''Trancers'' (also released as ''Future Cop'') is a 1984 American

science fiction action film The action film is a film genre that predominantly features chase sequences, fights, shootouts, explosions, and stunt work. The specifics of what constitutes an action film has been in scholarly debate since the 1980s. While some scholars such as ...

directed by

Charles Band Charles Robert Band (born December 27, 1951) is an American film producer and director, known for his work on horror comedy movies. Career Band entered film production in the 1970s with Charles Band Productions. Dissatisfied with distributo ...

and starring

Tim Thomerson Joseph Timothy Thomerson (born April 8, 1946) is an American actor and comedian. He is best known for his role as Jack Deth in the '' Trancers'' film series, his work in numerous low-budget features, and his comedic television roles. He appear ...

Helen Hunt Helen Elizabeth Hunt (born June 15, 1963) is an American actress. Her accolades include an Academy Award, four Primetime Emmy Awards, and four Golden Globe Awards. Hunt rose to fame portraying newlywed Jamie Buchman in the sitcom '' Mad Abou ...

, and

Art LaFleur Art LaFleur (September 9, 1943 – November 17, 2021) was an American character actor and acting coach. Life and career LaFleur was born in Gary, Indiana. He played football in 1962 as a redshirt at the University of Kentucky under Coach Charli ...

. It is the first film in the ''Trancers'' series. Thomerson plays Jack Deth, a

Philip Marlowe Philip Marlowe ( ) is a fictional character created by Raymond Chandler who was characteristic of the hardboiled crime fiction genre. The genre originated in the 1920s, notably in '' Black Mask'' magazine, in which Dashiell Hammett's The Cont ...

-esque police detective from the 23rd century who travels to the 1980s to bring his old nemesis to justice. The film portrays a unique method of time travel: people can travel back in time by injecting themselves with a drug that allows them to take over the body of an

ancestor An ancestor, also known as a forefather, fore-elder, or a forebear, is a parent or ( recursively) the parent of an antecedent (i.e., a grandparent, great-grandparent, great-great-grandparent and so forth). ''Ancestor'' is "any person from ...

Plot

Jack Deth is a retired police trooper in the 23rd century who has been called back into service to assist in hunting down Martin Whistler, a criminal mastermind who uses

psychic A psychic is a person who claims to use powers rooted in parapsychology, such as extrasensory perception (ESP), to identify information hidden from the normal senses, particularly involving telepathy or clairvoyance; or who performs acts that a ...

powers to turn people into mindless "Trancers" and carry out his orders. Deth can identify a tranced individual by scanning them with a special bracelet. All trancers appear as normal humans at first, but once triggered, they become savage killers with twisted features. Before he can be caught, Whistler escapes back in time using a drug-induced time-traveling technique. Whistler's consciousness travels down his ancestral bloodline, arrives in 1985, and takes over the body of a

Los Angeles Los Angeles, often referred to by its initials L.A., is the List of municipalities in California, most populous city in the U.S. state of California, and the commercial, Financial District, Los Angeles, financial, and Culture of Los Angeles, ...

police detective named Weisling. Once Deth discovers what Whistler has done, he destroys Whistler's body—effectively leaving him trapped in the past with no vessel to return to—and chases after him through time the same way. Deth ends up in the body of one of his ancestors: a journalist named Phil Dethton. With the help of Phil's date from the night before—a

punk rock Punk rock (also known as simply punk) is a rock music genre that emerged in the mid-1970s. Rooted in 1950s rock and roll and 1960s garage rock, punk bands rejected the corporate nature of mainstream 1970s rock music. They typically produced sh ...

girl named Lena—Deth goes after Whistler, who has begun to "trance" other victims. Whistler plots to eliminate the future governing council members of Angel City (the future name of

), who are being systematically wiped out of existence by Whistler's murder spree of their ancestors. Deth arrives too late to prevent most of the murders and can only safeguard Hap Ashby, a washed-up former pro

baseball Baseball is a bat-and-ball games, bat-and-ball sport played between two team sport, teams of nine players each, taking turns batting (baseball), batting and Fielding (baseball), fielding. The game occurs over the course of several Pitch ...

player, who is the ancestor of the last surviving council member, Chairman Ashe. Deth is given some high-tech equipment, which is sent to him in the past: his sidearm (which contains two hidden vials of time drugs to send him and Whistler back to the future), and a "long-second" wristwatch, which temporarily slows time, stretching one second to 10. The watch has only enough power for one use, but he later receives another watch. During the end fight with Whistler, one of the drug vials in Jack's gun breaks, leaving only one vial to get home. Jack is forced to make a choice: kill the innocent Weisling (who is possessed by the evil Whistler), or use the vial to send Whistler back to 2247, which would strand Jack in the present. Jack chooses to inject Weisling with the vial, saving the lieutenant's life but condemning Whistler to an eternity without a body to return to. Jack decides to remain with Lena in 1985, although observing him from the shadows is McNulty, his boss from the future, who has traveled down his own ancestral line, ending up in the body of a young girl.

Cast

as Trooper Jack Deth / Phil Dethton * Michael Stefani as Martin Whistler / Detective Weisling *

as Leena *

as Detective McNulty (credited as Art La Fleur) *

Biff Manard Biff Manard (c. 1943 – May 19, 2014) was an American actor. Background Born in either 1939 or 1943 according to various sources, Manard appeared in several movies and made guest spots on popular TV shows for many decades, such as Officer Micha ...

as Hap Ashby *

Richard Herd Richard Thomas Herd Jr. (September 26, 1932 – May 26, 2020) was an American actor appearing in numerous supporting, recurring, and guest roles in television series and occasional film roles from the 1970s to the 2010s. He was well known in the ...

as Chairman Spencer *

Telma Hopkins Telma Louise Hopkins (born October 28, 1948) is an American actress and pop singer. Hopkins rose to prominence as a member of the pop group Tony Orlando and Dawn, who had several number-one songs. She also performed on the CBS variety show ''T ...

as Ruthie Raines, The Engineer * Anne Seymour as Chairman Margaret Ashe * Peter Schrum as

Santa Claus Santa Claus (also known as Saint Nicholas, Saint Nick, Father Christmas, Kris Kringle or Santa) is a legendary figure originating in Western Christian culture who is said to bring gifts during the late evening and overnight hours on Chris ...

Alyson Croft Alyson Croft is an American actress. She has been nominated for best Young Artist Award six times, winning it twice during the late 1980s. Career Croft is an actress, playwright and producer. She began her career at the age of six years old. Sh ...

as "Baby McNulty" (credited as Allyson Croft) * Barbara Perry as Mrs. Santa Claus *

Richard Erdman John Richard Erdman (June 1, 1925 – March 16, 2019) was an American character actor and occasional film and television director. He appeared in more than 160 films and television productions between 1944 and 2017, mostly in supporting roles ...

as Drunken Wise Man *

Wiley Harker James "Wiley" Harker (January 27, 1915 – May 1, 2007) was an American character actor who portrayed Crane Tolliver in the soap opera ''General Hospital'' in 1983. He also played Justice Harold Webb in ''First Monday in October'' (1981). He also ...

as Dapper Old Man * Miguel Fernandes as Officer Lopez

Production

The idea of the film came from the producer's admiration of

Humphrey Bogart Humphrey DeForest Bogart ( ; December 25, 1899 – January 14, 1957), nicknamed Bogie, was an American actor. His performances in classic Hollywood cinema made him an American cultural icon. In 1999, the American Film Institute selected Bogart ...

's work.

Reception

Rotten Tomatoes Rotten Tomatoes is an American review aggregator, review-aggregation website for film and television. The company was launched in August 1998 by three undergraduate students at the University of California, Berkeley: Senh Duong, Patrick Y. Lee ...

the film has an approval rating of 83% based on reviews from 6 critics. ''

Variety Variety may refer to: Arts and entertainment Entertainment formats * Variety (radio) * Variety show, in theater and television Films * ''Variety'' (1925 film), a German silent film directed by Ewald Andre Dupont * ''Variety'' (1935 film), ...

'' described it as having a similar premise to ''

The Terminator ''The Terminator'' is a 1984 American science fiction action film directed by James Cameron, written by Cameron and Gale Anne Hurd and produced by Hurd. It stars Arnold Schwarzenegger as the Terminator, a cybernetic assassin sent back in t ...

'' but falling short of that film. Kevin Thomas of the ''

Los Angeles Times The ''Los Angeles Times'' is an American Newspaper#Daily, daily newspaper that began publishing in Los Angeles, California, in 1881. Based in the Greater Los Angeles city of El Segundo, California, El Segundo since 2018, it is the List of new ...

'' instead called it "a textbook example of efficient, effective exploitation film making."

Neil Gaiman Neil Richard MacKinnon Gaiman (; born Neil Richard Gaiman; 10 November 1960) is an English author of short fiction, novels, comic books, audio theatre, and screenplays. His works include the comic series ''The Sandman (comic book), The Sandma ...

reviewed ''Trancers'' for ''

Imagine Imagine may refer to: * Imagination Music Albums * ''Imagine'' (Armin van Buuren album), 2008 * ''Imagine'' (Eva Cassidy album), 2002 * ''Imagine'' (Janice Vidal album), 2012 * ''Imagine'' (John Lennon album), 1971 ** ''Imagine: John Lennon' ...

'' magazine, and stated that it was "funny, comic-book, and fun, I enjoyed it immensely." Creature Feature gave the movie two stars, finding the story a mess but noted that some of the sequels are better. Thomerson preferred this film to the sequels finding it more visceral and character driven. ''

The Encyclopedia of Science Fiction ''The Encyclopedia of Science Fiction'' (''SFE'') is an English language reference work on science fiction, first published in 1979. It has won the Hugo Award, Hugo, Locus Award, Locus and BSFA Award, British SF Awards. Two print editions appea ...

'' found that while it is an action film, it has many science fiction ideas and an interesting punk look. ''

The Conway Daily Sun ''The Conway Daily Sun'' is a five-day (Tuesday through Saturday) free daily newspaper published in North Conway, New Hampshire, United States, covering the Mount Washington Valley. It has been published since 1989 by Country News Club, and w ...

'' praised the film, especially Thomerson's and Hunt's performances.

James Cameron James Francis Cameron (born August 16, 1954) is a Canadian filmmaker, who resides in New Zealand. He is a major figure in the post-New Hollywood era and often uses novel technologies with a Classical Hollywood cinema, classical filmmaking styl ...

reportedly enjoyed the film and began recommending

Danny Bilson Daniel Bilson (born July 26, 1956) is an American writer, director, and producer of movies, television, video games, and comic books. Together with his frequent collaborator, Paul De Meo, he is best known as the writer for the film '' The Rocke ...

and

Paul DeMeo Paul James De Meo (June 4, 1953 – February 26, 2018) was an American screenwriter and producer for film, television and video games. He frequently worked with Danny Bilson. Together, they wrote '' Eliminators'' (1986), '' The Rocketeer'' (1991), ...

for other projects.

Home media

Trancers was released on VHS and LaserDisc in 1985, DVD in 2000, and Blu-ray in 2014. On October 18, 2022, a two-disc collector's edition of the film was released on 4K Ultra HD Blu-ray, containing the director's commentary, the Trancers: City of Lost Angels short, behind-the-scenes, and more. A black and white version of the film was released on February 7, 2025.

Sequels

The film spawned five

direct-to-video Direct-to-video or straight-to-video refers to the release of a film, television series, short or special to the public immediately on home video formats rather than an initial theatrical release or television premiere. This distribution strat ...

sequels: '' Trancers II: The Return of Jack Deth'' (1991), '' Trancers III: Deth Lives'' (1992), '' Trancers 4: Jack of Swords'' (1994), '' Trancers 5: Sudden Deth'' (1994), and ''

Trancers 6 ''Trancers 6'' is a 2002 American science fiction horror film directed by Jay Woelfel and starring Zette Sullivan, Jennifer Capo, Robert Donavan, Timothy Prindle, Jere Jon, Jennifer Cantrell, Ben Bar, James R. Hilton, Kyle O. Ingleman, Gregory ...

'' (2002). Additionally, '' Trancers: City of Lost Angels'' was shot in between the first and second films. The 20-minute short was a part of the unreleased 1988 anthology film ''

Pulse Pounders ''Pulse Pounders'' is a 1988 American anthology film directed by Charles Band. The film is composed of three 30-minute films, two of which are sequels to ''The Dungeonmaster'' and '' Trancers''. The third is an adaptation of H. P. Lovecraft's " The ...

'', but was released separately on DVD in 2013. The film has since started a franchise of six main films.

References

External links

* * {{Charles Band 1984 independent films 1984 films 1980s science fiction action films American science fiction action films American Christmas films American neo-noir films Empire International Pictures films Films directed by Charles Band American independent films 1980s films about time travel Fiction about mind control Films set in 1985 Films set in the 23rd century 1980s Christmas films American exploitation films Trancers (film series) 1980s English-language films 1980s American films Christmas science fiction films Films about psychic powers American police films American zombie films English-language independent films 1984 science fiction films English-language science fiction action films English-language Christmas films