Minutemen (film)

This article is about the film. For other uses, see Minutemen (disambiguation).

Minutemen
DVD cover
Directed by	Lev L. Spiro
Produced by	Douglas Sloan
Written by	John Killoran (Teleplay) David Diamond David Weissman (Story)
Starring	Jason Dolley Luke Benward Nicholas Braun Chelsea Kane J. P. Manoux Steven R. McQueen Kara Crane
Music by	Nathan Wang
Production company	Salty Pictures
Budget	$5 million
Country	United States
Language	English
Original channel	Disney Channel
Release date	January 25, 2008 (2008-01-25)[1]
Running time	90 minutes

Minutemen is a 2008 science-fiction Disney Channel Original Movie.^[2]

The film was written by John Killoran (writing the teleplay) and David Diamond and David Weissman (writing the story) and directed by Lev L. Spiro, who received a Director's Guild nomination for Outstanding Achievement in Children's Programs for it.^[3] Andrew Gunn, Ann Marie Sanderlin and Doug Sloan are the executive producers.^[2] The movie was originally slated for release in March 2008,^[4] however, the movie premiered on Disney Channel in United States on January 25, 2008.^[5]

Plot

On the first day of high school, best friends Virgil Fox (Jason Dolley), Derek Beaugard (Steven R. McQueen) and Stephanie Jameson (Chelsea Kane) decide to begin their paths by trying out for various activities. While Derek tries for the football team and Stephanie begins cheerleading, Virgil's high school career takes a bad turn. Charlie Tuttle (Luke Benward), a genius who skipped many grades, rockets onto the field on a rocket-propelled car, losing control until Derek throws a football at him and knocks him off. Virgil defends Charlie while Derek just sits by. Virgil and Charlie are forced to dress as cheerleaders and are hung on the school mascot's, a bighorn sheep, horns.

Three years later, senior year, Virgil and Charlie are still outcasts. Charlie informs Virgil that he has brilliantly invented a time machine. Unaware of how to build the time machine, the duo recruits Zeke (Nicholas Braun). When the time machine is built, Virgil, still regretting the first day of high school, decides that he would like to use the machine to undo embarrassing mistakes made by their classmates. They test the time machine out by buying a winning lottery ticket.

Jeanette (Kara Crane) helps the trio save outcasts from social embarrassment by providing them with white snowsuits to wear and handles the machine while the boys are time-traveling. The school's vice-principal (J. P. Manoux) attempts to stop the "Snowsuit Guys", the name everybody knows them by.

After the "Snowsuit Guys" are named local heroes, they save Stephanie from falling off her cheerleader's pyramid. Realizing that the hero was Virgil, Stephanie confronts Virgil and he is finally allowed to hang out with the popular kids. The time machine eventually begins to cause terrible consequences, however. The outcasts have become popular and have let it go to their heads. Virgil abandons Charlie and Zeke. Meanwhile, Stephanie learns that Derek is cheating on her and Derek falsely befriends Virgil to get him to change everything with the time machine.

The FBI arrives in the town after monitoring suspicious activity. Virgil and Zeke learn that Charlie had stolen the time machine blueprints from the NASA mainframe. After consulting with the government's top scientists, Charlie learns that the time machine has created a black hole. With only hours to live, the trio decide to go into the hole and close it.

Once they have entered the black hole, they are transported back to their first day of high school. Virgil realizes that he can undo the events that caused him to lose his popularity. When he arrives at the field he sees that Derek didn't try to stop the bullies but actually suggested dressing Virgil and Charlie up as cheerleaders. Charlie informs Virgil that the incident gave him a best friend, 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 time-traveling. Everything goes back to normal and Virgil confesses his feelings towards Stephanie (and she for him). Virgil confronts Derek and realizes that Derek will always be a jerk. As Virgil and Stephanie embrace, Charlie walks up to them and eagerly suggests a new idea: Teleportation, but Virgil and Zeke drag him off, and the credits roll.

Cast

• Jason Dolley as Virgil Fox
• Luke Benward as Charlie Tuttle
• Nicholas Braun as Zeke Thompson
• Chelsea Staub as Stephanie Jameson
• J. P. Manoux as Vice Principal Stewart 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
• Larry Filion as F.B.I. Agent (uncredited)

Notes

• 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 until after they go back in time to help Chester.

Back to the Future allusions

• Charlie's pet cat is named after Albert Einstein, similar to Dr. Emmett L. Brown's dog.
• Albert Felinestein (Charlie's cat) becomes the world's first time traveler, and his clock is one minute off when returning, alluding to how Doc Brown's dog was in exactly the same situation in Back to the Future.
• When Albert Felinestein returns from the first time travel, he is covered in frost. In Back to the Future, when the DeLorean returns from its first time travel with Einstein, it is also covered in frost. It is explained in both films that time travel creates big temperature variations, prompting Virgil, Charlie, and Zeke to wear the snowsuits.
• The club Virgil, Charlie, and Zeke created to get a place to build the time machine in is named the "Back to the Future Fan Club."
• The band at the school dance performs songs similar to "Johnny B. Goode" and "Earth Angel."
• The place Virgil, Charlie, and Zeke go to get suitable parts for the time machine is Thompson's Cycle Cemetery, which is a reference to the actress who played Lorraine Baines McFly in the Back to the Future trilogy, Lea Thompson.
• Vice Principal Tolkan is named after actor James Tolkan, who played the Principal Strickland, who was also bald, in the trilogy. On an additional note, Vice Principal Tolkan's character is very similar to Vice Principal Hacket from Phil of the Future. They are both vice principals played by J. P. Manoux, and they spend their time attempting to learn secrets about the main characters, rather than helping the school.
• When the Minutemen go back in time to keep the football team from losing, Jeanette, watches a newspaper article change from a losing team to a victory. In Back To The Future Part II, Marty McFly watched the article of his father's death change to his father's honor as an author and Doc Brown watched the newspaper article change from his committing to the institution to his honor.
• Virgil's last name is Fox, the same as the actor who portrayed Marty McFly in the Back to the Future trilogy, Michael J. Fox.
• The film involves disrupting the space-time continuum, like in Back to the Future.

Scientific inaccuracy

• When Albert Felinestein 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 long as both clocks had been set at the same time.
• The movie fails to address a version of the Grandfather paradox in that when something 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 wanted to fix 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, etc. Some argue that the failed address to the grandfather paradox may be the cause of the "black hole" that appears in the ending portion of the film. However, this is simply incorrect, as the "black hole" created during the movie follows no laws of physics known to man.
• While the black hole created in the film takes an inordinate amount of time to consume the planet, an actual black hole would have taken in the entire planet and would have caused all living beings on the planet to have died via the process of spaghettification. Just as well, actual black holes are not created from any sort of "rips" in the time-space continuum, but generally come into existence following a supernova and collapse of the star.

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.^[2]

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 Sugar House.

Featured music

The first single of the movie, "Run It Back Again" by Corbin Bleu was released January 22, 2008 on Radio Disney Jams, Vol. 10 and its music video premiered on Disney Channel. Another single titled "Like Whoa" from Aly & AJ began airing January 19, 2008 around the world, as a music video on Disney Channel. The song could be purchased on album, Insomniatic.

References

1. ^ Disney Channel MediaNet
2. ^ ^{a b c} "Production Begins on "Minutemen" and "Camp Rock", Disney Channel Original Movies for 2008" (Press release). Disney Channel Medianet Press. 2007-07-14. http://www.disneychannelmedianet.com/DNR/2007/doc/Minutemen_CampRock_Release.doc. Retrieved 2007-07-19. 
3. ^ "McQueen on clock for Dis' 'Minutemen'". Hollywood Reporter. 2007-12-06. Archived from the original on 2008-04-26. http://web.archive.org/web/20080426045616/http://www.hollywoodreporter.com/hr/content_display/news/e3i7c5caf365ab6a9b8e7c36d8dbe2e6f6c#. Retrieved 2007-12-11. 
4. ^ 'Cory in the House' Actor Leads New Disney Movie
5. ^ [1] It premiered with 6.48 million viewers.

External links

• Official website
• Minutemen at the Internet Movie Database