Freejack

Year 14, Day 173 - 6/22/22 - Movie #4,177

BEFORE: I promise you, there's another Father's Day movie coming up tomorrow, before I kick off the Rock & Doc Block.  Today's film, which has ALSO been taking up space on my DVR for nearly two whole years, is necessary to connect "The Father" with another film about fathers. This will make more sense tomorrow, I hope.

But if I'm being completely honest, I could have transitioned into documentaries yesterday, by linking from Ann-Margret, there's footage of her in at least one documentary in the chain, maybe even two.  Or I could link to the documentary chain after today's film, that's an option because Mick Jagger is in this film, and I've learned that filmmakers really can't make a documentary film about rock music without archive footage of the Beatles or the Stones, usually both.  What I'm saying is, I had many options for how to get INTO the doc chain, and because this year's chain turned out to be a big circle (more or less) - meaning that I accidentally organized it so the last documentary linked back to the first - I was able to pick the starting point that made me the most happy, or made more sense from an OCD organizing point of view, which is essentially the same thing.  So, I made the choices that were MOST likely to put the film I wanted to watch on July 4 on July - because I could.  If there are other coincidences that come along, like if anybody makes an appearance on their birthday, either as a documentary subject, an interviewed person, or just appears through the use of archive footage, I'll try to make note of that. 

Anyway, I've got to get rid of this film, like "Magic" it looks terrible, so it probably is - but I recorded it, so now I have to own that.  Anthony Hopkins carries over again from "Magic".

THE PLOT: Bounty hunters from the future transport a doomed race car driver to New York City in 2009, where his mind will be replaced with that of a dead billionaire. 

AFTER: I'm afraid there's no way around this, the only way to do it is go through it, we must acknowledge that this film exists - it's much too late to turn back now.  A film released in 1992 that sends a man into the far-flung future of 2009, where the world is terribly polluted, the ozone layer is destroyed, climate change is real and the gap between the super-rich, the billionaires, the one-percenters, is greater than ever.  Millions are homeless or live in burnt-out buildings around New York City, uncontaminated food is rarely available, and most people are sick due to various toxins, drug use, radiation, overuse of plastics and of course, nuclear waste.  OK, so they weren't exactly WRONG, maybe they were just off a bit on the timetable - because all of this could STILL be the way we're all headed.  But let's reflect on the fact that at least 2009 wasn't as bad as people once thought it would be, and retroactively breathe a sigh of relief - it would be another decade before things got super out of control, right?  

Oh, but there's new technology, some of which came into being, even if most of it didn't.  Things look great for virtual reality and faked zoomed calls, which we do have now, or are just on the brink of having.  But then there's mind-wiping, or implanting one person's memories and consciousness into another's body (last seen in "Swan Song") and well, that's not a thing yet.  Same goes for time travel, or at least a form of it where people can reach back to a specific time and place and yank somebody into the future.  Obviously, this needs to be done at the moment just before death, to minimize the chances of affecting the timestream.  If you "jack" somebody who was likely to survive and have kids, then you've changed the timeline.

Right, but why do they need this race-car driver's body in the future?  Well, that's where they're going to put the dying billionaire's brain, duh.  I know, the next obvious question is, why can't they just use a young attractive, athletic person's body from 2009, so the billionaire can live on?  Well, they do answer that, it's because all the people in 2009 are so sick, thanks to that pollution and radiation and nuclear waste - so they HAVE to reach back to a cleaner, more simpler time to get a good body.  And this makes sense for about 30 seconds, until you realize that clean body with the old mind in it now has to live in 2009, so it will be polluted and sick itself in short order.  And we're back to this plot not making a bit of sense, where we should be.

A 17-year jump isn't really that much time, but essentially the whole world changed during that time, population growth being what it is, and after two terms of Reagan and then one of George Bush Sr. dismantling the EPA, the FDA and the Health and Human Services Dept., you can see why the future looked bleak when viewed through 1992's eyes.  Sure, we'll have lasers and people will be driving tiny, little energy-saving cars, but also the government agents will be hunting down mutants in the Forbidden Zone, which was formerly known as Brooklyn.

It was really smart casting Rene Russo as the racer's love interest, because she somehow managed to look 35 for about 20 years.  I mean, she can't pass for mid-30's NOW but she had a good long run.  Her character works for the mega-corporation that was involved in jacking her old dead boyfriend into the future, yet somehow, she's not aware of the plan.  She's very surprised to see him again, to the point where she doesn't believe that it's him - but she knows that the time travel tech exists, so what gives?  Since she knows that people are brought to the future to serve as host bodies, she naturally assumes that's not the Alex Furlong she knew, it must be someone else in his body.  Still, WHY IS THIS HER GO-TO?  Is it THAT hard to believe that a jacked body escaped before the procedure could be done?  They even have a word for that, they're "freejackers", so why can't she wrap her brain around this?

Her company, the McCandless Corporation, runs the "spiritual switchboard", where rich people's minds are kept in storage until proper new bodies can be found.  Umm, sure, is Walt Disney also kept on ice there?  Alex's only hope is to figure out who all the players are in this barter-for-bodies system, and hope that they hate each other more than they hate him. Because in a world of self-driving cars, who the hell needs race car drivers any more?  

NITPICK POINT: The medical techs in the future have to "revive" Alex after he's jacked into the future, which implies that he did die.  But if he died, it would have been from the car crash, which was a fiery explosion - he would have been horribly burned before dying, right?  But there's not a burn on him, just a few scratches.  So, which is it, did he die or did he not die?  Did they pull him into the future just before he died?  But then, if that's the case, why did they have to revive him?  It's not even a time-travel paradox, it's just a stupid situation that makes no sense, any way you try to explain it.

Also starring Emilio Estevez (last seen in "Bobby"), Mick Jagger (last seen in "I Am Divine"), Rene Russo (last seen in "Frank and Cindy"), Jonathan Banks (last seen in "Mudbound"), David Johansen (last seen in "Bad Reputation"), Amanda Plummer (last seen in "The Hunger Games: Catching Fire"), Grand L. Bush (last seen in "Streets of Fire"), Frankie Faison (last seen in "In Good Company"), John Shea (last seen in "Missing"), Esai Morales (last seen in "Fast Food Nation"), Wilbur Fitzgerald (last seen in "The Best of Enemies"), J. Don Ferguson (last seen in "I Know What You Did Last Summer"), Tom Barnes, Harsh Nayyar (last seen in "Desperately Seeking Susan"), Danny De La Paz, Johnny Popwell (last seen in "Deliverance"), Myrna White, with cameos from Jerry Hall, Mike Starr (last seen in "Zeroville").

RATING: 3 out of 10 broken champagne bottles