FREEJACK. Directed by Geoff Murphy; written by Steven Pressfield, Ronald Shusett and Dan Gilroy; produced by Ronald Shusett and Stuart Oken. Starring Emilio Estevez, Rene Russo and Mick Jagger. Rated R.
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Fans of science-fiction movies will be glad to see that one of the people (co-writer and producer Shusett) responsible for Alien and Total Recall, two big successes, has another product out.
Freejack isn't as good as Alien, by a long shot; and probably isn't as good as Total Recall, either. But it's not as gory as those earlier movies either, which is a big plus with some moviegoers. And it has its moments.
Just explaining the title requires a story summary. Most of the movie takes place in 2009, where the technology exists to transfer one person's mind, via a computer holding tank, into another body. The story which is the basis for the movie is called "Immortality, Inc.," and it's easy to see what that means.
Most young people (and, for the price you have to pay, you'd want to be "reincarnated" into a young body, wouldn't you?) alive in 2009, though, are so sickly from pollution and toxic waste that they're not very attractive candidates.
Enter technology again, with the ability to go back in time and snatch healthy people in the past from the brink of accidental death, lobotomize them, and present the bodies to their new owners.
Alex (Estevez) is supposed to be one of these snatchees, but the lobotomy doesn't work, and he escapes to become a "Freejack," a body that doesn't, legally, belong to the person who inhabits it.
The story is more than a little way out, I suppose, but it's handled well, and explained fairly clearly. Once the basic idea is set, though, it's too predictable.
Estevez is a likable enough actor, and he's good at playing someone confused, as Alex is for 3/4 of the movie. Jagger's character, a bounty hunter-type after Alex, is a little harder to get used to. But his look is great for the circumstances, and he gets in some amusing lines toward the end.
The best scenes in the movie, though, are a couple of short ones with Amanda Plummer (who was so great in The Fisher King) as a very surprising nun.
Real sci/fi fans will be able to enjoy Freejack for the good basic story idea, along with the imaginative production design and the tidbits like Plummer's scenes and Jagger's sneer. Other moviegoers, though, will probably find it just too much to swallow.
January 29, 1992