The Philadelphia Experiment – 1984

Once upon a time, I saw a movie called The Philadelphia Experiment mainly because John Carpenter was credited as a producer on the cover. When I watched it yesterday again, many years later I saw that he was credited as an executive producer. I have no idea what kinda of creative input, if any, he had on the movie itself. Probably just enough to lend his name to the production. At the time, in 1984, John Carpenter was a hot name. He had just done some of the movies he’s still best known for today: The Thing, Escape from New York, and The Fog. Someone’s Watching Me and Halloween was a few years earlier. The point is, that John Carpenter’s name was hot in the movie business at the time. I’m sure that his name on a product meant more gross for the film company.

The Philadelphia Experiment is directed by Stewart Raffill though. It’s a name that doesn’t ring a bell although I know I’ve seen a few movies made by him. Ice Pirated comes to mind. A nice flick but certainly not any masterpiece. But The Philadelphia Experiment is an interesting movie. The premise is that the US Navy made a number of experiments to try to hide their ships from radar during the Second World War. And that this – The Philadelphia Experiment went down in history as the last of them.

Real Events?

I have no idea if there’s any truth behind the story if it’s based on real events or not, but as a sci-fi flick, it certainly works. Basically, it’s a time travel paradox film. I like those. They are always an intellectual challenge to watch. you can spend hours and hours thinking about what would have happened in the timeline if they were really to happen. There are almost always flaws in them so the storyline doesn’t make sense if you dissect it just a little bit. This that’s already happened in the past hasn’t happened yet because the people haven’t got back in time yet.

You know the concept. Back to the Future trilogy is probably the most famous example. Though, that is a comedy and this is certainly not. It’s hard to put a label on it, but it certainly qualifies as Science Fiction. It may be part horror because it must be horrifying suddenly finding yourself in a world 40 years in the future, unknowing of all the technological inventions that have been made over time. It must be horrifying to realize that everything you thought you knew has just been flushed down the drain. There’s none of your relatives still alive and the town you knew and grew up in has been heavily rebuilt. It could have been an episode of Twilight Zone or The Outer Limits.

Part Romance

It’s also part drama since they encounter a woman helping them to figure out what’s happened to them. There’s kind of a romance story that begs for a happy ending but until the very end, we’re not sure if we will get one or not. We – as an audience know how everything is connected of course, but the characters in the movie don’t and it’s the reality we follow. I think that the movie – The Philadelphia Experiment does it fine. But I also think that it might have been a better film when it originally came back. It’s certainly a dated piece of cinema. You can easily tell which time period it was made in.

The special effects have certainly not aged well but there is also that feel to the acting, the dialog, and the overall way of telling the story that was more typical for the 1980s than if it were a newly produced movie. I, on the other hand, probably liked it more now than when I saw it all those years ago. It has kind of a cult status and, as I said, it’s a decent movie but really nothing to write home about. It’s more of a nostalgic trip these days. A reference point that should be in every film buff’s consciousness.