moviefreak

Saw this movie on TV the other day. Never saw this movie before in my life, so I didn’t know what to expect. This sci-fi/mystery movie is based on a novella. Well, this sci-fi has an intriguing plot that even though I was SO sleepy already when I watched it, it kept me awake until the end. But since I’ve seen many other more modern sci-fi movies, this one is not too special. Maybe if I had seen it in 1992, it would have felt more special he he…Anyway, I’ll give this movie a 6.7 stars out of 10.

P.S. It was released in video as “Grand Tour: Disaster in Time”.

The Story:

Ben Wilson (Jeff Daniels) lives with her daughter Hilary Wilson (Ariana Richards). He’s been having trouble with his life since the death of his wife. He felt guilty about his wife’s death, so he turned to drinking for a while, though now he’s ready to start a new life with Hilary. Together they are going to open an inn in an old house. While preparing the house, a strange woman barges into the house. Her name is Madame Iovine (Marilyn Lightstone). She comes with a group of people in a bus. She insists on staying in the inn even though it’s not really ready yet to accept guests.

She says she’s ready to pay no matter how much Ben asks for. So Ben accepts the offer. There are 5 empty rooms in the house other than the rooms for Ben and Hilary themselves, so the guests sleep in the 5 empty rooms. They act weirdly ever since the beginning and this makes Ben wary of them.

After some time, Ben realizes that all the guests come from the future, but he doesn’t know why they are in the past yet. However, one of them warns Ben to get out of the city before tomorrow. Trouble comes when Ben picks up Hilary at school and then the school teacher says that Hilary’s grandpa, Judge Caldwell (George Murdock), has picked her up and taken her home.

Judge Caldwell never liked Ben ever since his daughter’s death. He blamed Ben for being a coward who left his daughter behind after that car accident. Being a judge, he has asked another judge’s help to give Ben a court order, stating that he is an unfit father, so Hilary will be under his care from now on. 

Before he tries to get Hilary out of the judge’s house, a meteorite hits the city. It kills many people, leaving devastation everywhere. Many houses are in ruins and everybody who’s still alive is confused. The priest of the city ushers everybody to go to the school to be safe. Ben meets Hilary among the ruins of the city and he asks Hilary to follow the priest, since out of the corner of his eyes, he realizes that his inn guests have come to the city and they look very enthusiastic. It seems like a great spectacle for them. 

Then Ben realizes that they have come to witness important events in the past, such as this meteorite crashing to earth. However, they still linger in Ben’s inn, so Ben realizes that there must be some other event that they want to witness. What is the event? Ben follows them and finds out that they are waiting in an old building overlooking the school. So there must be something bad that’s going to happen inside the school. Now Ben is in a panic since Hilary is inside the same school. Will he manage to save Hilary? What will happen to the school?

Spoiler:

Ben doesn’t come to school in time to save Hilary and the others. The guests prepare to leave to go to another event or spectacle in another time. One of them gives Ben a passport and Ben uses it to go back to yesterday ‘coz he wants to save Hilary. He goes back to the past, meets himself in the past (so there are two Bens by now) and then both of them manage to save many people from the meteorite, including Hilary. In the end, they finish redecorating the inn and then he goes back in time to save his wife. The last scene shows Hilary in the inn, hearing her mother playing the piano, so she runs out to meet her.