At the moment of his death, Alex Furlong (Emilio Estevez), a racecar driver in 1991, is pulled through time to 2009 where his body is meant as a replacement for a dying rich man’s. Alex escapes, finds his old fiancée (Rene Russo), who works for the most powerful businessman in the world (Anthony Hopkins), and together they run from a relentless bounty hunter (Mick Jagger).
So, by 2009, we’ve developed time travel. Cool. Wouldn’t five or six additional decades make it a bit more believable? Of course if the film was set far enough in the future to have the technology even minutely plausible (OK, it’s never plausible), Rene Russo’s character would be far too old to be fooling around with Emilio Estevez. Since they have the romantic chemistry of two twigs in the street, I can’t see that ensuring their age compatibility is important, but this is a Hollywood film, so there must be a romance.
Now Estevez’s Alex escapes when brought to the future, thus becoming a freejack. So, enough people plucked from the past for mind transfer have escaped that they have a word for it? Wow, future security just sucks. That’s not surprising since these near future people can’t think up anything better to do with time travel.
So, the plot is a series of holes held together by foreshadowing that the blind can see. The main stars don’t so much phone in their performances as tap them in on a telegraph machine. Still, it’s not a bad mindless chase picture. Mick Jagger does the best job by overacting (which makes him fit in with the explosions and crashes). There’s lots of running and truck chases and shootouts (often with electro-guns) and even a sword. Lots of unnamed people die and there are some really unnecessary cyberspace effects, which adds up to an enjoyable, non-engaging film.