Freejack (1992)

Tagline: Alex Furlong died today. Eighteen years from now, he’ll be running for his life.

Curiosity: It’s a science fiction film I’ve never heard of before starring Emilio freaking Estevez.

Plot: Alex Furlong (Estevez) is a super cool racecar driver. He’s one of the best in the league, and he’s dating a totally awesome lady named Julie (Rene Russo). Yep, everything is going great for Alex… until his car crashes into a bridge during a race and explodes. Now Alex is dead. That sucks.

BUT WAIT! In the distant future, the year 2009, the McCandless Corporation has the technology to pull a person’s body from the past just before he or she dies. Since these people were already legally dead in the future, the Corporation views their bodies as empty shells, which they can dump new souls into for the rich and the elderly. Furlong escapes, though, becoming a “freejack,” a person who’s been pulled from his or her time and is now trapped in a dystopian future. Furlong just wants to find Julie, but the bounty hunter Vacenak (Mick Jagger) is close pursuit.

Thoughts: Hoo boy, Freejack is pretty awesomely bad. A little slow in places, so it’s not always as kitschy as I would like it to be, but man does this movie suck. Stealing bodies from the past has to be just about the most expensive, ill-conceived way to replace your mortal coil. I mean, you’d think somebody would notice all the missing people. Also, I find the legality of stealing people away before they die questionable at best. It’s like, can’t you just clone yourself and then stick your soul into one of those? C’mon, faceless corporations. Get your shit together.

Even within the terms of the story, Freejack is frustrating. It just doesn’t have the guts to truly apocalyptic like The Terminator or The Road. What I mean is, the movie goes out of its way to have everything work out for Furlong, even going so far as to launch a lengthy series of deus ex machinas in order to wrap up the ending in his favor. It makes the post-apocalypse look so damn cute it’s annoying.

I had a blast watching Mick Jagger and New York Dolls frontman David Johansen act though.

Reflection: I thought it was weird that Alex had no trouble hooking up with Julie even though she’d aged like 20 years. Then I looked at how Rene Russo is holding up in real life and realized that it’s totally accurate. That lady ages like a fine wine. Or a video game you still like (like Sonic 2 or X-Men 2: Clone Wars).