Recently, the science fiction movie has become as dry and uninspired as the miserable futuristic landscape which serves as its inevitable setting. The Runnning Man, Terminator, and now Freejack all imagine an apocalyptic world which has been reduced, essentially, to a smoldering pile of ashes. Nuclear war and atmospheric decay are all in the cards and are all due to some form of human excess, be it greed or ambition.

So this is the blueprint for today's Hollywood sci-fi flick. And in one sense, Freejack, which follows this now-formulaic pattern for a sci-fi movie, is a victim of bad timing. Nevertheless, looked at by itself it is a still a poorly crafted film.

Freejack tells the story of Alex Furlong (Emilio Estevez), a highly successful race car driver whose nearly perfect life is abruptly cut short in a tragic racing accident. But Furlong doesn't die in 1991. He and the rest of the film are transported to 2009, where bounty hunter Vacendak (Mick Jagger) awaits Furlong's arrival to take his body to its new owner, corporate mega ruler Ian McCandless (Bob Hopkins).

In the year 2009, we find the world in an advanced state of decay, due to nuclear waste, the lack of an ozone layer, and "that ten year depression."

But a funny thing happens on the way to the "spiritual switchboard." Furlong escapes, thereby becoming a "freejack," a body that in its own time would be dead and buried had it not been transported into the future just seconds before actual death.

Sheer Mindlessness

The rest of the movie is essentially a series of fairly mindless chase scenes.

In the most inane of this sequence of chases, Vacendak and Furlong, hunter and hunted, at last come face to face. Does Furlong seize the opportunity to kill his nemesis? Does Vacendak put an end to the chase and take the "freejack" captive? No, of course not. Plot developments such as these would have actually made sense. Instead, in an act of reciprocal mercy, Vacendak decides to let the freejack go for now and, giving Furlong a five minute headstart, begins counting "One Mississippi, Two Mississippi..."

Freejack redeems itself in the end with its intricate and somewhat psychedelic computerized journey into the minds of Furlong and McCandless during the bodily transplant.

But the film ultimately fails as a futuristic action thriller. Screenwriters Steven Pressfield and Ronald Shusett reduce the already questionable acting talents of Jagger to absurdity, effectively limiting his character to such foolish statements as "Okay, let's do it," and "Get the meat."

Emilio Estevez's performance as the hero of Freejack also deserves a considerable share of the blame for the film's failure. The cockiness and wide-eyed apprehension of Estevez undermine any sympathy the audience might feel for the "freejack."

One of the larger questions raised by Freejack is why Anthony Hopkins, fresh off his acclaimed performance as Hannibal Lecter in Silence of the Lambs, linked himself with the artless pulp of this film.

'Fairly mindless chase scence'

Freejack Directed by Geoff Murphy Starring Emilio Estevez, Mick Jagger & Rene Russo A Morgan Creek Picture