This week, Chris and Joel travel back to 1984 (or forward to 2247, depending on your perspective) to introduce John Carpenter's shape-shifting alien to the cult sci-fi action movie Trancers.

Directed by Charles Band and starring Tim Thomerson and a young Helen Hunt, Trancers follows Jack Deth, a hard-boiled cop from the future who travels back in time to 1980s Los Angeles to hunt down a psychic criminal capable of turning ordinary people into murderous zombies.

We discuss the film's wonderfully strange mythology, its inventive low-budget filmmaking, the appeal of Jack Deth as an unlikely action hero, and whether any of its time-travel mechanics actually make sense. Along the way, we explore the film's many sequels, the mysteries of the Trancers themselves, and the pleasures of a film that doesn't feel obliged to explain everything.

Then we ask the important question: what if Jack Deth wasn't hunting a psychic criminal, but an alien creature capable of perfectly imitating anyone it encounters? Could the Thing take Whistler's place, and would Jack Deth stand a chance against it?

Expect time travel, body horror, questionable science and an alarming amount of discussion about Trancers 2.

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Music by Karl Casey @ White Bat Audio