Jumper is a 2008 science fiction film from 20th Century Fox and New Regency Productions based on the 1992 science fiction novel of the same name by Steven Gould. The film is directed by Doug Liman and stars Hayden Christensen, Samuel L. Jackson, Rachel Bilson, Jamie Bell, Max Thieriot, AnnaSophia Robb, and Diane Lane. The film follows a person capable of teleporting to any location as he is chased by a secret group intent on killing him.
The script went through a rewrite prior to filming and the roles for the main characters were changed during production. Jumper was filmed in 20 cities in 14 countries between 2006 and 2007. The film was released on February 14, 2008 and a soundtrack was released on February 19. The film held the first position in its opening weekend with $27.3 million, despite mostly negative reviews. Review aggregator Rotten Tomatoes recorded a 16% approval rating and 35/100 on Metacritic. Several novels were developed as tie-ins to the film along with a video game for the Xbox 360, PlayStation 2, and Wii consoles, named Jumper: Griffin’s Story. The DVD was released on June 10, 2008, and both Christensen and Liman have spoken of one or more sequels.
Plot
15-year-old David Rice gives his crush, Millie, a snow globe, knowing her dreams of traveling someday. A bully, Mark, throws the globe onto the ice near a river. While trying to retrieve it, David falls through the ice and is pulled away by the current. He suddenly finds himself in the local library with drenched clothes. He discovers he can “Jump”, or teleport, disappearing from one place and instantly appearing in another. Unhappy with his life, he runs away and is believed dead by his father (his mother left when he was five).
Eight years later, an adult David (Hayden Christensen) has settled into a life of adventure, spending his days jumping around various continents, doing various sports, and living lavishly using money stolen from banks. After a day of jumping, he is ambushed in his home by Roland Cox (Samuel L. Jackson). Cox tries to trap him with electrical cables, which prevent him from being able to jump. David escapes and returns home to Ann Arbor seeking Millie (Rachel Bilson). He is attacked by Mark and purposely teleports them into a bank vault to get rid of Mark. He leaves him there and returns to Millie, inviting her to travel to Rome. Roland later discovers Mark in police custody and learns David’s identity.
David and Millie visit the Colosseum only to find it closed. David uses his abilities to unlock a door from the inside, telling a skeptical Millie the door was already unlocked. While opening another door, he discovers another Jumper, Griffin (Jamie Bell). Griffin warns him that “Paladins” are coming—religious fanatics who have been tracking down and killing Jumpers from “the beginning.” Several Paladins show up and attack them. Griffin kills one and teleports, taking the body with him. David tries to leave with Millie, but is detained by Italian police and questioned about the death. While waiting for a magistrate to arrive, David’s mother Mary (Diane Lane) appears, gives him the keys to his handcuffs, and tells him he has very little time to leave. David tries to follow her, but she hurries away while he struggles against an Italian policeman. David tells Millie the police let him go and they leave together. Millie, now very suspicious, demands the truth. David declines and puts her on a plane home.
David jumps to Griffin’s lair, asking where to find Roland. Griffin explains that Paladins will kill not only the Jumper, but everyone they love. He has been trying to kill Roland for years, as the Paladins killed his parents when he was a child and have tried to kill him several times. David teleports to his father, finds him bleeding and teleports him to a hospital. He returns to Griffin and convinces him to go with him to the airport to greet Millie. Upon arriving, they realize her flight landed an hour ago. Griffin returns to his lair to get weapons while David searches for Millie. He breaks into her apartment, angering Millie, who tells him to leave. David sees Roland arriving and shows her what he can do. He teleports her back to Griffin’s lair. An irate Griffin explains the Paladins will follow using a machine to keep the wormhole open. The Paladins arrive to the lair, while hiding, David discovers photos of his mother with death threats written by Griffin, as he moves closer, he gets tied to the ceiling. They fight within Griffin’s lair. Griffin attacks the Paladins with a flamethrower and teleports a doubledecker bus to hurl at Roland. Roland is chased back through the portal, but snatches Millie back to her apartment with a cable.
Griffin decides to take a bomb to Millie’s apartment and kill everyone. David refuses, wanting to save Millie. They fight through several locations, and David traps Griffin with power lines. Griffin warns that if he faces the Paladins alone he will be outnumbered. He goes anyway and is quickly trapped by Roland’s electric cables. David cannot escape as he is tied to the apartment (and as Griffin had explained earlier, a Jumper will be killed if he tries to teleport too much weight). David separates the apartment from the rest of the building and teleports it into a river. He then teleports it to the library where he had first jumped as a teen. He teleports a barely conscious Roland to a cave near the top of a cliff and abandons him there, saying “I told you I’m different; could’ve dropped you with the sharks.”
David visits his mother and is stunned when a girl, his half-sister, Sophie (Kristen Stewart), answers the door. Mary tells David she has known he was a Jumper since he was five, when Jumpers make their first Jump. She is a Paladin, and she only had two choices at the time: kill David or leave. She allows him to leave, saying she is giving him a “head start.” He leaves to meet with Millie outside. He asks her where she wants to go. Millie tells him to surprise her and the couple then teleports to an unknown location.
Cast
- Hayden Christensen as David Rice: A young man who discovers the ability to “Jump”, or teleport.
- Max Thieriot as teenage David Rice
- Rachel Bilson as Millie Harris: David’s childhood friend and crush, who later becomes his girlfriend.
- AnnaSophia Robb as teenage Millie Harris
- Samuel L. Jackson as Roland Cox: The leader of the Paladins whose goal is to kill Jumpers.
- Jamie Bell as Griffin: A renegade jumper who tracks down and eliminates Paladins.
- Michael Rooker as William Rice: David’s father.
- Diane Lane as Mary Rice: David’s mother who separated from her son when he was five years old.
- Teddy Dunn as Mark Kobold: David’s childhood bully.
- Jesse James as teenage Mark Kobold
- Kristen Stewart as Sophie (cameo)
Production
Script and storyboards
In November 2005, New Regency Productions hired director Doug Liman to helm the film adaptation of the science fiction novel Jumper by Steven Gould. Screenwriter Jim Uhls was hired to rewrite an adapted screenplay by David S. Goyer.[2] However, Liman desired another rewrite and Simon Kinberg assisted in completing the script.[2] Liman spoke on using the novel for developing the script: “This is 100% Steven Gould’s story, it’s just reinvented as a movie.”[3] In an interview with Steven Gould, he revealed that he approved of the deviations from the novel.[3] Before filming was to begin, the studio announced plans to develop a trilogy based on the novel’s premise.[4]
While other films tend to use only one storyboard artist, Jumper required six artists who each worked on an individual action sequence. The artists were given specific instruction on the rules of the teleportation used in the film, to ensure accuracy in the storyboarding. One artist reflected on the instructions: “I was just thinking, ‘How would a guy that can teleport fight?’ So you were really pushing yourself to try to think of inventive, cool, spectacular ways that you could use this jumping talent that these characters have.”[5]
Casting
In April 2006, actors Tom Sturridge, Teresa Palmer, and Jamie Bell were cast for Jumper with Sturridge in the lead role.[6] The following July, actor Samuel L. Jackson was cast into Jumper as an NSA agent, with producer Simon Kinberg rewriting the original screenplay draft by Goyer. Principal photography was scheduled to take place in Tokyo, Rome, Toronto, and New York.[7] Production was stopped in June 2006 after producer Tom Rothman told Liman “The lead is 18. Wouldn’t the movie be better if he was 25? You have a huge movie here and adults won’t go and see an 18-year-old. They’ll consider it a children’s movie. You could make a bigger movie than that.”[8] Liman agreed on casting older actors for furthering the romantic aspect of the film.[9] In August, actor Hayden Christensen replaced Sturridge in the lead role as David just two weeks before the beginning of shooting, as the studio “became concerned about not having a more prominent actor in their trio of young stars.”[10] Rapper Eminem was also considered for the role.[11] After Christensen was recast for the lead role, Liman replaced Palmer with Rachel Bilson.[8]
Filming
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In September 2006, Jumper was filmed at various locations in Peterborough, Ontario and principal photography began in Toronto in October.[2][12][13] In December 2006, Liman negotiated with the Rome Film Commission for rare access to film for three days in the Colosseum. The scene in the Colosseum was originally written for the Pantheon, at which exterior shots were also filmed. The crew was required to keep equipment off the ground by using harnesses and had to rely on natural light for filming.[14] Filming took place for 45 minutes in the morning and in the evening so as not to disturb the public touring the amphitheater throughout the day.[15] In order to maximize the short period for filming, four steadicams were set up to ensure time was not wasted in reloading the camera.[8] A visual effects supervisor explained how visual effects were needed for various aspects after filming: “There were three kinds of shots: there were shots where they were able to get most of what they needed in the Coliseum itself; and then there were shots on a set that needed extensions beyond the limits of the set; and then there were shots where we needed to create the Coliseum basically from scratch.”[16]
After filming in Rome, scenes were filmed in Toronto during December 2006 to January 2007 and wrapped at the Canadian location on January 19. On January 26 in Toronto, 56-year-old David Ritchie, a set dresser, was fatally struck by frozen debris while dismantling an outdoor set in wintry conditions.[2][17] Another worker was injured and was sent to a hospital with serious head and shoulder injuries.[18] After Toronto, the cast and crew traveled to Tokyo to film scenes. One scene required over 30 shoots as the scene could only be filmed in between traffic light changes.[8] As a result of director Liman insisting Christensen perform his own stunts, the actor injured his hand, split open his ear, and developed a hyperdilated pupil that required hospital care while filming various scenes.[9][19]
In February 2007, the next filming site was set up at Gallup Park in Ann Arbor, Michigan. Sixty students from the nearby Huron High School were cast as extras for the film.[20] Since additional filming was required of the area, twenty other students were used for a day of filming in September.[21] Altogether, filming took place in 20 cities in 14 countries.[22]
In interviews that followed the release of film (as well as some of the featurettes on the DVD), Jamie Bell was critical of the finished product, stating that he felt it had become “sugar coated” and too many people had worked on it in order to make it a money-spinner. He also described his frustration whilst they were shooting the film.[23]
