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Jumper: There are No Lightsabres

Golden YakGolden Yak Burnished BovineThe sunny beaches of CanadaRegistered User regular
edited February 2008 in Debate and/or Discourse
Jumper is a movie about people who can teleport. It stars Samuel L. Jackson as a white-haired religious whacko with a kickass taser-bason, and an only mildly annoying Hayden Christensen as one of the afore-mentioned teleporting guys.

There are no lightsabres, but it's still pretty cool.

http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0489099/

Don't expect anything epic - there isn't much of a plot, but there's plenty of great action and effects, and it's a very fun movie to watch on a rainy day.

*slight spoilers ahoy - nothing you wouldn't find in a trailer*

Basically, there are people in the world who, for some reason, manifest the ability to teleport - anywhere. As long as you've seen a place, even in a photograph, you can teleport there, along with your clothes and whatever happens to be immediately around you. Range appears to be infinite - the main character, David Rice, can go from Japan to London to New York in the blink of an eye, the only effect being a slight rippling distortion (called a Jump Scar) in the world around him, and occasionally the destruction of whatever he happens to land on, due to some wicked-cool gravity science of something.

David does what any average joe would do with this power - he teleports into banks and robs them. Eventually, he runs into trouble - he crosses paths with a group of religious zealots known as the Paladins, who are devoted to wiping out all Jumpers. They have these taser-batons and are led by Roland (Samuel), who considers Jumpers to be abominations, that "only God should have the power to be anywhere at once."

Things pick up when a second Jumper (the totally awesome Griffin) comes into the mix, and there are many amazing fight scenes involving flame throwers, teleported buses, and much incidental sight-seeing of various countries and locales around the world.

***

I liked this movie cuz they took a relatively simple super-power (teleporting is practically right there next to flying), and showed that it can be really effective if used creatively. Lots of great special effects, a simple story-line that still entertains, and some awesome characters in Roland and Griffin. The movie could very easily become a franchise (it's clear that the director was trying very hard to leave the ending open), and while it's hardly likely to reach LotR or Matrix level fame, it's a fun watch if you take it for what it is - a movie about teleporters fighting.

Anyone else see it? Like it, hate it?

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Golden Yak on
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Posts

  • thanimationsthanimations Registered User regular
    edited February 2008
    I thought the action scenes where pretty awesome, and overall I enjoyed it. Rachel Bilson was pretty hot and there wasn't any terrible acting, so I'd definately check out any of the sequels.

    This one, though, reminded me of the first couple issues of a limited-run comic, where they set up the rules and setting before launching into the actual plot. I'm sure some people don't like the ending of this one, but honestly I'd be pretty pissed
    if the Paladins were destroyed in one movie.

    The sequels are something that could go multiple routes: they could be like the Bourne series and rehash the same story three times, they could go the Spider Man route and angst it up more and more, or a third path that I can't think of a good analogy for.

    thanimations on
  • DogDog Registered User, Administrator, Vanilla Staff admin
    edited February 2008
    Somehow I doubt Reflex will be as good as Jumper unless they shred that book's plot as well.

    Unknown User on
  • KrunkMcGrunkKrunkMcGrunk Registered User regular
    edited February 2008
    Isn't this the movie that put an entire Dell Ad (which also advertised Vista, and Nike) into one of their TV trailers?

    Talk about a cash-out.

    KrunkMcGrunk on
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  • DeMoNDeMoN twitch.tv/toxic_cizzle Registered User regular
    edited February 2008
    I thought the love story dragged on just a little too much, and it was stupid how he wanted to keep jumping a secret from Summer, but man, those action sequences? Loved them. I'll totally see any sequels.
    Griffin better not be dead.

    DeMoN on
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  • DocDoc Registered User, ClubPA regular
    edited February 2008
    Anyone remember the show "The Tomorrow People?"
    http://imdb.com/title/tt0069647/
    http://imdb.com/title/tt0103568/

    Doc on
  • HacksawHacksaw J. Duggan Esq. Wrestler at LawRegistered User regular
    edited February 2008
    Doc wrote: »
    Anyone remember the show "The Tomorrow People?"
    That was the first thing that popped into my mind when I heard about this movie.

    Hacksaw on
  • hoodie13hoodie13 punch bro Registered User regular
    edited February 2008
    You spelled lightsabers wrong

    hoodie13 on
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  • saggiosaggio Registered User regular
    edited February 2008
    hoodie13 wrote: »
    You spelled lightsabers wrong

    No he didn't.

    saggio on
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  • QorzmQorzm Registered User regular
    edited February 2008
  • Witch_Hunter_84Witch_Hunter_84 Registered User regular
    edited February 2008
    I don't know. Hayden Christiansen?

    Witch_Hunter_84 on
    If you can't beat them, arrange to have them beaten in your presence.
  • DocDoc Registered User, ClubPA regular
    edited February 2008
  • HeirHeir Ausitn, TXRegistered User regular
    edited February 2008
    Qorzm wrote: »

    Odd. The title on that link is "Lightsaber" :P

    Heir on
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  • Golden YakGolden Yak Burnished Bovine The sunny beaches of CanadaRegistered User regular
    edited February 2008
    hoodie13 wrote: »
    You spelled lightsabers wrong

    Meh.
    Rygar wrote: »
    Somehow I doubt Reflex will be as good as Jumper unless they shred that book's plot as well.

    Oh right, I forgot. Jumper's loosely based on a book for young adults written in 1992. There's a sequel called Reflex. I haven't read them. Apparently he fights hijackers, or some shit.

    Golden Yak on
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  • HarrierHarrier The Star Spangled Man Registered User regular
    edited February 2008
    Doc wrote: »
    As a Star Wars fan, I have known about this for ages.

    Makashi fo life, yo!

    Harrier on
    I don't wanna kill anybody. I don't like bullies. I don't care where they're from.
  • LondonBridgeLondonBridge __BANNED USERS regular
    edited February 2008
    Doc wrote: »
    Anyone remember the show "The Tomorrow People?"
    http://imdb.com/title/tt0069647/
    http://imdb.com/title/tt0103568/

    Yeah, saw almost every episode on Nickelodeon. Thanks for making me feel old. Anyways, I thought the ballon thingies were weird. Though I think for the teleportation to work in that series they had to use a machine similar to Star Trek's.

    LondonBridge on
  • BedlamBedlam Registered User regular
    edited February 2008
    Yeah I thought the love angle was crappy in that:
    She seems to go from kinda liking him to sleeping with him pretty fast, but maybe bringing a chick to rome gets you instanookie?

    Also David sucked in every fight but the last one which is kind of weird how he suddenly got awsome at the end

    Personally I think they should have made this into an animated series instead of a movie trilogy. But I did like it.

    Bedlam on
  • ege02ege02 __BANNED USERS regular
    edited February 2008
    Golden Yak wrote: »
    Jumper is a movie about people who can teleport.
    A genetic anomaly allows a young man to teleport himself anywhere.

    Science fiction seems to be running out of original ideas.

    ege02 on
  • IncenjucarIncenjucar VChatter Seattle, WARegistered User regular
    edited February 2008
    ege02 wrote: »
    Golden Yak wrote: »
    Jumper is a movie about people who can teleport.
    A genetic anomaly allows a young man to teleport himself anywhere.

    Science fiction seems to be running out of original ideas.

    Nightcrawler: The Movie

    Incenjucar on
  • HarrierHarrier The Star Spangled Man Registered User regular
    edited February 2008
    Incenjucar wrote: »
    ege02 wrote: »
    Golden Yak wrote: »
    Jumper is a movie about people who can teleport.
    A genetic anomaly allows a young man to teleport himself anywhere.

    Science fiction seems to be running out of original ideas.

    Nightcrawler: The Movie
    It would be awesome. Especially if we could get Alan Cumming back, he was fucking excellent as Nightcrawler.

    Harrier on
    I don't wanna kill anybody. I don't like bullies. I don't care where they're from.
  • jkylefultonjkylefulton Squid...or Kid? NNID - majpellRegistered User regular
    edited February 2008
    Couldn't you just teleport people that are attacking you into the bottom of the ocean, or outer space? I haven't actually seen the movie.

    jkylefulton on
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  • BedlamBedlam Registered User regular
    edited February 2008
    Couldn't you just teleport people that are attacking you into the bottom of the ocean, or outer space? I haven't actually seen the movie.
    They Do!

    (the ocean part)

    Bedlam on
  • devoirdevoir Registered User regular
    edited February 2008
    I really enjoyed it.

    I just wish
    that they had cut that last section out with his mother.
    That really annoyed me, the quality of it really jarred me.

    devoir on
  • Mei HikariMei Hikari Registered User regular
    edited February 2008
    Golden Yak wrote: »
    Basically, there are people in the world who, for some reason, manifest the ability to teleport - anywhere. As long as you've seen a place, even in a photograph, you can teleport there, along with your clothes and whatever happens to be immediately around you.

    I thought they had to have been somewhere to be able to jump there? And that the photos were there to jog their memory of the place?

    Mei Hikari on
  • Caveman PawsCaveman Paws Registered User regular
    edited February 2008
    Teleport fight move #1: Headlock the guy then teleport...decapitation!

    Caveman Paws on
  • IncenjucarIncenjucar VChatter Seattle, WARegistered User regular
    edited February 2008
    Seriously, if you can teleport like that, just go on a world tour to a lot of random places.

    Get into a fight in New York? No problem, NOW YOU ARE IN PARIS.

    Incenjucar on
  • Golden YakGolden Yak Burnished Bovine The sunny beaches of CanadaRegistered User regular
    edited February 2008
    Couldn't you just teleport people that are attacking you into the bottom of the ocean, or outer space? I haven't actually seen the movie.

    They can't teleport other stuff without teleporting themselves as well, so they can't just grab someone and zap them somewhere without going along for the ride.
    Mei Hikari wrote: »
    I thought they had to have been somewhere to be able to jump there? And that the photos were there to jog their memory of the place?

    It seems like having been somewhere helps, but isn't required.
    David manages to teleport into a bank vault despite not having actually set foot inside. And unless he somehow climbed to the top of the Sphinx or Big Ben, he couldn't possibly have gotten there before without teleporting.

    Golden Yak on
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  • The Last GentThe Last Gent Registered User regular
    edited February 2008
    Personally, I found the movie kind of dissappointing. The trailer interested me, and seeing the movie, it had a lot of nifty ideas, but they didn't really do much with them. Like, where'd the Paladins come from? The whole "they've been around since the middle ages" thing felt awkwardly shoehorned in, they felt more like a government organization to me. I'd like to have known more about where they came from. Also, apparently their "entire army" consists of like, 5 guys. And Samuel L. Jackson's character was just evil for no reason. No motivation or anything. And I hated the girl, she was just incredibly thick and vapid. Probably the biggest thing, though, was that no one behaved realistically. Way too much standing around and talking when they should have gotten out of there. Personally, I hope this ends here, it wasn't really good enough to warrant a sequel.

    Also, to bedlam, my companion in seeing the movie reached the same conclusion with me, apparently a chick is guaranteed to put out if you take her across the world, if I'm to believe the movie.

    The Last Gent on
  • Mei HikariMei Hikari Registered User regular
    edited February 2008
    Golden Yak wrote: »
    Mei Hikari wrote: »
    I thought they had to have been somewhere to be able to jump there? And that the photos were there to jog their memory of the place?

    It seems like having been somewhere helps, but isn't required.
    David manages to teleport into a bank vault despite not having actually set foot inside. And unless he somehow climbed to the top of the Sphinx or Big Ben, he couldn't possibly have gotten there before without teleporting.
    Well he got into the bank the first time by going to the toilets and then teleporting to it at night. He then jumped through the vault by what I assume is an exception involving short jumps.

    Basically, if you've been somewhere, you can jump there (long jump). If you can see where you're jumping, you can get there even if you haven't been there before (short jump).
    That's what I deduced from the movie.

    Mei Hikari on
  • IloroKamouIloroKamou Registered User regular
    edited February 2008
    He looked inside the vault on his way to the bathroom when he first walked into the bank.

    IloroKamou on
    "There are some that only employ words for the purpose of disguising their thoughts."
  • DasUberEdwardDasUberEdward Registered User regular
    edited February 2008
    Personally, I found the movie kind of dissappointing. The trailer interested me, and seeing the movie, it had a lot of nifty ideas, but they didn't really do much with them. Like, where'd the Paladins come from? The whole "they've been around since the middle ages" thing felt awkwardly shoehorned in, they felt more like a government organization to me. I'd like to have known more about where they came from. Also, apparently their "entire army" consists of like, 5 guys. And Samuel L. Jackson's character was just evil for no reason. No motivation or anything. And I hated the girl, she was just incredibly thick and vapid. Probably the biggest thing, though, was that no one behaved realistically. Way too much standing around and talking when they should have gotten out of there. Personally, I hope this ends here, it wasn't really good enough to warrant a sequel.

    Also, to bedlam, my companion in seeing the movie reached the same conclusion with me, apparently a chick is guaranteed to put out if you take her across the world, if I'm to believe the movie.

    I don't know about you but if a dude teleported me across the world in an instant i'd probably at least give him a quick HJ.

    Alternatively, if it was a girl i'd definitely do my best to impregnate her ASAP.

    DasUberEdward on
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  • devoirdevoir Registered User regular
    edited February 2008
    Mei Hikari wrote: »
    Well he got into the bank the first time by going to the toilets and then teleporting to it at night. He then jumped through the vault by what I assume is an exception involving short jumps.

    Basically, if you've been somewhere, you can jump there (long jump). If you can see where you're jumping, you can get there even if you haven't been there before (short jump).
    That's what I deduced from the movie.

    This.

    They even paint it out for you with the whole park scene. You can jump short distances to where you haven't physically been, but to go to the general area from a long distance away you need to have been there before.

    The bit that threw me off was the Empire State Building. I didn't realise until about a minute later that it had been a flashback. Kinda made me feel dumb.

    devoir on
  • FirstComradeStalinFirstComradeStalin Registered User regular
    edited February 2008
    I just saw this. It wasn't that entertaining. Everything with the science of teleporting and believability aside (which I don't care about, there was some reasonably interesting stuff involved there, though), the fight scenes were kind of boring.
    I constantly felt like a bit of gunplay would have made it so much better, whereas instead the movie doesn't even allow its characters any kind of interesting hand-to-hand combat. The only game was getting wrapped up in tazer cords and getting out of them. The fact that they could teleport kind of bailed the fight scenes out, but wasn't enough to make them anything special.

    FirstComradeStalin on
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  • dlinfinitidlinfiniti Registered User regular
    edited February 2008
    is there any telefragging in this movie?

    dlinfiniti on
    AAAAA!!! PLAAAYGUUU!!!!
  • HeirHeir Ausitn, TXRegistered User regular
    edited February 2008
    devoir wrote: »
    Mei Hikari wrote: »
    Well he got into the bank the first time by going to the toilets and then teleporting to it at night. He then jumped through the vault by what I assume is an exception involving short jumps.

    Basically, if you've been somewhere, you can jump there (long jump). If you can see where you're jumping, you can get there even if you haven't been there before (short jump).
    That's what I deduced from the movie.

    This.

    They even paint it out for you with the whole park scene. You can jump short distances to where you haven't physically been, but to go to the general area from a long distance away you need to have been there before.

    The bit that threw me off was the Empire State Building. I didn't realise until about a minute later that it had been a flashback. Kinda made me feel dumb.


    So he'd been to the top of the sphynx before? I haven't seen it, but from the previews I'd been given the impression that he could go teleport just by looking at a picture of a place.

    Heir on
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  • JamesKeenanJamesKeenan Registered User regular
    edited February 2008
    He can teleport anywhere just by having an image of it. He does not at all need to have been there. The park scene was the just give a sense of his development as a Jumper. Pictures work fine.

    I have a problem though.

    Can anyone tell me why the hell no one used any guns in this movie?!?!

    It isn't even as if the Paladins wanted to take the Jumpers alive! They must have spent tens of thousands of dollars or more developing their cool electro-weapons, JUST TO KILL THEM IN THE END ANYHOW! It's like that old riddle about Nasa spending billions for an anti-grav pen, and Russia just using a pencil.

    And Griffin! Why the hell didn't he carry a 9mm around with him? Jump, shoot, dead. Jump, shoot dead. Rinse repeat.

    It wouldn't have ended the movie too soon or anything, cause you could just give the Paladins cool looking shields to account for the fact that in the real world, people use guns!

    Had they been forced to account for the fact that someone would have used a gun at some point, it might have been a better action movie.
    Like, the second Roland jumps through his created wormhole, -bam- Bullet hole opens up in his forehead, he just stares ahead, curses, and falls to the floor.

    Griffin was awesome though. He was Jumper's version of the Irish guy from Braveheart.

    JamesKeenan on
  • SamiSami Registered User regular
    edited February 2008
    That bothered me too. I mean, they didn't even use the knives right, and that's a pretty simple formula.

    1)Poof behind Paladin
    2)Slit Paladin's neck
    3)Poof to a beach somewhere and kick back

    Although I can see why the director wouldn't have had it that way. It's no fun watching 3 second encounters that are more like executions than battles.

    Sami on
  • JamesKeenanJamesKeenan Registered User regular
    edited February 2008
    Add more paladins?

    Ten men wander down a hall in a circular formation, each holding a large shield around them. Suddenly a poof, and a bullet hits one of the shields. The men huddle closer together.

    Poof, bam, poof, bam, poof poof poof bam bam bam. The jumper's teleporting all around the room, jumping and shooting. The men fire back, or shoot their electricity...

    I don't know. It could have worked.

    Hell, they could have evened it up by setting the movie slightly in the futre, so they could add more advanced tracking machinery...

    Overall, it was worth seeing, but it seems so clear that someone with a really great idea came to a studio and said, "Hey, I have a really great idea. Wanna make my movie?" and the studio said, "Well, we got two jedis who aren't doing anything right now..."

    JamesKeenan on
  • SamiSami Registered User regular
    edited February 2008
    Either way, it's not really a movie that bears further scrutiny. It was fast food cinema.

    Sami on
  • JamesKeenanJamesKeenan Registered User regular
    edited February 2008
    But it could have been more!

    JamesKeenan on
  • FirstComradeStalinFirstComradeStalin Registered User regular
    edited February 2008
    The problem is that it was supposed to be an action movie, but the action was lackluster and the actors were mediocre.

    FirstComradeStalin on
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