Trancers II

Trancers II: The Return of Jack Deth
Trancers II: The Return of Jack Deth
	Poster
Directed by	Charles Band
Screenplay by	Jackson Barr
Story by	Charles Band; Jackson Barr
Based on	Characters created by Danny Bilson; and Paul De Meo
Produced by	Charles Band
Starring	Tim Thomerson; Helen Hunt; Megan Ward; Biff Manard; Martine Beswicke; Jeffrey Combs; Alyson Croft; Art LaFleur; Barbara Crampton; Richard Lynch
Cinematography	Adolfo Bartoli
Edited by	Andy Horvitch; Ted Nicolaou
Music by	Phil Davies; Mark Ryder
Production; company	Full Moon Pictures
Distributed by	Full Moon Features
Release date	August 22, 1991;
Running time	85 minutes
Country	United States
Language	English

Trancers II (also released as Trancers II: The Return of Jack Deth) is a 1991 American direct-to-video science fiction action film directed by Charles Band. It is a sequel to Trancers and is set six years after the events of the first.^[1]

Plot

Los Angeles, 1991. Jack Deth (Tim Thomerson) has gotten used to life with his wife Lena (Helen Hunt) in the six years since they killed Martin Whistler. Hap Ashby (Biff Manard) has made a fortune investing and has moved from the streets to a palatial estate, sharing it with Jack and Lena.

But life is about to get difficult for Jack. Whistler's brother, Edward (Richard Lynch), has gone back in time - using the alias "E.D. Wardo" - and created a "Trancer farm" under the guise of an environmental organization. GreenWorld claims it strives to 'clean up the world', but actually they kidnap homeless people and mental patients to enslave in a Trancer army. Once again, Hap is under attack, useful to Wardo as the ancestor of future Angel City Council Member Ashe.

Jack is ready to singe some Trancers in the name of the law, but he does not expect his dead wife Alice (Megan Ward) to show up—and neither does Lena. Alice has been saved from death by the City Council and sent back to 1991 to help Jack stop Wardo. The tension mounts as Lena becomes fearful of losing Jack to his future wife, Hap returns to drinking alcohol to deal with the stress, and Jack realizes that when Alice returns to the future, she will die again. Somehow, Jack must find a way to save more than just the future.^[2]

Cast

Tim Thomerson as Jack Deth
Helen Hunt as Lena Deth
Megan Ward as Alice Stillwell
Biff Manard as Hap Ashby
Martine Beswick as Nurse Trotter
Jeffrey Combs as Dr. Pyle
Richard Lynch as Dr. E. D. Wardo
Alyson Croft as "McNulty"
Art LaFleur as "Old McNulty" (as Art La Fleur)
Telma Hopkins as Commander Raines
Barbara Crampton as Sadie Brady
Sonny Carl Davis as "Rabbit"
Michael Secora as Ramon
Willy Parsons as Curly
Dani Klein as Pearl
Rhino Michaels as Shovel Man
Albert Henderson as Wino #3

Release

Trancers II was first released on VHS and LaserDisc in 1991 and has since then been released on DVD through the Trancers box-set or as a single DVD in Europe. The film was released on Blu-ray on May 19, 2015.

Reception

Entertainment Weekly strongly preferred the first movie, giving the sequel a "D".^[3] TV Guide found the performance of Thomerson a plus, but found the rest of the movie goes off the rails.^[4] Moira gave the movie 2.5 stars, stating that while it wasn't as good as the first one, it was competent and better than the sequels that follow. Reuniting Deth with his dead wife via time travel was seen as intriguing.

Likewise, The Encyclopedia of Science Fiction found the subplot of Deth having with his current wife and (from his perspective) dead wife together in Deth's past interesting.^[5] Creature Feature gave the movie two stars, finding it unnecessarily convoluted.^[6]