Delving into TIMEQUEST (2000): Another Supplement to 11/22/63: A NOVEL.

 

A time traveler goes back in time to stop the assassination of President John F. Kennedy on 11/22/63.

 

Successful, a new world is born.

 

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I have blogged many times about time travel. Works I have discussed concerning the JFK assassination include 11/22/63: A Novel and A Time to Remember. I even established an occasional series of posts on Old Sins exploring this topic in broad terms. I highly recommend this series.

 

This post will delve into time travel and its impact on the JFK assassination and will be the first (but not last) movie that I examine.

 

So . . . Here we go.

 

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Timequest was a film released in the year 2000,  followed by a 2002 DVD release. The film was directed and written by Robert Dyke with an approximate runtime of 95 minutes. It carries a subtitle of What if JFK had lived? – a truthful description of the entire movie.

This film is a simple and fun ride; toying with a historical what-if. But it also provides an opportunity for a two-for-one. Timequest is a time travel fantasy that focuses almost exclusively on the repercussions of a time traveler imparting a bit of information, thereby colossally altering the past. In addition, this film goes to the heart of the 11/22/63 event and reveals what changing the historicity of the event means to the future.

 

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Story Summary

Timequest is a very in depth story involving multiple time jumps back and forth from 1963. Consequently, it is necessary to summarize the story in some detail so that relevant points and themes can be highlighted. This movie is full of fanciful versions of historical moments and tons of historic name-dropping. Timequest is told in a non-linear fashion making this summary far more detailed and far more necessary than usual.

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• black screen, voice over – “Did today really happen?”

• a baby’s hand touches a static-ey TV

• scene – October 18, 1979 – a prisoner transport bus in the middle of a deserted area gets pulled over and two scary men board.

-the men pull Raymond, a prisoner, off the bus.
-a helicopter lands and Raymond boards.
 
 • scene – November 22, 1963 – JFK is discussing security concerns about an upcoming speech to an aide.
-in her room, Jackie is getting dressed in a pink suit. A light appears behind her. . .
-JFK enters the room and Jackie runs to him crying that she just saw him die. She looks behind her and JFK sees an old man wearing what looks like a heavily modified spacesuit.
-JFK steps out to charm some local dignitaries and returns to the shocking matter at hand.
 
• scene – 3N (National News Network) report
-Breaking News! JFK died at his estate in Massachusetts of natural causes at the age of 83! James, JFK’s youngest son, gives remarks. “His death was peaceful with loved ones at his side.”
-JFK wanted no public funeral, but that his remains be placed at the Lunar Colony named after him.
-video shown of a coffin being buried on the Moon.
 
• scene – Raymond shows his girlfriend a painting he has done of a woman – Jackie!
 
• scene – in sound stage that looks like the Oval Office
-William Roberts (sort of an Oliver Stone kind of guy) is making a scandalous movie about the Kennedys.
 
• scene – November 22, 1963 – continued
-at a military airport, RFK boards a fighter jet to rapidly take him to TX.
-at Daly Plaza, gunmen are behind the Grassy Knoll & Zapruder is getting ready to film.
-RFK gets to JFK in the hotel room and finds out about the Traveler.
 
-Flashback to earlier scene – a light appears behind Jackie . . .
-Traveler arrives and shows Jackie the original timeline with the successful assassination.
 

• scene – RFK interrogates the Traveler and refuses to believe the story. Traveler shows RFK his own assassination in Los Angeles, and then shows him the JFK assassination.
 
• scene – Raymond is with his girlfriend when James Kennedy calls him on the telephone.
 
• scene – November 22, 1963 – continuing with the Traveler and JFK.
-RFK still doubts the Traveler.
-Traveler explains that he is the inventor of time travel. He appeared now because the closer it is to the event, the easier it is to stop the event
-The Traveler erects a privacy field to speak with JFK and RFK.
 
• scene – Oval Office soundstage.

-actor portraying 37^th President RFK
-turns out it was a scene from new movie “RFK” by William Roberts (sort of an Oliver Stone kind of person)
-Roberts says in a TV interview that his new project concerns Nov. 22, 1963, when something strange and hidden occurred.
-he relayed evidence from various sources (including Zapruder) of strange goings-on along JFK’s original motorcade route from that day.
-Roberts also told of how Zapruder was walking along the Grassy Knoll and heard multiple gunshots. He started to film and had his camera seized. That film was sealed away for decades.
 
• scene – November 22, 1963 – continued
-Traveler erected a privacy field around JFK and RFK
-he talks about the character assassination of JFK after his death that would soil his legacy
-The Traveler is giving JFK a second chance.
 
• scene – back to William Roberts interview
-they watch the Zapruder film on air.
-they discuss the secret history of the US.
 
• scene – November 22, 1963 – continued
-the Traveler explains that he has no future. A new timeline will be created and his timeline will disappear. He is still present because the change has not solidified yet. At 12:30pm – when the assassination should have happened – when that time passes and JFK lives, everything will change.
-another version of him will live on.
-he dreamed of Jackie as a boy and shows her a drawing of her he made as a boy
-the Traveler and Jackie share a dance together.
 
• scene – October 9, 1979
-Jackie is feverishly painting a large canvas. RFK is watching.
 
• scene – November 22, 1963 – continued – back to couple dancing.

-as they dance, Jackie is weeping. They stop.
-RFK asks what is to stop another from making a time machine and undoing the changes.
-the Traveler says there is nothing stopping this. It is a sword of Damocles hanging over them.
-RFK reminds them that it is getting close to the time of the assassination.
 
 • scene – November 22, 1963 – Daly Plaza – 12:29pm
-sniper’s nest in School Book Depository
-Zapruder is preparing to film.
 
• scene – November 22, 1963 – continued
-Jackie asks to know the Traveler’s name. He said that it is better that they don’t know.
-RFK hands the Traveler a glass and proposes a toast to the world to come.
-Traveler takes the glass and thanks Jackie for the dance . . . and vanishes!

-the glass shatters.

• scene –
-on Air Force One, JFK and LBJ have a tense discussion.
-RFK mobiles his forces to strike.
-RFK and secret service take down two assassins behind the Grassy Knoll.
-Zapruder catches RFK on his film.
-at the same time in the School Book Depository, a secret service strike team captures Oswald.
-RFK interrogates Oswald. There is some conflict over jurisdiction.
-Ruby tries to kill Oswald but the secret service kills Ruby. Oswald lives!
 
• scene – on Air Force One
-JFK and Jackie remember what the Traveler showed her.
-Jackie wonders “Did today really happen?”

-JFK reminds her that she was the inspiration for the Traveler to do what he did.

 
• scene – news report on Warren Commission Report
-presented to Pres. Kennedy on the activities of the CIA
-JFK signed order to dissolve the CIA
 
• scene – December 3, 1963
-J. Edgar Hoover plays a recording of JFK and Marilyn Monroe to RFK.
-RFK shows images of Hoover in a dress and engaging in homosexual acts.
-RFK tells Hoover that JFK will confess and people will forgive him.
-video tape shows JFK and Jackie confessing on TV
-RFK calls Hoover’s bluff
-Hoover caves, RFK forces him to resign.
 
• scene – January 11,1964
-LBJ argues against ceasing involvement in VietNam.
-JFK gives a graduation speech to class of 64 about going to the Moon.
-he wants it to be a cooperative effort between the US and USSR
-also proposes disarmament to Khrushchev.
 
• scene –
-JFK watches a rocket take off
-a US astronaut and a USSR cosmonaut together plant flags on the Moon.
 
• scene – April 22, 2001 – at Kennedy residence
-Raymond Mead arrives and is met by Janice Kennedy.
-while waiting for James Kennedy to appear, Raymond sees a painting on the wall . . .
 
-Flashback – February 7, 1994
-when he was 31 years old, Raymond held an unsuccessful gallery opening for his paintings.
-A mysterious old, frail woman showed up after closing and purchased a painting.
-the same painting that Raymond sees in the Kennedy residence
 
• scene – January 8, 1964
-RFK and Jackie search for the ID of the Traveler. They know he was born on 11/22/63.
-a piece of the glass that shattered when the Traveler vanished left a fingerprint.
 
• scene – April 22, 2001 – continued at Kennedy residence
-James Kennedy appears, commenting to Janice that Jackie had gotten the eyes right.
 
• scene – August 17, 1964
-Jackie watches JFK playing with his daughter.
-they discuss that because of the Traveler and Oswald, they now know who JFK is up against.
 
• scene – April 9, 1971
-in elementary school, teacher is talking about time dilation
-Raymond, as a student, is there and drawing a picture of Jackie. The same drawing that the Traveler would show Jackie in 1963.
 
• scene – October 8, 1979
-Pres. RFK is talking to Martin Luther King, Jr.
-he is informed that the Traveler has been ID'd at long last via his fingerprints.
 
-Flashback – October 5, 1979 – 3 days previous
-security camera footage shows
-Raymond was arrested for breaking into a shop.
-Raymond’s criminal record contains his fingerprints
 
• scene – October 8, 1979 – continued
-RFK is shown a drawing that Raymond did of Jackie when he was a boy in school.
-Martin Luther King, Jr. is RFK’s Vice Pres.
 
• scene –
-Jackie is painting on a large canvas
-RFK tells her that the Traveler has been found.
 
• scene – Kennedy residence
-James informed Raymond that the Kennedys own many of his paintings.
 
-Flashback – October 18, 1979 – continued from opening scene
-Raymond is taken off a prisoner bus.
-a helicopter lands – inside Raymond meets Pres. RFK.
-they talk and mysteriously RFK thanks Raymond
-RFK then gives him a new life.
 
-in a voice over, Raymond states his record was wiped clean and he was given a lot of cash. He had no idea why.
 
• scene – Kennedy residence – continued
-James shows Raymond around and comes to Jackie’s art room.
-here James wants to tell him the real reason why the Kennedys have looked out for him.
-James in particular owes him everything.
 
-Flashback – nine months after Nov. 22, 1963
-a news report – something has happened involving the Presidential motorcade in Dallas.
-motorcade rushed to Parkland Hospital
-later JFK comes to announce that James was born.
 
• scene – Kennedy residence - continued
-in Jackie’s gallery, James uncovers Jackie’s large painting of the Traveler and shows it to Raymond.
-it is a painting of the Raymond that never was - the Traveler.
 
• scene – a fantasy scene
-in 1963, Jackie and the Traveler shared a dance.
-in this dream-like sequence, the Traveler is superimposed with Raymond who now shares the dance with Jackie.
 
 • scene – August 22, 1964 – nine months after Nov. 22, 1963 – continued
-TV news report – Jackie coming out of hospital with newborn James
-as a baby, Raymond is watching this on TV
-Baby Raymond reaches out and touches the image of Jackie’s face
 

END

 

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A Supplement to 11/22/63: A Novel

 

This blog post is part of an occasional series intended to enhance the reader’s experience of Stephen King’s fantastic work of time travel fiction, 11/22/63: A Novel. Other works with similar themes will be investigated; perhaps discovering potential influences on King. Also explored are subjects tangentially connected to King’s masterwork, such as interviews and other related topics.

 

I began my exploration of time-travel fiction, in a very large part, because I was so impressed, so moved by Stephen King’s 11/22/63: A Novel. King is one of the few authors who, in a novel entirely concerned with the Kennedy Assassination, can make the reader forget about the Kennedy Assassination. And, I have a thing or two left to say concerning that novel in this occasional “A Supplement to 11/22/63: A Novel” series. This blog post is the latest entry in this occasional series intended to enhance the reader’s experience of Stephen King’s fantastic work.

 

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There is an awful lot going on in this movie with many moving parts. The actual incidence of time travel occurred almost right at the start of the film. The remainder of the film detailed the repercussions of that initial time travel.

 

Interesting Asides

•Allow me to begin with a point of clarification concerning the differences between “time travel” stories in general and “time machine” stories in particular, including the confusing degree of ambiguity in the usage of these terms – of which I am certainly guilty.

 

In this Occasional Series, I do not include  tales such as Mark Twain’s A Connecticut Yankee in King Arthur's Court, H. G. Wells The Sleeper Awakes and others like it; for the very simple reason that these tales did not involve a willful act to time travel. Mark Twain’s protagonist gets knocked out and wakes up in Camelot; while Wells’ main character goes to sleep for 200 years and awakens into a new world. There is no conscious or willful act of time travel. It is more like an accident of fate.

 

I am exclusively exploring the “time machine” story in this series. For example, the Time Traveler in H. G. Wells’ The Time Machine has to activate a machine. In King’s 11/22/63: A Novel, Jake has to step through the rabbit hole – a relic device from an unknown and ancient race. Here, willful and deliberate acts utilizing a mechanism are required for time travel – whether built by the time traveler or just used by him.

 

While next to nothing is known of the means of time travel in Timequest, it is most certainly an apparatus invented by the Traveler. Ultimately, this detail is utterly unimportant. The method or means of time travel is just a plot device to get the Traveler to where he needs to be.

 

•The assassination of JFK left a deep scar on the American psyche and led directly into the bloodbath of the Vietnam War. In 11/22/63: A Novel, the impetus for the Protagonist to step through the Rabbit Hole (aka the time travel machine) and save JFK was to stop the Vietnam War. In the novel, in the final instance, this comes to naught. The conflict cannot be stopped. However, in Timequest, the Vietnam War is ended, peace is made, and a new world is born. In the movie, there does not seem to be any kind of “Obdurate Past” at work at all, unlike in Stephen King’s work.

 

11/22/63: A Novel explores the reality of what saving JFK from assassination would mean for the future and the dark world that saving JFK would birth. In the book, the protagonist (i.e. the time traveler) is an outsider who enacts various changes to the timeline. And, once these changes are achieved, he leaves; returning to his own time at nearly the same instant he left. However, in Timequest, in contrast to the book, the Traveler simply relays his message. Following that, he has no more direct involvement in the story . . . sort of. It is the Kennedys themselves who carry out the changes to the timeline after the Traveler’s warning.

 

The central thesis of both 11/22/63: A Novel and Timequest was what would happen if JFK had lived. In 11/22/63: A Novel, JFK’s survival gives birth to a dystopian nightmare. In stark contrast, Timequest presents a very positive and hopeful future born out of JFK’s survival. In a sense, Timequest is a positive and uplifting reflection of the darkness that runs through 11/22/63: A Novel.

 

•In the realm of time travel fiction, Timequest presents a rather significant conundrum. Is what goes on in Timequest a violation of the Grandfather Paradox? A breakdown of logical consistency or an example of the Many-Worlds Theory involvement in time travel stories? Or, something else entirely?

 

The closest I have come to categorizing the conundrum in Timequest is as basically a variation on the Grandfather Paradox known as the Killing Hitler Paradox. Though it sounds melodramatic, it is quite simple. It states that if a time traveler eliminates Hitler before he rises to power and World War II doesn’t happen, then there would be no reason for the time traveler to go back to kill Hitler in the first place. Thus, Hitler would live to rise to power. A paradox.

 

So for example, in the movie, if the Traveler’s actions lead to the salvation of JFK, then Raymond would not invent time travel, become the Traveler and go back and save JFK in the first place. And therefore, there would be no one to invent time travel and save JFK. A paradox.

Thus, in the case of Timequest, the Grandfather/Kill Hitler Paradox did not occur. I see this as a glaring failure of logical consistency in the storyline.

 It doesn’t mean I enjoyed the movie any less.

•This point has nothing to do with history and certainly nothing to do with time travel. The reason that I enjoyed TimeQuest so much and that the film spoke to me so strongly was the portrayal of Jackie Kennedy by Caprice Benedetti.

There have been many actresses that have played Jackie Kennedy in film and TV. However, no film or TV interpretation of Jackie could hold a candle to Caprice Benedetti’s portrayal of her in my opinion. She brought sensitivity and gentleness to the role that other actresses in other versions could not match.

Apparently, the film’s director also realized Benedetti’s strength by bookending the film with her. At the very opening of the movie, over a black screen, a voice over said “Did today really happen?” Much later in the film, it was revealed that these words were spoken by Jackie, of course played by Benedetti. And again, the last image of the film was of a close-up of Jackie Kennedy on a TV screen.

By her opening and closing the movie, the director is signaling that the film revolves around the character of Jackie Kennedy rather than JFK and the assassination plot. It is his devotion to her that leads the Traveler, a.k.a. Raymond, to invent time travel and travel back to warn them. The Traveler’s motives could almost be seen as an attempt to protect Jackie, and JFK by extension, because he feels some connection to her. It is also telling that when he time travels, the Traveler appears to Jackie before anyone else. The Traveler’s warning is relayed through her to JFK and RFK. And his last words before being erased from the timeline were to thank Jackie for their dance.

There are many more interesting points I could bring up, but I think this is enough for now.

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The past haunts us.
 
The time travel fantasy in these stories gives us false hope: to allow us to correct some deed done long ago. The pull of such fantasy is deep and profound. And, it is only in fantasy that, sometimes, there can be second chances…
 
 
Good Evening.