Loosely based on the 1946 novella “Vintage Season” by Henry Kuttner and C.L. Moore, this was the directing debut of David Twohy, who would go on to make The Arrival and Pitch Black. It stars Jeff Daniels and Ariana Richards as Ben and Hillary Willson. They’re renovating their home and coming to terms with loss, as Ben’s wife (and Hillary’s mother) has died, a fact that Ben’s stepfather Judge Caldwell (George Murdock) won’t forgive him for. Blaming the man for his daughter’s death, he takes Hillary away through the courts.

At the same time, a bus filled with travelers that have stamped passports of places through time shows up at his house, looking for a place to stay. These tourists show up to watch disasters at different points in time and have come to this place and time to watch a meteor decimate the town and most of its citizens. As Ben and Hillary tend to the survivors, he realizes that the tourists are still waiting for something else. That would be a gas main explosion that takes Hillary’s life.

What follows is a time travel journey to one day before with the hopes of saving the lives of everyone in the town. At one point, both versions of Ben work to save the life of Hillary without damaging reality.

Also known as Timescape, somehow I never knew that this movie existed. It’s interesting and Daniels makes for a good science fiction lead. I still can’t figure out why I never heard of it, because it’s totally the type of movie that I look for and I was constantly renting movies in 1991.

You can order this Unearthed Classics DVD from MVD.