

Given that Timecop is primarily a Jean-Claude Van Damme movie, it’s no real surprise that the fight scenes are the best bits. It has a little fun with those ideas too, especially in the dialogue, with McComb telling his younger self to lay off the candy bars or barking at a henchman, “Never interrupt me when I’m talking to myself!” 1994 McComb getting injured and a scar appearing on 2004 McComb. Timecop also delivers mightily when it comes to deploying tried-and-tested time travel tropes, most notably replaying past events from different perspectives, meeting younger versions of yourself, changing the future and actions in the past having immediate visible consequences – eg. However, the film’s Car of the Future is hilariously awful and is very obviously just a normal car with a bulky-looking plastic shell on it. Fair play to Timecop on that score, because the 1994 script essentially predicts Alexa (“Play the clip”) and electronic messages as well as self-driven cars, satnav and, um, interactive porn. Part of the fun of time travel stories about the future is seeing what they got right and wrong.

(Needless to say, that particular piece of information pays off spectacularly later on, in one of the film’s best moments.) Apparently you can’t travel to the future because “it hasn’t happened yet”, but you can go to the past – just being careful about meeting a past version of yourself, because matter can’t occupy the same physical space. Still, at least the writers thought about putting some rules in place. (Also, if you’re a Time Cop, the handheld machine returns you to the Time Shuttle, but apparently not if you’re a Time Criminal.)

#Timecop splits trial#
There are also smaller, handheld machines that can pop you back again, like a remote reset button or something, but none of these things are used in a way that makes any sense, particularly during the Time Trial scene, when a criminal is sentenced to death and returned to a moment where he nearly died. There is, indeed, a proper time machine – it looks a bit like a space shuttle and operates by jetting towards a wall before disappearing into a sort of time puddle – but it seems to just deposit people in random locations when they reach their destination and the ship itself doesn’t travel with them.
#Timecop splits movie#
Flash forward a decade and Max is now a veteran TEC Timecop, hot on the trail of suspicious Senator McComb (Ron Silver), who’s secretly abusing his access to time travel technology in order to fund a Presidential bid.Ĭonsidering the entire premise of the movie revolves around a time-travelling cop, it’s odd that the script is so inconsistent when it comes to the actual time travel. Shortly afterwards, beat cop Max Walker (Jean-Claude Van Damme) is debating whether or not he should accept a job with the TEC, when he’s attacked and left for dead, while his wife (Mia Sara) dies when his building is blown up. The story begins in 1994, with the invention of time travel and the establishment of the Time Enforcement Commission (or TEC), which is deemed necessary because the technology has already fallen into the wrong hands, potentially creating ripples in time. It might be nonsensical in places, but JCVD kicks plenty of ass and hey, at least it delivers on that tagline.ĭirected by Peter Hyams (who subsequently reteamed with Van Damme for Sudden Death), Timecop is based on a three-part story that first appeared in the Dark Horse Comics anthology. There’s still time to save her.” That’s the irresistible tagline for this entertaining time travel thriller that’s generally reckoned to be Jean-Claude Van Damme’s best movie. Has Tenet whetted your appetite for more time travel titilation? Transport yourself no further than Time Travel Thursday, our column devoted to time travel movies on Amazon Prime.
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Watch Timecop online in the UK: Amazon Prime / Apple TV (iTunes) / Prime Video (Buy/Rent) / Google Play / CHILI Cast: Jean-Claude Van Damme, Mia Sara, Ron Silver, Bruce McGill, Gloria Reuben, Scott Lawrence, Scott Bellis
