Anna to the Infinite Power

Last updated
Anna to the Infinite Power
Anna to the Infinite Power FilmPoster.jpeg
Directed by Robert Wiemer
Written byRobert Wiemer
Based on Anna to the Infinite Power by Mildred Ames
Produced byBruce Graham
Starring Martha Byrne
Dina Merrill
Mark Patton
Donna Mitchell
Jack Gilford
CinematographyGlenn Kershaw
Edited byPeter Hammer
Music by Paul Baillargeon
Production
companies
Blue Marble Company [1]
Film Gallery [1]
Ned Kandel Productions [1]
Distributed by RCA/Columbia Pictures Home Entertainment (video)
Scorpion Releasing (DVD)
Release date
  • 1982 (1982)
[1]
Running time
105 min. [1]
CountryUnited States
LanguageEnglish

Anna to the Infinite Power is a 1982 science-fiction thriller film about a young teenager who learns that she was the product of a cloning experiment. The film was based on the 1981 novel of the same name by Mildred Ames. It was produced by Ned Kandell Enterprises and Film Gallery, previously responsible for the American syndicated children's series Big Blue Marble , and many alumni from that program worked on the film. The film was never released theatrically, but premiered on the pay-cable service HBO and later appeared on home video. The film's signature score "Anna's Reverie" was composed by Paul Baillargeon, who wrote the music for the film and has a cameo in which he plays the music teacher of Anna's brother Rowan.

Contents

Plot

Twelve-year-old Anna Hart of Flemington, New Jersey, a student at a school for gifted children, is a genius and a kleptomaniac who insults her teachers, gets headaches when she stares at fires and flickering lights, and suffers from strange, prophetic dreams. Michaela Dupont, a piano teacher who has been watching Anna and has kept photos of her and a similar-looking girl taken in 1970, moves in next door. Then Anna sees her exact double on local TV news when a commuter plane makes a forced landing nearby, and she learns that her double, Anna Smithson, has the same family setting as hers — the child of a scientist and a musician.

As Anna investigates, she learns about a woman named Anna Zimmerman, who has been dead 20 years, and that Anna herself was part of a cloning experiment by Zimmerman and that she will grow into a duplicate of Zimmerman herself. Anna further learns that her mother volunteered for the cloning project but her father wanted nothing to do with it. Anna dreams of Zimmerman's past — growing up during World War II as a Jew in Nazi-controlled Germany, where she, like the present Anna, was a pianist and child prodigy who would play a part in the Nazis' plans for the genetic engineering of humans. Anna begins behaving more like a normal little girl, and continues exploring her background with the help of her brother Rowan and secret assistance from Michaela.

Anna's mother and father take Anna to a facility at Albacore Island after the people involved in the cloning project want to re-evaluate Anna for a few days. While there, Anna becomes suspicious when the phone in her room is blocked and she is locked in her room. She is able to block the lock on her door one day and while exploring, she notices the other "Annas" in various rooms. Anna overhears Dr. Barrett and a nurse speaking about the failed experiments and how they will have to get rid of the girls. Rowan calls Anna by pretending to be Dr. Jelliff but when their call is cut off, he sneaks into the facility to see his sister. Anna and Rowan confront Dr. Jelliff, the person who continued Zimmerman's cloning experiments, who tells Anna that she is now a "normal" person and suggests she should change her name as a way to start a new life. After Anna and her brother go, Jelliff reveals to Michaela, whose assignment was supposed to be ensuring each Anna progressed, that he is secretly grooming yet another Anna to grow up to become the future Zimmerman and they plan to kill the remaining five Annas, including Hart and her family, shortly.

Jelliff's plans to eliminate the girls backfire when Michaela reveals herself to him as Anna Parkhurst, the original product of Zimmerman's cloning experiment; she was the girl that resembled Anna in the 1970 photo. Like her mother/creator, Parkhurst knows how to create the replicator. Because Jelliff had her parents killed and she is enraged by the experiments, Parkhurst turns the table on him by offering him the plans for the replicator in return for the safety of all of the Annas (including the one Jelliff is grooming), as well as an undisclosed location for Parkhurst to continue her work without interference, with a report sealed in an undisclosed location to be released should harm come to any of them. The movie ends with Jeliff considering her offer.

Cast

Source: [1]

Release

The film premiered on the pay-cable service HBO. [2] It was released by at least November 8, 1983, when it played in a 7 a.m. timeslot. [3]

Reception

Calling it "[a]n oddly engrossing cult item — sort of a Brady Bunch episode about cloning," TV Guide critic Frank Lovece, reviewing the VHS release, said that, "While the direction and cinematography are flat and the acting wooden, it's precisely this home-movie quality, this banal ordinariness, that makes the film's sinister, conspiratorial undertones all the more believably compelling" and that it climaxed with "a paranoid-conspiracy sequence that, unlike the rest of the movie, delivers some genuine suspense." [4] Reviewing the DVD release, Mac McEntire of DVD Verdict, agreed that, "The final third of the movie, taking place in the oddball futuristic medical complex, generates a serious sense of paranoia, and has some suspenseful scenes of Anna sneaking around, just a few steps ahead of getting caught," but found "the pacing is off" and the ending "abrupt," and that the film overall "looks and feels just like one of those '70s TV cult shlockers like Bad Ronald and Don't Be Afraid of the Dark ." He found Byrne's performance "just low-key enough to be realistic and heartfelt without being cutesy or annoying." [5]

Home media

In 1983 [6] or 1984, [7] RCA/Columbia Pictures Home Entertainment released the film on VHS video cassette. In 2010, Scorpion Releasing released the film on DVD [8] with interviews with Martha Byrne and Mark Patton. [5]

Connections

The opening credits of the television series Big Blue Marble can also be seen in the film; the show's production company also co-produced this film.

Related Research Articles

Dr. Quinn, Medicine Woman is an American Western drama television series created and executive produced by Beth Sullivan and starring Jane Seymour, who plays Dr. Michaela Quinn, a physician who leaves Boston in search of adventure in the Old West and settles in Colorado Springs, Colorado.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Rose Byrne</span> Australian actress (born 1979)

Mary Rose Byrne is an Australian actress. She made her screen debut in the film Dallas Doll (1994), and continued to act in Australian film and television throughout the 1990s. She obtained her first leading film role in The Goddess of 1967 (2000), which brought her the Volpi Cup for Best Actress, and made the transition to American cinema with a small role in Star Wars: Episode II – Attack of the Clones (2002), followed by bigger parts in Hollywood productions of Troy (2004), 28 Weeks Later (2007) and Knowing (2009).

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Martha Byrne</span> American actress (born 1969)

Mary Martha Byrne is an American actress, singer and television writer. She played the role of Lily Walsh Snyder on the soap opera As the World Turns from 1985 to 1989, then again from 1993 to 2008; as well as, from 2000 to 2003, Lily's twin sister, Rose D'Angelo. Byrne has also appeared in other stage, television and movie roles, including the title role in the 1983 film Anna to the Infinite Power. She is currently executive producer of the digital drama series Anacostia, where she has played the role of Alexis Jordan since 2011. Byrne has won three Daytime Emmy Awards for acting.

<i>Stitch! The Movie</i> 2003 direct-to-video pilot film

Stitch! The Movie is a 2003 American direct-to-video animated science fiction comedy film produced by Walt Disney Television Animation and Rough Draft Korea, released on August 26, 2003. It is produced by Tony Craig, Jess Winfield, and Roberts "Bobs" Gannaway; Gannaway also co-wrote and co-directed with Winfield and Craig, respectively. It is the second film released in the Lilo & Stitch franchise and the third film chronologically, taking place after the 2002 first film and the 2005 direct-to-video sequel Lilo & Stitch 2: Stitch Has a Glitch. The film also serves as the backdoor pilot of the spin-off sequel series Lilo & Stitch: The Series, which Craig, Winfield, and Gannaway executive produced and debuted the following month. The story is an introduction to Dr. Jumba Jookiba's 625 experiments that he created with the financing of Dr. Jacques von Hämsterviel.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Judy Carne</span> British actress (1939–2015)

Joyce Audrey Botterill, known professionally as Judy Carne, was an English actress best remembered for the phrase "Sock it to me!" on Rowan & Martin's Laugh-In.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Sophie Ward</span> British actress

Sophie Anna Ward is an English stage and screen actress, and a writer of non-fiction and fiction. As an actress, she played Jocelyn Sheffield in The Nanny, she also played Elizabeth Hardy, the female lead in Barry Levinson's Young Sherlock Holmes (1985), and in other feature film roles including in Cary Joji Fukunaga's period drama Jane Eyre (2011), and Jane Sanger's horror feature, Swiperight (2020). In 1982 she had a role in the Academy Award-winning best short film, A Shocking Accident. On television she played Dr Helen Trent in British police drama series Heartbeat from 2004 to 2006, the character Sophia Byrne in the series Holby City from 2008 to 2010, the role of Lady Ellen Hoxley in the series Land Girls from 2009 to 2011, and that of Lady Verinder in the mini-series The Moonstone (2016). She has had a variety of other roles on stage and in short and feature films.

<i>Leroy & Stitch</i> 2006 animated TV film concluding Lilo & Stitch: The Series

Leroy & Stitch is a 2006 American animated science fiction comedy television film produced by Walt Disney Television Animation. It was written by Bobs Gannaway and Jess Winfield, the latter of whom also served as producer alongside Igor Khait, and directed by Gannaway and Tony Craig. It is the third and final sequel film of the 2002 animated feature film Lilo & Stitch, serving as the finale of Lilo & Stitch: The Series. It also concluded the main continuity of the Lilo & Stitch franchise where Lilo Pelekai is a main character and Hawaii is the main setting. It is the last Western-animated production in the franchise to date. The film debuted on Disney Channel on June 23, 2006, and was also aired on Toon Disney on June 26, 2006.

<i>I Was a Teenage Frankenstein</i> 1957 film by Herbert L. Strock

I Was a Teenage Frankenstein is a horror film starring Whit Bissell, Phyllis Coates and Gary Conway, released by American International Pictures (AIP) in November 1957 as a double feature with Blood of Dracula. It is the follow-up to AIP's box office hit I Was a Teenage Werewolf, released less than five months earlier. Both films later received a sequel in the crossover How to Make a Monster, released in July 1958. The film stars Whit Bissell, Phyllis Coates, Robert Burton, Gary Conway and George Lynn.

<i>Bathory</i> (film) 2008 historical drama film

Bathory is a 2008 historical drama written and directed by Juraj Jakubisko. Filming began in December 2005, and the film was released in July 2008. It was Jakubisko's first English-language film and an international co-production between the cinemas of Slovakia, the Czech Republic, Hungary, and the United Kingdom.

<i>The Man of Steel</i> (comics) Comic book limited series featuring Superman

The Man of Steel is a 1986 comic book limited series featuring the DC Comics character Superman. Written and drawn by John Byrne, the series was presented in six issues which were inked by Dick Giordano. The series told the story of Superman's modern origin, which had been rebooted following the 1985–1986 series Crisis on Infinite Earths.

<i>Return to Halloweentown</i> 2006 television film by David Jackson

Return to Halloweentown is a Disney Channel Original Movie that premiered on October 20, 2006, and is the fourth and final film in the Halloweentown series. The story follows Marnie Piper going to college at Witch University in Halloweentown, where dark forces try to control her magic.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Anna Kendrick</span> American actress (born 1985)

Anna Cooke Kendrick is an American actress. Her first starring role was in the 1998 Broadway musical High Society, for which she earned a nomination for the Tony Award for Best Featured Actress in a Musical. She made her film debut in the musical comedy Camp (2003) and had a supporting role in The Twilight Saga (2008–2011). She achieved wider recognition for the comedy-drama film Up in the Air (2009), which earned her a nomination for the Academy Award for Best Supporting Actress, and for her starring role in the Pitch Perfect film series (2012–2017).

Maximum Ride is a series of young adult science fantasy novels by the author James Patterson. The series centers on the adventures of Maximum "Max" Ride and her family, called the Flock, who are winged human-avian hybrids created at a lab called The School. The series is a reboot of Patterson's earlier novels When the Wind Blows and The Lake House, which were aimed for older audiences.

Elizabeth (<i>BioShock</i>) Character in BioShock Infinite

Elizabeth is a fictional character in Irrational Games' BioShock Infinite, the third title in the BioShock series. The game is set in 1912 on a floating steampunk city named Columbia which was founded on the principles of American exceptionalism. Elizabeth has been groomed in a controlled environment to take over the reins of the city once its current leader, Father Zachary Hale Comstock, dies. Elizabeth has the power to open "tears" in the fabric of reality; she is able to view every event across all of the infinite timelines simultaneously and effortlessly open doorways to them, allowing her to access parallel universes.

<i>Mindscape</i> (2013 film) 2013 film

Mindscape is a 2013 internationally co-produced psychological thriller film, and the directorial debut of Spanish filmmaker Jorge Dorado. The film stars Taissa Farmiga, Mark Strong, Noah Taylor, and Brian Cox. The screenplay was written by Guy Holmes and follows John, a detective with the ability to enter people's memories; he takes on the case of a brilliant but troubled 16-year-old girl, Anna, to determine whether she is a sociopath or a victim of psychological trauma.

<i>Into the Grizzly Maze</i> 2015 American film

Into the Grizzly Maze is a 2015 American action horror-thriller film directed by David Hackl from a screenplay by Guy Moshe and Jack Reher. It stars James Marsden, Thomas Jane, Piper Perabo, Scott Glenn, and Billy Bob Thornton. The plot follows two estranged brothers as they reunite at their childhood home in the Alaskan wilderness. The pair are then led to the Grizzly Maze, where they are stalked by a massive, unrelenting, and bloodthirsty grizzly bear. The film was released on video on demand on May 19, 2015, before a limited release on June 26, 2015.

<i>Ohm Shanthi Oshaana</i> 2014 Indian film

Ohm Shanthi Oshaana is a 2014 Indian Malayalam-language coming-of-age romantic comedy film co-written and directed by Jude Anthany Joseph. The story was conceived by Midhun Manuel Thomas and he wrote the screenplay along with the director. It stars Nazriya Nazim, Nivin Pauly, and Vineeth Sreenivasan with Renji Panicker and Aju Varghese. Ohm Shanthi Oshaana was produced by Ananya Films and features music by Shaan Rahman.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Anna Todd</span> American author (born 1989)

Anna Renee Todd is an American author, film producer, and screenwriter. She is best known for writing the book series After, which she started publishing on the social storytelling platform Wattpad. The print edition of the series was published by Gallery Books, and has been translated into several languages.

<i>The Wonder</i> (film) 2022 film by Sebastián Lelio

The Wonder is a 2022 period psychological drama film directed by Sebastián Lelio. Emma Donoghue, Lelio, and Alice Birch wrote the screenplay based on the 2016 novel of the same name by Donoghue. Set shortly after the Great Famine, it follows an English nurse sent to a rural Irish village to observe a young 'fasting girl', who is seemingly able to miraculously survive without eating. Florence Pugh leads an ensemble cast that includes Tom Burke, Niamh Algar, Elaine Cassidy, Dermot Crowley, Brían F. O'Byrne, David Wilmot, Ruth Bradley, Caolán Byrne, Josie Walker, Ciarán Hinds, Toby Jones, and Kíla Lord Cassidy.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Maisie Lockwood</span> Fictional Character from Jurassic Park

Maisie Lockwood is a fictional character in the Jurassic Park franchise. She is introduced in the fifth film, Jurassic World: Fallen Kingdom (2018), which is also the second installment in the Jurassic World trilogy. J. A. Bayona directed the film, casting Isabella Sermon as Maisie. She is one of the three main protagonists in the Jurassic World trilogy, along with her adoptive parents, Owen Grady and Claire Dearing. She used to live with her late grandfather Sir Benjamin Lockwood, an old business partner of Dr. John Hammond. She is the biogenetic daughter of geneticist Charlotte Lockwood.

References

  1. 1 2 3 4 5 6 "Anna to the Infinite Power Cast & Details". TVGuide.com . Archived from the original on March 6, 2016. Retrieved February 9, 2013.
  2. "Martha Byrne". CBS News . Archived from the original on April 8, 2013. Retrieved February 9, 2013.
  3. "What's on TV". The Ponchatoula Times. November 8, 1983. Archived from the original on February 27, 2018. Retrieved February 9, 2013.
  4. Lovece, Frank. "Anna To The Infinite Power: Review". TVGuide.com . Archived from the original on March 6, 2016. Retrieved February 9, 2013.
  5. 1 2 McEntire, Mac (October 15, 2010). "Anna To The Infinite Power". DVDVerdict.com. Archived from the original on April 5, 2016. Retrieved February 9, 2013.
  6. Anna to the Infinite Power. WorldCat (RCA/Columbia 1983 entry). OCLC   43047295 . Retrieved February 9, 2013.
  7. Anna to the Infinite Power. WorldCat (RCA/Columbia 1984 entry). December 1985. ISBN   9780590410021. OCLC   10743614 . Retrieved February 9, 2013.
  8. Anna to the Infinite Power. WorldCat (Scorpion Releasing entry). OCLC   632356703 . Retrieved February 9, 2013.