Jack Deth (Tim Thomerson) is a hard-boiled Police Trooper in the year 2247. His job is to identify Trancers. A Trancer is person of weak mind who is susceptible to being psychically controlled by a master criminal named Martin Whistler (Michael Stefani). Trancers appear to be normal people until activated. Then they turn into zombie-like killing machines. Trancers can be identified using a special bracelet that scans their brain.
After killing a Trancer in a diner, Jack has a run-in with his super, McNulty (Art LaFleur). Jack quits the force. McNulty finds Jack and lures him back by informing him that Whistler, who was thought to have been killed, is actually alive and has escaped into the past. Whistler has gone back to the year 1985 to kill the ancestors of the current ruling Council. Having success in wiping out one of them, he is now looking for the ancestors of Chairman Ashe (Anne Seymour) and Chairman Spencer (Richard Herd).
To go back in time, the subject is injected with a serum that transports the person’s conscious mind back through their own bloodline to inhabit the body of an ancestor. When Whistler traveled back, he took over the body of his distant relative, Lt. Weisling. When Deth’s consciousness goes back in time, he takes over the body of his ancestor, Phil Denton.
When Jack wakes up in Denton’s body, he learns that Denton had a one-night stand with a punk rock girl named Leena (Helen Hunt). Jack ends up taking her to work. Leena works as an elf at a North Pole display with the store Santa (Pete Schrum). Santa turns out to be a Trancer. Jack ends up killing Santa. Jack then takes off with Leena and attempts to convince her that he is from the future, and he needs her help to stop Whistler.
In the meantime, Whistler, as Lt. Weisling, learns that Jack Deth is hot on his trail.
“Trancers” was released in 1984 and was directed by Charles Band. It is an American science fiction time travel movie and part of the small subgenre of science fiction noir. It is the first of six Trancer movies in the franchise. There is also a short film that was done between the first and second full length films, sometimes referred to as “Trancers 1.5”, called “Trancers: City of Lost Angels”. The twenty-minute short was originally part of an anthology called “Pulse Pounders” 1988, which never had an official release.
Tim Thomerson, as Jack Deth, stars in the first five Trancer movies. For the sixth film, stock footage of the actor is used. The other Trancer movies are: “Trancers II: The Return of Jack Deth” 1991, “Trancers III: Deth Lives” 1992, “Trancers 4: Jack of Swords” 1994, “Trancers 5: Sudden Deth” 1994 and “Trancers 6” 2002. The first film is the only one rated “PG-13”. All the subsequent films were rated “R”. The Trancer films were started by “Empire Pictures”. When Empire collapsed, production of the films was picked up by “Full Moon Features”. Both companies were created by director Charles Band.
The movie has lots of noir-esque touches that add quite a bit of humor to the movie. It makes Jack look like he came from the past instead of the future. It is a fun romp with Thomerson doing a wonderful job as the jaded detective and a fish out of water. I’m not surprised that it has a cult following. It is well worth a watch.