Trancers (1984) Movie Review

“I’m from another time. Another world. I don’t even know what you people eat for lunch.”

I love the opening to eighties movies. With the listing of the cast’s names, the perfect opening music to set the tone of the movie, and a blurred fade into the opening scene. In this film we follow Jack Deth, played by Tim Thomerson. He is a gruff bounty hunter, fueled with a hatred for the trancers. Jack Deth is sent back in time to hunt down and stop a twisted criminal from killing bloodlines and creating zombie-like creatures.

We’re first shown the distant future, a cyberpunk futuristic world, most of which is flooded. The film shows Los Angeles as completely sunk. Water seems to be partly flooding the streets with puddles everywhere and wet floors in most buildings. The city is dark and gritty, clouded with an air of despair. It really portrays a bleak and impoverished future. We’re then taken back to the wonderful years of the eighties. The eighties is arguably the best time to be a young adult in the western world. Beautiful blue skies, prosperous cities, busy employed people, and a booming economy. Even the vehicles from the eighties looked and were so much better. I wish I could go back and experience that like Jack does in this film.

The eighties is the best era for movies. They had the best storylines, amazing use of practical effects and the beginning of CGI and green screens. Writers and directors cared more for the films they were making at the time, and more original concepts were created. Whereas now they rehash all these older movies, trying to capitalize on the nostalgia of movie-goers. They lack the creativity to come up with new stories to be told, resulting in reboots or just flat-out terrible movie ideas. The eighties had no shortage of original ideas and they came up with a plethora of fantastic new movies of every genre, sci-fi being no exception.

Trancers (1984) goes to show just how great the writing of the eighties really was. This is a very short and concise film, reaching one hour and sixteen minutes in length. Subtracting the opening and ending credits, it totals to around an hour and ten minutes. It doesn’t need long, drawn-out scenes with lots of filler. Instead, it perfectly depicts what it wants to be with shorter scenes and a condensed script. It perfectly describes what’s happening, or has happened, without having to walk you through all the minutiae, all the while still presenting a full and rich story. While watching, I found myself thinking that this movie does exactly what you would hope to happen. Such as scenes or dialogue playing out the way you would expect, or questions being answered but in a clear and concise way.

The amount of practical effects used in this film is abundant. Like with all sci-fi movies of that time, they had to create their own models and sets, especially realistic miniatures. Using camera angles and forced perspective to get the shot just right and portray the scene or setting exactly as they envisioned. There are some scenes that, if you really look, you can see are miniature sets with model cars. Especially for the future city they created. They didn’t always rely solely on practical effects, as they also used visual effects in certain scenes. For example, they created a hologram video message using practical and visual effects available at the time. All of which blends together to create a great visual experience while watching this movie.

The music composed for this film was perfect for it. During the futuristic city scenes we get dark, gritty, cyberpunk detective background ambiance. It really sets the tone of the atmosphere, telling you just what it would feel like to live in this kind of place, this time. Once we’re taken back to the eighties, the music changes to lighter detective-on-the-case-style music. Still with that sci-fi undertone, but more of a detective on the case, or a bounty hunter looking for his mark, with some steamy romance mixed in.

Quick side note. Once back in time, the movie takes place around Christmas, making this a Christmas movie, right? After all, Die Hard (1988) was set around Christmas time, causing some to say it’s their favorite Christmas movie even though it really has nothing to do with the holidays besides the time frame it takes place. Also, the strike-anywhere matchstick used in the eighties. I mean, yeah… it’s cool for a rough-and-tumble character to light a match off anything. But this movie uses it quite a bit. Off a counter, his teeth, a table, and more. It’s almost an overuse of it.

Tim Thomerson does a great job at portraying a grizzled, gritty bounty hunter. His look, style and demeanor in this film really fit the role perfectly. Thomerson shares a lot of acting similarities to Harrison Ford in this role. They look and act very similarly, even down to the finger point. I could see Ford doing very well in this movie in place of Thomerson. However, Thomerson brings something Harrison doesn’t at times.

The beautiful Helen Hunt plays Leena, a one-night stand of the man Jack Deth “takes over” when he is sent to the past. She’s subsequently looped into Jack’s mission, agreeing to help him. She helps Jack along the way, and she becomes the love interest of this story. Will Jack return to his time, or will he stay with the one he falls in love with?

There are some comedic moments within the film. They are short and sweet, and they don’t force the jokes or stretch them out. The comedic moments are lightly added in ever-so perfectly to give a small laugh now and again. There are also some interesting dialogue moments throughout. One in particular caught my attention. When having Chinese food, Jack says “Beef? From like a cow?”, signaling that cows are extinct in his time. It leads one to think that our mass consumption of meat has led to an inability to supply the demand, causing a collapse in the meat industry. It is eerily similar to how things are going for us, but unlike us now, they didn’t focus on producing nasty lab-engineered meats.

The costumes in this film really matched the theme, settings and atmosphere of the movie. With the future-style outfits resembling that of Blade Runner (1982): long overcoats, suits, slicked-back hair and scars on their faces. While the past is straight-up eighties. Suits and ties, punk types, bums, and your average working man. The only piece that really surprised me was Leena’s jacket, which has the old Confederate flag on the back. It’s kind of odd considering they weren’t in any southern states, with no reference to that time or culture in the film besides the jacket.

Overall, this is a great movie with a fun concept and story. It’s definitely worth watching, especially with the rather short run time. Your investment is only seventy-six minutes. You get the future sci-fi concepts of the eighties, mixed with the contemporary eighties. All wrapped up with great acting from a superb cast, some wonderful practical and visual effects, and a great soundtrack. What more could you want?

⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐ – Storyline
⭐⭐⭐⬛⬛ – Practical / Visual Effects
⭐⭐⭐⭐⬛ – Dialogue
⭐⭐⭐⭐⬛ – ’80s Factor

Overall Rating – 8 / 10

Trancers deserves a high rating due to the unique storyline, good dialogue, and the fact that it has a strong ’80s factor. Some of the visual effects are dated, which might take a modern viewer “out” of the film. But it doesn’t detract enough from the rating to warrant anything below an eight out of ten.

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