Time After Time is a
1979The year 1979 in film involved some significant events.- Major Events :* March 5 - Production begins on Star Wars Episode V: The Empire Strikes Back.* May 25 - Alien, a landmark of the science fiction genre, is released....
AmericanThe cinema of the United States has had a profound effect on cinema across the world since the early 20th century. Its history is sometimes separated into four main periods: the silent film era, classical Hollywood cinema, New Hollywood, and the contemporary period...
fantasy filmFantasy films are films with fantastic themes, usually involving magic, supernatural events, make-believe creatures, or exotic fantasy worlds. The genre is considered to be distinct from science fiction film and horror film, although the genres do overlap....
written and directed by
Nicholas MeyerNicholas Meyer is an American film writer, producer, director and novelist best known for his involvement in the Star Trek films. He is also well known as the director for the landmark 1983 TV-Movie The Day After, for which he was nominated for a Best Director Emmy Award...
. His screenplay is based on a novel by Karl Alexander and a story by Steve Hayes and centers on British author H.G. Wells and his use of a
time machineTime travel is the concept of moving between different moments in time in a manner analogous to moving between different points in space, either sending objects backwards in time to a moment before the present, or sending objects forward from the present to the future without the need to...
to pursue
Jack the RipperJack the Ripper was a pseudonym given to an unidentified serial killer active in the largely impoverished districts in and around Whitechapel, London, in late 1888. The name originated in a letter by someone claiming to be the murderer that was sent to the London Central News Agency and...
into the
20th centuryThe 20th century of the Common Era began on January 1, 1901 and ended on December 31, 2000, according to the Gregorian calendar.The British Empire, the Russian Empire, the German Empire, the Ottoman Empire, and the Austro-Hungarian Empire dissolved in the first half of the century, with all but the...
.
In
London[]London is the capital of England and the United Kingdom. It has been a major settlement for two millennia, and the history of London goes back to its founding by the Romans, when it was named Londinium. London's core, the ancient City of London, the 'square mile', retains its medieval boundaries...
in 1893, popular
science fictionScience fiction is a genre of fiction. It differs from fantasy in that, within the context of the story, its imaginary elements are largely possible within scientifically-established or scientifically-postulated laws of nature...
writer and
essayAn essay is usually a short piece of writing. It is often written from an author's personal point of view. Essays can be literary criticism, political manifestos, learned arguments, observations of daily life, recollections, and reflections of the author....
ist H.G. Wells unveils a
time machineTime travel is the concept of moving between different moments in time in a manner analogous to moving between different points in space, either sending objects backwards in time to a moment before the present, or sending objects forward from the present to the future without the need to...
, one like the same device he fictionalized in his novel
The Time MachineThe Time Machine is a novella by H. G. Wells, first published in 1895 and later directly adapted into at least two feature films of the same name, as well as two television versions, and a large number of comic book adaptations. It indirectly inspired many more works of fiction in all media...
, to his dinner guests.
Time After Time is a
1979The year 1979 in film involved some significant events.- Major Events :* March 5 - Production begins on Star Wars Episode V: The Empire Strikes Back.* May 25 - Alien, a landmark of the science fiction genre, is released....
AmericanThe cinema of the United States has had a profound effect on cinema across the world since the early 20th century. Its history is sometimes separated into four main periods: the silent film era, classical Hollywood cinema, New Hollywood, and the contemporary period...
fantasy filmFantasy films are films with fantastic themes, usually involving magic, supernatural events, make-believe creatures, or exotic fantasy worlds. The genre is considered to be distinct from science fiction film and horror film, although the genres do overlap....
written and directed by
Nicholas MeyerNicholas Meyer is an American film writer, producer, director and novelist best known for his involvement in the Star Trek films. He is also well known as the director for the landmark 1983 TV-Movie The Day After, for which he was nominated for a Best Director Emmy Award...
. His screenplay is based on a novel by Karl Alexander and a story by Steve Hayes and centers on British author H.G. Wells and his use of a
time machineTime travel is the concept of moving between different moments in time in a manner analogous to moving between different points in space, either sending objects backwards in time to a moment before the present, or sending objects forward from the present to the future without the need to...
to pursue
Jack the RipperJack the Ripper was a pseudonym given to an unidentified serial killer active in the largely impoverished districts in and around Whitechapel, London, in late 1888. The name originated in a letter by someone claiming to be the murderer that was sent to the London Central News Agency and...
into the
20th centuryThe 20th century of the Common Era began on January 1, 1901 and ended on December 31, 2000, according to the Gregorian calendar.The British Empire, the Russian Empire, the German Empire, the Ottoman Empire, and the Austro-Hungarian Empire dissolved in the first half of the century, with all but the...
.
Plot
In
London[]London is the capital of England and the United Kingdom. It has been a major settlement for two millennia, and the history of London goes back to its founding by the Romans, when it was named Londinium. London's core, the ancient City of London, the 'square mile', retains its medieval boundaries...
in 1893, popular
science fictionScience fiction is a genre of fiction. It differs from fantasy in that, within the context of the story, its imaginary elements are largely possible within scientifically-established or scientifically-postulated laws of nature...
writer and
essayAn essay is usually a short piece of writing. It is often written from an author's personal point of view. Essays can be literary criticism, political manifestos, learned arguments, observations of daily life, recollections, and reflections of the author....
ist H.G. Wells unveils a
time machineTime travel is the concept of moving between different moments in time in a manner analogous to moving between different points in space, either sending objects backwards in time to a moment before the present, or sending objects forward from the present to the future without the need to...
, one like the same device he fictionalized in his novel
The Time MachineThe Time Machine is a novella by H. G. Wells, first published in 1895 and later directly adapted into at least two feature films of the same name, as well as two television versions, and a large number of comic book adaptations. It indirectly inspired many more works of fiction in all media...
, to his dinner guests. Before he can demonstrate it, police constables searching for Jack the Ripper arrive at the house. They determine that one of Wells's friends, a surgeon named John Leslie Stevenson, may be the infamous killer. Stevenson escapes by using the machine to travel to
San FranciscoSan Francisco is the fourth most populous city in California and the 12th most populous city in the United States, with a 2008 estimated population of 808,976. It is the eighth most densely populated city in the U.S. and is the financial, cultural, and transportation center of the larger San...
in 1979, where it is on display in a touring museum exhibit about Wells.
Because Stevenson operated the machine without disabling its reverse mechanism, which requires a special key to operate it, it automatically returns to 1893 and registers the date to which Stevenson has gone. Wells pursues him but has difficulty adapting to the future, which the
SocialistSocialism refers to various theories of economic organization advocating public or direct worker ownership and administration of the means of production and allocation of resources, and a society characterized by equal access to resources for all individuals with a method of compensation based on...
had anticipated would be a
utopiaUtopia is a name for an ideal community or society, that is taken from Of the Best State of a Republic, and of the New Island Utopia, a book written in 1516 by Sir Thomas More describing a fictional island in the Atlantic Ocean, possessing a seemingly perfect socio-politico-legal system...
. These difficulties begin with his ineffectual use of a false name taken from the popular fiction of his own time, which he assumed would be long forgotten —
Sherlock HolmesSherlock Holmes is a fictional character of the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries who first appeared in publication in 1887. He is the creation of British author and physician Sir Arthur Conan Doyle...
.
Wells meets
Bank of EnglandThe Bank of England is, despite its name, the central bank of the whole of the United Kingdom and is the model on which most modern, large central banks have been based. It was established in 1694 to act as the English Government's banker, and to this day it still acts as the banker for the UK...
employee Amy Robbins, and they fall in love. The pair try to find Stevenson, who has resumed his murderous behavior in San Francisco. Confronted by his former friend in a hotel, Stevenson confesses that he finds modern society to be pleasingly
violentViolence is the expression of physical or verbal force against self or other, compelling action against one's will on pain of being hurt. Variant uses of the term refer to the destruction of non-living objects . Worldwide, violence is used as a tool of manipulation and also is an area of concern...
, and notes in 1893 he was a monster, whereas in 1979 he is an amateur. Stevenson is determined both to continue his killing spree and to get the time machine key from Wells so he can use the device to travel to other times and kill there, prevent Wells from following him, and permanently strand his friend in 1979.
To prove he is in fact H.G. Wells and that his time machine is real, Wells takes Amy three days into the future, where she is horrified to find a newspaper headlining her own murder as the Ripper's fifth victim. Wells and Amy go back three days to try to change history, but Wells is arrested on suspicion of murder because he knew so much about the serial killings, leaving Amy 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's death until he discovers that she is still alive and being held hostage by Stevenson, who had killed her friend in Amy's apartment before kidnapping Amy.
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 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. Wells and Amy then board the machine themselves and return to Wells's own time. History records that the two marry - Amy Robbins was, in fact, the name of Wells's second wife.
Production
Five years before writing and directing
Time After Time, Nicholas Meyer published the novel
The Seven-Per-Cent SolutionThe Seven-Per-Cent Solution is a 1974 novel by American writer Nicholas Meyer. It is written as a pastiche of a Sherlock Holmes adventure, and was adapted for the cinema in 1976. The novel's full title is The Seven-Per-Cent Solution: Being a Reprint from the Reminiscences of John H. Watson,...
, in which
Sherlock HolmesSherlock Holmes is a fictional character of the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries who first appeared in publication in 1887. He is the creation of British author and physician Sir Arthur Conan Doyle...
meets
Sigmund FreudSigmund Freud , Sigismund Schlomo Freud , was an Austrian neurologist who founded the psychoanalytic school of psychology...
.
The film was shot throughout San Francisco in locations including Cow Hollow,
North BeachNorth Beach is a neighborhood in the northeast of San Francisco adjacent to Chinatown and Fisherman's Wharf. It is the Little Italy of the city...
, the
California Academy of SciencesThe California Academy of Sciences is one of the ten largest museums of natural history in the World . Remodeled in 2008, it is also one of the newest in the United States. It is located in Golden Gate Park in San Francisco, California...
in
Golden Gate ParkGolden Gate Park, located in San Francisco, California, is a large urban park consisting of of public grounds. Configured as a rectangle, it is similar in shape but 20% larger than Central Park in New York, to which it is often compared...
, the
Marina DistrictThe Marina District is one of the northern districts of San Francisco, California. The area is bounded to the east by Van Ness Ave, on the west by Lyon Street and the Presidio, on the south by Lombard St. The neighborhood sits on the site of the 1915 Panama-Pacific International Exposition, staged...
,
Ghirardelli SquareGhirardelli Square is a landmark with shops and restaurants in the Fisherman's Wharf area of San Francisco, California.Ghirardelli Square once featured over 40 specialty shops and restaurants, in addition to the Ghirardelli Soda Fountain & Chocolate Shop, known for its world famous ice cream...
,
Fisherman's WharfFisherman's Wharf is a neighborhood and popular tourist attraction in San Francisco, California, U.S.It roughly encompasses the northern waterfront area of San Francisco from Ghirardelli Square or Van Ness Avenue east to Pier 35 or Kearny Street...
, the
Richmond DistrictThe Richmond District is a neighborhood in the northwest corner of San Francisco, California. Lying directly north of Golden Gate Park, "the Richmond" is bounded roughly by Fulton Street to the south, Arguello Boulevard and Laurel Heights to the east, The Presidio and Lincoln Park to the north, and...
, the
Golden Gate BridgeThe Golden Gate Bridge is a suspension bridge spanning the Golden Gate, the opening of the San Francisco Bay into the Pacific Ocean. As part of both U.S...
, Grace Cathedral on
Nob HillNob Hill refers to a small district in San Francisco, California adjacent to the intersection of California and Powell streets .-Location :...
, the
Embarcadero CenterThe Embarcadero Center is a commercial complex of six towers and one office tower on a 9.8 acre site that is located in San Francisco's financial district close to the Embarcadero. The first office tower, One Embarcadero Center, was completed in 1971 and the last, an off-complex extension,...
, Chinatown, the
Marina GreenThe Marina Green in San Francisco, California is a expanse of grass between Fort Mason and the Presidio. It is adjacent to San Francisco Bay, and this location provides good views of the Golden Gate Bridge, Angel Island, Alcatraz Island, and parts of Marin County. Houses built mostly in the 1920s...
, the
Palace of Fine ArtsThe Palace of Fine Arts in the Marina District of San Francisco, California is a building originally constructed for the 1915 Panama-Pacific Exposition.-History:thumb|left|260px|Painting of the Palace of Fine Arts by [[Colin Campbell Cooper]] c. 1915...
,
Potrero HillPotrero Hill is a neighborhood in San Francisco, California, USA, located on the east side of the city, east of the Mission District and south of the South of Market area. It is roughly bordered by 16th Street to the north, Potrero Avenue or U.S. Route 101 to the west and Cesar Chavez Street to the...
, and the
Civic CenterSan Francisco's Civic Center is an area of a few blocks north of the intersection of Market Street and Van Ness Avenue that contains many of the city's largest government and cultural institutions. It has two large plazas and a number of buildings in classical architectural style...
.
Cast
- Malcolm McDowell
Malcolm McDowell is an English actor. McDowell's career has spanned more than forty years and includes notable roles in if...., A Clockwork Orange, O Lucky Man!, Tank Girl, Star Trek Generations, the TV serial Our Friends in the North, Entourage, Heroes, Metalocalypse, the 2007 remake of Halloween...
..... H. G. Wells
- David Warner
David Warner is an English actor, who is known for playing sinister or villainous characters.-Early life:Warner was born in Manchester, Lancashire, England, the son of Doreen and Herbert Simon Warner, who was a nursing home proprietor...
..... John Leslie Stevenson
- Mary Steenburgen
Mary Nell Steenburgen is an American actress.-Personal life:Steenburgen was born in Newport, Arkansas, the daughter of Nell, a school-board secretary, and Maurice Steenburgen, a freight-train conductor who worked at the Missouri Pacific Railroad. Steenburgen grew up in North Little Rock, Arkansas...
..... Amy Robbins
- Charles Cioffi
Charles Cioffi , also credited as Charles M. Cioffi, is an American television actor.He was born in New York City and attended Michigan State University, where he became a member of the Sigma Chi Fraternity....
..... Police Lt. Mitchell
- Patti D'Arbanville
Patricia "Patti" D'Arbanville is an American actress and former model.-Early life:D'Arbanville, born May 25, 1951 in New York City, New York, is the daughter of Jean , an artist, and George D'Arbanville, a bartender. D'Arbanville attended PS 41 on Eleventh Street...
..... Shirley
- Joseph Maher
Joseph Maher was an Irish character actor who appeared in 43 films and was nominated for three Tony Awards and a Drama Desk Award for his supporting roles on the stage....
..... Adams
Critical reception
In her review in
The New York TimesThe New York Times is an American daily newspaper founded in 1851 and published in New York City. The largest metropolitan newspaper in the United States, "The Gray Lady"—named for its staid appearance and style—is regarded as a national newspaper of record...
,
Janet MaslinJanet Maslin is an American journalist. She is best known as a film and literary critic for The New York Times.-Personal:Maslin graduated from the University of Rochester in 1970, with a B.A. degree and a major in mathematics . She was once married to record producer Jon Landau...
said the film "is every bit as magical as the trick around which it revolves." She continued, "Mr. Meyer isn't a particularly skilled director; this is his first attempt, and on occasion it's very clumsy. But as a whizkid he's gone straight to the head of the class, with a movie that's as sweet as it is clever, and never so clever that it forgets to be entertaining. The satisfactions
Time After Time offers are perhaps no more sophisticated than the fun one might have with an intricate set of electric trains. Still, fun of this sort isn't always easy to come by, not after one's age has climbed up into two digits. There's a lot to be said for an adult's movie with the shimmer of a child's new toy."
VarietyVariety is a weekly entertainment-trade magazine founded in New York City, New York, in 1905 by Sime Silverman. With the rise of the importance of the motion-picture industry, Daily Variety, a daily edition based in Los Angeles, California, was founded by Silverman in 1933. In 1998, the Daily...
called it "a delightful, entertaining trifle of a film that shows both the possibilities and limitations of taking liberties with literature and history. Nicholas Meyer has deftly juxtaposed Victorian England and contemporary America in a clever story, irresistible due to the competence of its cast."
Awards and nominations
Nicholas Meyer won the
Saturn Award for Best WritingThe following is a list of people who have won the Saturn Award for Best Writing....
, Mary Steenburgen won the Saturn Award for Best Actress, and
Miklós RózsaMiklós Rózsa or Miklos Rozsa was a Hungarian-born composer, best known for his film scores, most notably the score to the 1959 epic Ben-Hur.-Biography:...
won the
Saturn Award for Best MusicThe following is a list of Saturn Award winners for Best Music....
. Saturn Award nominations went to Meyer for
Best DirectorThe following is a list of Saturn Award winners for Best Direction:...
, Malcolm McDowell for
Best ActorThe Saturn Award is an award presented annually by the Academy of Science Fiction, Fantasy & Horror Films to honor the top works in science fiction, fantasy, and horror in film, television, and home video. The Saturn Awards were devised by Dr. Donald A. Reed, who felt that films within those genres...
, David Warner for Supporting Actor, and Sal Anthony and Yvonne Kubis for
Best CostumesThe following are a list of Saturn Award winners for Best Costume:...
, and the film was nominated for
Best Science Fiction FilmThe following are a list of Saturn Award winners for Best Science Fiction Film:...
.
Nicholas Meyer won the Antenne II Award and the Grand Prize at the Avoriaz Fantastic Film Festival and he was nominated for the Edgar Allan Poe Award for Best Motion Picture Screenplay and the
Hugo Award for Best Dramatic PresentationThe Hugo Awards are given annually by members of the World Science Fiction Convention for the best science fiction or fantasy works. The awards are named after Hugo Gernsback, the founder of the pioneering science fiction magazine Amazing Stories, and given in various categories.Winners for the...
.
External links