Running Against Time

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Running Against Time
Running Against Time Film Poster-VHS cover.jpg
VHS artwork
Genre Science fiction
Based on A Time to Remember
by Stanley Shapiro
Teleplay by
  • Stanley Shapiro
  • Robert Glass
Directed by Bruce Seth Green
Starring
Music by Don Davis
Country of originUnited States
Original languageEnglish
Production
Executive producers
  • Pat Finnegan
  • Sheldon Pinchuk
ProducerDavid Roessell
CinematographyBrian R. R. Hebb
EditorHeather Jo MacDougall
Running time92 minutes
Production companies
Original release
Network USA Network
ReleaseNovember 21, 1990 (1990-11-21)

Running Against Time is a 1990 American science fiction television film directed by Bruce Seth Green, written by Stanley Shapiro and Robert Glass, and starring Robert Hays, Catherine Hicks, and Sam Wanamaker. Based on Shapiro's 1986 novel A Time to Remember , the film is about a college professor who travels back in time in an attempt to prevent the assassination of John F. Kennedy. The film was Shapiro's final work; it aired on the USA Network on November 21, 1990, four months after his death, and was dedicated to his memory.

Contents

Plot

David Rhodes is a college history professor, who is obsessed with the death of his older brother Chris in Vietnam in 1968. When his girlfriend Laura interviews eccentric physics professor Dr. Koopman about his revolutionary time travel theories, David finds that the Professor has perfected time travel and sees a way to save his brother; by preventing the 1963 assassination of John F. Kennedy on the basis Kennedy will pull troops out of Vietnam. [1] [2]

Alternative VHS artwork Running Against Time Alternative Cover.jpg
Alternative VHS artwork

David materialises on the roof of the Texas School Book Depository on the day of the assassination but arrives too late to stop Lee Harvey Oswald killing Kennedy and is framed by Oswald. Charged with murder, he is unable to provide satisfied explanations to authorities, especially when he lets slip knowledge of Oswald’s rooming house. Jack Ruby, who originally shot Oswald, kills David. Seeing this reported in old newspapers, Laura goes back to the day before the assassination, but is hit by a car and spends a day at Parkland Memorial Hospital. Recovering and fleeing the hospital, she too fails to prevent the shooting but saves David from capture. David learns his younger self has gone into a coma due to his mind being in two places at once. They contact 1963’s Koopman and convince him they are from the future before they are arrested. Armed with their knowledge, Koopman warns the new President Lyndon B. Johnson about the Vietnam War; this only makes Johnson commit to a more brutal version of the war.

Present-day Koopman goes back to intercept David and Laura. David makes a quick visit to his brother, who promises he look after his ill brother. After the trio return to the present, David proposes to Laura, before they find the talk with his brother convinced him not to enlist and that he is alive.

Cast

Reception

Ken Tucker, writing for Entertainment Weekly called the movie "simultaneously solemn and wacky" but "not without charm". [3] The LA Times compared it unfavorably to the Back to the Future films. [4]

See also

References

  1. ↑ "Running against Time (1990)". BFI. Archived from the original on January 30, 2021. Retrieved January 25, 2021.
  2. ↑ Green, Bruce Seth (November 21, 1990), Running Against Time (Sci-Fi), Robert Hays, Catherine Hicks, Sam Wanamaker, Wayne Tippit, Coastline Partners, Finnegan/Pinchuk Productions, MCA Television Entertainment (MTE), retrieved January 25, 2021
  3. ↑ "Running Against Time". EW.com. Retrieved January 25, 2021.
  4. ↑ "TV Review : 'Against Time' on USA". Los Angeles Times. November 21, 1990. Retrieved January 25, 2021.
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