Hacker Cinema
Time After Time
1979 · Film · 112 min
Directed by Nicholas Meyer
AdventureDramaComedyScience FictionThriller
Writer H. G. Wells pursues Jack the Ripper to modern day San Francisco after the infamous serial killer steals his time machine to escape the 19th century.
2 positive2 neutralfrom 4 commenters
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4 comments on Hacker News
As usual with these "underrated" lists, it feels more like "a list of movies you might want to watch if you haven't". Think I'll start replacing "underrated" with that from now on.
Personally I have "Tomorrow I'll Wake Up and Scald Myself with Tea"[1] and "Time after time"[2] from the 70s on my watch list. If we stretch the definition a bit, I'll include "The Lathe of Heaven"[3] (1980) and "Icarus XB 1"[4] (1963).
[1]: https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0213322/
[2]: https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0080025/
[3]: https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0081036/
[4]: https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0122111/
If you made a time machine, went back about 45 years, and brought my then overweight teen self who was probably in the top 5% for obesity then to today...I think his reaction would be the same as Jack the Ripper in the 1979 movie "Time After Time" when Jack was brought to modern San Francisco [1]:
> I belong here completely. In our time, I was a freak. Today, I'm an amateur.
[1] Briefly, in the movie H.G. Wells actually builds the time machine. Jack steals it to escape capture coming to our time. Wells, fearing he was unleashed a monster on what he expects to be utopia follows (the machine had been set to automatically return when Jack stole it).
Hence the moniker "Man Jose".
For historical perspective looking back to the 1970s, check out the excellent film "Time After Time" (Malcolm McDowell, Mary Steenbergen), where Mary's character decries the minimal SF dating pool for straight women in that era, given the high percentage of gay males in SF.
> Imagine if someone from the 1800's could visit 2050. He might assume we are all extremely high-functioning schizophrenics.
Remember that movie 'Time After Time'? HG Wells and Jack the Ripper both visit the 1980's. Guess who fit in better? :-)