Cast overview, first billed only: | |||
Malcolm McDowell | ... | H.G. Wells | |
David Warner | ... | Stevenson | |
Mary Steenburgen | ... | Amy Robbins | |
Charles Cioffi | ... | Lt. Mitchell | |
Kent Williams | ... | Assistant | |
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Andonia Katsaros | ... | Mrs. Turner |
Patti D'Arbanville | ... | Shirley | |
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James Garrett | ... | Edwards |
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Keith McConnell | ... | Harding |
Leo Lewis | ... | Richardson | |
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Byron Webster | ... | McKay |
Karin Collison | ... | Jenny (as Karin Mary Shea) | |
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Geraldine Baron | ... | Carol |
Laurie Main | ... | Inspector Gregson | |
Joseph Maher | ... | Adams |
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 ... Written by Huggo
Having a premise of HG Wells ( Yes that one ) pursue Jack the ripper ( Ditto ) to the 20th century has all the makings of a really camp and totally crap film , but despite the outrageous idea TIME AFTER TIME is a very enjoyable fantasy .
Unlike most time travel films ( THE TERMINATOR , BACK TO THE FUTURE not to mention several DOCTOR WHO and STAR TREK stories ) TIME AFTER TIME doesn`t really concern itself with concepts like the blinovitch limitation effect ie a temporal paradox , instead it concentrates on how a radical 19th century idealist like Wells would have found 20th century " Utopia " and how he would have been sickened by it . It`s here that the film works best with Wells travelling through the time vortex listening to the history of the 20th century and the scene with Wells and Jack watching television . It`s also interesting to note that the movie`s most amusing moments ( And they are genuinely amusing )are when Wells notices the difference in sexual mores of the present day . The film is much weaker when it switches to " Hero tracks down serial killer " type thriller but that`s not really what the film is about .