason X film. The five books in the series are Jason X by Pat Cadigan, Jason X: The Experiment by Pat Cadigan, Jason X: Planet of the Beast by Nancy Kilpatrick, Jason X: Death Moon by Alex Johnson and Jason X: To the Third Power by Nancy Kilpatrick.

Avatar Press produced two comic book titles based on this film: Jason X, a one-shot by Brian Pulido that picks up as a sequel to the movie, and Friday the 13th: Jason vs. Jason X, a two-issue mini-series by Mike Wolfer that pits the two versions of Jason (original-classic Jason vs Uber Jason) against each other.

The scene where Jason freezes Adrienne's head in liquid nitrogen before smashing it to pieces was the subject of an episode of MythBusters. The team built several fake heads, dipped them in liquid nitrogen and attempted to smash them with a robotic arm. The myth was declared "busted" after none of the heads appeared to replicate the effect in the movie.

Score

Main article: Jason X (score)

The film score was composed and conducted by Harry Manfredini. It was released on Varèse Sarabande.

External links

• Jason X at the Internet Movie Database
• Jason X at AllRovi
• Jason X at Rotten Tomatoes
• Jason X at Box Office Mojo
• Film page at the Camp Crystal Lake web site
• "Inside Jason X" With Screen Writer Todd Farmer at Toxic Universe.com.
• "Inside Jason X" with Director Jim Isaac at Toxic Universe.com.