Fast-forward some 8 years and David (Hayden Christensen) has honed his jumping ability and flawlessly jumps into bank vaults around the world, robbing them blind. But ever the polite young man, he always leaves IOU's. He jumps from country to country, taking full advantage of his skill, meeting gorgeous women and seeing amazing places. But all of this activity has caught the attention of the Paladins, an organization determined to kill all of the jumpers. Oddly enough, David has eluded this organization all these years, but now, they want him and Roland (Samuel L. Jackson), the white-haired, dark skinned Paladin, is determined to get him.
After an initial surpise meeting in his apartment with Roland, David escapes and sets out to reconnect with Millie (Rachel Bilson), taking her on a whirlwind trip to Rome, via conventional traveling means, of course. There, as he and Millie have sneaked into the Coliseum, David meets up with Griffin (Jamie Bell), another Jumper who seems rather angry at the flippant way David jumps. He clues him in to the ways of the Paladins and the war that has raged between the two groups for hundreds of years. A few Paladins join in the fray and David narrowly escapes, fleeing the scene with the confused Millie. He realizes they need to be apart for her to be safe and he puts her on the next flight back home.
Meanwhile, Roland realizes that the key to finding David lies in his father and Millie. When Millie is captured, David realizes he must join with Griffin, reluctant as he may be, to destroy Roland and save Millie. The scenes with Griffin and David jumping with each other are especially enjoyable. The grand finale is a battle royale between Roland and his men, David and Griffin.
While Jumper has typical special features like deleted scenes and a really lengthy making-of featurette which includes some funny scenes plus a cursing rant by Jamie Bell, it also includes such gems as an animated graphic novel chronicling young David's search for his mother, which was pretty cool. There's also a featurette on the locations they had to travel to while filming Jumper and I was stunned to see that part of the film was shot in Louisiana, my home state. Sure, now those rainforests look very Louisiana, but in watching the movie, I'd have never guessed. Of special note is the feature called Previz: Future Concepts, which gives hints to the next Jumper installment, currently in production (at least according to IMDb.com).
Jumper may not be for everyone, but Geck0, J.R. Nip and I loved it. It's a fun movie, with a healthy dose of action and really beautiful scenery, plus a nice little shot of romance for good measure. Hayden Christensen does a fine job as David and puts to rest all those qualms about his inability to act brought on by the Star Wars trilogy debacle. Rachel Bilson, while not a favorite of mine by any stretch, is cute and believable as Millie and Samuel L. always does a great job as a bad ass. If you dig a little sci-fi teleporting action, definitely check out Jumper.
