Timerider: The Adventure of Lyle Swann (1982)

Director:

William Dear

Writers:

William Dear (written by)
Michael Nesmith (written by)

Release Date:

11 December 1982 (USA)

Genre:

Action | Adventure | Comedy | Sci-Fi | Western

Tagline:

Lyle Swann is a champion off-road racer. But to the people of 1877, he's something very, very different...

Plot:

Lyle, a motorcycle champion is traveling the Mexican desert, when he find himself in the action radius of a time machine...

Plot Keywords:

Motorcycle | Man Forced To Strip | Time Travel | Experiment | Cult Western

Awards:

1 win & 1 nomination

Cast

Fred Ward	...	Lyle Swann
Belinda Bauer	...	Claire Cygne
Peter Coyote	...	Porter Reese
Richard Masur	...	Claude Dorsett
Tracey Walter	...	Carl Dorsett
Ed Lauter	...	Padre
L.Q. Jones	...	Ben Potter
Chris Mulkey	...	Daniels
Macon McCalman	...	Dr. Sam
Jonathan Bahnks	...	Jesse
Laurie O'Brien	...	Terry
Susan Dear	...	2nd Technician
Bruce Gordon	...	Earl
Ben Zeller	...	Jack Peoples
William Dear	...	3rd Technician

Also Known As:

Timerider (USA) (short title)

Runtime:

94 min

Country:

USA

Language:

English

Color:

Color

Aspect Ratio:

1.85 : 1

Sound Mix:

Dolby

Certification:

Germany:12 (TV rating) | Germany:16 (video rating) | Iceland:12 | USA:PG (No. 26726) | Australia:M | Finland:K-16 | Norway:15 | UK:15

Filming Locations:

Abiquiu, New Mexico, USA

Company:

Zoomo Productions

Trivia:

Andrew Stevens was also seriously considered for the role of Lyle Swann.

Goofs:

Continuity: When Lyle Swann jumps into the helicopter, the motorcycle (which had previously been destroyed) is visible on the right-hand side of the screen (possibly widescreen only). When the helicopter leaves, the bike is missing.

Quotes:

Porter Reese: You shot it. What a bunch of dumb sons of bitches, you *shot* it! A *machine* - you butt-heads!

Movie Connections:

Referenced in Daymaker (2007)

Disappointing for me

I love time travel films, but there are two that disappoint me, this one and "Return to the Future". This one was absolutely corny and I think primarily designed for American Motor Cycle enthousiasts ( the film is not even known in Europe and hasn't appeared on VHS or DVD ). All time travel film is of course fantasy, but the story of this one is too corny. Throughout almost all the film the bike rider doesn't even realise he has crossed time and the villagers, apart from being fascinated by his machine, don't understand where he has come from. Both these ingredients being missing, one is more or less guaranteed that the film will be a failure. In fact if you look well much of the time you just see a motorbike zooming around all over the desert. So what's interesting about that. Nothing. There is little dialogue of any consequence between the protagonists and the anacchronism of the main character is not put to good use (as it is for example in Time After Time ). There are no comic situations arising from the time difference and hardly even a romance to titillate your taste buds. This is one of the few films where I bought the dvd without having seen the film and then regretted my purchase once I had seen the film ! In addition to that picture quality on the dvd is not up to much, and there are no other language tracks, subtitles or extras. So all in all a bit of a dead loss (like Joe Loss's Brother ) !!!