Jumper
Entry updated 29 June 2026. Tagged: Film.
US film (2008). 20th Century Fox. Directed by Doug Lyman. Written by David S Goyer, Simon Kinberg, and Jim Uhis, based on the novel Jumper (1992) by Steven Gould. Cast includes Jamie Bell, Rachel Bilson, Hayden Christensen, Ryan Grantham, Samuel L Jackson, Diane Lane, AnnaSophia Robb, Michael Rooker, and Max Thieriot. 88 minutes. Colour.
Young David Rice (Grantham, later Christensen) discovers that he has the power to escape from his abusive father (Rooker) and unhappy life by instantly Teleporting to other locations; he uses this newfound power to rob banks and hence live comfortably while spending time with his girlfriend Millie (Robb, later Bilson). But he has an unsettling confrontation with a man named Roland (Jackson), a member of a secret group of fanatics called Paladins dedicated to tracking down and killing all Jumpers because they are somehow violating God's law. Rice also encounters another Jumper, Griffin (Bell), who becomes an erratic ally. The complicated story then involves Rice, Griffin, and Millie dealing with one attack after another by the Paladins; at times, Rice is assisted by his mother (Lane), ultimately revealed to be a Paladin herself but nevertheless naturally inclined to protect her son. The film ends with Roland temporarily sidelined, though the dangerous Paladins remain a threat, obviously laying the groundwork for a sequel that never materialized.
Gould's novel was basically a wish-fulfilment Fantasy about a young man who employs his newly discovered ability to teleport to any place he has previously visited to have a more pleasant life and establish a relationship with a girlfriend; he has to deal with suspicious authorities and other minor problems, but his life is otherwise placid and enjoyable. Understandably, the novel was a success and led to three sequels. However, there have been no sequels to this film, which was a box-office disappointment, for obvious reasons. For, dedicated to the contemporary notion that all successful films require constant and preferably violent conflict, the screenwriters invented the Paladins, dedicated to killing all Jumpers, providing recurring opportunities for action-packed sequences. (One suspects that the capable screenwriter David S Goyer produced a reasonably accurate rendition of the novel that was butchered by the two other credited screenwriters.) Thus, while the novel's Rice had a delightful life as a Jumper, the film's Rice has to endure a nightmarish existence of constant fear and the need to struggle to survive. One also notes that it now seems we live in a society obsessed with hate, so Hollywood always feels obliged to include characters for audiences to hate, even though this was never a recurring feature of successful films in the past, and even though the existence of the Paladins and their hatred of Jumpers make no sense whatsoever. Thus, Jumper is a film that enchants no one and entertains no one, as audiences have seen innumerable similar stories of good guys battling against bad guys. [GW]
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