Future Cop II
Full Moon
Big Sky Video
R4 DVD
Future Cop II
aka Trancers II:The
Return of Jack Deth is a B Grade sci-fi film
from the prodigious cult movie director,
Charles Band. Dating from 1991 it actually has a very 80’s look and feel and
mixes a time travel story with a detective even film noir mood. It is certainly
a low budget affair but that makes it even more amusing, it is one of those
films which is so very bad it is good. It was a follow-on
from the quite successful Trancers.
It
stars Tim Thomerson as Deth
with surprising support from Helen Hunt who must look back at this film with
some amusement considering her later success. There is also the always evil
Richard Lynch as the greenie cult leader, Jeffrey Combs in a minor role and
Megan Ward, who appears in many Charles Brand films.
Captain
McNulty is sent back to Los Angeles 1991 and lands in the body of his ancestor,
a 15 year old girl, a great source of mirth. His task is to bring Jack Deth back to the future but Jack has been living in L.A.
for quite some years and has a new life, not to mention a new partner.
Unbeknown to Jack, his deceased wife from the future was retrieved from a time
just before her murder and send back to the present but she has landed in a
mental institution. As fate would have it she has been moved from the institute
to “GreenWorld”, a greenie cult run by E.D. Wardo. The truth, however, is worse than they realize as “GreenWorld” is actually a trancer
factory. GreenWorld takes mentally ill people and the
homeless off the street and using mind control and drugs turns them into
zombies under Wardo’s control.
Trancers are zombies whose
minds are controlled by Wardo and are on a mission to
murder Jack and Hap Ashby. Hap used to be a famous baseball player but in the
present is a rich alcoholic, in the future his descendant will become a member
of the great council, but not if he is killed first. Jack must protect him at
all costs.
“You know the council's going out of
their way to keep you alive so you can procreate!”
As
the story unfolds Jack is united with his two wives and must battle domestic
squabbles, murderous trancers and protect Hap from
the booze as well as from those who want to kill him, not a simple task.
Future Cop II
is filled to the brim with clichés, some truly “memorable” dialogue and some
pretty bad acting. But somehow this all ties together to
become a marvellously fun cult sci-fi film. It is one of those films
which knows it has a limited budget and simply revels
in its genre roots. It has developed quite a following and four sequels were
made.
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