Well, I decided I needed to write more, and I haven’t really found a time to do it. Keeping up work, podcasting, and several “real life” things during the quarantine have kept me pretty busy. However, I still have that urge to write more on the blog. So when Charlton Hero gave me the opportunity to join the latest round of Super Blog Team-Up, I thought that this was a perfect chance to do that. And the topic of expanded universes in pop culture was a perfect fit for me.
So let’s talk about Jumper.
Back in 2008, a movie named Jumper was released. It starred Hayden Christensen from the Star Wars prequels, Jaime Bell, Rachel Bilson, and Sam Jackson (also from the Star Wars prequels). It looked like a fun, big budget, high octane, genre movie. It’s about a kid, Davey Rice, that learns he has the ability to teleport. And he also learns that there are others like him and a shadowy government agency is out to control them, and their ability, for themselves.
The movie is…pretty good. There’s lots of interesting ideas throughout. I love the idea of teleporters. And Davey discovers this whole group of people who can teleport just like him, and then also discovering Sam Jackson’s character and his agency are after him. Ruthelssly. No holds barred. I like that. But the movie isn’t as good as the sum of the parts. Christensen isn’t great as Davey. He’s a bit like Anakin Skywalker in Episode II, rather whiny. I like Rachel Bilson, but she isn’t really given a lot to do. Jamie Bell is awesome as Griffin who introduces us to the wider world of Jumpers and their battle against Sam Jackson’s Paladins. This movie, for the most part, sets up a cool world that I would have liked to have seen continued. But it went no further than this despite rumors that they are trying to start up a TV show featuring Jamie Bell returning as his Griffin character.
But I’ll admit, I’ve always been a sucker for teleportation as a power. I was always a big fan of Nightcrawler. There were several DC Comics villains that could teleport or “warp”. I just thought it was a great power and not utilized enough. In fact, if you ask me today what super power I’d like to have, I would say teleportation or “warping” powers. Imagine rolling out of bed, showering and “popping” into work 5 seconds later? Or, time to drive the kids to the grandparents’ house 5 and a half hours away? Ok kids, grab your suitcases, think about Gramps’ house. BAMF. We’re there. No yelling in the car. No “are we there yet”s. None of that goddam nonsense. Ok, see you in a week, kids. BAMF.
Anyway, after seeing the movie, I did a little research into the story. I discovered that it was based on a book. A book about a kid that can teleport. Needless to say, I was intrigued. That book was from 1992 and it’s called Jumper by Steven Gould.
So a few months later I picked up a used copy of the book and started reading. And clearly I didn’t research the story enough, because the whole time I was reading it, I was waiting for Sam Jackson’s Roland character or Jamie Bell’s Griffin character to make an appearance. I had no idea that the movie was rewritten to be so different from the book. None of the movie characters show up and, as a matter of fact, the entire concept in the movie of Paladins, and legions of people with the ability to jump, and this huge war going on between them is not even mentioned. The movie created a whole alternate universe for Jumper that essentially just shares the characters of Davey and Millie and that’s about it.
The book’s story focuses on Davey and Millie, and their relationship, as well as Davey’s strained relationship with his father and mother. The entire story is more intimate and, honestly, works a bit better in many respects. In the book, Millie is a girl he meets at a party, not his elementary school crush. Davey is the only person in the book we ever see that can teleport. And the government is, in fact, after Davey, but it’s the NSA, not some shadowy government branch with agents called Paladins. Also, it’s more clear in the book that Davey is supposed to be very immature and whiny due to his poor relationship with his family, and the fact that he’s been on his own since he was 14 or 15. Which somewhat explains Hayden’s whiny performance in the movie. Also the ability to jump is explored more, which is nice. But it’s not explained how it really works. The reader is learning about jumping as Davey learns about it. We see him test out his powers. Learn how they work. And how they don’t work. The book is also really good about exploring many issues not apparent in the movie version. It explores a little more realistically about Davey and his responsibility to use his power and not let it be abused. And there’s some extra stuff about his mother that is really explored in the book that is only touched on in the movie. So while I enjoyed the movie, it was technically a terrible adaptation of the book. The stories are completely different.
Then, I discovered, that in 2004, Gould wrote a sequel to Jumper called Reflex.
It’s obviously a sequel to Gould’s novel and not the movie as it was published a few years before the movie was released. It makes the odd choice of jumping 10 years in the future after the first book. At this time, Davey, who is now working for the NSA as an agent, is finally captured by a secret criminal organization and is tortured and conditioned into working for them. Millie must work with the government to save him. I really do recommend reading both Jumper books, even if you didn’t like the movie (but especially if you did). What happens to Davey in this book, how the criminal mastermind tortures him and “conditions” him to obey his commands is terrifying. Millie gets a lot to do because it’s up to her to save Davey. You could almost see how this story could be modified to be a sequel to the movie Jumper. Just change the shadowy criminal organization to Sam Jackson’s Paladins and you’re set. You’d have to omit the part where Davey is actually working for the government, but maybe not, maybe there’s a rogue element in the government allowing it to happen. Speaking of, in the beginning of this book we learn that Davey did ultimately agree to start working for the government. When we get to the beginning of this book, which is, like I said, 10 years later, we see he’s about to get out of it. I’m surprised we haven’t gotten any stories from Gould about the 10 years Davey spent as an agent for the government. I bet there are some really good stories you could do with Davey as a teleporting secret agent. That could have been a lot of fun.
So, at the time of the movie’s release, we had two Jumper books by Steven Gould to support the movie. There wasn’t a separate novelization of the movie, which honestly would have made sense to do because the movie is just so different from the original novel. No, instead, to confuse everybody, they just rereleased both Gould Jumper novels with brand new movie poster covers. And, along with the rereleases, instead of a new novelization, Gould wrote a new Jumper book. It was called Jumper: Griffin’s Story.
And again, to completely confuse everyone, this book is written as a prequel to the movie. So now, with the movie release, we have two Jumper books by Steven Gould that honestly have *nothing* to do with the movie except a cover with the movie poster. And also a new Jumper book, written by Steven Gould, and also with a movie poster cover, that has nothing to do with the original novels. Complete madness, guys.
As the title suggests, this book tells us the story of the Griffin character before the events in the movie. Honestly, it’s a pretty good book. The only character from the movie other than Griffin to show up is Sam Jackson’s Roland, but that was only briefly. I was also hoping that towards the end of the book we’d see an appearance or cameo by Davey. However, in an odd decision, the book ends years before the movie is supposed to begin. So it doesn’t really connect to the movie at all.
After this book and the movie was released, not much really happened with the Jumper universes. No new movie ever happened and no new books were released. Nothing, that is until 2013 when Gould released Impulse, followed by Exo in 2014.
These two sequels jump ahead a few more years and focus on Davey and Millie and their daughter “Cent” (actually, Millicent, like her mother). It continues on in the same novel universe as before. Impulse is actually really good. I was concerned when I realized it was going to focus on the daughter going to school and her parents being all paranoid and weird, because I wanted to hear more about Davey and Millie. However, the way it builds on how they live. Totally off the grid. They teleport to several places on Earth. Davey is paranoid for a reason. Almost to a fault. All Cent wants is to go to high school like a normal person. I really enjoyed it. Exo is currently the most recent sequel. It’s…okay. It jumps a few more years. Cent is much older now. There’s a WHOLE LOT more experimentation in this book with the ability to teleport. Like, they really try to break down how it works what with the air pressure differences and the differences in elevation between two supposed jump sites. It’s almost a bit too much.
There was also a prequel comic book that was released around the time of the movie. It was called Jumper: Jumpscars. It followed Davey’s mother before the events of the movie. That’s the one thing with Jumper that I haven’t read yet. It’s become kind of hard to find for a good price. No one I guess bought it when it came out. It’s not even on Comixology.
So, as a stand alone movie, Jumper is good. When compared with the source material, it is a very bad adaptation. However, since the movie makers made an interesting enough story, I’d say it balances out to a win. I mean, the movie got me to read the entire Jumper series by Gould, so it must have had something there.
Check out some of the other awesome entries in this Super Blog Team Up Expanded Universe series:
Michael May: Treasure Island Universe
Super-Hero Satellite: M.A.S.K.: The Road To Revolution.
Between The Pages Blog: Fantastic Forgotten Star Wars Characters
Comics Comics Comics: The Further Adventures of Indiana Jones
The Source Material Comics Podcast: TMNT/Ghostbusters
DC In The 80s: The TSR Universe
Pop Culture Retrorama: The Phantom Universe
Cavalcade of Awesome 