Jumper (2008)

 

**This post contains spoilers**

The Story- After a failed attempt to impress his crush, Millie (AnnaSophia Robb), and a run-in with his pesky bully, Mark (Jesse James), a young David Rice (Max Thieriot) accidentally discovers he has the ability to jump. A Jumper can instantly teleport to any place on earth, and David uses his powers to escape his strict and abusive father, William (Michael Rooker).

Years later, David (Hayden Christensen) has mastered his powers, using jumping to rob banks, so he can live a luxurious lifestyle. David finds Millie (Rachel Bilson) working at a bar. He convinces Millie to travel with him to Rome to see the Colosseum, fulfilling one of Millie’s childhood dream vacations. 

But the trip is disrupted, when David runs into another Jumper named Griffin (Jamie Bell). To make matters worse, David and Griffin are hunted by Roland Cox (Samuel L. Jackson). Roland leads the Paladins, a secret group fiercely dedicated to capturing and killing Jumpers. David will need Griffin’s help to stop Roland and protect Millie. And David’s situation takes a bizarre turn, when his estranged mother, Mary (Diane Lane) reappears.

My Thoughts- Samuel L. Jackson and Jamie Bell easily deliver the two best performances here. Jackson is a mean and relentless jerk, and he does a fantastic job of selling Roland’s hatred for Jumpers. You really believe Roland is genuinely disgusted by Jumpers, and he will do anything to exterminate them. Also, the obsessive religious fanaticism tied into the Paladins and Roland’s character truly helps solidify his status, as a clear-cut villain throughout the movie.

Jamie Bell plays the angsty tough guy type. He’s closed off and refuses to open up to David about his past, and Bell brings believable intensity to Griffin. Griffin can be a loose cannon, but he still has enough common sense to be responsible, when it matters.

The dynamic and the relationship between Griffin and David hits all the right notes. David is reckless and greedy with his jumping abilities. His lifestyle draws too much attention. Griffin? He quietly lives in a cave. Sure, you could say Griffin is a bit unhinged, but he’s careful and far more disciplined than David. 

As the story progresses, we learn that Mary is a Paladins. That’s why she abandoned David and his father years ago, because as a Paladins, she had to make a choice: leave the family, or kill her own son. It’s kind of a somber ending, when David realizes his mother simply moved on and continued living her life without him. She lives in a nice house, and David has a sister named Sophie (Kristen Stewart).

I wouldn’t say they reach eye rolling levels, but Jumper is loaded with a lot of familiar cliches. As a kid, David is shy and socially awkward. He has a crush on his dream girl, but his bully Mark is one of the dark clouds hanging over his life. 

William? He’s the typical verbally abusive drunk father, but it’s possible to have sympathy for him. Mary bailed on the family, leaving William to raise David on his own. That’s a lot of stress and heartbreak to deal with alone, but William changes as David ages. You can see he wants to have a relationship with his son. He wants to understand him, and William lies to Roland in a failed attempt to protect David.

Jumper delivers some good thrills, but they kind of went overboard with showing how cool it is to be a Jumper. David eating on top of a Sphinx’s head in Egypt is one moment that sticks out, and Griffin showing off his advanced skills to steal a Mercedes, jumping through the dealership at full speed without breaking the glass. Early on the movie, it’s easy to understand what jumping is and how David and Griffin do it, so some of the “jumping is so cool and awesome!” scenes were unnecessary. 

Jumper features a solid cast, and it’s a movie that moves at a quick pace. The runtime flies by with consistent action and a good sense of urgency, as David and Griffin figure out their next moves. 

Jumper is a decent and fun action/sci-fi film, but it also feels incomplete. David and Mary accepted they’ll always share an awkward relationship, and they’re also on opposite sides of the never ending war between Jumpers and Paladins, so that’s a cliffhanger. Millie finally accepted David for what he is, and they end the movie with David and Millie in a seemingly happy relationship. Griffin? David left him trapped in the wires (large amounts of electricity hinders a Jumper’s ability to jump) in another country. Will Griffin trust David again? Or is he looking for revenge?

Roland is still alive, stuck in the Grand Canyon with no help to escape. And we don’t know what happened to William after David dropped him off at the hospital. A lot of loose ends, but we’re in 2024 now, and Jumper was released all the way back in 2008. I still haven’t seen it, but the Impulse series has two seasons. The problem is, Impulse is a stand alone series, so it’s not connected to this movie.

They planted enough seeds to lay the foundation for a sequel, and Jackson could’ve been an excellent villain. Jumper wasn’t perfect, but the potential was there, and the premise definitely had more roads to explore.

Rating- 5/10