Trancers

Trancers
Theatrical release poster
Directed by	Charles Band
Produced by	Charles Band
Written by	Danny Bilson Paul De Meo
Starring	Tim Thomerson Helen Hunt Michael Stefani
Music by	Phil Davies Mark Ryder
Cinematography	Mac Ahlberg
Edited by	Ted Nicolaou
Distributed by	Empire Pictures
Release date	November 7, 1984 (UK) May 22, 1985 (US)
Running time	76 minutes
Country	United States
Language	English

Trancers is a 1984 science fiction film. It was directed by Charles Band and stars Tim Thomerson and Helen Hunt. It is the first film in the Trancers series.

This film portrays a method of time travel: People can travel back in time by injecting themselves with a drug that allows them to take over the body of an ancestor. When Jack Deth arrives in 1985, he is in the body of his ancestor, a journalist; Whistler assumes control of his ancestor, a police detective; and Deth's supervisor, McNulty, borrows the form of his own forebear, a young girl.

Jack Deth (Tim Thomerson) is a police trooper in the year 2247 who has been hunting down Martin Whistler (Michael Stefani), a criminal mastermind who uses a psychic power to turn people into zombies and carry out his orders. Deth can identify a tranced victim by scanning them with a special bracelet. All trancers appear as normal humans at first, but once triggered, they become savage killers with twisted features.

Before he can be caught, Whistler escapes back in time using a drug-induced time travelling technique. Whistler leaves his body in 2247 and travels down his ancestral bloodline arriving in 1985 and taking over the body of an ancestor, who happens to be a Los Angeles police detective named Weisling.

Once Deth discovers what Whistler has done, he destroys Whistler's body – effectively leaving him trapped in the past with no vessel to return to – and chases after him through time the same way. Deth ends up in the body of one of his ancestors; a journalist named Phil Dethton.

With the help of Phil's girlfriend - a punk rock girl named Leena (Helen Hunt) - Deth goes after Whistler, who has begun to "trance" other victims. Whistler plots to eliminate the future governing council members of Angel City (the future name of Los Angeles), who are being systematically wiped out of existence by Whistler's murder spree of their own ancestors. Deth arrives too late to prevent most of the murders and can only safeguard Hap Ashby (Biff Manard), a washed-up former pro baseball player, who is the ancestor of the last surviving council member, Chairman Ashe.