Doug Liman’s Jumper has a clean idea at its center: a man who can go anywhere on Earth, and a secret society that wants him dead for it. The 2008 film runs 88 minutes, stars Hayden Christensen as David Rice, and sells itself with one line — “Anywhere is possible.” That promise is the best thing in it.
Trailer, via YouTube Movies.
David Rice Robs the Vaults
The setup lands fast. At 15, David falls into the Huron River and discovers he can teleport, or “jump.” He leaves his abusive father, William, moves to New York City, and robs banks by jumping straight into their vaults.
Eight years on, David lives a luxurious, hedonistic life. Then Samuel L. Jackson’s Roland arrives. Roland leads the Paladins, a religious organization that believes Jumpers are unholy abominations and that only God should hold such power. Roland tracked David from an impossible heist eight years earlier.
The Paladins Hunt Griffin O’Connor
The film’s real charge comes from Jamie Bell as Griffin O’Connor, another Jumper who has been following David since London. Griffin hunts Paladins. He has a desert safehouse and a curt warning about the crusade. Bell is the only performer who seems to enjoy the premise.
The plot does not hold that energy. David charms Rachel Bilson’s Millie into a trip to Rome, sneaks her into the Colosseum, and gets ambushed. A tour guide betrays them, and David is arrested at the police station. Then Diane Lane appears as his mother, Mary, out of the blue.
Two Jumpers, Two Approaches
The film works best when it compares its two leads.
| David Rice | Griffin O’Connor | |
|---|---|---|
| Played by | Hayden Christensen | Jamie Bell |
| Method | Robs vaults, lives large | Tracks and hunts Paladins |
| Attitude | Avoids the war | Fights it |
David runs. Griffin fights. Jumper wants us to notice that difference, and Bell makes it stick.
How Jumper Was Recast
The production history explains the film’s seams.
- April 2006: Tom Sturridge is cast as the lead, with Teresa Palmer and Jamie Bell alongside him.
- July 2006: Samuel L. Jackson joins as Roland Cox, and producer Simon Kinberg rewrites David S. Goyer’s original draft.
- June 2006: Production stops after Tom Rothman tells Liman the lead should be older.
- August 2006: Hayden Christensen replaces Sturridge two weeks before shooting, and Palmer is replaced by Bilson.
Rothman’s argument, as the production record gives it: “The lead is 18. Wouldn’t the movie be better if he were 25?” Liman agreed, and the studio pushed for Eminem. Liman insisted on Christensen.
What the Changes Cost
Jumper grossed $225 million worldwide and drew generally negative reviews, mostly over its changes to Steven Gould’s 1992 novel, a rushed plot, and an anticlimactic ending. Those complaints are fair. The film shot in 20 cities and 14 countries, and it moves like it — Rome, New York, a desert safehouse, no scene given room to breathe.
Here is the part worth watching. Jumper is not a bad premise wasted; it is a good premise rushed. The Paladins’ theology — that Jumpers are abominations and only God should possess such power — is the most interesting thing in the film, and it is delivered in a warning and dropped. Griffin’s war against them is the movie the film keeps almost becoming.
Christensen is a flat center. Bell is the spark. The recasting that made David 25 instead of 18 bought a romance with Millie and cost the story its urgency. At 88 minutes, Jumper feels less like a finished film than a pilot for a better one.
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