Jason X

Jason X[lower-alpha 1] is a 2001 American science fiction slasher film directed by Jim Isaac, written by Todd Farmer and starring Lexa Doig, Lisa Ryder, Chuck Campbell and Kane Hodder in his fourth and final appearance as Jason Voorhees. It is the tenth installment in the Friday the 13th film series. It introduces a futuristic, cyborg version of the character, referred to in the script and press materials as "Uber Jason."

Jason X
Theatrical release poster
Directed byJim Isaac
Produced byNoel Cunningham
Written byTodd Farmer
Based onCharacters
by Victor Miller
StarringKane Hodder
Music byHarry Manfredini
CinematographyDerick V. Underschultz
Edited byDavid Handman
Production
companies
Distributed byNew Line Cinema
Release date
  • November 2001 (2001-11) (Spain)
  • April 26, 2002 (2002-04-26) (United States)
Running time
92 minutes
CountryUnited States[1]
LanguageEnglish
Budget$11–$14 million[2][3]
Box office$16.9 million[2]

Conceived by Todd Farmer as the only pitch he gave to the studio, suggesting sending Jason into space as a means to advance the film series.[4]

Jason X was theatrically released in the U.S. on April 26, 2002, grossing $17 million on a budget of $11–14 million and received negative reviews from critics. It is followed by Freddy vs. Jason, a crossover with the A Nightmare on Elm Street film series.

Plot

In the year 2010, Jason Voorhees (Kane Hodder) is captured by the United States government and held at the Crystal Lake Research Facility. Since attempts to kill Jason repeatedly fail, government scientist Rowan LaFontaine (Lexa Doig) wants to put him in cryogenic stasis. Dr. Wimmer (David Cronenberg) and Sergeant Marcus (Markus Parilo) arrive with soldiers, hoping to further research Jason's ability to heal and revive after lethal wounds, believing it involves rapid cellular regeneration that can be replicated. Jason breaks free of his restraints then kills the soldiers and Wimmer. Rowan lures Jason into a cryogenic pod and activates it, but he ruptures the pod with his machete, stabbing her in the abdomen. Cryogenic fluid spills into the sealed room, freezing them both.

445 years later (2455), Earth has become too polluted to support life and humans have moved to a new planet, Earth Two. Professor Braithwaite Lowe (Jonathan Potts) and his android companion KM-14 (Lisa Ryder) are aboard the spaceship the Grendel with Lowe's intern Adrienne Thomas (Kristi Angus) and his students: Tsunaron (Chuck Campbell), Janessa (Melyssa Ade), Azrael (Dov Tiefenbach), Kinsa (Melody Johnson), Waylander (Derwin Jordan), and Stoney (Yani Gellman). On a field trip, they explore the Crystal Lake facility and find the still-frozen Jason and Rowan. Bringing them aboard, they revive Rowan while leaving Jason in the morgue, believing him dead.

Adrienne Thomas is ordered to dissect Jason's body but Rowan warns that they are in danger, explaining Jason's identity. Lowe, who is in serious debt, calls his financial backer Dieter Perez (Robert A. Silverman) on a nearby space station Solaris. Perez recognizes Jason's name and notes his body could interest a collector.

While Stoney and Kinsa are having sex, Jason thaws out and attacks Adrienne, then freezes her face with liquid nitrogen before smashing her head to pieces on a counter. Jason takes a machete-shaped surgical tool and makes his way through the ship, killing Stoney in front of Kinsa. Sergeant Brodski (Peter Mensah) leads a group of soldiers to attack Jason. Meanwhile, Jason interrupts a projected holographic game, breaking Azrael's back and bashing in Dallas's skull. He tries to attack Crutch, but Brodski and his soldiers arrive. After Brodski splits up his team, Jason kills them one by one.

Lowe orders Pilot Lou (Boyd Banks) to dock at Solaris. Jason hacks Lou apart and the ship crashes through Solaris, destroying it while killing Dieter Perez and everyone else on the station. Jason breaks into the lab, reclaims his machete and decapitates Lowe. With the Grendel badly damaged, the remaining survivors head for a functional shuttle, while Tsunaron upgrades KM-14. Crutch (Philip Williams) is electrocuted to death by Jason. Realizing Crutch is dead, Kinsa has a panic attack and launches the shuttle, deciding to save herself and leave the others behind. She forgets to release the fuel line, causing the ship to crash into the ship's hull and explode, killing her. Tsunaron reappears with an upgraded KM-14 who wields a new array of weapons and combat skills. KM-14 fights Jason, blasting off his right arm, left leg, right ribs, and part of his head. The rest of Jason's seemingly dead body is knocked into a nanite-equipped medical station. The survivors send a distress call and receive a reply from a patrol shuttle, then set explosive charges to separate the ship's undamaged pontoon from the main section.

The medical station nanites rebuild and revive Jason as a cyborg (referred to in the script and press materials as "Uber Jason"). With new strength, Uber Jason easily defeats KM-14 by punching her head off. As Tsunaron recovers her still-functioning head, Jason is stopped by Waylander, who sacrifices himself by setting off the charges while the others escape. Jason survives and punches a hole through the hull, causing Janessa to die in the vacuum. A power failure with the docking door forces Brodski to go outside in an EVA suit to fix it.

To distract Jason, a hard light holographic simulation of Crystal Lake is created with two virtual teenage girls. After attacking them, Jason realizes the deception just as the door is fixed. Still in his EVA suit, Brodski confronts Jason so the rest can escape. As they leave, the pontoon explodes, propelling Jason at high speed towards the survivors; Brodski intercepts Jason's space flight and maneuvers them both towards the atmosphere of Earth Two. Caught in the planet's gravity, they both incinerate on atmospheric entry while Tsunaron, Rowan, and KM-14 escape successfully. Tsunaron assures KM-14 she will have a new body.

On Earth Two, a pair of teenagers are by a lake when they see what they believe is a falling star; it is actually Jason's charred mask, seemingly all that is left of him after re-entry. It sinks to the bottom of the lake and the teenagers go to investigate.

Cast
Main article: List of Friday the 13th characters

Production

Development of Jason X began in the late 1990s while Freddy vs. Jason was still in development hell. With Freddy vs. Jason not moving forward, Jim Isaac and Sean S. Cunningham decided that they wanted another Friday the 13th film made to retain audience interest in the character. The film was conceived by Todd Farmer, who plays "Dallas" in the film, and was the only pitch he gave to the studio for the movie, having suggested sending Jason into space as a means to advance the film series.[4]

The film was filmed during the summer of 1999 in Toronto.[5] The film score was composed and conducted by Harry Manfredini. It was released by Varèse Sarabande on May 14, 2002.[6]

Release

Theatrical

Jason X was released in November 2001 in Spain,[7] and on 26 April 2002 in Los Angeles and New York.[8] A theatrical trailer was released on 9 November 2001.[9][10]

Home media

The film was released on VHS and DVD on October 8, 2002.[11] It was released on Blu-ray in 2013, with all of the films in the Friday the 13th: The Complete Collection set.[12]

Reception

Box office

The film made $13.1 million in the U.S. and $3.8 million internationally for a worldwide gross of $16.9 million, becoming one of the worst-performing films in the series, after Jason Takes Manhattan and Jason Goes to Hell, which made $14.3 million and $15.9 million, respectively.[2]

Critical response

On review aggregator website Rotten Tomatoes the film has an approval rating of 20% based on 106 reviews and an average rating of 3.56/10. The site's critical consensus reads: "Jason goes to the future, but the story is still stuck in the past".[13] On Metacritic the film has a score of 25 out of 100, based on 23 critics, indicating "generally unfavorable reviews".[14] Audiences polled by CinemaScore gave the film an average grade of "C" on an A+ to F scale.[15]

Roger Ebert gave the movie 0.5 stars out of 4, quoting one of the film's lines: "This sucks on so many levels."[16]

However, the film was better received in the United Kingdom, gaining positive reviews from the country's two major film magazines, Total Film[17] and Empire.[18] Empire's review by Kim Newman in particular praised Jason X as "Wittily scripted, smartly directed and well-played by an unfamiliar cast, this is a real treat for all those who have suffered through the story so far."

Despite the initially negative reception from critics, the film has recently seen a retrospective growth in popularity, particularly among younger fans of the series.[19][20] Praise has been directed at the film's ability to poke fun at itself and the film series as a whole, as well as inventive death scenes; Adrienne's death in particular (head frozen in liquid nitrogen, and then shattered against a table) is often singled out as a highlight, and was even tested on an episode of MythBusters in 2009.[21]

Notes
  1. Pronounced as the letter X, not 10

See also

References
  1. "Jason X (2000)". British Film Institute. Retrieved September 28, 2016.
  2. "Jason X (2002)". Box Office Mojo. Retrieved September 28, 2016.
  3. "Friday the 13th Franchise Box Office History - The Numbers". www.the-numbers.com.
  4. Cairns, Bryan. "An Interview with Jason X Writer Todd Farmer". IGN. Retrieved April 7, 2020.
  5. Rowe, Michael (March 2002). "Jason X Kills in Space". Fangoria (210): 44–48 – via Internet Archive.
  6. "Jason X (Original Motion Picture Soundtrack)". AllMusic. June 11, 2018.
  7. Grove, David (February 2005). Making Friday the 13th: The Legend of Camp Blood. United Kingdom: FAB Press. p. 212. ISBN 1903254310.
  8. "Jason X (2002)". American Film Institute. Retrieved December 6, 2012.
  9. "JASON X Trailer Kicks Arse!!!". Ain't It Cool News. Retrieved June 15, 2018.
  10. "Jason X Trailer". YouTube. Retrieved June 15, 2018.
  11. Kipnnis, Jill (August 24, 2002). "DVD ASAP". Billboard. Vol. 114 no. 34. p. 62.
  12. Harrison, William (September 13, 2013). "Friday the 13th: The Complete Collection (Blu-ray)". DVD Talk. Retrieved September 28, 2016.
  13. "Jason X (2002)". Rotten Tomatoes. Fandango. Retrieved March 27, 2020.
  14. "Jason X Reviews". Metacritic. Retrieved May 3, 2018.
  15. "CinemaScore". cinemascore.com.
  16. Ebert, Roger. "Jason X Movie Review & Film Summary (2002)". Rogerebert.suntimes.com. Retrieved September 28, 2016.
  17. "Jason X review | GamesRadar". Totalfilm.com. September 11, 2014. Retrieved September 28, 2016.
  18. Kim Newman (October 11, 2015). "Jason X Review | Movie - Empire". Empireonline.com. Retrieved September 28, 2016.
  19. "A Look Back at Jason X". bloodydisgusting.com. April 26, 2017. Retrieved August 7, 2017.
  20. "In Defense of Jason X". nerdist.com. October 15, 2016. Retrieved August 7, 2017.
  21. "Shattering Heads". discovery.com. November 4, 2009. Retrieved August 7, 2017.
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