science fiction
Science fiction (often shortened to sci-fi or abbreviated SF) is a genre of speculative fiction that deals with imaginative and futuristic concepts. These concepts may include information technology and robotics, biological manipulations, space ...
slasher film
A slasher film is a subgenre of horror films involving a killer or a group of killers stalking and murdering a group of people, usually by use of bladed or sharp tools. Although the term "slasher" may occasionally be used informally as a generic ...
Kane Hodder
Kane Warren Hodder (born April 8, 1955)According to the State of California. ''California Birth Index, 1905–1995''. Center for Health Statistics, California Department of Health Services, Sacramento, California. At Ancestry.com is an Americ ...
in his fourth and final appearance as
Jason Voorhees
Jason Voorhees () is a fictional character and the antagonist of the Friday the 13th (franchise), ''Friday the 13th'' series. He first appeared in ''Friday the 13th (1980 film), Friday the 13th'' (1980) as the young son of camp-cook-turned-kil ...
. In the film, Jason is cryogenically frozen for 445 years and awakens on a spaceship in 2455 after being found by a group of students who he kills one by one.
While the previous films show Jason as a human serial killer or undead monster, this film depicts him as a
superhuman
The term superhuman refers to humans, humanoids or other beings with abilities and other qualities that exceed those naturally found in humans. These qualities may be acquired through natural ability, self-actualization or technological aids. ...
who is transformed by future technology into a
cyborg
A cyborg (, a portmanteau of ''cybernetics, cybernetic'' and ''organism'') is a being with both Organic matter, organic and biomechatronic body parts. The term was coined in 1960 by Manfred Clynes and Nathan S. Kline. When conceiving the film, Todd Farmer came up with the idea of sending Jason into space, suggesting to the studio that it was the only direction left for the series.
''Jason X'' was theatrically released in the United States on April 26, 2002. The film received negative reviews and underperformed at the box-office, grossing $17.1 million on a budget of $11–14 million.
Plot
In 2008, mass murderer
Jason Voorhees
Jason Voorhees () is a fictional character and the antagonist of the Friday the 13th (franchise), ''Friday the 13th'' series. He first appeared in ''Friday the 13th (1980 film), Friday the 13th'' (1980) as the young son of camp-cook-turned-kil ...
gets captured by the
United States government
The Federal Government of the United States of America (U.S. federal government or U.S. government) is the Federation#Federal governments, national government of the United States.
The U.S. federal government is composed of three distinct ...
and held at the Crystal Lake Research Facility. By 2010, after numerous failed attempts to kill Jason, the government scientist Rowan LaFontaine, head of the facility, suggests putting him in
cryogenic
In physics, cryogenics is the production and behaviour of materials at very low temperatures.
The 13th International Institute of Refrigeration's (IIR) International Congress of Refrigeration (held in Washington, DC in 1971) endorsed a univers ...
stasis. Dr. Wimmer and Sergeant Marcus arrive with soldiers, hoping to research further Jason's ability to heal from lethal wounds, as they believe it involves rapid cellular regeneration that can be replicated. Jason breaks free of his restraints and murders the soldiers and Dr. Wimmer. Rowan lures him into a cryogenic pod, but he ruptures the pod with his
machete
A machete (; ) is a broad blade used either as an agricultural implement similar to an axe, or in combat like a long-bladed knife. The blade is typically long and usually under thick. In the Spanish language, the word is possibly a dimin ...
, stabbing her in the abdomen. Cryogenic fluid spills into the sealed room, freezing them both.
In the year 2455, Earth is so polluted that it can no longer support life, and humans have moved to a new planet, Earth II. On a field trip to Earth I, Professor Brandon Lowe, his android companion KM-14, intern Adrienne Thomas, and students Tsunaron, Janessa, Azrael, Kinsa, Waylander, and Stoney explore the abandoned Crystal Lake Research Facility, finding the frozen Jason and Rowan. They bring them aboard their spaceship, the ''Grendel'', and revive Rowan while leaving Jason in the morgue, believing him to be dead.
Adrienne is ordered to dissect Jason's body, but Rowan warns them of the danger, revealing Jason's nature and superhuman abilities. Lowe, who is in serious debt, calls his financial backer Dieter Perez on the nearby space station ''Solaris''. Perez recognizes Jason's name and notes his body could interest a collector. While Stoney and Kinsa have sex, Jason awakens and attacks Adrienne, freezing her face with
liquid nitrogen
Liquid nitrogen (LN2) is nitrogen in a liquid state at cryogenics, low temperature. Liquid nitrogen has a boiling point of about . It is produced industrially by fractional distillation of liquid air. It is a colorless, mobile liquid whose vis ...
before smashing her head to pieces on a counter. Jason takes a machete-shaped surgical tool and kills Stoney in front of Kinsa. Sergeant Brodski leads a group of soldiers to attack Jason. Jason interrupts a projected holographic game, breaking Azrael's back and bashing crewman Dallas's skull in. He tries to attack engineer Crutch, but Brodski and his soldiers arrive. After Brodski splits up his team, Jason kills them one by one.
Lowe orders pilot Lou to dock at ''Solaris''. Jason kills Lou, and the ship crashes through ''Solaris'', destroying it. Jason breaks into the lab, reclaims his machete, and decapitates Lowe. With the ''Grendel'' crippled, the survivors head for a shuttle while Tsunaron upgrades KM-14. After Jason electrocutes crew member Crutch, Kinsa attempts to escape on her own, but forgets to release the shuttle's fuel lines, causing it to crash into the ship and explode, thus incinerating her. Tsunaron reappears with an upgraded KM-14, who wields weapons and combat skills to stand a better chance against Jason. After having his right arm, left leg, right ribs, and part of his head blasted off by KM-14, Jason's body is knocked into a nanite-equipped medical station. The survivors send a distress call, then set explosive charges to separate the ship's undamaged pontoon from the main section.
The medical station nanites rebuild Jason, who becomes a
cyborg
A cyborg (, a portmanteau of ''cybernetics, cybernetic'' and ''organism'') is a being with both Organic matter, organic and biomechatronic body parts. The term was coined in 1960 by Manfred Clynes and Nathan S. Kline.vacuum
A vacuum (: vacuums or vacua) is space devoid of matter. The word is derived from the Latin adjective (neuter ) meaning "vacant" or "void". An approximation to such vacuum is a region with a gaseous pressure much less than atmospheric pressur ...
. A power failure with the docking door forces Brodski to go outside in an EVA suit to fix it.
To distract Jason, a holographic simulation of Camp Crystal Lake is created with two virtual teenage girls. After killing them, Jason realizes the deception just as the door is fixed. Still in his EVA suit, Brodski confronts Jason so the rest can escape. As they leave, the pontoon explodes, propelling Jason at high speed towards the survivors. Brodski intercepts Jason's space flight and maneuvers them both towards Earth II's atmosphere, where they are both incinerated during atmospheric entry. Tsunaron, Rowan, and KM-14 escape as Tsunaron assures KM-14 she will have a new body.
On Earth II, a pair of teenagers are by a lake when they see what they believe is a falling star. The teenagers go to investigate as Jason's charred mask sinks to the bottom of the lake.
Cast
*
Kane Hodder
Kane Warren Hodder (born April 8, 1955)According to the State of California. ''California Birth Index, 1905–1995''. Center for Health Statistics, California Department of Health Services, Sacramento, California. At Ancestry.com is an Americ ...
as
Jason Voorhees
Jason Voorhees () is a fictional character and the antagonist of the Friday the 13th (franchise), ''Friday the 13th'' series. He first appeared in ''Friday the 13th (1980 film), Friday the 13th'' (1980) as the young son of camp-cook-turned-kil ...
* Lexa Doig as Rowan LaFontaine
* Lisa Ryder as KM-14
* Chuck Campbell as Tsunaron Peyton
* Melyssa Ade as Janessa Zachary
* Peter Mensah as Sergeant Elijah Brodski
* Melody Johnson as Kirra "Kinsa" Cooper
* Derwin Jordan as Waylander
* Jonathan Potts as Professor Brandon Lowe
* Phillip Williams as Trevor Crutchfield "Crutch"
* Dov Tiefenbach as Azrael Benrubi
* Kristi Angus as Adrienne Thomas
* Dylan Bierk as Private Briggs
* Amanda Brugel as Private Geko
* Yani Gellman as Stoney
* Todd Farmer as Private Dallas
* Thomas Seniuk as Private Sven
* Steve Lucescu as Private Condor
*
David Cronenberg
David Paul Cronenberg (born March 15, 1943) is a Canadian film director, screenwriter, producer and actor. He is a principal originator of the body horror genre, with his films exploring visceral bodily transformation, infectious diseases, and ...
as Dr. Aloysius Wimmer
* Robert A. Silverman as Dieter Perez
* Marcus Parilo as Sgt. Marcus
* Boyd Banks as Louis "Fat Lou" Goddard
* Jeff Geddis as Soldier #1 (Private Samuel Johnson)
Production
Development of ''Jason X'' began in the late 1990s while '' Freddy vs. Jason'' was still in
development hell
Development hell, also known as development purgatory or development limbo, is media and software industry jargon for a project, concept, or idea that remains in a stage of early development for a long time because of legal, technical, or artistic ...
. With ''Freddy vs. Jason'' not moving forward, Jim Isaac and Sean S. Cunningham decided that they wanted another ''Friday the 13th'' film made to retain audience interest in the character. The film was conceived by Todd Farmer, who plays "Dallas" in the film. Farmer considered putting Jason in a variety of new settings before settling on and pitching a space slasher concept modeled on '' Alien''. David Cronenberg rewrote his character's dialogue in the script.
The movie was filmed from March 6 to May 2000 in
Toronto
Toronto ( , locally pronounced or ) is the List of the largest municipalities in Canada by population, most populous city in Canada. It is the capital city of the Provinces and territories of Canada, Canadian province of Ontario. With a p ...
.
Music
The film score was composed and performed by Harry Manfredini. It was released by
Varèse Sarabande
Varèse Sarabande is an American record label, owned by Concord Music Group and distributed by Universal Music Group, which specializes in film scores and cast recording, original cast recordings. It aims to reissue rare or unavailable albums, as ...
on May 14, 2002.
Release
Theatrical
''Jason X'' premiered in November 15, 2001 in Spain, and was released on April 26, 2002, in the United States. A theatrical trailer was released on November 9, 2001, the same day that the film premiered in Spain.
Home media
The film was released on
VHS
VHS (Video Home System) is a discontinued standard for consumer-level analog video recording on tape cassettes, introduced in 1976 by JVC. It was the dominant home video format throughout the tape media period of the 1980s and 1990s.
Ma ...
and
DVD
The DVD (common abbreviation for digital video disc or digital versatile disc) is a digital optical disc data storage format. It was invented and developed in 1995 and first released on November 1, 1996, in Japan. The medium can store any ki ...
on October 8, 2002. It was released on
Blu-ray
Blu-ray (Blu-ray Disc or BD) is a digital optical disc data storage format designed to supersede the DVD format. It was invented and developed in 2005 and released worldwide on June 20, 2006, capable of storing several hours of high-defin ...
in 2013, along with the other films in the ''Friday the 13th: The Complete Collection'' set.
On October 13, 2020, Scream Factory issued the film again on Blu-ray as part of their 16-disc ''Friday the 13th Collection'' set. On May 20, 2025,
Arrow Films
Arrow Films is a British independent film distributor and restorer specialising in world cinema, arthouse, horror and classic films. As Arrow Video, it sells Ultra HD Blu-rays, Blu-rays and DVDs online; it also operates its own subscript ...
released ''Jason X'' in standalone limited edition 4K UHD Blu-ray set.
Reception
Box office
The film made $13.1 million in the U.S. and $3.8 million internationally for a worldwide gross of $16.9 million.
Critical response and Legacy
On
review aggregator
A review aggregator is a system that collects reviews and ratings of products and services, such as films, books, video games, music, software, hardware, or cars. This system then stores the reviews to be used for supporting a website where user ...
website
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 ...
''Jason X'' has an approval rating of 20% based on 108 reviews, and an average rating of 3.8/10. The site's critical consensus reads: "Jason goes to the future, but the story is still stuck in the past." On
Metacritic
Metacritic is an American website that aggregates reviews of films, television shows, music albums, video games, and formerly books. For each product, the scores from each review are averaged (a weighted average). Metacritic was created ...
the film has a weighted average score of 25 out of 100, based on 23 critics, indicating "generally unfavorable" reviews. Audiences polled by
CinemaScore
CinemaScore is an American market research firm based in Las Vegas. It surveys film audiences to rate their viewing experiences with letter grades, reports the results, and forecasts box office receipts from the data.
Background
Ed Mintz, who ...
gave the film an average grade of "C" on an A+ to F scale.
Roger Ebert
Roger Joseph Ebert ( ; June 18, 1942 – April 4, 2013) was an American Film criticism, film critic, film historian, journalist, essayist, screenwriter and author. He wrote for the ''Chicago Sun-Times'' from 1967 until his death in 2013. Eber ...
gave the film 0.5 stars out of 4, quoting one of the film's lines: "This sucks on so many levels."
The film was better received in the United Kingdom, gaining positive reviews from the country's two major film magazines, ''
Total Film
''Total Film'' was a British film magazine published 13 times a year (published monthly with a summer issue added, between the July and August issues, every year since issue 91, 2004) by Future Publishing. The magazine was launched in 1997 and of ...
'' and ''
Empire
An empire is a political unit made up of several territories, military outpost (military), outposts, and peoples, "usually created by conquest, and divided between a hegemony, dominant center and subordinate peripheries". The center of the ...
''. ''Empire''s review by
Kim Newman
Kim James Newman (born 31 July 1959) is an English journalist, film critic, and fiction writer. He is interested in film history and horror fiction – both of which he attributes to seeing Tod Browning's ''Dracula'' at the age of eleven & ...
in particular praised ''Jason X'' as "Wittily scripted, smartly directed and well-played by an unfamiliar cast, this is a real treat for all those who have suffered through the story so far."
The film has seen a retrospective growth in popularity, particularly among younger fans of the series. Praise has been directed at the film's ability to poke fun at itself and the film series as a whole, as well as inventive death scenes; Adrienne's death in particular (head frozen in liquid nitrogen and shattered) is often singled out as a highlight, and was even tested on an episode of ''
MythBusters
''MythBusters'' is a science entertainment television series created by Peter Rees (producer), Peter Rees and produced by Beyond International in Australia. The series premiered on the Discovery Channel on January 23, 2003. It was broadcast in ...
'' in 2009.
Other media
Comic books
In 2005,
Avatar Press
Avatar Press is an independent American comic book publisher founded in 1996 by William A. Christensen, and based in Rantoul, Illinois. It was originally known for publishing bad girl comics, such as ''Pandora'', ''Hellina'', ''Lookers'', ''The ...
published the comic book ''Jason X Special'' as a direct sequel to the movie, written by Brian Pulido, with art by Sebastian Fumara and coloring by Mark Sweeney. The comic reveals that a scientist named Kristen intercepted the Grendel's communications and became interested in uncovering the secret of Jason's regenerative abilities so she could save her lover Neil as well as the human race. To trick the Grendel survivors into bringing Jason to her, she faked the rescue transmission and hacked into their system, using their own holographic technology to convince them they were escaping to Earth II. This resulted in the deaths of all aboard the ''Grendel''. Aboard her ship, Kristen then attempts to study Jason X. Jason’s new cyborg abilities allow him to take control of Kristen's technology. When she attempts to pass on his regenerative abilities to Neil, the nanotechnology in Jason’s blood corrupts Neil and he stabs her. Kristen's ship then comes across a spaceship called ''Fun Club''. After docking, Jason boards the ''Fun Club'' and begins killing the crew, ending the story.
In 2006, Avatar Press released a licensed two-issue comic book mini-series called ''Friday the 13th: Jason vs. Jason X'', written and illustrated by Mike Wolfer, with Andrew Dalhouse as colorist. Advertised as a fight between Jason and Jason X, the mini-series is a continuation of the comic ''Jason X Special.'' While Jason X is aboard the ''Fun Club,'' the story returns to the ''Grendel'' drifting in space where a malfunctioning medical station attempts to revive the half of Jason's head that KM-14 shot off in the film. Since the nanotechnology cannot revive only 13% of Jason's body mass into a full living being, it collects the remains of other dead bodies aboard the ship and uses them as raw material. As a result, another version of Jason is resurrected, one who resembles the old version. When scavengers board the ''Grendel,'' the old Jason attacks them and uses their shuttle to reach the nearest ship (the ''Fun Club''). There, the old Jason finds Jason X and the two fight while also killing everyone they come across. Each killer is revealed to have only part of the mind and memory of the original Jason. The battle ends when Jason X defeats and rips out the brain matter of the old Jason, merging it with his own and restoring his full memories and personality. The ship crashes on Earth II and Jason X leaves the wreckage to explore a nearby forest.
Video games
After the 2017 release of '' Friday the 13th: The Game'', it was teased that the cyborg Jason X incarnation would be playable in the game the following year. However, Victor Miller, screenwriter of the original '' Friday the 13th'', exercised his legal creative rights and served a lawsuit regarding residual profits he felt he was owed by the film franchise and tie-in media that resulted from the original movie. As a result, the game halted the release of new characters and features. Although a partial version of Jason X already existed in the game's files and could be activated with a hack, the fully playable version of Jason X was never released for the game.DeadEntertainment.com "Here's Why We Didn't Get Uber Jason in Friday the 13th the Game."
A variation of the Jason X story with character appeared in the '' Friday the 13th: Killer Puzzle'' and as a playable character in '' MultiVersus''.