304. Jumper

Title: Jumper
Genre: Action, Adventure, Sci-Fi
Year: 2008

Summary: In Ann Arbor, Michigan, 15-year-old David Rice gives his crush, Millie Harris, a snow globe. A bully, Mark Kobold, throws the globe onto the ice near a river. While trying to retrieve it, David falls through the ice and is pulled away by the current. He suddenly finds himself in the local library and discovers he can "jump" (teleport) from one place and instantly appearing in another. Amazed with his new ability, he runs away and is believed dead by his alcoholic father.

Eight years later, an adult David (Christensen) lives lavishly using money stolen via his jumping ability. One day, he is ambushed in his home by Roland Cox (Jackson). Roland belongs to an extremist group called the Paladins which has been tracking down and killing these teleporters, the "Jumpers". He tries to trap David with a system of high-voltage cables, which prevent him from being able to jump. David escapes and returns home to Ann Arbor, seeking his old crush Millie. He is attacked by Mark, the same bully, and purposely teleports him into a bank vault then leaves him there. David then returns to Millie and invites her to travel with him by conventional means to Rome. Roland later discovers Mark in police custody and so learns David's identity.

David and Millie arrive in Rome. David attempts to keep his true nature as a thief and his power a secret. After talking they share a kiss and have sex. They visit the Colosseum, only to find it closed, so David uses his ability to unlock a door from the inside, telling Millie the door was already unlocked. He discovers another Jumper, Griffin; he warns David that the Anti-Jumper Brigade henchpeople are coming. Several Paladins appear and attack them. Griffin kills one and teleports away. David tries to leave with Millie, but is detained by Italian police and questioned about the death. While waiting for a magistrate to arrive, David's mother, Mary, who had left David when he was five, appears and helps him escape. David tries to follow his mother, but she says David must leave now or Millie will die. David tells Millie the police let him go, and they leave together. Millie, now very suspicious, demands the truth. David declines and puts her on a plane home.

David jumps to Griffin's lair and asks where to find Roland. Griffin tells David that the Paladins will kill Jumpers by targeting their loved ones. Griffin says he has been trying to kill Roland to avenge his parents. Realizing that his father is now a target, David teleports to his father and finds him bleeding. David teleports him to a hospital and returns to Griffin to ask for help. They go to pick Millie up at the airport, but she is no longer there. Griffin returns to get weapons from his lair while David searches for Millie. He breaks into Millie's apartment, angering her. David sees Roland arriving, so David decides to show Millie his abilities. He saves her by teleporting her back to Griffin's lair. The Paladins follow using a machine that keeps the "jump scar" open, and fight David and Griffin. Roland is chased back through the portal to Mille's apartment, but he snatches Millie with him with a cable.

Griffin decides to bomb the apartment, but David refuses, wanting to save Millie. They fight and David traps Griffin with power lines in Chechnya. Griffin warns that if David faces the Paladins alone he will be outnumbered. David goes anyway and is quickly trapped by Roland's cables. David cannot escape as he is physically tied to the apartment by the cables, so he teleports the apartment, Roland, Millie and himself to a river. Once free of the cables, David teleports Millie to safety and dumps Roland in a cave in the Grand Canyon, saying he could have killed Roland.

David visits his mother and discovers that he has a half-sister (Kristen Stewart). Mary tells David she has known he was a Jumper since he was five, when Jumpers make their first jump. She is a Paladin, and had to either kill David or leave. Since she left David when he was a child, she prefers him to leave, allowing him a head start. He meets with Millie outside and they jump to an unknown location.