I dedicate this page in memory of Christopher Reeve
September 25, 1952 - October 10, 2004
~ A Jeannot Szwarc film ~
Based on Richard Matheson's
novel "Bid Time Return"
Beyond Obsession.
Beyond time itself...
he will find her.
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Richard Collier & Elise McKenna
The one I have created in my mind...
The sort of man...
each woman dreams of in the deepest...
and most secret reaches of her heart.
I can almost see him now before me.
What would I say to him...
if he were really here?
"Forgive me".
I've never known this feeling.
I've lived without it all my life.
Is it any wonder then I failed to recognize you?
You've... brought it to me for the first time.
Is there any way that...
that I can tell you how my life has changed?
Any way at all to let you know what...
sweetness you have given me?
There is so much to say, I...
I cannot find the words. Except for these:
I love you.
And such would I say to him...
if he were really here."
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Short Summary:
We enter the story in 1972, as Richard Collier,
played by Christopher Reeve, gets his big break.
The play he produced in college may be
going to broadway. At this celebration,
an elderly woman comes forward,
gives him a watch, and says,
"Come back to me."
Then she leaves.
A decade passes, and we find Richard Collier now
successful,working on a play and suffering from
writer's block, deciding to take a break.
He winds up at a very nice hotel
just up the road from his alma mater,
and plans to stay the night.
During the night, he discovers the picture
of a woman who immediately entrances him
with her beauty, and so he stays to find out who she is.
His investigations lead him to discover
that the beautiful young actress on the wall,
Miss Elise McKenna (Jane Seymour),
is the same woman who gave him the watch.
He learns that she died the night she gave him
that watch; and that she was interested
in time travel, and owned a book
about it by one of his professors.
A visit to the professor reveals an incredible
story of a trip to the past - momentary,
uncertain, but an experience
that may have been time travel.
The film suggests a type of time travel
which would be entirely by force of will,
that is, the traveler would will himself
into the past by convincing himself
that this is where he was.
The danger is that any object whose origin
had to be from the future would disrupt
this and return you to your own time.
Richard Collier determines to do this.
He purchases antique coins and an old suit,
clears his hotel room of everything,
and using a tape recorder under his bed
and extreme exertion, he wills
himself back to June 27th, 1912.
Here he begins the rather difficult
project of attempting to meet Miss McKenna,
completely out of touch with the social
realities of the day. But gradually he
manages to win her heart.
Her manager, William F. Robinson,
played by Christopher Plummer, objects.
His desire is to see Miss McKenna become
the most revered actress of her age.
After several attempts to discourage Richard
Collier he has him beaten, bound, and dumped
in the stables just hours before
the acting company is to depart.
He has eliminated one more suitor.
But Miss McKenna won't go with them.
Thus when Richard Collier manages to get
back to the hotel, she is searching for him.
They declare their love for each other,
spend the night together, and start
making plans for the future.
She has his watch as he is showing
what he likes about his suit.
Suddenly he pulls from his pocket a
penny, a coin from the future, and his
stay in the past is instantly terminated.
He is pulled from her into the future.
We have already learned that something
happened to her at this hotel, and she never
acted again. It would seem we now know what.
Richard Collier tries to get back
to her, but dies in the hotel.
We see him in an out-of-body experience
head for the light, where she,
the younger she,
is awaiting him...
September 25, 1952 - October 10, 2004
