Clockstoppers (2002)

User Rating:

5.0/10   

Director:

Jonathan Frakes

Writers (WGA):

Rob Hedden (story) &
Andy Hedden (story) ...

Release Date:

29 March 2002 (USA)

Genre:

Adventure | Sci-Fi | Thriller

Tagline:

The adventure of a lifetime, in a few mere seconds.

Plot:

A teenager accidentally activates a machine that enables him to speed up his body so that other people seem to be standing still.

Plot Keywords:

Teenager | Plane | Hit In Crotch | Frozen Time | Ebay

Cast

Jesse Bradford	...	Zak Gibbs
French Stewart	...	Dr. Earl Dopler
Paula Garcés	...	Francesca
Michael Biehn	...	Henry Gates
Robin Thomas	...	Dr. Gibbs
Garikayi Mutambirwa	...	Meeker
Julia Sweeney	...	Jenny Gibbs
Lindze Letherman	...	Kelly Gibbs
Jason Winston George	...	Richard
Linda Kim	...	Jay
Ken Jenkins	...	NSA Agent Moore
Esperanza Catubig	...	Ticket Agent
Jennifer Manley	...	Security Officer
Scott Thomson	...	Tourist Dad
Deborah Rawlings	...	Tourist Mom

MPAA:

Rated PG for action violence and mild language.

Runtime:

94 min

Country:

USA

Language:

English

Colour:

Colour

Aspect Ratio:

1.85 : 1

Sound Mix:

DTS | Dolby Digital

Certification:

USA:PG (certificate #38491) | Iceland:12 | Australia:PG | Netherlands:6 | Finland:K-11 | Argentina:Atp | Brazil:Livre | Canada:PG | France:U | Germany:12 | Norway:11 | Philippines:PG-13 | Singapore:PG | South Korea:12 | Spain:T | Sweden:7 | UK:PG

Filming Locations:

Long Beach, California, USA

Company:

Paramount Pictures

Trivia:

The plot was inspired by two earlier stories. The first, H.G. Wells' "The New Accelerator" (1901) about a scientist who develops a drug enabling him to move so fast that no-one can see him. From his viewpoint, everyone else is frozen in time. The second inspiration, a 1963 episode of "The Twilight Zone" titled "A Kind Of Stopwatch" in which an irritating little man is given a stopwatch which allows him to freeze everyone else in time while he cam move normally.

Goofs:

Miscellaneous: The roof scene is flipped - the writing on signs on both the door and the wall have the text reversed.

Quotes:

Dopler: I need the room number for Dr. Gibbs.
Clerk: And you are?
Dopler: [placing $100 on desk] In a hurry.
[Places $200 more on desk]
Clerk: I'll see what I can do.

Movie Connections:

Spoofed in "The Simpsons: Treehouse of Horror XIV (#15.1)" (2003)

Soundtrack:

First Date

A really cute, imaginative movie - good for kids and adults alike.

The story of Clockstoppers centers around a very cute teenage boy who is good at a lot of things, extreme bike-riding with lots of incredible tricks, playing a guitar, riding a skateboard, fighting with his sister...

His mom, played by Julia Sweeney of "Saturday Night Live" and "It's Pat" fame is a doting, (and docile) mom but his father, a college professor, is much more involved in his students' lives than in Zak's life. This causes a lot of conflict between them and Zak tries to get his father to understand how he feels. His dad looks guilty but professes that Zak is exaggerating. When he has promised to go with Zak to look at a car that is Zak's heart's desire, his dad suddenly has to go away to help an old student who is having a problem with an invention.

The invention is a wrist watch that can be activated to put the wearer into "hyper-time". After the father leaves, Zak finds the watch and puts it on, thinking it is only a watch. While visiting a girl he has recently met, Zak pushes the button to check the time and voila! Time stops. To the viewer it appears to freeze everyone and everything else, but then you begin to notice that drops of water from the sprinkler are still falling, just falling a millimeter per second; a hummingbird suspended in mid-air is still flapping his wings, but so slowly that you can barely see the movement. However, Zak, and anyone who is touching him when he activates hyper-time is moving at what appears to be a normal speed.

Zak is stunned at first but eventually realizes what has happened and, as a typical teenage boy, proceeds to have some fun with it, along with the girl he wants to impress! Some of the tricks they pull are hysterical and lead you to imagine what you might do if you got ahold of this watch!

Of course, there must be an evil plot behind this somewhere, and we soon learn what that is. This leads to grave danger for Zak, his dad and Zak's new girlfriend and also provides for some fun car chase scenes.

The movie, of course, requires you to suspend disbelief and if you aren't capable of that, skip the movie! Otherwise you are only going to spend the hour criticizing the scientific aspects of "hyper-time" and annoying everyone around you who has some imagination and is having a good time.

The movie is directed by Jonathan Frakes, who played Commander Riker on Star Trek, the Next Generation. He apparently learned a lot during his STNG days and puts it to good use in this science fiction fun-fest. Thanks Number One. You made it so.