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PHILADELPHIA EXPERIMENT II
Rating:  ½
USA. 1994.
Director – Stephen Cornwell, Screenplay – Nick Paine & Kevin Rock, Story – Kevin Rock & Kim Steven Ketelsen, Producers – Doug Curtis & Mark Levinson, Photography – Ronn Schmidt, Music – Gerald Gouriet, Visual Effects Supervisor – Janet Muswell, Special Effects Supervisor – Frank Ceglia, Production Design – Armin Ganz. Production Company – Alternate Pictures/Trimark Pictures.
Cast:
Brad Johnson (David Herdeg), Gerrit Graham (Mailer/Friedrich Mahler), Marjean Holden (Jess), James Greene (Professor Longstreet), John Christian Graas (Benjamin Herdeg), Geoffrey Blake (Logan), Cyril O’Reilly (Decker)
Plot: In 1993 The Philadelphia Experiment is revived to create a stealth bomber capable of teleporting between destinations. But the trial experiments cause an upset in time that throws David Herdeg into an alternate timeline where Nazis have overthrown the USA following a nuclear attack on Washington in 1943. David comes to realize that it was the stealth bomber, thrown back in time to 1943, that in fact destroyed Washington and that he must stop it in order to prevent
this timeline from occurring.
This sequel has all the hallmarks of a quick video attempt to cash in on the moderate success of the original The Philadelphia Experiment (1984). But in fact quite a respectable degree of effort has gone into making it more than just a sequel, particularly by developing an original new plot. The original’s plot about an invisibility experiment gone wrong is turned into quite a sophisticated time paradox story which juggles ideas of alternate timelines and histories with an uncommon intelligence. On the minus side the portrait of the alternate history timeline never ends up amounting to anything more than the cliches of the Nazi Takeover subgenre and several tosses of 1984 and has no real sociological depth beyond a few extras dressed in stormtrooper costume and a megalomaniacal tyrant in charge. And the actual trajectory of the story itself is quite simple – it never goes beyond a few action set-pieces and getting the hero back home.
As a villain Gerrit Graham is badly miscast – Graham is a comedy actor and in trying to act sinister comes across as appallingly campy. Nevertheless it is a nicely made film – there being some very nice, atmospheric photography. A major plus too is the presence of the solid and reassuringly handsome Brad Johnson who makes for a far better hero than Michael Paré did in the original.
Cast:
Copyright Richard Scheib 1997
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