Slipstream (2005 film)
Slipstream is a 2005 science fiction film, written by Louis Morneau and Phillip Badger and directed by David van Eyssen. The film stars Sean Astin, Vinnie Jones, and Ivana Miličević. It was first shown at the London Sci-Fi and Fantasy Film Festival on February 3, 2005. The film concerns the efforts of a socially inept scientist (Sean Astin) and a female FBI agent (Ivana Miličević) to recover a time travel device (called "Slipstream") that was stolen by a group of bank robbers commanded by Vinnie Jones. The film was imagined as part science fiction, part action and part buddy comedy.
| Slipstream | |
|---|---|
 DVD cover | |
| Directed by | David van Eyssen |
| Produced by | David Bixler Frank Hübner Brad Krevoy David Lancaster David Wicht |
| Written by | Louis Morneau Phillip Badger |
| Starring | Sean Astin Vinnie Jones Ivana Miličević Kevin Otto |
| Music by | Rob Lord |
| Cinematography | Sönke Hansen |
| Edited by | Toby Yates |
| Distributed by | Eagle Entertainment Lions Gate Home Entertainment MC-One (Media Cooperation One) GmbH |
Release date |
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Running time | 89 minutes |
| Country | United States |
| Language | English |
Plot
Stuart Conway (Sean Astin) has developed a hand-held, cellphone-like time travel device called 'Slipstream' that allows the user to travel back in time 10 minutes by interfacing with a cellphone system regional antenna. At first, he uses the device primarily to try, albeit unsuccessfully, to arrange a date with a female bank clerk.
The final time he tries to use the device, a group of bank robbers commanded by Winston Briggs (Vinnie Jones) rush into the bank and demand the money from the vault. At the time, FBI agent Sarah Tanner (Ivana Miličević) and her male partner Jake (Kevin Otto) are in the bank tracking Stuart. Tanner initiates a gunfight against Jake's advice. Both agents are armed with pistols, while the criminals are wielding automatic weapons. By the end of the fight, Jake is shot and killed because he chased the criminals outside the bank.
During the fight, Stuart had been shot in the chest by a stray bullet. Before he dies, Stuart takes Sarah and himself back in time to before the bank robbery, and Sarah unsuccessfully tries to foil the heist. Unfortunately, Briggs takes the Slipstream device as a souvenir. Stuart and Sarah realize it's only a matter of time before Briggs and his cronies discover the true potential of the device.
What follows is a high-speed car chase of the criminals, a hijacking of a bus, a highway shootout, and a shootout in and downing of a commercial airliner. Near the end, as a passenger in the falling airplane, Stuart is able to reverse the entire sequence of events because, being airborne, he has access to many cellphone relay systems and therefore is not restricted to the 10-minute limit. Stuart rewinds time to just before the bank robbery, taking Sarah with him, but Briggs grabs on as well and is rewinded too. This time Briggs decides not to rob the bank as he knows what will happen and that all of his men will die and he and his men leave without anyone being the wiser. This time Stuart is able to get a date with the teller by being himself and escapes using the Slipstream device from the bank when he is about to be arrested. Sarah is relieved that her partner is alive again and decides to let Stuart go as she knows he's harmless. The movie ends with Stuart having fun using the Slipstream device.