Trancers (1984) is the best film I’ve seen in a month.
Everything about this film is fantastic—the story, the setting, the actors, the aesthetic. It’s over-the-top amazing.
Trancers takes a unique approach to time travel in sci-fi. Unlike most time travel stories, there’s no machine. Instead, people from the future travel to the past by taking a drug that allows them to inhabit and possess an ancestor’s body. The stakes are high—if your ancestor dies before conceiving your next ancestor in the line, you never existed. You just disappear.
The film stars Tim Thomerson, Helen Hunt, and Art LaFleur. Tim Thomerson plays Jack Deth with a hard-boiled affect, full of grit and aplomb, harkening back to noir thrillers of the ’30s and ’40s—right down to the scar on his head. And Thomerson chews the scenery—oh, he chews it up in the best way possible. Side note: the name Jack Deth is ridiculous. The movie knows it’s ridiculous. Characters even ask, “What kind of name is Jack Deth?” It’s hilarious. This self-awareness makes it even better.
Helen Hunt plays the female lead and love interest, a punk rock chick who takes a mall job as Santa’s assistant and lives above a punk club. And Helen Hunt—especially young Helen Hunt—oh my god, hot. She has charisma. She has gravity. I’m glad she became a bigger star in the ’90s with Mad About You and Twister, but damn, she was a force of nature here. I love punk rock Helen Hunt.
The side characters are equally amazing: the angry mall Santa, the radical dude at the tanning salon, and, of course, the detective from the future constantly annoying Jack Deth.
But the most compelling character in this film is its aesthetics. Everything bathes in neon glow. You know all those retro-futuristic cyberpunk visuals we see today—stuff that feels like the ’80s but isn’t? Trancers is the real thing. The future has this almost Art Deco look—everyone in suits and ties, even an Egyptian influence. It’s funny because Blade Runner, another sci-fi flick from around the same time, also imagined the future this way. Then we jump to present-day Los Angeles (1985), and watching it now, 30 years later, is a trip. Seeing ’80s LA—East Chinatown, the malls, the clubs, the slums—everything drenched in neon is incredible. I love the cars, the fashion, the hairstyles—especially Helen Hunt’s blue streak in her blonde hair.
I remember looking at Trancers back in the video rental days, always sitting in the sci-fi section with that striking VHS cover—Jack Deth holding his gun. I always meant to watch it but kept putting it off, thinking, it’ll always be around. Then the video stores closed, and I forgot about it. Somehow, I finally got around to watching it, and now I’m kicking myself for waiting so long.
In terms of plot depth or subtext, Trancers isn’t on the level of Philip K. Dick, though it’s clearly inspired by his work. But aesthetically? I think Trancers surpasses Blade Runner. I know, sacrilege—but hear me out. Blade Runner is legendary and still looks amazing, but Trancers has an art and style that hit differently. Even after the credits roll, I can feel this movie. It embeds itself in my brain.
Trancers. That’s the stuff. I recommend it.