This B-Movie Sci-Fi Franchise Combined Time Travel, Zombies, And A Future Oscar Winner

The '80s featured a lot of movies about time travel and what lied ahead in the future. Movies such as "Back to the Future," "Bill & Ted's Excellent Adventure," and "Trancers" are such flicks, with the latter sci-fi movie starring future Oscar winner Helen Hunt. Its wacky plot involves a cop who must travel backward through time to fight zombies and stop an evil mastermind.

Jack Deth (Tim Thomerson) is a police officer in futuristic Los Angeles in the year 2247. His quest is to bring down the criminal known as Whistler, who's using hypnotic powers to turn people into zombie-like creatures called trancers. They aren't flesh-eating zombies, and they can still fight by throwing knives and dumping scorching hot water on Deth. To stop Whistler, Deth must pursue him through time and head to 1985 to prevent him from creating more trancers and ruining the future. Deth meets Leena (Hunt) in the past, and together they fight trancers and search for Whistler.

The original Trancers released in 1984, and spawned five direct sequels, with the latest releasing in 2002. Hunt returned as Leena for "Trancers 2" and "Trancers 3." She didn't reprise her role in the fourth and fifth movies, but Leena appeared in a photograph in "Trancers 6."

"Trancers" and its entire six film collection, seven if you count the anthology short "Trancers: City of Lost Angels," is regarded as a B-movie franchise. "City of Lost Angels" does feature Hunt as Leena, making it the fourth "Trancers" project she's been part of. However, there were concerns that due to Hunt's fame, she wouldn't want to play Leena in the third film.

Hunt had been filming the popular NBC sitcom "Mad About You" in the early '90s. Both it and "Trancers 3" premiered around the same time, but the producers of the third "Trancers" didn't initially ask Hunt if she wanted to return to the low-budget series, as they thought she would say no. Hunt agreed to come back, as she was friends with her co-stars and crew, but could only appear in a limited capacity so as not to compete with her "Mad About You" schedule.

Her last appearance in "Trancers" was in 1992, six years before she would win an Oscar for her performance in "As Good as It Gets." Playing Carol Connelly, Hunt won an Academy Award for Best Actress in a Leading Role, memorably playing opposite legendary actor Jack Nicholson. Both the first "Trancers" and "As Good as it Gets" are currently available on Prime Video. 

For those who've watched the first "Trancers" film, the reviews generally say it's a low budget B-movie that's entertaining if not great. One review referred to it as a mashup of "Blade Runner" and "The Terminator," as both are sci-fi movies released in the '80s that feature the same aesthetic, vibe, and charm.

It's been called cheesy, but that didn't stop Rotten Tomatoes from giving it a surprisingly high critics score of 89% on its Tomatometer and a 54% on its Popcornmeter based on more than 5,000 ratings. Reviews on Letterboxd are pretty good too with many leaving three, four, and five stars. Nearly 5,000 people have liked it on that website as well.

Its comparisons to "The Terminator" may be due to it being a sort of rip-off of the films starring Arnold Schwarzenegger — who was in a mind-bending sci-fi movie based on a short story, but that doesn't make it any less fun for fans. One Reddit user said "Its budget was low but its aspirations were high." If you're a fan of time travel films with a twist on zombies, "Trancers" may be just what you need for a Friday night movie.