Somewhere in Time

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Someday in the past, he will find her...

A 1980 film adaptation of Richard Matheson's Bid Time Return.

Even if you have Single-Target Sexuality, you just might give up after finding out that your One True Love lives in a different time period, but that doesn't stop Richard Collier (Christopher Reeve), who, for lack of a better description, manages to psych himself back in time. The space-time continuum is just no match for The Power of Love.

Richard arrives in The Edwardian Era when stage actress Elise McKenna (Jane Seymour) was visiting the same vintage hotel he was staying at in The Eighties. However, her overprotective manager (Christopher Plummer) won't hear of anyone romancing his star.

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Tropes used in Somewhere in Time include:

• Bittersweet Ending: Richard dies of grief after being separated from Elise and returned to his own time, but is reunited with Elise in heaven.
• The Constant: Arthur.
• Creator Cameo: Richard Matheson appears as the 1912 man who stares at Arthur following the latter's less-than-successful attempt to shave with a straight razor. ("Astonishing!")
• The Edwardian Era: 1912 scenes.
• The Eighties: 1980 scenes. Okay, the very early Eighties.
• Enforced Method Acting: The first time Richard sees Elise's picture was also the first time Christopher Reeve had seen it. The director wanted his genuine reaction.
• Fade to White
• Fantastic Romance
• Fashions Never Change: Subverted: Elise informs Richard that his suit is 15 years out of style.
• Film of the Book
• Forgotten Theme Tune Lyrics: A post-film example -- the theme was given lyrics in The Nineties and turned into a song of the same title for Michael Crawford. It appears on the soundtrack to his Las Vegas show EFX!, where it served as a prerecorded prelude due to its fantasy theme, but it's easy to interpret the first-person lyrics as coming from Richard's point of view.
• Gorgeous Period Dress: Elise wears some magnificent examples of late-Edwardian (1910 to 1914) couture.
• Have We Met Yet?
• Her Heart Will Go On: Unusual in that the story is seen from the man's perspective.
• Love Before First Sight
• Nostalgia Heaven: Richard and Elise are reunited in Fluffy Cloud Heaven upon Richard's death.
• Opera Gloves: Elise wears these seemingly half the entire length of her screen time in the film.
• The Red Stapler: Many fans of the film now take vacations to the Frozen in Time Mackinac Island, Michigan (where the movie was filmed) to expand their understanding of the setting.
  • Expand their understanding of the setting...so, to discover that the movie portrayed the island totally inaccurately by making it appear accessible by bridge and having the characters drive around in motorized vehicles?
  • Since when is Mackinac Island Frozen in Time? There's a Starbucks there as of August 2011.
• The Seventies: 1972 scenes.
• Single-Target Sexuality: Richard and Elise.
• Something We Forgot: Richard apparently didn't check his pockets.
• Stable Time Loop: The watch.
  • The portrait of Elise that Richard falls in love with also works something like this: after he's travelled back in time and she's falling in love with him, the reason she looks so happy and beautiful in the photograph is because she sees him while it's being taken.
• Time Travel
• Time Travel Romance
• Throw It In: In-universe. Elise gets lost in her lines in the play, during a scene discussing love; she instead begins daydreaming about finding her (Elise's) real true love. Unfortunately the effect is more awkward and stilted than romantic, at least for anyone who is not Richard. The other actress looks uncomfortable, and Elise's manager is none too thrilled.
• Together in Death: Anti-climax: Richard's abrupt separation from Elise upon unfortunate reminder from his own timeline. Penny for your thoughts? REEEEEEE-chard!!!
• The Windy City
• Your Universe or Mine?
• You Already Changed the Past adapted, as this is discovered before going back, not after; resulting in VujaDe.