''Trancers II'' (also released as ''Trancers II: The Return of Jack Deth'') is a 1991 American

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 ...

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 ...

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 D ...

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 ...

. It is a sequel to '' Trancers'' and is set six years after the events of the first.

Plot

Los Angeles, 1991. Jack Deth ( Tim Thomerson) has gotten used to life with his wife Lena (

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 ...

) in the six years since they killed Martin Whistler. Hap Ashby (

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 ...

) has made a fortune investing and has moved from the streets to a palatial estate, sharing it with Jack and Lena. But life is about to get difficult for Jack. Whistler's brother, Edward ( Richard Lynch), has gone back in time - using the alias "E.D. Wardo" - and created a "Trancer farm" under the guise of an environmental organization. GreenWorld claims it strives to 'clean up the world', but actually they kidnap homeless people and mental patients to enslave in a Trancer army. Once again, Hap is under attack, useful to Wardo as the ancestor of future Angel City Council Member Ashe. Jack is ready to singe some Trancers in the name of the law, but he does not expect his dead wife Alice (

Megan Ward Megan Ward (born September 24, 1969) is an American actress. She is best known for her numerous credits in science fiction and horror movies and television series. In 2007, she joined the cast of the American daytime drama ''General Hospital'' ...

) to show up—and neither does Lena. Alice has been saved from death by the City Council and sent back to 1991 to help Jack stop Wardo. The tension mounts as Lena becomes fearful of losing Jack to his future wife, Hap returns to drinking alcohol to deal with the stress, and Jack realizes that when Alice returns to the future, she will die again. Somehow, Jack must find a way to save more than just the future.

Cast

Production

Following '' Trancers'' in 1985, a follow-up short film titled '' Trancers: City of Lost Angels'' was filmed in 1987, intended to be part of an anthology project called '' Pulse Pounders'' the following year. ''Pulse Pounders'' was never released, as its distributor, Empire International Pictures, shut down in 1988 due to debt issues. Aside from ''City of Lost Angels'', screenwriter

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 ...

claimed that Empire never had any plans for a full sequel, stating : "I don't recall discussing a Trancers sequel other than the Pulse Pounders episode during my time at Empire." After Empire's shutdown, Charles Band formed a successor called

Full Moon Productions Full Moon Productions was a record company started in 1991''Full Moon Productions''
accessed on 23 January 2013.

a few months later. Band had personally negotiated to retain the rights to Trancers, with a sequel becoming one of the first projects greenlit at Full Moon. Screenwriting duo Danny Bilson and

Paul De Meo 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) ...

were initially set to write the film, with Bilson as director; however, they dropped out due to other obligations and Charles Band returned to direct, like he had with the original film. The film was shot in Los Angeles over the course of three weeks.IMDb. “Trancers II (1991) – Filming & production locations.” IMDb.com, https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0103116/locations/?ref_=tt_dt_loc. Accessed June 13, 2025.

Release

''Trancers II'' was first 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

LaserDisc LaserDisc (LD) is a home video format and the first commercial optical disc storage medium. It was developed by Philips, Pioneer Corporation, Pioneer, and the movie studio MCA Inc., MCA. The format was initially marketed in the United State ...

in 1991 and has since then been released on DVD through the ''Trancers'' box-set or as a single DVD in Europe. The film was released on Blu-ray on May 19, 2015.

Reception

Entertainment Weekly ''Entertainment Weekly'' (sometimes abbreviated as ''EW'') is an American online magazine, digital-only entertainment magazine based in New York City, published by Dotdash Meredith, that covers film, television, music, Broadway theatre, books, ...

'' strongly preferred the first movie, giving the sequel a "D".

TV Guide TV Guide is an American digital media In mass communication, digital media is any media (communication), communication media that operates in conjunction with various encoded machine-readable data formats. Digital content can be created, vi ...

found the performance of Thomerson a plus, but found the rest of the movie goes off the rails. Moira gave the movie 2.5 stars, stating that while it wasn't as good as the first one, it was competent and better than the sequels that follow. Reuniting Deth with his dead wife via time travel was seen as intriguing. Likewise, ''

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 the subplot of Deth having with his current wife and (from his perspective) dead wife together in Deth's past interesting. Creature Feature gave the movie two stars, finding it unnecessarily convoluted.Stanley, J. (2000) Creature Feature: 3rd Edition

References

External links

* {{Charles Band 1991 independent films 1991 films 1991 science fiction action films American independent films American science fiction action films 1990s English-language films 1990s films about time travel Films directed by Charles Band Direct-to-video sequel films Films set in 1991 Films set in Los Angeles Trancers (film series) 1990s American films 1991 science fiction films English-language science fiction action films English-language independent films