Trancers 4: Jack of Swords (1994)

"Next mission? Fuck that, I need some time off." - Jack

A "time cop" travels to a different dimension to stop the evil trancers.
Starring: Tim Thomerson, Ty Miller, Stacie Randall, Clabe Hartley, Mark Arnold

Link to IMDB

After loving the original Trancer trilogy, it's finally time to see the next in the series.

Jack Deth is still the charming, gruff bad-ass that we've come to love, and he's still working from the year 2353 as a time traveling cop to protect Earth from the threat of powerful psychic-vampires called trancers.

Equipped with some fancy new gadgets Jack leaves on his next mission, but the time machine malfunctions and he crash lands into a parallel dimension that resembles our medieval Earth. He quickly realizes he's lost, and also discovers that he's stranded in the middle of a major trancer problem.

In this dimension the trancers rule the land like evil nobles, feeding on the energy of the lower class peasants that live as their slaves. Caliban is the wicked leader of the trancers, and he sends his men to capture the stranger that has appeared. Jack's gun is ineffective in this dimension, so it's not long before he gets taken prisoner to Caliban's castle.

Caliban

Not all the humans are resigned to being trancer slaves, as there's a resistance group of warriors called The Tunnel Rats that are always ready to fight back. The Rats have a prophecy that one day a man will come lead them to victory, and since Jack seems to be this foretold man they prepare to rescue him from the castle.
Jack gets help from these resistance fighters, a mysterious woman named Lyra, and even Caliban's own rebellious son. Can our grumpy anti-hero find a way to fulfill the prophecy even though he doesn't believe in all this mystical mumbo-jumbo?

Like most fantasy settings it focuses on a tyrant oppressing the common folk, so there's nothing exactly new here, but it mostly still works as a fun Robin Hood-style adventure. It's not as endearing as the sci-fi noir tone of the original trilogy, but seeing Jack completely out of his element always provides some laughs.

Caliban: "You will not lift a finger to avert your death?"

Jack: "I got your lifted finger right here, pal."

Lyra, and the Tunnel Rats

The movie is fast and short yet it still finds time to squeeze in some dull scenes, often of clunky exposition. The script does have some clever moments and Jack's dialog is as memorable and witty as expected, so that helps it feel like a Trancer movie even though it has an entirely new story line and setting.

It's all unabashedly cheesy, the plot is dirt simple, and there's little connection to the first three movies, but Tim Thomerson holds it all together despite the flaws, and seeing him in that dirty grey trenchcoat again truly made my day.

Be sure not to miss:
- The movie ends with a cliffhanger, but Trancers 5 was filmed at the same time, so I'll be covering that soon.
- Oberon is clearly a fan of The Wizard of Oz.
- The fate of Shark, the android sidekick from the third movie.

Internet review:
"Completely unnecessary but nowhere near as bad as I feared." - anotherfilmnerd

Should I watch it?
Of course, it's Jack Deth!

Where can I find it?
Here on YouTube.

Trancers 4 gets...