- MILLENNIUM
- Film (1989). First Millennium Partnership/Gladden Entertainment. Dir Michael Anderson, starring Kris Kristofferson, Cheryl Ladd, Daniel J. Travanti. Screenplay John VARLEY, based on his "Air Raid" (1977). 105 mins. Colour.Commando teams from the future steal people from planes just before they crash, but an investigator becomes suspicious. He is seduced by a woman time-traveller, follows her to a chaotic future (represented by a single set) that is about to collapse in a timequake caused by careless TIME PARADOXES in its past. They escape to a further future. Nowhere isthe reason for the kidnapping explained. Kristofferson acts like a sleepwalker. There is a manipulative ROBOT that looks like the Tin Man from The Wizard of Oz (1939). Michael Anderson's essays in genre directing, including LOGAN'S RUN and DOC SAVAGE: THE MAN OF BRONZE, have been uniformly wooden.Curiously, only Varley's short story is credited as the basis for his screenplay, even though he had turned it into a novel, Millennium (1983), which explains the points this botched film leavesobscure; one can only suppose that his screenplay was cut to ribbons.PN
Science Fiction and Fantasy Encyclopedia. Academic. 2011.