Time After Time (film)
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| Time After Time | |
 Time After Time movie poster |
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| Directed by | Nicholas Meyer |
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| Produced by | Steve Hayes |
| Written by | Karl Alexander (story) and Steve Hayes (story), Nicholas Meyer (screenplay) |
| Starring | Malcolm McDowell David Warner Mary Steenburgen |
| Music by | Miklós Rózsa |
| Cinematography | Paul Lohmann |
| Editing by | Donn Cambern |
| Distributed by | Orion Pictures |
| Release date(s) | August 31, 1979 |
| Running time | 112 min |
| Country |  United States |
| Language | English |
Time After Time is a 1979 American feature film produced by Orion Pictures, starring Malcolm McDowell, Mary Steenburgen, David Warner, and Charles Cioffi. It was written and directed by Nicholas Meyer.
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[edit] Plot
The film opens in 1893 London. Popular science fiction author and essayist H.G. Wells (McDowell) unveils a time machine to gathered dinner guests, the same device Wells fictionalized in his novel The Time Machine. Before he is able to demonstrate the machine, police constables arrive at his house, hot on the trail of Jack the Ripper, who has killed nearby. Investigating Wells' guests, the constables determine that his physician friend, John Leslie Stevenson (Warner), may be the killer. Stevenson uses the time machine to escape capture by traveling to 1979. He arrives in San Francisco because in 1979 the machine is there as part of a touring museum exhibit about Wells; it is believed never to have worked.
Because Stevenson operated the machine without disabling its reverse mechanism (which requires a special key to operate it), it automatically reappears in 1893 and registers the date Stevenson had gone to. Wells pursues him, but has difficulty adapting to the future, which he had expected to be a futuristic utopia. These difficulties begin with his ineffectual use of a false name taken from the popular fiction of his own time, which he'd assumed would be long forgotten—Sherlock Holmes.
While trying to locate Stevenson, Wells meets Bank of England employee Amy Robbins (Steenburgen), and they fall in love. The pair try to find Stevenson, who has resumed his killings in San Francisco. Confronted by his former friend in a hotel, Stevenson confesses that he finds modern society to be pleasingly bloody; he remarks that in 1893, he was a monster, whereas in 1979, he is "an amateur." Stevenson becomes determined to both continue his killing sprees and get the time machine key from Wells; his plan is three-fold: 1) to use Well's time machine to escape from Wells and travel to other times to continue killing, 2) to prevent Wells from following him through time and 3) to strand Wells permanently in 1979.
To prove to Amy that he is in fact H.G. Wells and that his time machine is real, Wells takes her three days into the future. Amy is then horrified to find a newspaper with her own obituary as the headline, revealing that she is to be the Ripper's fifth victim. Wells and Amy go back three days to try to change history, but Stevenson learns that Amy knows both Wells and who he (Stevenson) really is. Wells is arrested on suspicion of murder because he knew so much about the serial killings, and Amy is left unprotected. As Wells unsuccessfully tries to convince the police of her danger, she attempts to hide from Stevenson. When the police finally enter her apartment, they find the body of a brutally slain woman, and Wells is released. He mourns Amy for dead, until he discovers that she is still alive, held hostage by Stevenson. (The victim was actually a friend that Amy had invited to dinner.).
As he attempts another escape in the time machine, Stevenson's pocket watch becomes tangled in the door, enabling Amy to break free. Wells now removes a device (the vaporizing equalizer) from the exterior of the machine's cabin. This causes the machine, when Stevenson works the controls, to remain in place and send him traveling endlessly through time with no way to stop. H.G. Wells and Amy then board the machine themselves and return to Wells' own time. History records that the two marry (Amy Robbins was, in fact, the name of Wells' second wife).
[edit] Cast
- Malcolm McDowell as H. G. Wells
- David Warner as John Leslie Stevenson, aka Jack the Ripper
- Mary Steenburgen as Amy Robbins
- Charles Cioffi as Police Lt. Mitchell
[edit] Production
The screenplay was based on the novel of the same name, written at the same time as Meyer's screenplay by his University of Iowa associate, Karl Alexander.[1]
Director Nicholas Meyer's first choice for H.G. Wells was Derek Jacobi. However, the studio had wanted Richard Dreyfuss for the role. Meyer was happy to finally cast Malcolm McDowell since he was a big fan of Lindsay Anderson.[1]
The role of Amy Robbins went to Mary Steenburgen. However, the studio had wanted Sally Field. Director Nicholas Meyer's first choice was his girlfriend, Shelley Hack. She reportedly didn't want to become famous due to her boyfriend - but she did accept a small role as a docent at the museum Wells transports into.[1]
Nicholas Meyer's first choice to play the Ripper was Edward Fox. Mick Jagger was originally considered for the part of Jack the Ripper, but Meyer couldn't see him convincingly playing a Harley Street surgeon, John Leslie Stevenson's career when he wasn't stalking Whitechapel.[1]
Malcolm McDowell and Mary Steenburgen met and fell in love during the filming of Time After Time, and they later married. [1]
Corey Feldman appeared in the museum at the start when H.G first arrives in the future.
[edit] Tagline
| “ |
Imagine! A scientific genius named H.G. Wells stalks a criminal genius named Jack the Ripper across time itself, in the most ingenious thriller of our time... |
” |
[edit] Awards
Academy of Science Fiction, Fantasy & Horror Films, USA 1980: Saturn Award Best Actress (Mary Steenburgen), Best Music (Miklós Rózsa), Best Writing (Nicholas Meyer)
Avoriaz Fantastic Film Festival 1980: Antenne II Award (Nicholas Meyer), Grand Prize (Nicholas Meyer)
[edit] External links
- Time After Time at the Internet Movie Database
- Time After Time Trailer
- Images from Time After Time (1/3)
- Images from Time After Time (2/3)
- Images from Time After Time (3/3)
[edit] References
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