Like an acid flashback, or a UFO abduction, recently I’ve been remembering fragments of a strange TV-movie from the 80’s. It’s so bizarre that if you’ve seen it, you’d probably remember it.
In it, a jet pilot somehow enters a mirror universe. It’s a mirror in the sense that his house has been reversed (he makes wrong turns going through it), and all the writing is backwards.
The only other thing that I remember is the film also starred Lorne Greene, who ends the film by slamming his wheelchair into a wall-sized mirror in order to… well, I don’t know. Return to mirror-world? Destory the portal? Kill himself?
I was a kid when this aired -- I'm sure I only recognized Greene because of Battlestar Galactica -- but I'm positive I'm not making it up.
Can anyone help?
http://us.imdb.com/Name?Greene,+Lorne
See if one of the descriptions rings a bell. None of them sound remotely like what you’ve decribed, at least to me, but…<shrugs>
There’s a feature in the pull down menu for plots, so if you conclude that he’s not actually in the movie, you might find it through the plot point search.
The title is Doppelganger (released as Journey To The Far Side Of The Sun in the United States). It was made in 1969 by British producer Gerry Anderson, known more widely for his Supermarionation series such as Stingray, Thunderbirds, Captain Scarlet and Joe 90.
Incidentally, the character you remember slamming his wheelchair into a mirror was British actor Patrick Wymark, not Lorne Greene.
Whoops, almost forgot the obligatory link: Journey To The Far Side Of The Sun DVD
I remember that movie. sort of. The other world was a mirror earth that orbited exactly 180 degrees away from earth. It was discovered by a space probe so they sent the astronaut there and when he arrived, he discovered it really was a mirror earth, and the duplicates there had sent out his duplicate to try and reach earth. right handed people were left handed there, etc.
Although Patrick Wymark was in the movie, I’m pretty sure it was Herbert Lom in the wheelchair at the end. Of course, it’s been about thirty years since I’ve seen it.
The only thing I remember about that movie is the end, when the astronaut, thinking he’s back on Earth, is driving along with his wife (girlfriend) and almost causes an accident because he’s driving on the wrong side of the road (and half wondering what’s going on), and the aforementioned crashing of guy in wheelchair into the mirror.
The movie had some interesting elements. Two scenes were particularly memorable to me:
– The spy who had a miniature camera mounted in a removable glass eye - he’d tap his temple as if concentrating carefully in order to snap microphotographs of documents, and later in the privacy of his bathroom pop the eye out and develop the film.
– The argument between the atronaut and his wife where she claims she can’t get pregnant because solar radiation has made him sterile, and he confronts her with a package of birth control pills she’s been taking behind his back.
[Fanderson](http://www.fanderson.org.uk/prodguides/movies2.html#Film Four) has a pretty good treatment of the film (and a full cast listing to boot). But notice how the theatrical poster in no way resembles the actual movie; perhaps Universal was a bit too eager to capitalize on the non-existent connection to Apollo.
Thank you, KoalaBear and others.
I’m particularly impressed that I asked you to name an 80’s TV-movie starring Lorne Greene, and you identified it even though it wasn’t from the 80’s, it wasn’t a TV-movie, and it didn’t star Lorne Greene.
The Amazon.com review makes it seem like a pretty good film with exceptional effects. I obviously didn't appreciate it when I first saw it, so I'll have to rent it. I'm sure the occasional deja-vu feelings will only enhance the film's creepiness.
Thanks again.