Bullet Points: Time Runner

It’s hard to get excited about Mark Hamill’s non-Star Wars related filmography. Other than his time doing the voice for the Joker on the Batman Animated Series, he hasn’t exactly created a lasting legacy as an actor. It’s hard to believe that a guy who became such a massive star for playing one of the most badass Jedi of all time would have such a stinkin’ turn of a career outside of the character. Let’s see if 1993’s Time Runner can prove me wrong.

Synopsis: During the unstoppable alien invasion of 2022, one man flees through a wormhole to 1992 in hope of changing the future. But attempt after attempt is made by someone there to catch and kill him.

• The near future: It was still 30 years away back in 93 but it’ll be 2022 before we know it and this future doesn’t look much like the one depicted in Time Runner. To be fair, there aren’t many scenes in Time Runner showing us what normal life is like in the year 2022 but having a massive alien invasion threaten Earth is already something that I’m betting against.
• The ISC and President James: After a brief scene of Capt. Raynor (Mark Hamill) escaping an alien invasion in 2022 and crashing in 1993, we’re immediately introduced to the head of the Internal Security and Command played by Mark Baur and his super secret organization who are looking for the occupant of the crashed aircraft. There is no way that these guys aren’t totally bad. We also meet Rae Dawn Chong’s Karen Donaldson. She is a scientist who appears to be on the good side of things.

• Oh yeah… Brion James: The President in 2022 is none other than Brion James. There is about a .05% chance of him being a good guy. He’s just a lowly Senator or something back in 93 but his character is named Neila, which is Alien backwards….James is his usual self here. He always works really hard to get his character across. It just so happens that most of his characters are the most evil dudes in the movie.
• Diner syndrome: If you ever see a small-town diner in a movie, there is a good chance that it will soon be the site of a massive brawl or a shootout. It’s no different in Time Runner. Mark Hamill gets found by the ISC and a shootout ensues that sees Hamill’s total disregard for cover and concealment as he blasts away with his shotgun while standing pretty clearly in the open. He ends up going on the run with Rae Dawn Chong’s character but don’t expect any fireworks between the two…

• Twists!:Time Runner is mostly a paint by numbers sci-fi movie. Nothing is ever surprising. Eventually, they make the effort to throw us for a loop by turning one of the characters into AN ALIEN! While it’s not really much of shock, at least it changes the movie up from being a chase movie for 80% of it.
• Damn the luck: Not only has Capt. Raynor been transported back in time like 30 years in order to stop the alien invasion that would someday take over the Earth, but he’s also done so just days before his birth. What a coincidence! What that means is that once the bad guys figure out who Raynor is they’re happy to pull a trick out of the T-800 Skynet book and attempt to kill Raynor’s mommy before she gives birth. It leads to a couple of scenes that are a bit strange with Hamill running around with his baby self in his arms but it’s mostly funny to think that the fate of the world might depend on this newborn baby that is like two months old in reality.
• Bring it home: Raynor and his newfound redneck friend who has essentially been responsible for saving the day multiple times (yet I don’t remember his name) make a final showdown with alien Neila and the bad guys from the ISC. I wish I could say that the final minutes worth of action scenes made up for the sad excuses for action that were shown earlier in the movie but I can’t. The finish is a letdown in every way.

The Verdict: Wow… the opening of this film is the best part. It opens with a very Star Wars-like scene where the alien ships are attacking the Earth while Hamill’s ship flees the planet. It looks pretty good. The problem comes after that when the character of Capt. Raynor fails to be interesting in any way. His wife is shown dying in flashbacks but it doesn’t play up for sympathy or anything like that because the movie is so intent on just having Raynor run around for most of the film. I had hopes that this movie would show me that Hamill could carry a film on his own and blast some bad guys but I was massively disappointed.