'Jumpin' Jack Flash' - Is It Still a Gas, Gas, Gas?

Hi, and welcome back to Second Chances where the maligned, forgotten, and ignored are always online and never need a code key.

The 80s were a glorious time for spy movies. Something about the Cold War, paranoia about what the Soviet Union was up to, and the massive leaps in technology over the course of that decade seemed to provide endless possibilities for espionage plots. Unfortunately, due to the end of the Cold War, the dissolution of the Soviet Union, and further technological advancements, those 80s spy movies became out-of-date a decade later, if that. That fate befell two of my all-time favorite movies which I had already talked about, Gotcha! and Cloak & Dagger. That fate also befell the 1986 genre mash-up Jumpin' Jack Flash. However, like those previous examples, if you can keep the era it was made in mind, you can still have a blast with the movie.

Years before she would join The View or win her Oscar for Ghost, Whoopi Goldberg starred in this movie as Terry Doolittle. She works in the international money transfer room of a New York bank. While well-liked by her co-workers, she constantly draws the ire of her boss Mr. Page (Peter Michael Goetz) due to her tendency to chat with her banking contacts. One night as she was shutting down her computer for the day, a message pops up from someone identifying himself as "Jumping Jack Flash" (named after the song by the Rolling Stones). After finding his code key to establish a private connection, Terry discovers that Jack (Jonathan Pryce) is a British secret agent trapped behind the Iron Curtain and desperately trying to get a contact to escape. Terry, whose only experience in espionage was reading spy novels, becomes Jack's only hope to get home.

One of the first things that anyone would notice upon loading this movie is the sheer amount of current and future star power in it. Alongside Whoopi Goldberg (who had already established herself with The Color Purple by then), the movie features the Broadway legend Jonathan Pryce (albeit primarily in voice only); future comedy headliners Jon Lovitz, Tracey Ullman, and Phil Hartman; rising star Jim Belushi; a strangely normal performance from the always hilarious Carol Kane; and small but memorable appearances by Annie Potts, Jeroen Krabbé, and Michael McKean. The Michael McKean cameo (with a comically lame British accent that seems to prepare viewers for This Is Spinal Tap) makes perfect sense considering the movie was the directorial debut of his Lavergne & Shirley co-star Penny Marshall. It floored me just how many recognizable people were involved with this movie.

(Stephen Collins also stars in the movie. Please don't hold that against it.)

Like Gotcha!, this movie smashes together several genres. The espionage adventure calls to mind the "in too deep" feel of movies like North By Northwest. Terry is a smart character, but she still got in plenty of danger due to her lack of experience. What keeps the movie from feeling like just another spy movie is the humor. One of the major set pieces involves her getting kidnapped in a phone booth and dragged for several blocks. It is one of many moments that found the way to blend comedy with the action and adventure. There are others including her attempt to break into the British Consulate during a ball (playing tug-of-war with a paper shredder in the process) and when she holds herself hostage to escape the villains (similar to what Cleavon Little did in Blazing Saddles). Of course, Whoopi was able to be an R-rated motor-mouth to rival Chris Rock, especially when faced with a dense cop or shot up with truth serum.

Like another action-comedy I talked about before, Hot Stuff, this was a movie ahead of its time. Computers were still a new thing that were only starting to get into people's homes by the mid-80s. Yet, this movie made the prototype form of instant messaging into a critical plot point. Sure, WarGames introduced the concept of connecting a computer to a phone line to connect to other computers previously, but this movie gave it a human touch. Terry wasn't connecting to some random company; she was connecting to one man stuck on his own in hostile territory. With how people complain that technology has separated people from each other these days to the point that tables at restaurants are filled with people just staring at screens, this movie showed that technology doesn't have to be like that.

Jumpin' Jack Flash is an outdated spy movie, but it's still a lot of fun. I don't know why critics were quick to bash it. Only 29% on Rotten Tomatoes? Seriously? Terry is a likeable protagonist, the action works, the comedy still hits plenty, it's got an awesome soundtrack of classic songs (including the Stones hit the movie was named after), and it's a very brisk hour and forty minutes. While not currently available for streaming, it is on DVD and available to rent on YouTube and Prime Video. If you want some classic fun with a movie while waiting for the next James Bond film, load Jack up.

What do you think? Any more outdated spy movies still worth investigating? Let me know!

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