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Based on the Silver Dollar City rollercoaster of the same name, the Time Traveler is a pulpy, steampunk adventure through time where a clockmaker from the 1800s and his family from the 1950s get trapped in the nexus point where all time exists at once. Here they must survive in this strange world while finding a way home in this Journey to the Center of the Earth inspired story. They'll come up against dinosaurs, robots, and trap filled temples! They may even run into alternate versions of the clockmaker, but will they be friend or foe?
Directed by Taika Waititi
While his stock in Hollywood has definitely dropped over the years, Taika Waititi has several incredible films to his name and excels at taking quirky characters in crazy circumstances and giving them enough heart/depth to not just feel like jokes. Beyond the obvious big hits like Ragnarok and Jojo Rabbit showing that strength, part of how he got the role as director for this project was his talent with unconventional family dynamics in Hunt for the Wilderpeople. A more mid-scale genre film adventure with less studio pressure like The Time Traveler is exactly what he needs to shake off that Love & Thunder funk.
Also Starring...
Stephen Root as Charles Henry, the Clockmaker. An eccentric inventor from the late 1800s who dreamed of using time travel to better the world through scientific progress. He finds himself accidentally transported to the 1950s. Then when trying to get back, he runs into his descendants and gets himself, his great-great-grandaughter, and his great-great-great-granddaughter trapped in a lost world outside of time. He always exclaims "Dream big, do good" as his mantra, but he's really only good at the first half. Through the story he'll learn that he needs to be able to see what is right in front of him instead of always looking towards the future so he can actually "do good!"
If I (Pi on My Cake) started naming iconic characters played by or voiced by Stephen Root, we would be here all day! One of the most iconic and prolific character actors ever. It is his recent roles in Barry and Widow's Bay that got him cast as the Clockmaker though. They show that he can perfectly balance crazy, wacky, goofy comedy with enough heart and pathos to keep his characters feeling grounded no matter how silly they get. No one better to play the eccentric scientist out of time!
Tessa Thompson as Emma, his Great Great Granddaughter. She has always been told stories of her eccentric ancestor, The Clockmaker. Hearing how his head was in the clouds and he always tried too hard to fix everything without ever being present enough to take care of anything. Before eventually he just disappeared leaving his daughter Emmaline behind. This has turned her into a very practical, serious person wanting to be nothing like the Clockmaker. Someone cynical with trust issues. When some strange man shows up claiming to be Charles Henry, she absolutely does not believe him for a second. Of course, whether by accident or by fate, she winds up lost in time with him, proving his story. She'll learn to trust again and to "dream big!"
Perhaps best known as Valkyrie from Thor Ragnarok, Thompson has a history working with Waititi as well as experience in over the top adventure films. She excels at playing jaded, sarcastic characters with hearts of gold underneath making her the perfect fit for Emma and a perfect foil for Root's more over the top character acting.
Leah Sava Jeffries as Susie, Emma's daughter. She is a high schooler finding her own way in the world. She finds herself dreaming of becoming a scientist to help the world become a better place, but her mother, Emma, seems reluctant to support that dream. Especially after Susie's father passed away leaving them with less support. Between the way the Clockmaker abandoned their family due to his pursuit of science (as far as they know at the start of the film) and the reality of being a young woman who isn't white in the 50 (which is not giving much focus as the movie is a fun adventure, but it is at least mentioned as another obstacle that makes Emma pessimistic about Susie's dreams). When she meets a crazy man who claims to be her ancestor lost in time, she is instantly entranced by this walking embodiment of all she wants to be! Though as the film goes on she realizes that she needs to balance her mother's more practical advice/care with her head in the cloud ambitions. "Dream big, do good" is the mantra. Susie is the one that best exemplifies that balance and learns to do both.
Leah Sava Jeffries is best known for playing Annabeth in the Disney+ Percy Jackson series. She shows a lot of promise there and while Annabeth (and the series as a whole) is played rather seriously, she has enough moments that shine through to make me think she could keep up with the more over the top, fun tone of Time Traveler. Especially when paired up with a director like Waititi who can really help actors shine and has experience with child/teen actors.
Act One
We start the movie with a typical day following Susie. A senior in high school in the 1950s trying to find her way in the world and attempting to join the Society for Future Engineers at school with her simple robot (inspired by Otto Matrix, a real life students robotic project from the 1950s) (the robot is voiced by Waititi as a cameo). It doesn't quite work and she gets bullied for it. The other kids say she'll never be an engineer and throw in some sexist jabs to really kick her while she's down. She throws the malfunctioning robot in the dumpster. Her mother, Emma, picks her up from school and recommends that she focus on more practical matters. Emma tries to be helpful with this advice, but instead this feels to Susie as just another person telling her she'll never be able to be a scientist.
This character drama gets interrupted when Susie notices a strange man in an 1800s steampunk outfit digging her robot out of the trash. Susie chases after the man and the Emma chases Susie. Eventually they find the man and he claims to be their Great-great-great-grandfather Charles Henry! The Clockmaker who supposedly abandoned his family in pursuit of science, but was actually just propelled forward in time by his invention. He's trying to get back, but is having trouble recreating the experiment.
Emma wants nothing to do with this crazy man, but Susie sneaks out to help him. We get a series of fish out of water bits about Charles adjusting to the 50s as Susie and Charles bond. Eventually they make it to the Historical Society Museum where The Clockmaker's old equipment is on display. Emma realizes Susie snuck out, tracks her down and finds then at the museum. An accident happens as Emma is trying to get Susie to leave which causes the Time Machine (a machine that looks suspiciously like the ride vehicle) to activate taking all three of them to a world outside of time!
Act Two
Welcome to the Nexus. A world comprised of timeless wonders from across several eras. Each a fragmented remain of a timeline broken and abandoned by a time traveler. This strange world is the main setting for the film as the family must work together to survive this wondrous and terrifying world!
Set pieces such as a dinosaur chase, a booby trapped filled pyramid, and an angry robot (also voiced by Waititi as a more Terminator inspired version of the robot from earlier) fill out this act. Along the way, the family bonds. Charles realizes he needs to be more present and concerned with others not just the vague idea of progress at any cost. Emma learns that it is ok to let herself be vulnerable, take risks, and imagine a better tomorrow. And Susie learns to find the balance between the grandfather she dreams of being like and the mother she resents but really is just trying to keep her from getting lost in a fantasy.
A favorite set piece in Act Two will be a twisted mansion from the 1850s inspired by the Grandfather's Mansion fun house attraction from Silver Dollar City. The M.C. Escher style log cabin will be a fun place for characters to try to escape while gravity seems to change random and logic is thrown out the window. The cabin is not just a fun challenge for them to overcome (with the time crunch of the robot still pursuing them), but also the setting for the big argument. They're dynamic is thrown out of wack with the cabin serving as a the visual metaphor for the uneasiness in their relationships.
Susie has an idea to save them, but Emma keeps shutting down everything she suggests. Emma is trying to be a good mom and trying to instill a practical mind and common sense in her daughter because she worries about her. But Susie feels stifled. She doesn't feel cared for she feels coddled. Susie has big dreams, but it feels like her mother has never supported her. Susie escapes the cabin first and runs off. Emma runs off after her. Charles is frustrated because he feels they are so close to their vague goal of a crashed time machine they saw in the distance that might be able to get them home. He feels like their petty personal problems are getting in the way of accomplishing their goals because he still struggles to see beyond his dreams. He is going to chase after them, but then he sees... himself?
He follows his doppelganger out of the cabin in an entirely different direction...
Act Three
The Alternate Clockmaker tells Charles what is going on.
See, many versions of the Clockmaker have accomplished time travel at various points in their lives. Nearly all of them wind up here. Time Travel can't be done when you carry paradoxes with you. Whether these be as small as dirt trapped in the sole of your shoe or as big as the people you travel with. Travel backwards in time with any paradox of any size and the universe itself rejects you and traps you here in the nexus. In order to return home to your original time, you must return with nothing from the future or else you will destroy the past.
Eventually, this alternate version of Charles decided he would simply stay here in the nexus of anomalies and make a home outside of time so he can help lost time travelers to go home. Their scientific advancements and what they can do with them are too important to risk being lost here!
In order to create a new tomorrow, this alternate clockmaker has volunteered to have no tomorrow.
At first Charles is amazed at all of this and excited about the possibilities of being able to perfect time travel with what he has learned here. But then he realizes what creating a new tomorrow means. It means erasing the tomorrow that was created when he was lost in time initially. It means that Emma and Susie might never exist.
More than that, in order to travel home it would mean they would need to die as they are paradoxes. Pieces of the future he accidentally tried to bring to the past. Now he is stuck in the nexus as long as they live.
Charles refuses to kill them. He refuses to erase their timeline. He is willing to sacrifice his dreams and his home to save them! But Alternate Charles says that he can't let him do that. He reveals that he has been controlling the robot the whole time!
Charles fights his alternate self before swooping down to save his family! Emma proves she believes in Susie by letting Susie try to reprogram the robot! Susie proves that she has learned from her mom by being willing to destroy the robot instead of attempting to study it or bring it home! The family is reunited and
Charles explains what happened.
He no longer has a home to go back to since returning to the 1800s would erase their timeline. But Emma and Susie says he does still have a home and he does still have a family.
So, the three return to the 1950s and make a new life together!
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