Jumper (novel)

A Coming of Age Story sci-fi story by Steven Gould about a teenager who finds out he can teleport and his attempts to find out if he's the Last of His Kind. Adapted into a 2008 film about people (mutants?) who can teleport round the world, and the bad-guys who chase them.

The novel has a little known sequel called Reflex, where Davy is kidnapped and Millie must track him. Oh, she unconsciously learned how to jump.

If you were looking for a game, then look no further.


 * Author Appeal: At one point in the novel, one of the teenagers who tried to seduce Davy while drunk hawks Alanon (Alcoholics Anonymous... for the affected family and friends). Davy is a complete teetotaler, and often tips generously or tries to help out those who are less fortunate. Apparently becomes something of a character weakness in the sequel, Reflex, but it's still heavily present.
 * Abusive Parents: A major subplot of the book that was largely left out of the film. Davy leaves his abusive father and has to come to terms with how the abuse had affected his and his mother's life. Leaving home was why he even Jumped in the first place!
 * It was in the movie, or at least implied. And forgotten about, halfway through
 * Adaptation Decay: The movie makes jumping seem a lot sloppier than the book does. The characters in the book learn the hard way that it is vital to jump to and from vacant spots, and they can only jump to places they remember well. This makes the jumper duel in the movie (they even jump on the busy street) and the scene where Griffin jumps on a freaking moving bus extremely stupid.
 * All There in the Manual: How the Jumpers' powers work varies according to the adaptation and what effects accompany it are often left ambiguous. In the film, Jumping seems to involve a compression effect with surrounding matter, best observed when David moves an entire apartment. This has the effect of particularly unfocused Jumps shattering concrete on arrival. Griffin also uses this offensively by Jumping rapidly while closing the distance between himself and Roland. When he makes contact, he's built up enough force to punch the man through a wall.
 * It is even more inconsistent in the movie than the book. In the book, it is shown that the jumper and whatever object he's carrying with him loses momentum when they reappear (that's how they survive falls). In the movie, the characters also survive falls by jumping, but this apparently doesn't apply to object. Griffin jumps a moving bus from the street to a desert to crush Roland, and is able to Jump a moving car with no apparent problem.
 * Notably, the punch scene in the film is consistent with the book. Just as Griffin Jumps to punch out a Templar in the film, he does something similar in the book by Jumping prior to hitting a bully. The bully is sent flying and is knocked out instantly, to Griffin's surprise.
 * Alternate Continuity: The books and the film.
 * Ancient Conspiracy: An entire one revolving around killing teleporters and inventing technology to stop them.
 * Anti-Hero: David in the film. He doesn't do anything decent or morally right with his power, instead using it to rob banks and otherwise facilitate his hedonistic lifestyle. In the book, it's a little better. Davy robs the Chemical Bank of New York after trying (and failing) multiple times to get a legit job. Which he can't, because he's only a teenager with no ID. Although he still excuses it (he rationalizes that the money he took is chump change to the bank) and lives well off the cash, and even then, he has lots of problems without a bank account until he meets his mother's lawyer.
 * Also, Griffin. A cold killer whose parents were murdered by the Paladins, giving him a motive to go to war with them.
 * Calling the Old Man Out: After spending the whole novel afraid or resenting his father... Davy jumps the old man to his mother's grave, gives him a Hannibal Lecture, and forces him to finally join AA and sober up.
 * The Cameo: Kristen Stewart as
 * Canon Immigrant: Griffin, who wasn't in the novels, but did get a book based on the film.
 * Character Development: The stated point of David's selfishness. Doug Liman was tired of standard Superhero philosophy; he wanted to see one develop. In the beginning, he's a timid teenager with an abusive father. After his Super Empowering, he's a world-class thief who lives in a penthouse apartment. When the Paladins catch up to him, all he wants to do is "save his own ass". The near-miss fails to educate him, and he, he sticks his neck out for the first time. Time will tell if he goes further.
 * City of Weirdos: During the jumper duel, nobody notices the two men that appear out of nowhere and are wrestling in the street.
 * Comes Great Responsibility: Defied Trope. Neither Davy nor his pal seem to care about using their teleportation powers to help "Muggles".
 * Did Not Do the Research: Every time the movie shows Griffin's hideout - a ruin in Arabia - it is the darkest night. But during the jumping battle, they somehow end up at the top of the Great Pyramid in broad daylight, mere moments after they left the hideout.
 * Everyone in Ann Arbor, Michigan somehow gets NY1 on their TV sets, despite Ann Arbor being far from New York City.
 * Die or Fly: David first jumps to escape drowning.
 * Everything's Even Worse with Sharks: In the movie, Griffin explains that he knows of a reef with an active school of sharks where he leaves the agents that attack him.
 * Guns Are Worthless: The Paladins use hybrid Grappling Hook Gun-Stun Guns because when a conventional bullet hits the "Jump Scar" left in the wake of a teleport, it spins off in a random direction. Its All There in the Manual.
 * Have You Tried Not Being a Monster?
 * Hey, It's That Guy!: Michael Rooker is the abusive father in the film.
 * High Altitude Interrogation: Overlaps with Not the Fall That Kills You. Davey does this to but in a particularly nasty way. Davey can teleport, so he teleports the guy to the top of the World Trade Center, drops him, and teleports down to catch him just before he hits the ground. Then he does it again, and again, letting him get closer to the ground with each drop...
 * Holier Than Thou: Roland Cox.
 * In Name Only: The movie.
 * Kick the Dog: Roland vs. Griffin. As he approaches him he shouts; "Time to send you home to Mommy!" Roland was the one who killed Griffin's parents. However, this hits his Berserk Button, cuing a teleporting charge of Unstoppable Rage, where Griffin punches Roland through a wall.
 * Knight Templar: Roland Cox, and indeed all the Paladins.
 * A Man Is Not a Virgin: Subverted. Davy is a virgin at the start of the novel.
 * Played straight in the movie though. He's (presumably) a virgin at the beginning, since he's like 15, but once he grows up into Hayden Christensen, he teleports to England and lays a British chick.
 * As pointed out here, you gotta wonder how him gaining these powers made him more attractive to women. He's not exactly showing off his abilities. She simply decides to go home with a strange American who happens to walk into a pub after a few minutes of conversation. Either she's out for some easy, non-commital sex, or living as a jumper has given him tons of confidence (which he loses after Roland curbstomps him).
 * Meganekko: Millie.
 * Missing Mom: In the book, Davy's mom leaves father and son because of the abuse. Just when the two are starting to reconcile, . In the film:
 * Mundane Utility: Davy uses Jumping to travel the world and make moving faster. Taken to an extreme in the film, where he would rather Jump to his television remote on the other side of the couch rather than physically move to it. Roland comments that he seems to use it so much it's probably been a while since he actually used a door.
 * Near-Rape Experience: Davy, by a trucker. It's the second time he jumps.
 * The Obi-Wan: Griffin. He's the only one who knows what's going on, and he's the only one actually effective in any scene but one.
 * Older Sidekick: Millie, in the book. Sort of.
 * Pragmatic Adaptation: The book spans about one year of David's life as a teleporter, during which he  At this point, David has his Super-Hero Origin and can begin to kick ass - after three fourths of the book. The movie manages to adapt just about all of this (swapping terrorists for Church Militants) with room for several Fight Scenes, and even set up a few sequel hooks. As it made nearly a quarter billion dollars from its $85 million budget, a sequel is inevitable. Doug Liman has a trilogy planned.
 * Required Secondary Powers: Jumping not only teleports the person, but all the matter around them, otherwise Telefraging would be a big problem. David's first few teleportations result in damage to his surroundings because he hasn't streamlined the process, resulting in blasts of compressed air cracking the floor every time he Jumps into a building.
 * Teleport Spam: Primary method of Jumping combat, obviously.
 * Too Soon: Likely why the villains were no longer plane-hijacking Islamic Extremists in the movie.
 * Van Helsing Hate Crimes: The Paladins are a sort of Van Helsing Ku Klux Klan.
 * Wife-Basher Basher: David in the book. Though it's more because his father used to beat him and his mother.