Next Time

Funny how many Philip K. Dick stories are made into movies, and how few are real successes. Still, I decided to try Next (2007), even though it stars Nic Cage.

Cage is a not great magician in Las Vegas, but he does have a real magical power - he can see a few minutes into the future. So he makes a little money in the casinos and keeps a low profile. But one day he "sees" a guy with a gun try to rob the casino teller and shoot a guard. He jumps the guy and grabs his gun, which looks like an unprovoked attack. He evades the guards by simply knowing when they will be looking the other way and slipping past them. 

But while casino security is watching this on their monitors, government agent Julianne Moore is also watching. She thinks his powers can help her find the terrorists who have stolen a nuclear bomb before they detonate it. 

Cage goes to a particular coffeeshop every day at a certain time, because he has had a vision that he will meet the love of his life there. This is the only one of his visions that happens more than a few minutes in the future. When she does show up, it's Jessica Biel. Her ex-boyfriend is bugging her, so Cage intervenes - which ends with her blowing him off. But that was just a future vision, and he can change the future. So he tries a few other approaches until he finds one that leads her to accepting him, even offering to give him a ride to Flagstaff, where she's heading. 

After a stop at a Havasupai reservation, where Biel teaches (?), they settle into a hotel. But Moore has been following them, and she explains the situation to Biel. She gives Biel a drug to give to Cage, so she can take them in. But Biel decides not to, so now they are both on the run from Moore, and more or less officially together. 

But the terrorists are following Moore, and when they try to kill her, Cage uses his powers to save her. As Moore says, no good deed goes unpunished. So he is taken in.

I'll skip over a bit here, and just say that there's a great shoot out in a factory, with Cage knowing where every bullet is going to come from. This scene and the casino chase are my favorite parts of the movie. I guess modern movie making knows how to make action scenes with a gimmick shown clearly and with tension and excitement. Or maybe New Zealand director Lee Tamahori (Die Another Day) does.

Anyway, I had the ending spoiled on some podcast or other (the only reason I'd even heard of this film), so I'm going to spoil it for you. The bomb goes off, and everyone dies. Then Cage "rewinds" time back to the hotel, and this time he's going to get it right. Kind of a cheat, but also kind of cool.

Now, I don't like Cage very much, maybe because I watch mostly his oddball or over the top performances. But I think he makes a good Dickian protagonist. He seems like the kind of sad-sack nerd who has a secret power which may or may not let him win in the end. So I found this successful as a Dick adaptation. Your mileage may vary.