| Timecop | |
|---|---|
 Theatrical release poster | |
| Directed by | Peter Hyams |
| Screenplay by | Mark Verheiden |
| Story by |
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| Based on | |
| Produced by | |
| Starring | |
| Cinematography | Peter Hyams |
| Edited by | Steven Kemper |
| Music by | Mark Isham |
Production companies |
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| Distributed by | Universal Pictures |
Release date |
|
Running time | 98 minutes[1] |
| Country | United States |
| Language | English |
| Budget | $28 million[2][3] |
| Box office | $129 million[3] |
Timecop is a 1994 Americanscience fictionaction film directed byPeter Hyams and co-written byMike Richardson andMark Verheiden. Richardson also served as executive producer. The film is based onTimecop, a story created by Richardson, written by Verheiden, and drawn byRon Randall, which appeared in theanthology comicDark Horse Comics, published byDark Horse Comics. It is the first installment in theTimecop franchise.
The film starsJean-Claude Van Damme as Max Walker, a police officer in 1994, withtime travel having been made possible, and later aU.S.federal agent in 2004. It also starsRon Silver as a corrupt politician andMia Sara as Melissa Walker, the agent's wife. The story follows Walker's life as he fights time-travel crime and investigates the politician's plans.
Timecop remains Van Damme's highest-grossing film as a lead actor (his third to break the $100 million barrier worldwide). Although met with mixed reviews, it is generally regarded by critics as one of Van Damme's best films.
In 1863, inGainesville, Georgia, a time traveler armed with futuristic weapons slaughters five Confederate soldiers and steals their shipment of gold bullion.
In 1994, following the invention of time travel by Dr. Hans Kleindast, the U.S. Department of Justice funds the creation of the Time Enforcement Commission (TEC) to prevent alterations to the past. While users cannot travel to the future, as it has not yet occurred, they can change the past, creating ripples that reshape the present. Senator Aaron McComb volunteers to oversee the TEC, while police officer Eugene Matuzak is appointed its first commissioner. Police officer Max Walker is offered a TEC position, but before he can accept, he and his wife Melissa are attacked by unknown assailants. Walker is left for dead while Melissa is killed in an explosion.
By 2004, Walker, now a veteran TEC agent, travels to 1929 to arrest his former partner Lyle Atwood, who is using future knowledge to profit from thestock market crash. Atwood confesses that he works for McComb, who has been secretly funding his failing presidential campaign through illicit time travel. Fearing McComb will erase his family from history, Atwood refuses to testify and is executed by the TEC. When McComb visits the TEC, Walker subtly implies his suspicions about him.
After surviving an ambush at his home by McComb’s henchmen, Walker is assigned a new partner, Sarah Fielding. They travel to 1994 to investigate a time disturbance and discover a younger McComb being bought out of a computer chip company by his partner Jack Parker. The 2004 McComb arrives to stop the deal, warning his younger self that the chip will soon be worth billions. He also cautions against physical contact, as the same matter cannot occupy the same space. McComb kills Parker, and Fielding betrays Walker, revealing she is working for McComb. In the ensuing shootout, McComb wounds Fielding and escapes to 2004.
Walker returns to a heavily altered 2004, where McComb is a wealthy presidential frontrunner and has shut down the TEC to eliminate interference. Walker convinces Matuzak—who is unaware of the timeline changes—that they were close friends. They deduce that McComb is using Kleindast’s original time travel prototype, and Matuzak helps Walker return to 1994 before being killed by McComb’s guards. McComb concludes that Walker must be erased from history before he ever joined the TEC.
In 1994, Walker finds a recovering Fielding at a hospital, and she agrees to testify against McComb. However, before he can secure her, she is murdered. While reviewing hospital records, Walker discovers that Melissa was pregnant when she was killed. Realizing this is the day of her murder, he tracks her down, reveals he is from the future, and convinces her to stop his younger self from leaving for work that night.
That evening, McComb's henchmen attack the younger Walker, but both Walkers and Melissa fight them off. The 2004 McComb arrives, takes Melissa hostage, and threatens Walker with a C4 explosive. Accepting that he will die in the blast, McComb is confident that without Walker's interference, his younger self will become president. However, Walker reveals that he has lured 1994 McComb to the house. He pushes the two McCombs together, causing them to merge into a writhing, screaming mass before disappearing from existence. Walker carries Melissa to safety before the house explodes, leaving her beside his unconscious younger self.
Back in 2004, Walker finds that Matuzak and Fielding are alive and that McComb disappeared in 1994, erasing his future crimes. Returning home, Walker discovers his house rebuilt and is reunited with Melissa and their young son.
Mike Richardson wrote a three-part story titled "Time Cop: A Man Out of Time" that was included in the launch of theDark Horse Comicsanthology series in 1992.[4] Richardson developed the story, while the comic was written byMark Verheiden and drawn byRon Randall. The comic told a story of Max Walker, a Time Enforcement Commission agent whose wife is implied to be dead (though the circumstances of this are unknown). Max pursues an illegal time traveler robbing a South African diamond mine in the 1930s. After capturing the robber and returning to present time, Walker realizes the timeline has been damaged because the criminal's robotic bodyguard remained in the past and was still active. Walker returns to the 1930s and defeats the robot with the help of a local whom he rewards with a diamond. Returning home, the timeline is largely restored but readers see the local became a political leader who helped end Apartheid.
Richardson and Verheiden then teamed up to write the screenplay for the movie adaptation.[4]
It wasn’t at all planned from the beginning that I would make two films with Jean-Claude Van Damme back-to-back. I was approached to doTimecop, and I loved the auspices. (Producer) Larry Gordon was involved with it; Moshe Diamant was a terrific producer; Sam Raimi was involved... It was a really clever story, and I thought it was a chance to make the best movie Van Damme ever made. I said yes and we made it, and it was clear that it was going to be a hit because it previewed through the roof every time. It’s still his biggest hit. So Universal and Moshe Diamant wanted to team us again as soon as possible, so they put Sudden Death together. There was never any question that we would just doTimecop 2. I would never have agreed to that. The last thing you want to do is repeat yourself. That would be awful.
— Peter Hyams, Empire Magazine[5]
The musical score ofTimecop was composed byMark Isham and conducted by Ken Kugler.
Timecop was first released onVHS on February 21, 1995,LaserDisc on February 28, 1995,[6] and later released on DVD January 20, 1998. The DVD extras include production notes, a theatrical trailer and notes on the cast and crew.
By 2010, the rights to the film had reverted to Largo successor InterMedia, and distribution shifted toWarner Home Video. A Blu-ray of the film was released as a double feature for both this andBloodsport from Warner Home Video on September 14, 2010, which has the full uncut 98-minute version in 2.35:1 widescreen, but no extra features.
Timecop was released in the U.S. and Canada on September 16, 1994, where it opened atnumber one with a gross of $12,064,625 from 2,228 theaters, and a $5,415 average per theater gross.[7][8] In its second week, it took the top spot again with $8,176,615.[9] It finished its run with $54 million in the U.S. In other territories, it grossed about $75 million, for a total worldwide gross of $129 million.[3] This makes it Van Damme's highest-grossing film in which he played the leading role, and his third to make over $100 million overall worldwide (afterDouble Impact (1991) &Universal Soldier).
OnRotten Tomatoes, the film has a 42% rating based on 45 reviews, with an average rating of 5.2/10. The site's consensus is: "It's noTerminator, but for those willing to suspend disbelief and rational thought,Timecop provides limited sci-fi action rewards."[10] OnMetacritic, it has a score of 48% based on reviews from 17 critics, indicating "mixed or average reviews".[11] Audiences polled byCinemaScore gave the film an average grade of "B+" on an A+ to F scale.[12]
Critics were mixed onTimecop, citing its various plot holes and inconsistencies.[13]Roger Ebert calledTimecop a low-rentTerminator.[14] Richard Harrington ofThe Washington Post said, "For once, Van Damme's accent is easier to understand than the plot."[15] David Richards ofThe New York Times disparaged Van Damme's acting and previous films but calledTimecop "his classiest effort to date".[16]
The film madeEntertainment Weekly's "Underrated Films" list in November 2010, mostly because of Van Damme's acting.[17]
In September 1994, a novelization of the film was written by authorS.D. Perry and published by Penguin.[18]
The film was followed by a TV seriesof the same name, running for nine episodes in 1997 onABC.[19] It starredT.W. King as Jack Logan andCristi Conaway as Claire Hemmings.
A direct-to-DVD sequel,Timecop 2: The Berlin Decision, was released in 2003, starringJason Scott Lee andThomas Ian Griffith, and directed bySteve Boyum.[20] In 2010,Universal Pictures announced a remake of the film, to be written by Mark andBrian Gunn, but it was never made.[21][22][23]
The film, which was originally based on a comic, was adapted intoa two-issue comic book series of the same name. Agame based on the movie was developed byCryo Interactive and released on theSNES in1995.[24] Additionally, a series of tie-in novels by authorDan Parkinson published in 1997–1999 featured the Jack Logan character from the television series.[citation needed]
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