Dark Horse Comics: Timecop 1



Timecop is a 1994 science-fiction thriller film directed by Peter Hyams and co-written by Mike Richardson and Mark Verheiden. Richardson also served as executive producer. The film is based on Time Cop, a story written by Verheiden and drawn by Phil Hester and Chris Warner which appeared in the anthology comic Dark Horse Comics, published by Dark Horse Comics.

The film stars Jean-Claude Van Damme as a police officer in 1994 and a U.S. Federal agent in 2004, when time travel has been made possible. It also stars Ron Silver as a rogue politician and Mia Sara as the agent's wife. The story follows an interconnected web of episodes in the agent's life (or perhaps lives) as he fights time-travel crime and investigates the politician's unusually successful career.

Plot
In 1863, Confederate soldiers are carrying a gold bullion as a payday for the army. Suddenly, they are cornered and shot by a highwayman using anachronistic machine pistols and futuristic tech equipment, leaving them stranded and dead before suddenly vaporizing into the mist.

131 years later, the U.S. government creates the Time Enforcement Commission (TEC) to combat the misuse of newly developed time travel technology. They have discovered that the same gold bullion was used in recent arms purchases. Senator Aaron McComb (Silver) volunteers to oversee the commission, and a short time later, police officer Max Walker (Van Damme) is offered a job as a TEC agent. Later that evening, Max is attacked in his home by intruders and his wife Melissa (Sara) is killed in an explosion.

Ten years later, Walker is now a veteran TEC Agent. He is sent back to 1929, in the midst of the Wall Street crash to arrest his former partner Atwood (Jason Schombing) for taking advantage of the U.S. stock-market crash. Atwood reveals that he is working for McComb, who needs money for his presidential campaign. Terrified by McComb's threat to murder his ancestors, thereby wiping out his existence, Atwood tries to kill himself by jumping out a window. Walker catches him as he falls and takes him back to 2004, but Atwood refuses to testify against McComb and the TEC agency sends him back to 1929, right where he left off, this time falling to his death.

Walker is partnered with agent Fielding (Gloria Reuben), and sent back to 1994, where they find a young Senator McComb arguing with Jack Parker about their company's new computer chip. Parker offers to buy McComb's share of the company, but suddenly, the older McComb arrives from 2004 to warn his younger self that the chip will make huge profits. A fight starts when Walker is double-crossed by Fielding, who reveals she works for McComb. McComb kills Parker, wounds Fielding, attempts to kill Walker, and manages to escape back to 2004.

When Walker returns to 2004, he finds that things have become worse. McComb owns the computer company, with no record of Parker. He is almost guaranteed the Presidency with his finances and approval rating. The TEC is being shut down due to budget cuts. There is also no record of Fielding. Realizing that he has to fix things, Walker hijacks the original prototype time machine (which McComb had been using for their illegal trips) with the help of Matuzak, who sacrifices himself when McComb's men try to stop Walker from escaping.

Finding himself once more in 1994, Walker finds Fielding in the hospital, where she agrees to testify against McComb. Whilst trying to find Fielding's DNA from a blood sample in the lab, Walker finds a sample of Melissa's blood and it indicates she is pregnant. Walker realizes her death occurred later that night, and he decides to stop it. After going back to Fielding's room, he discovers that she has been murdered and he is framed as the prime suspect. He goes to the mall where he and Melissa met that night. Eventually Max finds her and manages to convince her he is from the future.

That evening, McComb's thugs break into Walker's home, like before, only this time the older Walker waiting for them. Without his younger self realizing it, veteran Walker helps to fight off the bad guys. Together, they and Mellisa win, though the younger Walker is wounded. 2004 McComb then takes Melissa hostage. When the older Walker finds the older McComb is holding Melissa, the younger McComb sets a time bomb. He then shoots Melissa, just before the young McComb appears, having been tricked by a fake message from Walker. Walker grabs the young McComb and pushes him into the older one, causing them to become a writhing mass which melts into nothingness.

Walker carries Melissa out of the house just before the bomb explodes. Walker returns to 2004, and the timeline has been corrected. The TEC still exists, Fielding and Matuzak are alive, and McComb does not exist, having "vanished" ten years earlier. As Walker returns home, he is happily shocked to find Melissa alive and their 9-year-old son waiting to greet him. Melissa has something to announce to Walker, implying that she is pregnant again.

Cast

 * Jean-Claude Van Damme as Max Walker
 * Mia Sara as Melissa Walker
 * Ron Silver as Senator Aaron McComb
 * Bruce McGill as Commander Eugene Matuzak
 * Gloria Reuben as Sarah Fielding
 * Scott Bellis as Ricky
 * Jason Schombing as Lyle Atwood
 * Scott Lawrence as George Spota
 * Kenneth Welsh as Senator Utley
 * Brad Loree as Reyes
 * Kevin McNulty as Jack Parker
 * Gabrielle Rose as Judge Marshall
 * Steven Lambert as Lansing