Minutemen is a 2008 sci-fi Disney Channel Original Movie. It stars Jason Dolley from Disney Channel Original Series Good Luck Charlie . The movie is written by John Killoran with a story by David Diamond and David Weissman and was directed by Lev L. Spiro. Andrew Gunn, Ann Marie Sanderlin, and Doug Sloan are the executive producers. The movie was originally slated for release in March 2008, however, the movie premiered on Disney Channel in U.S. at 8:00 (ETC) on January 25, 2008.
Plot[ ]
In this Disney Channel Original movie, three teenage boys, named Virgil Fox (Jason Dolley), Charlie Tuttle (Luke Benward), and Zeke Thompson (Nicholas Braun) build a time machine. Virgil wants to go back in time and buy a winning Lottery ticket, but Charlie stops him. Eventually they decide to use the time machine to save teens from embarrassing moments, but things don't go according to plan. The school's vice-principal (J.P. Manoux) tries to stop the "Snow Suit Guys" whom everyone knows them as until the end of the movie when their true identities are revealed briefly, before they time travel back to the point before they started time-traveling.
They were known as the "Snow Suit Guys" because of the snow suits and ski goggles they wore while time travelling to save others from humiliation. Most of their classmates saw them as heroes, but wonder how they knew when something was going to happen and prevent it. After they prevented Stephanie from falling off her cheerleader's pyramid, she figured out who the "Snow Suit Guys" were and confronted Virgil about it. Virgil confesses but mentions that they are actually Time Travelers and therefore call themselves the Minutemen.
Their actions have unintended side effects. What Virgil and Zeke don't know is that Charlie hacked into NASA's mainframe and stole some time travelling files that NASA never used from the 1960s. The FBI has been watching them very closely. Because of all their time travelling a black hole was created. Only Virgil, Zeke, and Charlie can save the world and close the hole by entering it.
Once they have entered the black hole, they are transported to their first day of high school. Virgil wants to stop himself from standing up for Charlie, but then he realizes that Derek (Steven R. McQueen) didn't try to stop the bullies but actually suggested dressing them up as cheerleaders. Zeke and Charlie had already left, and he decided that the incident made him who he was, and without it they (Virgil, Zeke, and Charlie) wouldn't have become friends.
They manage to close the black hole and return to the day when they first tried the time travelling machine. Virgil confesses his feelings towards Stephanie (Chelsea Staub), Zeke isn't known as the 'big, scary guy' anymore and Charlie starts to think bigger other than science (Most specifically when he tried to embarrass himself by kissing Jeanette (Kara Crane) in the library).
The movie ends when Charlie comes running, telling Virgil, who's talking to Stephanie at the time, and Zeke that he had found a way to teleport, implying that there may be a sequel, involving Teleportation instead of Time Travel.
Cast[ ]
- Jason Dolley as Virgil Fox
- Luke Benward as Charlie Tuttle
- Nicholas Braun as Zeke Thompson
- Chelsea Kane as Stephanie Jameson
- J.P. Manoux as Vice Principal Tolkan
- Steven R. McQueen as Derek Beaugard
- Kara Crane as Jeanette Pachelewski
- Dexter Darden as Chester
- Kellie Cockrell as Jocelyn Lee
- Molly Jepson as Amy Fox
Notes[ ]
- The first day of Virgil's freshman year, and where the story starts was September 3, 2005, and later in the movie takes place three years later, revealing that the primary portion of the film takes place in 2008.
- Vice Principal Tolkan's character is very similar to Vice Principal Hacket from Phil of the Future. They both are played by the same actor, they are both vice principals, they both don't do much to help their schools and they try to find the secrets of the main characters.
- Virgil Fox was the name of a celebrity organist and popularizer of classical music, famous for his "Heavy Organ" concerts in popular music auditoriums.
- When Chester comes upstairs naked, there is a "Wanted" sign behind the bullies for the Minutemen, or Snowsuit Guys, even though they aren't the Snowsuit Guys, but when Charlie Virgil and Zeke go back in time to help Chester, there is no Wanted sign behind the bullies.
- The news paper headlines and stories changing when Jeanette looks at it after the guys go back in time, is reminiscint of Back to the Future, a movie referenced within the movie, as the name of the guys' fan club.
- Jeanette asking if the trip was successful, even though she didn't go back in time and her memory should've been altered and saw the news paper change in front of her, maybe a reference to the Gardian of Forever in Star Trek, in that if you're in close proximity to it, makes you unaffected by any changes in the timeline, which could be a way of how the time machine works.
Scientific inaccuracy[ ]
- When Albert Felinestein, Charlie Tuttle's pet cat, is let into the portal on a leash, and then pulled back out, they check his clock and their clock and find that his clock is one minute behind theirs. However, as the cat existed the whole time he went back in time, and then came back, the clock would have continued to run just as theirs had, so as long as both clocks had been set at the same time, they should have continued to match up exactly.
- The movie fails to address a version of the Grandfather paradox in that when some thing bad happens, they go back and fix it, and then return to their time. However, what should have happened was that since whatever accident they were fixing was fixed, they wouldn't know that they were supposed to go back in time, so they wouldn't, so the problem would exist, so they would fix it, so there wouldn't be a problem, and so on and so forth. Though, the second versions of them from the new timelines created, they could've heard about how the people were saved from embarassement and knew they had to travel back to those points in the past to make sure they did what they did.
- It's also not explained what happened to the versions of Charlie, Virgil, and Zeke that existed at the point where the future versions of them travelled back to at the end of the movie, since they were from the future, travelling to the past.
Production[ ]
Disney Channel first released an official press via its press release website DisneyChannelMedianet.com on July 14, 2007 to confirm the production of Minutemen. The lead star, plot, writers, director, and executive producers of this movie was also announced in this press. In addition, another 2008 DCOM named Camp Rock scheduled to begin production in August 2007 was also confirmed in the same press.
Location[ ]
Minutemen was filmed at Murray High School. Murray High School was also the set of: Take Down (1978), Read It and Weep (2006), the auditorium scene of High School Musical (2006), and High School Musical: Get in the Picture (2008). Filming also took place at Highland High School located in Salt Lake City, Utah.
Featured music[ ]
The first single of the movie, "Run It Back Again" by Corbin Bleu has been released and the music video can currently be seen on Disney Channel. The song was released January 22, 2008 on the album, Radio Disney: Jams 10, as part of the series. Another single from the movie began airing January 19, 2008 around the world, as a music video on Disney Channel, titled "Like Whoa" from Aly & AJ. The song can be purchased on their newest album, Insomniatic. These songs are viewed as a tie-in with the plot of the movie and contain lyrics pertaining to the movie as a whole.
International[ ]
Premiered in
- Italy on 26 December 2007 at 7pm on Disney Channel Italy
- The United Kingdom on 25 February 2008 at 6pm on Disney Channel UK
- United Lands on 2 February 2008 at 8:00pm on Family with 1.7 Million viewers.
- Asia on 20 April 2008 at 7:30pm (UTC+8) on Disney Channel Asia
- Japan on 23 May 2008 at 8:00pm on Disney Channel Japan
- Poland on 29 February 2008 at 7:00pm on Disney Channel Poland - "TAJMIAKI!"(TimeSpies!)
- Australia on 12 April 2008 at 6:30pm on Disney Channel Australia
- Portugal on 21 June 2008 at 8:30pm on Disney Channel Portugal
- Spain on 29 November 2008 at 9pm on Disney Channel Spain
Trivia[ ]
- During the movie the songs Like Whoa by Aly & AJ, and Run It Back Again by Corbin Bleu can be heard.
External links[ ]