With its offbeat premise putting an oddball sci-fi twist on two giants of history,Time After Timeis one of the most underrated time travel movies ever made.Time After Timesupposes that H.G. Wells’ time machine, the subject of his aptly titled novellaThe Time Machine, was real, and that Jack the Ripper used it to travel to the 1970s just as the bobbies were closing in on him. Realizing he’s the only one who can stop the Ripper, Wells follows him into the future and chases him through the streets of contemporary San Francisco. Along the way, while trying to put an end to the Ripper’s reign of terror, Wells falls in love with an American woman and questions whether he even wants to return to his own time.
Time After Timewas written and directed by Nicholas Meyer in his directorial debut. His next feature would beStar Trek II: The Wrath of Khan, which is still widely regarded to be the bestStar Trekfilm. Although he hadn’t yet directed a film, Meyer was already known for his quirky take on historical figures, thanks to his best-selling 1974 novelThe Seven-Per-Cent Solutionand its 1976 film adaptation, for which Meyer received an Oscar nomination for adapting his own book into a screenplay. Supposedly a lost manuscript of Dr. John Watson,The Seven-Per-Cent Solutioncharts Sherlock Holmes’ attempts to kick his cocaine addiction with the help of Sigmund Freud. Suffice it to say, Karl Alexander’s unfinished novel about H.G. Wells pursuing Jack the Ripper into the future was right up Meyer’s alley.
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Eight years after he played psychotic droog Alex DeLarge inStanley Kubrick’s dystopian sci-fi satireA Clockwork Orange, Malcolm McDowell might have seemed like the obvious choice to play the Ripper. But here, he plays Wells as a gentlemanly everyman determined to bring the Ripper to justice. The Ripper – or “John Leslie Stevenson,” as the film identifies him – is played by David Warner, two years after he’d played Keith Jennings inThe Omen. This time, Warner plays the elusive demon, not the photographer who catches him on film. Both actors lend a Shakespearean bravado to this unlikely duo. McDowell commits just as wholeheartedly to the culture shock of a man from Victorian England arriving in ‘70s America as he does to Wells’ renowned intellect, while Warner brings an authentic air of cold-hearted psychopathy to the Ripper. Just before her Oscar win forMelvin and Howard, Mary Steenburgen stole the show inTime After Timeas Wells’ love interest, Amy Robbins. Amy is a bank teller who Wells meets and falls for while he’s searching San Francisco for another man trying to convert old-timey British pounds into modern-day American dollars.
A lesser filmmaker might have madeTime After Timeas a generic cat-and-mouse thriller witha sci-fi spin. But, in Meyer’s hands, it’s the ultimate fish-out-of-water story. One of the greatest minds of all time looks like a buffoon as he tries to wrap his head around modern commodities like cars and fast food restaurants. Wells goes to a McDonald’s and his fellow diners watch in confusion as he marvels at the rich flavor of the French fries and the astounding smoothness of the tables. After hailing a cab, Wells curiously studies the door handle before figuring out how to use it. When he first witnesses a TV screen, it’s as if aliens have sent unimaginable futuristic technology from the great beyond.
As with all great time travel stories, the second-act twist ofTime After Timeis inextricably tied to the time travel paradox. When Wells takes Amy forward in time to the weekend to prove he’s really from the past and he hands her the newspaper to confirm the date, she’s horrified to see an article claiming she’s been murdered by the Ripper. AsTime After Timeheads into its thrilling climax, Wells has to figure out a way to save Amy from the Ripper’s wrath before she meets her seemingly inevitable fate. MuchlikeBack to the Future,Time After Timeends its tale of a genius meddling with the timeline with said genius locked in a race against time. As villainous as the Ripper and Biff Tannen are, the real enemy in these stories is time itself.
On top of its offbeat premise,Time After Timehas some interesting commentary on humanity and the evolution of human society throughout the 20th century. When he first perfects the time machine in 1893, Wells predicts that, within three generations, Earth will have become a utopian paradise with no more war. However, when the Ripper jumps three generations into the future, he finds that Wells’ idealistic prediction couldn’t have been more wrong, and thatthe sleazy ‘70sare a better time for a violent maniac to live in. Instead of taking steps forward, they find that human society has taken steps back into savagery and depravity. Wells is heartbroken by this, but the Ripper feels right at home.
The great thing aboutTime After Timeis that it’s really a love story. As it sets up this ballsy high-concept premise about Wells and the Ripper in ‘70s San Francisco, the heartfelt romance sneaks up on the audience. Steenburgen and McDowell share terrific chemistry as an aimless modern woman looking for love and a charming English gentleman lost and confused in an American city. If all the time travel elements and fictionalized historical figures were stripped away,Time After Timewould still be a delightful romantic comedy.
