Celebrate Christmas with Jack Deth in the sci-fi action cult classic Trancers, directed by Charles Band and starring Tim Thomerson
Action fans have plenty of choices when it comes to Christmas viewing. You can watch John McClane take down bad guys at Nakatomi Plaza and Dulles International Airport in Die Hard and Die Hard 2; root for Rambo as he destroys a small town in First Blood; thrill at the sight of Marion “Cobra” Cobretti taking on the Night Slasher; see James Bond deal with love, loss, and Blofeld in On Her Majesty’s Secret Service; have a Shane Black marathon, starting with the Martin Riggs / Roger Murtaugh pairing Lethal Weapon; watch Houston police officer Jack Caine battle an extraterrestrial drug dealer in I Come in Peace (a.k.a. Dark Angel); take in a viewing of Batman Returns… the list goes on and on. But one movie that doesn’t get enough credit for being a sci-fi action Christmas classic is director Charles Band’s 1984 film Trancers… and this despite the fact that the lead character has the coolest action hero name of all time: Jack Deth!
Brought to life through an incredibly entertaining performance from comedian/character actor Tim Thomerson, Jack Deth is a cop working out of Angel City in the neon-infused future of 2247 (which is why this film was also released under the title Future Cop in some countries.) For a decade, Trooper Deth has been tracking down the trancers, weak-minded people turned into zombie-like beings, “not really alive, not dead enough,” by the psychic powers of cult leader Martin Whistler. They can appear to be everyday normal people at one moment, then trance out and attack the next. Deth is obsessed with the eradication of trancers, to the point that he neglects all other duties, ignoring his work assignments. When he’s told to knock off the trancer hunt, he hands over his badge instead. This mission is a personal one. A trancer killed his wife.
Deth believes that he has already taken out Whistler and now he’s just mopping up the strays… He’s wrong.
Called in for a meeting with the High Council of the Western Territories, Deth learns that not only is Whistler still alive, but he has gone hundreds of years years back in time (or “down the line,” as the characters call it.) This film has its own unique form of time travel, as a person doesn’t just get inside a machine and zap themselves to a different date. Instead, they get an injection that sends their consciousness back into the body of an ancestor, leaving their own body in a coma-like state. To get their consciousness back to their own body and present, they inject themselves with another vial of liquid. Now set up in the body of a police detective ancestor in the 1980s, Whistler (Michael Srefani) is targeting the ancestors of the High Council members in Los Angeles, planning to eliminate his enemies by wiping them from existence. Deth is the council’s only hope. He has to follow Whistler back in time and stop him.
Deth arrives in ’80s Los Angeles during the Christmas season, his consciousness taking over the body of his ancestor Phillip Deth, a journalist who looks just like him except for lighter hair color and the lack of a facial scar. As he sets out on his mission to take down Whistler, he’s aided by the girl Phil met the night before Jack took over his body, a punk rocker named Leena, played by Helen Hunt… and since Leena is working as an elf for a mall Santa Claus, there’s “trouble at the North Pole” when Deth comes around and Santa trances out. That’s the highlight of the film’s Christmas elements, but we’re also treated to a punk rendition of “Jingle Bells” in a nightclub scene, there’s a gift-giving scene, a scooter chase interrupts some tree decorating, a trio of homeless men refer to themselves as three kings, and Leena wears her elf costume for a good stretch of the running time.
With Trancers, producer/director Charles Band delivered one of his best films, a great cult movie with an interesting story that’s nice and simple, and is so enjoyable to watch play out over a short and sweet 76 minutes that any lapses in logic are easy to overlook. Jack Deth is an awesome hero, inspired by the style of hard-boiled film noir detectives but dwelling within a sci-fi world, and the lighthearted Leena makes for a good sidekick. Art LaFleur plays a fellow trooper named McNulty in 2247, and the character is even more entertaining when he visits Deth in the ‘80s, his consciousness taking over an ancestor who happens to be a 10 year old girl, allowing angelic little Alyson Croft to act like a tough guy cop. Biff Manard is also fun as Hap Ashby, ancestor of one of the council members and a former pro baseball player, now an alcoholic living on Skid Row.
The film’s writers, Danny Bilson and Paul De Meo, went on to work on multiple James Bond video games, and it’s made apparent in this film that they’re fans of the 007 world when a character played by Telma Hopkins equips Deth with weapons and gadgets before his mission (the objects are sent back in time after him in a small box), much like Bond’s Q. Among Deth’s gadgets is “the long second watch.” The long second watch is one of those things that makes no logical sense, yet you just go with it. With the press of a button, the watch allows Deth to live ten seconds within what is only one second for the rest of the world. Everything around him slows down, people almost seem to freeze in place, but Deth is still able to move. Deth puts it to use after a gun has been fired at him and Leena. With the world slowed down, Deth can see the bullet passing through the air – so Trancers featured “bullet time” long before The Matrix did it!
Trancers launched a low budget franchise, and while your mileage may vary if you decide to venture into sequel territory (I love most of the sequels, especially Trancers III), the original film remains a delightful mix of action, science fiction, and holiday cheer. It fully embraces its eccentricities while offering an interesting, engaging story. For fans of cult cinema, hard-boiled heroes, or unconventional Christmas films, Trancers is definitely a gift that’s worth unwrapping.
