As always, spoilers ahead.
I recently saw Jumper, and thought I’d write a couple of words about it. Based on a novel by Steven Gould, it tells the story of a young man who learns that he can teleport himself at will.
And yes, you guessed: he starts robbing banks almost right off the bat. That, however, is not the interesting part of the story; it turns out that there are people out there who totally hate all jumpers (oh, I forgot to mention: of course there’s more than one jumper) and want them dead. So our good-looking bank robber (portrayed by Hayden Christensen) has to run and fight. His problem is that he’s still in love with his high-school love-unrequited sweetheart. The rest of the story you could write for yourself.
That is, if you ignore all the strange questions this film poses. First of all, it’s really central to ask yourself: what would be my attitude to such people if they existed? Would I want them hunted down and killed, or at least safely locked away? Would I want everyone to have their powers? Moreover: how does one deal with such power? Does one become overconfident, does one become arrogant, as in the evolved higher being versus the lower forms of the species? Does one hide one’s abilities, or attempt to use them to do some good?
Strangely, the film doesn’t answer these questions, and then it does. We learn that our well-dressed, clean-shaven bank robber wants to someday repay the money he has stolen; but then, he doesn’t actually help, assist, rescue anyone using his powers, for the duration of the story. Very few people observe the jumpers in action, so the question of what the general populace thinks and feels is avoided. In the end, we are nonetheless reassured that at least the protagonist jumper is someone of integrity who cares deeply about the people he loves, and not a random rascal who would do anything, molest, maim, murder, to achieve what’s on his mind.
I was wondering whether this has been done intentionally, in order to establish something of a franchise, and my suspicions were later confirmed. So until we get another instalment with more depth, we are left with an action movie with several really funny moments, with a panoramically romantic love story, and with many vital but unanswered questions. This film is not a waste of time, but we must hope for more in the jumping future to come.
Q. W3ary
