Timecop 2: The Berlin Decision

Timecop 2: The Berlin Decision
File:Timecop2berlin.jpg DVD cover
Directed by	Steve Boyum
Produced by	Mike Elliott Gary Scott Thompson
Written by	Gary Scott Thompson
Based on	Comic book by Mike Richardson Mark Verheiden Nicholas Kern
Starring	Jason Scott Lee Thomas Ian Griffith
Music by	Andy Gray
Cinematography	Crescenzo Notarile
Production company	Capital Arts Entertainment TE Encore Films
Distributed by	Universal Pictures
Release dates	September 30, 2003 (2003-09-30)
Running time	81 minutes
Country	United States
Language	English

Timecop 2: The Berlin Decision (aka Timecop 2 and Timecop: The Berlin Decision) is a 2003 American sci-fi action film directed by Steve Boyum. The film stars Jason Scott Lee and Thomas Ian Griffith. It is the sequel to the 1994's Timecop starring Jean-Claude Van Damme. The film was released on direct-to-DVD in the United States on September 30, 2003.

The events of this film take place 20 years after the first one, although there is no mention of the events of the first film and time travel technology has improved considerably.

Plot

In 2025, the Time Enforcement Commission (TEC), the agency that monitors time travel, is still keeping the past safe. However, as a check and balance to TEC, a "Society for Historical Authenticity" (SHA) is established to ensure that TEC personnel do not alter history. But the Society's leader, Brandon Miller, believes he has the responsibility to change history based on a "moral obligation to right the wrongs of the past" and plans to do so by traveling back to Berlin in 1940 and killing Adolf Hitler (a scenario mentioned in the original film). TEC agent Ryan Chang is sent back to stop him, but in the resulting fight, Miller's wife Sasha, also part of the SHA, ends up dead. Miller is imprisoned in the World Penitentiary for trying to change history, and Ryan Chang begins arresting Miller's close Society friends. In Atlantic City in 1895, Ryan prevents SHA member Frank Knight from robbing Andrew Carnegie. Knight accuses the TEC of being murderers when they execute him. Ryan is haunted by memories of when his father, Josh, died of a brain aneurysm in 2002. Josh was lecturing about time travel at the University of Southern California, and had a heated debate on the morals of altering history.

However, TEC agent Douglas illegally attempts to visit his younger self, violating the law "the same matter can't occupy the same space at the same time". Douglas makes physical contact with his younger self and they are suddenly merged, causing the agent to wink out of existence. Without the agent ever existing, a key Brandon Miller associate wasn't arrested and Miller is able to leave prison on a technicality. Miller then sets out to eliminate every TEC operative by traveling back in time and killing their ancestors, making it as if the agents never even existed. Miller could then change history with impunity since there wasn't anyone to stop him. Eventually, Ryan Chang is the only agent left and he has to stop Miller before his very existence is erased.

Ryan fights his way through rioters at the World Penitentiary and confronts Miller, but is unable to convince him that what he wants to do is wrong. Back in his present time, Ryan finds changes to history; Doc is more irascible because her husband was "killed in the war". When he returns to the World Penitentiary, Miller was never there at all. Ryan, becoming less and less capable of surviving all these time jumps, returns to 2025 again. This time, the world is even more different due to Miller’s interference: Ryan's parents were "killed in the war", Doc has been executed for trying to save her husband and O'Rourke sports an eyepatch and has never heard of Hitler.

However, Ryan is issued with a tracker that enables him to follow Miller by jumping into the wake of his time leaps. He is sent to 1881 and prevents Miller from killing an ancestor named Jason in Springfield, Texas, then chases him to a city in 1929 where he saves a woman named Frances in a Chinese restaurant. Next, in a nightclub in 1988, Ryan is somewhat embarrassed to see his young parents disco dancing and lures Miller away from them. However, Miller shoots Ryan, but the bullet is stopped by the pocket watch that his father bequeathed to him. Returning to his own era, where things are mostly back to normal, he realizes that his father died when Miller tried to kill Ryan himself aged 11. Barely surviving yet another time leap, Ryan goes to the University of Southern California in May 2002.

It turns out that student who disagreed with Josh was a young Brandon Miller. However, Josh tries to stop the older Miller from killing Ryan, but is himself killed by a weapon of Miller’s that induces brain aneurysms. Next, the older Ryan intervenes, threatening to erase Miller’s existence by killing his younger self (who is witnessing all this). The older Miller taunts Ryan by accusing him of hypocritically being willing to change history to suit himself. He provokes him into a climactic fight, watched by the younger Miller, younger Ryan and his mother, and Sasha. When Ryan has Miller at his mercy, he tells the younger Miller that “It doesn’t have to be this way.” Ryan and Miller then disappear, suggesting that the younger Miller perhaps did change his mind. Back in 2025, Ryan’s colleagues who were erased by Miller are back, although Doc still refuses to date Timecops. With another “Time breach in progress” alarm sounding, the film ends.

Cast

• Jason Scott Lee as Ryan Chang
• Thomas Ian Griffith as Brandon Miller
• Mary Page Keller as Doc
• John Beck as O'Rourke
• Tava Smiley as Tyler Jeffers
• Josh Hammond as Michael Travis
• Tricia Barry as Sasha Miller

Reception

Writing in Ain't It Cool News, Scott Foy said, "Honestly, I can't decide whether to recommend the movie or not. I swear there are moments in this movie where you want to laugh and bang your head against the wall out of frustration at the same time." BeyondHollywood.com wrote, "So shut off your brain and enjoy the ride. Timecop 2 is definitely better than the first, even if it still doesn’t make a lick of sense."

External links

• Timecop 2: The Berlin Decision at IMDb
• Timecop 2: The Berlin Decision at Rotten Tomatoes