Jumper is a 2008 American science fiction film, loosely based on
the 1992 science fiction novel of the same name by Steven Gould. The
film is directed by Doug Liman and stars Hayden Christensen, Jamie Bell,
Samuel L. Jackson, Rachel Bilson, Max Thieriot, AnnaSophia Robb, and
Diane Lane. The film follows a young man capable of teleporting as he is
chased by a secret society intent on killing him.
The script
went through a rewrite prior to filming and the roles for the main
characters were changed during production. Jumper was filmed in 20
cities in 14 countries between 2006 and 2007. The film was released on
February 14, 2008 and a soundtrack was released on February 19. The film
held the first position in its opening weekend with $27.3 million, but
despite this success, reviews from critics were generally negative.
Contents
Plot
In
Ann Arbor, Michigan, teenager David Rice (Max Thieriot) gives his
crush, Millie (Annasophia Robb), a snow globe containing the Eiffel
Tower, knowing her dreams of traveling someday. A bully, Mark, throws
the globe onto the ice near a river. While trying to retrieve it, David
falls through the ice and is pulled away by the current. He suddenly
finds himself in the local library with drenched clothes. He discovers
he can "Jump", or teleport, disappearing from one place and instantly
appearing in another. Unhappy with his life, he runs away and is
believed dead by his alcoholic father.
Eight years later, an
adult David (Hayden Christensen) has settled into a life of adventure.
He spends his days jumping around various continents, doing various
sports and living lavishly using money stolen from banks via his jumping
abilities. We also see him observing a natural disaster on the TV news,
but not even consider using his power to save the people. After a day
of hedonistic jumping, including seducing and sleeping with a woman in
London, he is ambushed in his home by Roland Cox (Samuel L. Jackson).
Cox tries to trap him with a system of high-voltage cables, which
prevent him from being able to jump. David escapes and returns home to
Ann Arbor, seeking the now adult Millie (Rachel Bilson). He is attacked
by Mark and purposely teleports him into a bank vault. He leaves him
there and returns to Millie, inviting her to travel with him (by
conventional means) to Rome. Roland – who we see heads an organisation
dedicated to killing these "abominations" because "only God should have
the power to be everywhere" – later discovers Mark in police custody and
so learns David's identity.
David and Millie arrive in Rome,
David attempting to keep his true nature as a thief and his power a
secret from her. After talking, they have sexual intercourse. David and
Millie visit the Colosseum, only to find it closed. David uses his
ability to unlock a door from the inside, telling a skeptical Millie the
door was already unlocked. While opening another door, he discovers
another Jumper, Griffin (Jamie Bell). He warns David that "Paladins" are
coming – an extremist group which has been tracking down and killing
Jumpers from "the beginning". Several Paladins show up and attack them.
Griffin kills one and teleports, taking the body with him. David tries
to leave with Millie, but is detained by Italian police and questioned
about the death. While waiting for a magistrate to arrive, David's
mother Mary (Diane Lane), who had left David when he was five, appears
and throws him the keys to his handcuffs. She tells him he has very
little time to leave. David tries to follow her, but she says if he
wants the girl to live he must leave now. David tells Millie the police
let him go and they leave together. Millie, now very suspicious, demands
the truth. David declines and puts her on a plane home.
David
jumps to Griffin's lair, asking where to find Roland. Griffin explains
that Paladins are religious fanatics who believe Jumpers are an affront
to God and have been hunting them for centuries. He also says that
Paladins will kill Jumpers by targeting their loved ones. He has been
trying to kill Roland for years, as the Paladins killed his parents when
he was a child and have tried to kill him several times. David
teleports to his father, finds him bleeding and teleports him to a
hospital. He returns to Griffin and convinces him to go with him to the
airport to greet Millie. Upon arriving, they realize her flight landed
an hour earlier. Griffin returns to his lair to get weapons while David
searches for Millie. He breaks into her apartment, angering Millie, who
tells him to leave. Through the living room window David sees Roland
arriving and shows her what he can do, and saves her, by teleporting her
back to Griffin's lair. The Paladins follow using a machine that keeps
the "jump scar" (wormhole) open and fight with David and Griffin. Roland
is chased back through the portal, but snatches Millie back to her
apartment with a cable.
Griffin decides to take a bomb to
Millie's apartment and kill everyone. David refuses, wanting to save
Millie. They fight through several locations, and David traps Griffin
with power lines in Chechnya, while there is an ongoing battle between
Russian troops and Islamic militants. Griffin warns that if he faces the
Paladins alone he will be outnumbered. He goes anyway and is quickly
trapped by Roland's electric cables. David cannot escape as he is
physically tied to the apartment by the cables. Using his teleporting
powers David separates the apartment from the rest of the building and
teleports that section away, along with Roland, Millie and himself, back
to the river into which he fell through the ice as a child. Once free
of the cables (while still underwater) David teleports to the library
with Millie, as well as an unwelcome Roland. David then grabs Roland and
takes him to a cave in the Grand Canyon, abandoning him there, and
telling him that he could have had him killed instead.
David
visits his mother and is stunned when a girl, his half-sister, Sophie
(Kristen Stewart), answers the door. Mary tells David she has known he
was a Jumper since he was five, when Jumpers make their first Jump. She
is a Paladin, and had to either kill David or leave. She again allows
him to leave, allowing him a "head start". He meets with Millie outside
and they jump to an unknown location.
No comments:
Post a Comment