You might remember Doug Liman’s 2008 sci-fi-action-superhero hybrid, “Jumper,” the way I do: an intriguing high-concept idea with a messy script and lackluster execution resulting in a total dumpster fire of a mid-budget blockbuster. Based on Steven Gould’s 1992 bestselling novel of the same name — which later turned into a whole book series — “Jumper” starred “Star Wars” prequel dreamboat Hayden Christensen alongside Samuel L. Jackson, Rachel Bilson, Jamie Bell, and Diane Lane.
The plot followed Christensen’s protagonist, David Rice, who discovered his ability to teleport at a young age and took advantage of it to lead a wealthy lifestyle. That’s until he met Jackson’s Roland, the leader of the Paladins, an organization dedicated to hunting down people like Rice (jumpers) since they deemed them a threat to society and mankind. It’s baffling that “Jumper” came out the same year as Jon Favreau’s “Iron Man” (which “Avengers: Doomsday” might still bring back) and Christopher Nolan’s “The Dark Knight” (the masterpiece that once held the highest audience score on Rotten Tomatoes), yet still managed to succeed commercially in the face of such fierce competition.
Despite the fact that it garnered $225 million worldwide against its $85 million budget at the box office, Liman’s movie was undeniably overshadowed by other far better genre flicks. It also didn’t help that critics couldn’t drag it through the mud fast enough, highlighting its various shortcomings in painstaking detail. Yet despite its tarnished legacy, “Jumper”s imaginative premise has the potential to be successfully revived either with a sequel or complete reboot that could present it in a new light. In fact, what many might not know is that it already received a spin-off TV series in 2018.
Impulse was an unexpected non-canon entry in the Jumper universe
Jeffrey Leiber’s two-season television series, “Impulse” (executive produced by “Jumper’s” Doug Liman, who also directed the pilot and season 2 opener), was made for YouTube Premium and served as a spin-off to the 2008 original. Based on another Stephen Gould book (the third novel in the “Jumper” series), Lieber’s show follows high-schooler Henrietta ‘Henry’ Coles, who accidentally discovers her power to teleport while getting sexually assaulted in the car of her school’s basketball star. Unfortunately for “Jumper” fans, that (and an action sequence in the pilot) is pretty much the extent to which “Impulse” was willing to go to establish its loose connection to the “Jumper” universe.
From that point onward, it becomes more of a character study and meditation on trauma, delving into the complicated feelings of a young girl trying to cope with the aftermath of a sexual assault while realizing that her body’s defense mechanism to emotionally overwhelming situations is literally teleporting her out of them. “Impulse” may not be what most people expected from a series that shares ties with “Jumper,” but that narrative unpredictability might also be its biggest strength.
Combined with an impressive lead performance by Maddie Hasson, it was enough to elicit praise from critics and a perfect score on Rotten Tomatoes — although, among viewers, the series fared with worse results. Still, if “Jumper” ever gets a worthy sequel or complete overhaul, “Impulse” might not be the worst thing to draw inspiration from. Either way, the success of the book series and initial financial returns suggest that there’s probably an audience out there for a proper “Jumper” follow-up.
