RACE THROUGH TIME
US, 2000, 90 minutes, Colour.
William Devane, Rob Estes.
Directed by Jeff Woolnough.
Race Through Time is a combination of time travel with police investigation. The two seem to be rather juxtaposed rather than well combined, even though this is how they appear on-screen.
In the present, a young police officer's father is killed and he wants to discover the truth. However, he is targeted as the killer of his father. Meantime, twenty-three years later, the same policeman is in a future world where time travel is being experimented with. He comes back to the present, meets his younger self, and together they solve the crime. Back in the future, the scientists are becoming more frantic as to how to bring him back successfully to the future.
William Devane brings an easy style to the older policeman. Rob Estes seems sometimes awkward as the younger version of himself. The film is predictable insofar as it is a story of police corruption, the silencing of the father because of his knowledge of the crimes. The time travel is fairly basic.
1. The combination of popular themes: time travel, police investigations? How well did each of them work, in combination? Providing tension?
2. The present in an American city, the streets, precincts, homes, warehouse? The future, the homes, the laboratories?
3. The title, the tension in the title - in the film or not?
4. The police story: the policeman, his partner, being called when his father was killed, the investigation, his fingerprints on the gun, his protests, his being charged with the murder? His relationship with his girlfriend, wanting to buy her an engagement ring?
5. The time travel story: the future, the policeman and his drinking problem, wanting to time travel, the scientists letting him? Their monitoring his movements? His being sacrificed for experimentation, the scientists who wanted to bring him back, their formula, their success? The tension as time went on?
6. The older policeman, his arrival, calling himself Morgan, meeting his younger self? His evidence, saying he saw the murder - after arriving too late to prevent it? The clash with Sam, the friendship of his wife, her feeling and affinity with him? The partner, the revelation of the truth, the attorney, the corrupt group? The further murders, the menace to Sam and Tom? The build-up to the confrontation, the abduction of the girlfriend, the phone calls? The confrontation, the possible shooting, Morgan and his shooting? The final fight, each of them having the wounds? His telling the truth, disappearance?
7. The leaving of Sam in the present, Tom returning home and his family?
