Time After Time (1979)

H.G. Wells pursues Jack the Ripper to the 20th Century when the serial murderer uses the future writer's time machine to escape his time period.

Director:

Nicholas Meyer

Writers:

Karl Alexander (story), Steve Hayes (story)

Stars:

Malcolm McDowell, Mary Steenburgen, David Warner

7 wins & 7 nominations.

Cast

Cast overview, first billed only:
Malcolm McDowell	...	H.G. Wells
David Warner	...	Stevenson
Mary Steenburgen	...	Amy Robbins
Charles Cioffi	...	Lt. Mitchell
Kent Williams	...	Assistant
Andonia Katsaros	...	Mrs. Turner
Patti D'Arbanville	...	Shirley
James Garrett	...	Edwards
Keith McConnell	...	Harding
Leo Lewis	...	Richardson
Byron Webster	...	McKay
Karin Collison	...	Jenny (as Karin Mary Shea)
Geraldine Baron	...	Carol
Laurie Main	...	Inspector Gregson
Joseph Maher	...	Adams

Storyline

It's 1893 London. Futurist H.G. Wells believes that the future holds a Utopian society. He also believes in time travel. He has just built a time machine which he is displaying to a group of skeptical friends, including surgeon Dr. John Leslie Stevenson. Unbeknown to Wells or anyone else among that circle, Stevenson is better known to the public as Jack the Ripper. Just as the police are about to capture Stevenson, he uses the time machine to escape, with Wells being the only one who knows what happened to him. Not telling anyone except his trusting housekeeper, Wells follows Stevenson in order to capture and bring him back to face justice. Where Stevenson has gone is 1979 San Francisco. There, Wells is dismayed to find that the future is not Utopia as he had predicted. But Wells is also picked up by a young woman named Amy Robbins. As Wells and Amy search for Stevenson, Stevenson conversely is after Wells to obtain the master key to the time machine. As Stevenson continues his ...

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Plot Keywords:

time machine | jack the ripper | h.g. wells | time travel | bank | 

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Taglines:

H.G. Wells races through time to catch Jack the Ripper!

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Genres:

Adventure | Drama | Sci-Fi | Thriller

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Certificate:

PG

Details

Country:

USA

Language:

English

Release Date:

28 September 1979 (USA)

Also Known As:

Escape al futuro

Filming Locations:

Trocadero Transfer, 520 Fourth Street, San Francisco, California, USA

Company Credits

Production Co:

Orion Pictures,Warner Bros.

Technical Specs

Runtime:

112 min

Sound Mix:

Dolby

Color:

Color (Metrocolor)

Aspect Ratio:

2.35 : 1

Did You Know?

Trivia

DITRADE(Nicholas Meyer): [Holmes]: Wells' landlady is named "Mrs. Turner." Sherlock Holmes refers to his landlady as "Mrs. Turner" once (in "A Scandal in Bohemia") even though her name is "Mrs. Hudson" in all the other stories. Meyer, a Holmes aficionado and author of three well-known Holmes pastiches, is familiar with this inconsistency in the Holmes canon (he even mentions it at one point in his DVD commentary on Star Trek II: The Wrath of Khan (1982)) and apparently included it as an inside joke, along with the several other Holmes references in the film.

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Goofs

While Wells and Amy are walking on the street they are passed by two men, one in orange pants and the other in a brown jacket. A minute later, the same two men pass them again as the camera zooms in for a closeup of a newspaper report about a murder.

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Quotes

Amy Robbins: I like that suit. Is that what they're wearing in London?
H.G. Wells: It was when I left.

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Connections

References For a Few Dollars More (1965)

User Reviews

A classic Nicholas Meyer battle of wits

"Time after Time" is a clever battle of wits between Jack the Ripper, who has used H.G. Wells' time machine to escape to the year 1979, and H.G. Wells, who steps into the machine to get to 1979 too, and chase after the Ripper. (This kind of brain-to-brain combat between two very special people is a theme that Nicholas Meyer will return to in "Star Trek II: The Wrath of Khan.")

Particularly interesting is how Jack the Ripper, an evil serial killer, finds himself completely at home in the year 1979, while H.G. Wells, with his idealistic dreams of a perfectible society, is completely out of place in our modern era.

Malcolm McDowell is believable yet comical as the intellectual Wells, almost bird-like in his quick, darting movements. David Warner is adequate as Jack the Ripper, but you don't get enough of a feeling of the Ripper's insanity and evil. Mary Steenburgen, as Wells' newfound love interest in 1979, acts well enough, but she delivers some of her lines unconvincingly.

The lush Miklos Rosza score is a treat.

Worth seeing.