“Next” (2007) is one of those Philip K. Dick adaptations that comes off shallower than his source material because it’s stretched into an action movie and the idea is the gimmick rather than the point. In the short story “The Golden Man” (1953), one of the best entries of “The Collected Stories, Volume 3,” a mutant can see into the future, making him indestructible and – since this particular being has no morals — dangerous. “Next” inserts a stage magician with this precognitive power (Nicolas Cage as Cris Johnson) into a “24” plot: There’s a nuclear bomb somewhere in Los Angeles.
Generic action
As an action movie, “Next” is generic; we don’t even learn the ideology of the terrorists. Cris’ ability wears a little thin, too, although it’s the thing the movie hangs its hat on. In 2009, a whole TV series, “Flash Forward” (one of the many short-lived post-“Lost” brain-teasers), built a plot around premonitions of the near future, but “Next” is content to be a rote actioner. I suspect most viewers, and especially fans of “The Golden Man,” will be less than content with that.
The conflict in the screenplay shepherded by Gary Goldman (1990’s “Total Recall,” another PKD riff) is that Cris wants to be left alone, and FBI agent Callie Ferris (Julianne Moore) wants to use Cris as a tool to track down the terrorists and their bomb.
“Next” (2007)
Director: Lee Tamahori
Writers: Gary Goldman, Jonathan Hensleigh, Paul Bernbaum
Stars: Nicolas Cage, Julianne Moore, Jessica Biel
Cris protests that he has individual rights, but Callie cares about the individual rights of the 8 million people who will be killed, and she believes Cris has a moral duty to help his fellow man. While this conflict is given lip service, there’s little nuance to it. They both make good points, but neither is willing to accommodate the other. Instead of a discussion about some middle ground they could meet in, a lot of “Next” finds Cris running from Ferris and her team.
There’s also a decent love story. Although Cris can generally see only 2 minutes into the future, all his life he has had a vision of a woman, Liz (Jessica Biel), showing up at a specific restaurant at a specific time of day. When he finally meets her, they’re off on their love story of destiny.
This part of “Next” provides both the heart and the humor, especially when we see how Cris tries various failed strategies to attract Liz before settling on one that works. (He sees the future, but upon seeing it, he can therefore change it. From a viewer’s perspective, it’s like a truncated version of the romance in “Groundhog Day.”)
Tweaking the rules too much
One of the problems with expanding wild PKD ideas into full-length movies is screenwriters find themselves tweaking the rules to make it work. Instead of the 2-minute rule being set in stone, Cris’ precognition can expand to hours if Liz is in the picture. Liz is kidnapped by the terrorists, so this allows Ferris, Cris and the team to pause and plan out a strategy, and it gives us a breather.
But this rule also means the ending of “Next” lands with a thud. Granted, the closing twist isn’t bad, but it is expected. It turns out we weren’t seeing what really happened, but rather what will happen. Most of the narrative of “Next,” we discover, is Cris’ 2-hours-ahead vision.
After seeing the kinks in their planning, he is prepared to move against the terrorists for real, at which point the film ends. Although the abrupt cut to the credits will irk some viewers, it’s broadly logical in the sense that Cris is a procog, so he’ll simply do things differently than what happens in his vision.
Illogical ending
Here’s the problem: He sends Liz off to be safe. As such, his visions are back to that 2-minute window and the scenario won’t have Liz in it. A different narrative will play out – one that focuses on the bomb rather than the kidnapping diversion — and Cris will have less broad knowledge and smaller time windows to adjust. That said, I didn’t mind the movie ending at the 96-minute mark, because it wasn’t engrossing enough to make me want to watch more.
Director Lee Tamahori (“The Edge”) gives us some good action sequences, including one where Cris dodges a Jeep and other heavy items coming at him down a steep incline. And the way Cris defeats the bad guy is cleverly illustrated by showing dozens of different versions of Cris being struck by bullets until one breaks through, as he’s making minor adjustments based on his visions.
“Next” is mildly engaging. Cage is game for this role, and he has good chemistry with Biel. For a PKD-adaptation completist, you’ll probably run into harder-to-watch adaptations. But “Next” is disappointingly unengaged with its themes, and even the nuclear-threat narrative ceases to interest the writers after a point and then the movie calls it a day. Just as well. On to the next thing.