"Timequest" is a film for Sci-Fi fans, Conspiracy Buffs, Bruce Campbell fans, and anyone who wants to enjoy an all around intellectually stimulating and entertaining film.
Robert Dyke's (who also made Moontrap) "Timequest" is both imaginative, intellectual, and advanced in it's formal composition.
It investigates the question: "What would our world have become if JFK had survived that day in Dallas?" The story begins in the Presidential Suite of Fort Worth, Texas where JFK and his wife Jacquie are being housed- the day before JFK would be shot in Dallas. The plot centers around a man who has discovered time travel, and- motivated by his obsession for Jacquie after seeing her mourn her husbands death- he decides to go back and warn the President of the impending attack, and subsequent effect it would have on history and, in turn, the reality of the future (which he didn't think was too sh*t hot).
Appearing from nowhere, having infiltrated the Presidential suite with the President inside unbeknownst to the Secret Service, sh*t starts to hit the fan. But the mystery man succeeds in settling everyone down by showing them a holographic video of JFK and his brother RFK's assassination. The President- considering the circumstances- heeds the threat seriously, and has his brother flown in to witness it all for himself. Robert is skeptical of the whole situation, but when he sees himself lying dead only 5 months later, he opens an ear.
They ask the man why he is doing all of this. He tells them how he was born on the day that JFK died; and how, growing up, he fell in love with Jacquie as she stood strong in wake of her husbands violent death. He also mentions that he hated the state of the world in his time, and thus sought to change it, even if it meant his demise (well....his demise in THAT (his future) form, as he would possibly not be born, if he is successful).
The Time Traveler warns the two men, not only about their future assassinations, but also of the second assassination attempt that would follow- the attempted assassination of JFK's character (in Clinton-esque fashion). Taking the warnings to heart the group waits for the exact moment of JFK's original assassination to occur- the moment history will change- denoted by the Traveler ceasing to exist.
As they wait for this moment to pass, the traveller asks only one thing- to dance with Jacquie. This moves her and she becomes obsessed with the man, as he disappears from their lives...in one sense anyways.
With history changed, the attempted assassins are caught (on the grassy knoll); JFK leads a long and fulfilling life; the CIA is dismantled; RFK continues his fight against organized crime; JFK forms and alliance with the Soviets to travel to the moon together; we see where people like J. Edgar Hoover, George Bush, Bill Clinton and Arthur Zapruder end up; John and Jacquie have another child; and Jacquie takes up art, painting the man- the traveller- whom she longs to meet (the her time version of, at least).
The Kennedy's always pay back those who help them. Considering this, John and Robert make all efforts to find the man in his younger form. All they have to go on is a fingerprint the man left on a glass.
Robert is a little more paranoid, though. He feels it may be necessary to find and kill the child, as he may go on to invent time travel, which would-be assassins could use to go back in time and kill JFK- again (kinda).
They look at all baby's born Nov 22, 1963, but then realize that his labour could have been brought on by the trauma of JFK's death and thus widen the range of their search. Eventually they do track him down. He's a petty criminal and artist.
JFK's son (who was born only as a result of his future self's intervention) takes him under their wing and provides him with a place, and the supplies he needs to thrive as an artist. The young man get's to meet the people his non-existent future self saved, and sees the wonderful portrait Jacquie painted of the man.
There is also a tangent(and I believe this element of the story is thrown in SOLELY to include BRUCE CAMPBELL- because it seemed relatively irrelevant to the whole story) in which Bruce Campbell plays an Oliver Stone-esque conspiracy theorist/ filmmaker who catches a whiff of what happened that November 21st at Fort Worth- but draws the most ridiculous conclusions from it, and ends up making a film that is more erotica than it is a conspiracy film.
I suppose this was meant to act as the character assassination attempt prophesized by the Traveler before he disappeared. But it doesn't really work effectively like that. It doesn't really hinder the flow of the story either, though. In fact, it is really quite funny in it's reflexivity- and Campbell is always golden.
The structure of this film is really quite complex. It plays with time and space in a way that is by no means subtle. They are constantly interweaving different spaces and times together. The "based on a true story" past with the imagined past, flashbacks and flashforwards. Different realities- real and imagined- are all knotted together into a complex puzzle (compositionally speaking). It does take a little bit of labour to understand, and for this reason I think it has been overlooked by many viewers and thus relegated to the realm of sci-fi obscurity.
It really is an incredible film- both story and plot-wise. I urge you all to check it out, it deserves to be watched.
Remember... "The futures last hope is the past." 8 out of 10.
