Timerider: The Adventure of Lyle Swann

1982 "Lyle Swann is a champion off-road racer. But to the people of 1877, he's something very, very different..."
5.4| 1h34m| PG| en| More Info
Released: 27 August 1982 Released
Producted By: Zoomo Productions
Country: United States of America
Budget: 0
Revenue: 0
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Lyle Swann is a successful off-road racer who mistakenly gets sent back in time 100 years. When a band of outlaws robs Swann of his motorcycle, he's forced to outfox the gangsters and give in to the seductions of a gorgeous local lady. With only his smarts and a map from an Exxon station, Lyle must try to make it out of the Old West alive and find a way back to modern times.

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Director

William Dear

Production Companies

Zoomo Productions

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Timerider: The Adventure of Lyle Swann Audience Reviews

Cubussoli Very very predictable, including the post credit scene !!!
SunnyHello Nice effects though.
MamaGravity good back-story, and good acting
Ella-May O'Brien Each character in this movie — down to the smallest one — is an individual rather than a type, prone to spontaneous changes of mood and sometimes amusing outbursts of pettiness or ill humor.
zpzjones One of my favorite time travel movies. This is a film that's taut and well-made and probably a tad too adult for the Saturday morning kiddie type crowd. It really should appeal to the viewer who has his thinking cap on and can appreciate attention to historical detail. In late 1982 the hero, an off road motorbike racer, named Lyle Swann, unwittingly gets caught in the middle of a time-travel experiment and is transported to the Old West of 1877. In the strata of science-fiction and time travel, this is believable since he's alone in the middle of the desert and cannot ascertain that he's been transported through a time warp. As the film progresses Swann meets several people in 1877: outlaws, an attractive woman named Clare Cygne from Louisiana, a priest Quinn heading a small town and two US Marshalls. The outlaws led by Porter Reese appear to be Civil War veterans from the Confederate side when Reese makes a crack about 'General Lee would have won the war if he had Swann's motorcycle'. The filmmakers add a nice touch and nod to Mark Twain. When Clare pulls out a copy of Twain's "Celebrated Jumping Frog of Calaveras County", written in 1865, viewers paying attention to the scene will recall that Twain is the author of one of the most famous time travel stories "A Connecticut Yankee in King Arthur's Court" written in 1889 and which probably inspires this film. Clare asks Swann if he can read and if he's read any Mark Twain and Swann responds telling Clare he has and that "Tom Sawyer" is Twain's most famous book. Since the old-west part of this film takes place in 1877, it wouldn't have been unusual that Clare would not have heard of "Tom Sawyer" as it had only been published in 1876. Other nice touches of realism are the showcasing of a community of outlaws living in a outlaw camp. The viewer may ask what are those outlaws doing for food, for clothes, bathing, laundry altogether basic survival. When one outlaw is shot early in the film his cohorts pick his body of clothing & belongings before the vultures get to him. The priest and Clare work together bartering with Mexican locals, trinkets, guns, and food stuffs.The film showcases several adult themes ie: profanity, gunshots, mild sex scene. It's amazing the film was released with a PG rating but remember this was 1982, two years before the Motion Picture ratings system was upgraded to include PG-13 and NC-17. The director keeps the film accurate to its 1877 time frame and shows elements in a western that are realistic such as the profanity and the renegade woman Clare who is a gunslinger, ?prostitute and adventuress. This film gets away with telling mature elements in Western that were not up to that time seen in conventional westerns especially going back to b/w films in the Golden Age of Hollywood. Had Timerider been made in the early 70s it might have been better received. If it had come out in the 40s or 50s as a film noir western it would certainly be a classic but with a compromise. There would not have been no cursing, no scrib gunshot wounds, the sex scene would not be explicit, though for 1982 the scene given is mild. More explicit sex scenes can be viewed in daytime soaps.GRANDFATHER PARADOX An interesting aspect of this film is the application by some of the 'so-called' Grandfather Paradox. Hmmm! This supposedly applies when Clare and Lyle have sex and she questions him about the pendant around his neck. He tells her that his great great grandmother took it from his great great grandfather after an incredible night and the great great grandfather was never seen again. At the end of the film Swann is rescued by helicopter by the scientists responsible for transporting him to 1877. The head scientists tells Lyle that Clare cannot come back with them to 1982 by which time Clare snatches Lyle's pendant from his neck. When Clare takes the pendant this essentially repeats the story of Lyle's great great grandmother: END OF STORY!.....No mysterious paradox, Clare merely snatches the pendant. At this point many viewers who have seen the film think that Clare's actions reveal her to be Lyle's great great grandmother. I thought this too at one time but this is IMPOSSIBLE. Even if time-travel was real, Lyle Swann could not be his own great great grandfather or father his own great grandmother who would be the child Clare would conceive after the night of sex with Lyle. IMPOSSIBLE, even if time-travel were real a person could not literally go back in time and father his own ancestor. A person has to come from somewhere, he has to have a history. Swann could sleep with his great great grandmother, impregnate her and it would be a completely different individual. (Remember when the two of them were going over the Mark Twain books she tells Swann her real name, Clare Cygne, which if she was his great great grandmother, he should have known her name. Or it should have sounded familiar. A flag should have gone up in Swann's head as to her identity.)This puts an end to the Grandfather Paradox. ...The pendant, a seemingly valuable trinket as Lyle had been handed down to by his mother, is probably something from the 19th century and now it's returning to it's original time when Clare snatches it. If Clare is pregnant by Lyle she'll merely hand it down to her offspring and he/she will hand it down and so forth but there is no reason Lyle will ever see it again as it will be a totally different set of people and circumstances who will receive the pendant.The film gets 3 1/2 stars out of 4.
Ben Larson My favorite Fred Ward movie is Remo Williams:The Adventure Begins. Of course, the adventure ended with that movie as well as they never did a followup. I have seen him in Silkwood and The Right Stuff as well. All of these movies, including this one were released about the same time (1982-1985). I don't know why I haven't caught him in anything since, but I certainly enjoyed that period of his career.I really enjoy time travel movies. They don't have to be first quality, just the idea captivates me. When I watched this, I had just finished another time travel film with William Devane and Lauren Hutton (Timestalkers). Not first quality, but interesting nonetheless.This one starts off with Swann (Ward) getting caught in a time travel test and being shot back to 1877 with his motorcycle and full gear. You can imagine the impact that had on an old Mexican.Swann spends his time trying to figure out where he is, while he tries to escape the bad guy, played by Peter Coyote, who wants his "machine." Interesting twist at the end of a mediocre, but fascinating movie.Would have liked to see more of Belinda Bauer, but I'll have to check out her appearance in Winter Kills for that.
commanderstraker-1 Time Rider made today would be a great film. Somehow the creators of this movie were so wrapped up in showing us how the people in 1870 reacted to modern marvels such as pre-packaged granola snacks and cyalume light sticks that they forgot about the acting and building a better script. Fred Wards continual sweating and saying things like "Where's my bike" and "I gotta get outta here" just don't hold you for 90 minutes. Then there's Peter Coyote (wasted here) gritting his 50 or so gold fillings while saying "That's mine, that's mine" The premise here is good and the film entertaining but another 15 minutes of character building and a better use of Swan's gadgets would have been a big help. 6 out of 10. Re-write the film and put "Arnold" on the bike and you may just have something here!
snowalker-1 Timerider is a fun movie to watch. It's a good movie to watch with kids on a rainy day. Some of the content is a little adult, but not over the line. It's not a billon dollar pick, but it has some nice special effects. You will see some familiar faces when they were young, and the acting they really tired. I liked the movie, and hope it sparks the fire that leads someone to become a "timerider". I would not say run out and buy it, but if someone has a old VHS of it, watch it! I think even hardcore si-fi fans like me will get a kick out of it. Maybe its just me, but I thought the soundtrack was pretty good. It fit the mood of the movie. Only downside is there is a lot of rerun footage.