''Timequest'' is a 2000 science-fiction film directed by Robert Dyke and starring

Victor Slezak Victor Slezak (born July 30, 1957) is an American stage, television and screen actor who has appeared in numerous films, including ''The Bridges of Madison County (film), The Bridges of Madison County'' (1995), ''Beyond Rangoon'' (1995), ''The D ...

John F. Kennedy John Fitzgerald Kennedy (May 29, 1917 – November 22, 1963), also known as JFK, was the 35th president of the United States, serving from 1961 until his assassination in 1963. He was the first Roman Catholic and youngest person elected p ...

, Caprice Benedetti as

Jacqueline Kennedy Jacqueline Lee Kennedy Onassis ( ; July 28, 1929 – May 19, 1994) was an American writer, book editor, and socialite who served as the first lady of the United States from 1961 to 1963, as the wife of President John F. Kennedy. A popular f ...

, and

Ralph Waite Ralph Waite (June 22, 1928 – February 13, 2014) was an American actor, best known for his lead role as John Walton Sr. on ''The Waltons'' (1972–1981), which he occasionally directed. He later had recurring roles as two other heroic fathers ...

as the Time Traveler. The film also features Vince Grant and

Bruce Campbell Bruce Lorne Campbell (born June 22, 1958) is an American actor and filmmaker. He is known best for his role as Ash Williams in Sam Raimi's ''Evil Dead'' horror series, beginning with the short movie '' Within the Woods'' (1978). He has also f ...

. After premiering on April 13, 2000, the film had a limited theatrical release in the

United States The United States of America (USA), also known as the United States (U.S.) or America, is a country primarily located in North America. It is a federal republic of 50 U.S. state, states and a federal capital district, Washington, D.C. The 48 ...

, followed shortly by distribution 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 ...

to the

Canada Canada is a country in North America. Its Provinces and territories of Canada, ten provinces and three territories extend from the Atlantic Ocean to the Pacific Ocean and northward into the Arctic Ocean, making it the world's List of coun ...

, and

Australia Australia, officially the Commonwealth of Australia, is a country comprising mainland Australia, the mainland of the Australia (continent), Australian continent, the island of Tasmania and list of islands of Australia, numerous smaller isl ...

. ''Timequest'' explores the

science fiction theme The following is a list of articles about recurring themes in science fiction. Overarching themes * First contact with aliens *Artificial intelligence ** Machine rule/Cybernetic revolt/AI takeover *Extraterrestrials in fiction *End of humani ...

of altering the present day by traveling back in time and tampering with past eventsspecifically, preventing the

assassination of John F. Kennedy John F. Kennedy, the 35th president of the United States, was assassinated while riding in a presidential motorcade through Dealey Plaza in Dallas, Texas, on November 22, 1963. Kennedy was in the vehicle with his wife Jacqueline Kennedy Onas ...

Plot

On the morning of November 22, 1963, an elderly man who wears spacesuit-type clothing materializes in the hotel suite occupied by Jackie Kennedy. The Time Traveler shows Jackie future television footage of the

assassination Assassination is the willful killing, by a sudden, secret, or planned attack, of a personespecially if prominent or important. It may be prompted by political, ideological, religious, financial, or military motives. Assassinations are orde ...

and funeral of John F. Kennedy. Shortly thereafter, the Time Traveler speaks to the president and to Attorney General Bobby Kennedy, giving them details of their respective assassinations and of the public revelations of JFK's sex scandals, convincing the president to remain faithful to Jackie. The Time Traveler won't state his name or his birthplace, but does mention that he was born on this day. The Time Traveler, who is clearly very fond of Jackie, is pleased when she agrees to dance with him. The Time Traveler and the three Kennedys drink a toast in the hotel suite just before 12:30, which is the time that afternoon that JFK was historically assassinated in his motorcade. At 12:30 the Time Traveler turns into nothingness, and a lead-crystal glass that he was holding drops to the floor and shatters. Bobby finds a piece of glass with the Time Traveler's fingerprint on it. Clint Hill and Bobby then travel ahead to Dallas, where Hill takes out two gunmen behind a fence on grassy knoll, confirming one of the later conspiracy theories about the assassination. Third gunman

Lee Harvey Oswald Lee Harvey Oswald (October 18, 1939 – November 24, 1963) was a U.S. Marine veteran who assassinated John F. Kennedy, the 35th president of the United States, on November 22, 1963. Oswald was placed in juvenile detention at age 12 for truan ...

is captured, and

Jack Ruby Jack Leon Ruby (born Jacob Leon Rubenstein; March 25, 1911January 3, 1967) was an American nightclub owner who murdered Lee Harvey Oswald on November 24, 1963, two days after Oswald assassinated President John F. Kennedy. Born in Chicago, R ...

is killed before he can shoot Oswald, who is taken to

Washington, D.C. Washington, D.C., formally the District of Columbia and commonly known as Washington or D.C., is the capital city and federal district of the United States. The city is on the Potomac River, across from Virginia, and shares land borders with ...

and interrogated by the

Warren Commission The President's Commission on the Assassination of President Kennedy, known unofficially as the Warren Commission, was established by President of the United States, President Lyndon B. Johnson through on November 29, 1963, to investigate the A ...

, culminating in the

CIA The Central Intelligence Agency (CIA; ) is a civilian foreign intelligence service of the federal government of the United States tasked with advancing national security through collecting and analyzing intelligence from around the world and ...

's disbandment. When FBI Director

J. Edgar Hoover John Edgar Hoover (January 1, 1895 – May 2, 1972) was an American attorney and law enforcement administrator who served as the fifth and final director of the Bureau of Investigation (BOI) and the first director of the Federal Bureau o ...

threatens to blackmail the President by revealing audio tapes of Kennedy having sex with

Marilyn Monroe Marilyn Monroe ( ; born Norma Jeane Mortenson; June 1, 1926 August 4, 1962) was an American actress and model. Known for playing comic "Blonde stereotype#Blonde bombshell, blonde bombshell" characters, she became one of the most popular sex ...

, Bobby counters by threatening to release photos of Hoover's homosexuality. Hoover agrees to hand over the tapes, and also agrees to hand in his letter of resignation. John and Jackie appear on television. John reveals his infidelities and asks for forgiveness from both his wife and the nation. Jackie stands with her husband and asks the country to do the same. Having been forewarned by the Time Traveler that the

Vietnam War The Vietnam War (1 November 1955 – 30 April 1975) was an armed conflict in Vietnam, Laos, and Cambodia fought between North Vietnam (Democratic Republic of Vietnam) and South Vietnam (Republic of Vietnam) and their allies. North Vietnam w ...

will end with 57,000 American soldiers having died for nothing, Kennedy announces, ahead of the 1964 presidential election, the withdrawal of US military forces from Vietnam. Vice President

Lyndon Johnson Lyndon Baines Johnson (; August 27, 1908January 22, 1973), also known as LBJ, was the 36th president of the United States, serving from 1963 to 1969. He became president after assassination of John F. Kennedy, the assassination of John F. Ken ...

is enraged by this and tries to dissuade him from this or least wait until after the 1964 election (which realistically Kennedy would've done the latter) but Kennedy refuses. Kennedy, in a speech televised from a rally at Rice Stadium, recommits to the importance of the

Apollo Program The Apollo program, also known as Project Apollo, was the United States human spaceflight program led by NASA, which Moon landing, landed the first humans on the Moon in 1969. Apollo followed Project Mercury that put the first Americans in sp ...

, but also expands it to be a project for all humanity, and openly calls for the

Soviet Union The Union of Soviet Socialist Republics. (USSR), commonly known as the Soviet Union, was a List of former transcontinental countries#Since 1700, transcontinental country that spanned much of Eurasia from 1922 until Dissolution of the Soviet ...

to participate in it, appealing to

Nikita Khrushchev Nikita Sergeyevich Khrushchev (– 11 September 1971) was the General Secretary of the Communist Party of the Soviet Union, First Secretary of the Communist Party of the Soviet Union from 1953 to 1964 and the Premier of the Soviet Union, Chai ...

to negotiate an end to the Cold War. His efforts are ultimately successful, resulting in humanity's first Moon landing being a joint US-Soviet project, with astronaut

John Glenn John Herschel Glenn Jr. (July 18, 1921 – December 8, 2016) was an American Marine Corps aviator, astronaut, businessman, and politician. He was the third American in space and the first to orbit the Earth, circling it three times in 1 ...

and (fictional) cosmonaut Nikilia Bresnev planting their two nations' flags together on the Moon. In 1964, Bobby is still determined to uncover the Time Traveler's identity, wanting to prevent him from eventually inventing time travel, but a pregnant Jackie exacts an iron promise from Bobby that the Time Traveler would never be harmed. As it turns out, the Time Traveler is currently a toddler named Raymond Mead. Mead, like his older Time Traveler self, is obsessed with Jackie Kennedy. In 1979, a then sixteen-year-old Mead commits a burglary, is arrested and put on a prison bus; his fingerprinting enables now-President Bobby Kennedy to know the Time Traveler's name. President Bobby has the teenager pulled off the bus, he talks to the kid, and he gives Mead a full pardon. As time passes, Mead becomes an artist and gets married. Jackie has bought many of his paintings, up until her 1994 death (the same year as in the original timeline). JFK dies in 2000, at age 83, of natural causes. With both his parents gone, the Kennedy's youngest son, James Robert, explains to Mead why the Kennedy family has been so generous to him and reveals a portrait of his older self. The film ends with Mead's younger self (rather than the older Time Traveler) dancing with Jackie in 1963 as a dream sequence, then shows the real Mead as a toddler in 1964 staring at televised footage of Jackie with her new baby, James, being discharged from Dallas'

Parkland Memorial Hospital Parkland Memorial Hospital is a public hospital located in Dallas, Texas. It is the main hospital of the Parkland Health & Hospital System and serves as Dallas County's public hospital. It is located within the Southwestern Medical Distri ...

, where JFK had died in the original timeline.

Characters

External links

* {{IMDb title, id=0238463, title=Timequest 2000 films American science fiction action films 2000 science fiction action films Films about the assassination of John F. Kennedy Cold War films American alternate history films Films about the Central Intelligence Agency 2000s films about time travel Cultural depictions of John F. Kennedy Cultural depictions of Martin Luther King Jr. Cultural depictions of Lyndon B. Johnson Cultural depictions of J. Edgar Hoover Cultural depictions of Marilyn Monroe Cultural depictions of Jacqueline Kennedy Onassis Cultural depictions of Lee Harvey Oswald 2000s English-language films 2000s American films English-language science fiction action films

Plot

Characters

See also

External links