Spoiler for Race to Witch Mountain (2009)

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Race to Witch Mountain (2009) [PG]
W.I.P. Scale™ Rating: $10.75
| Released on: 3/13/2009 | Running Time: 98 minutes |
| official web site | | preview trailer | |coverage of premiere |
| soundtrackSteve Rushton - Race to Witch Mountain (Soundtrack from the Motion Picture) | | buy the book
| | complete review || 2cOrNot2c |


Directed by: Andy Fickman (The Game Plan)
Screenplay By: Matt Lopez (The Wild) and Mark Bomback (Live Free or Die Hard)with story by Matt Lopez
Based on the Book, Escape to Witch Mountain
 by Alexander Key
Unsung Member of the Crew: Loader – Russ Miller

Featured Cast: (where you might remember him/her from)
Dwayne Johnson (Get Smart) • AnnaSophia Robb (Jumper) • Alexander Ludwig (The Seeker: The Dark Is Rising) • Carla Gugino (Watchmen) • Ciarán Hinds (Stop-Loss) • Tom Everett Scott (Because I Said So) • Chris Marquette (The Invisible) • Billy Brown (Lakeview Terrace) • Kim Richards (Escape to Witch Mountain) • Ike Eisenmann (Escape to Witch Mountain)

Spoiler Points for Race to Witch Mountain (2009)
If the junkyard dog sitting next to you got a little feisty causing you to flee the theatre mid-film to avoid getting rabies, then this spoiler is for you.

• Government satellites detect the crash of a large object in the Nevada desert outside Las Vegas. Despite setting up a huge corridor around the site, Henry Burke’s (Ciarán Hinds) men are unable to capture the bipedal, possibly humanoid aliens who fled the craft.
• Jack Bruno (Dwayne Johnson) is a down on his luck former mob boss driver who’s now driving a cap and trying to make ends meet. He gets into an altercation with some of the mob boss’ men who say that the Boss will decide when he’s done driving and not the other way around. He variously picks up a couple of Star Wars® Stormtroopers and then a scientist named Dr. Alex Friedman (Carla Gugino) all of whom are in town for the annual sci-fi convention.
• One fateful morning, Jack gets in his cab and finds it filled with two siblings: Sarah (AnnaSophia Robb) and Seth (Alexander Ludwig). Meanwhile, Burke’s crack squad has figured out that the aliens are kids and traced them to Jack’s cab.
• Sarah and Seth give Jack instructions on where to take them and the wad of cash they extracted from and ATM which allowed the government to have visual confirmation of their appearances.
• As the head off, the gov’t men whom Jack presumes are the Boss’ men after him arrive in ominous black vehicles in hot pursuit. They fight on the road, with Jack’s skills coming in handy until finally, at last, Seth has to allow himself to pass through the cab and out in to the road in the path of the oncoming SUV. [This is a scene straight from the preview you may feel free to watch at this time.] He stops the SUV as it hits him and is obliterated into tiny pieces leaving on the internal compartment housing the passengers intact. Jack cannot believe his eyes, gets out and goes to yell at the men. Burke is obnoxious to him telling him he has no idea who he’s protecting. The three then head off again in the Taxi with Sarah admitting they are not from this world, and Seth certain they cannot trust this Jack Bruno or any human to help them. Still, he presses to drop them off at their desired location which turns out to be an abandoned house. They give him the money and he starts to leave until he notices they way over-tipped him. He enters the house and find them in distress. We see a shadowy figure in the background. Seth determines that someone has already been there. They search and find a refrigerator doorway. Then enter and pass through to a secret passageway. Jack does not immediately follow. They then open another doorway and Jack comes along. They end up inside a cave that’s filled with odd life. They reach into a gooey plant and pull out an electronic device. Just then the Siphon (Tom Woodruff Jr.) appears and starts laser blasting them.
• After some fighting and running they get back to the cab and speed away. But then Jack wants answers. They explain to him that their planet has been dying for a while but that scientists had been working on a way to heal the planet including their parents. That earth was discovered as a possible planet on the same path, but earlier and that experiments could be set up to test outcomes. All hope was lost until one of the experiments succeeded. But, by then, the planet’s military had decided it would be better just to go and take over earth and conquer it as their new home world. Seth and Sarah’s parents were imprisoned. So, Seth and Sarah decided to go to earth themselves to pick up the experimental results and return to save their parents. Just as Jack’s starting to get the whole story, the Siphon shoots at them from his ship. The eventually escape by hiding in a train tunnel. They inadvertently cause a huge train wreck as the Siphon’s ship then collides with the train. T
• They explain that the Siphon is a warrior from their home world who will stop at nothing but the completion of it’s mission – in this case: to catch Sarah and Seth.
• The cap has suffered and is nearly inoperable. So they pull into a small town. Jack convinces a local mechanic to fix the cab using the money given to him by Sarah and Seth. They enter a diner for some dinner. Kim Richards (the original Tia from the original film) serves as Tina their waitress. Sheriff Antony, played by Ike Eisenmann – Tony from the original film – and his men arrive for a bite to eat as well. Then, of course, the Feds arrive having located the spot using cell phone triangulation achieved by having Jack’s boss call him. Tina helps the trio escape out the roof and Antony serves to keep the Feds at bay having received an hidden gun tip from Jack. He stops Burke and demands identification.
• With the cab sort of fixed, they leave with the aid of dog named Junkyard (Buck) who then joins their quest. What the kids don’t know is that Burke called him and gave him an opportunity to give them up in exchange for Burke wiping his record clean.
• They need to get to their space craft and get home, but they don’t know where the government moved it. Jack thinks Dr. Alex Friedman can help them. So they head to Vegas and the Planet Hollywood Casino for the convention. There they find Alex, convince her they are legit, locate her rival Dr. Donald Harlan (Gary Marshall, obtain intel that their ship is now at Witch Mountain – a top-secret and very secure gov’t base, and narrowly escape the clutches of the Siphon and the Feds. They head off in Harlan’s Winnebago® fooling the feds and everyone else. Unfortunately, Burke concludes they’ll be heading to Witch Mountain. He leaves and sets up a trap for the group.
• Seth and Sarrah are captured using dart guns and Alex and Jack are escorted off the base. Seth and Sarah are prepped for medical examination.
• Jack and Alex escape their off-base transport and head back to rescue Seth and Sarah. As they eventually get into the base and find the kids, they need a distraction which ultimately comes in the form of the Siphon who starts blasting up the place. Alex and Jack then sneak in, knock out the scientists, and rescue Sarah and Seth from certain harm. They then work to find the ship. Burke returns to find the kids gone and realizes they will go tot he ship.
• Alex persuades the men guarding the ship to leave or face contamination. Seth and Sarah open the ship and get it operational as Burke arrives to thank them for their assistance in getting the ship working. He threatens to shoot them, and then the men fire on them. Somehow Seth blocks the attack. The Siphon arrives to put everyone on notice. He starts firing away at everyone. They enter the ship, and start their escape. Sensors indicate the that a hull door won’t close. Jack goes to find the problem and encounters the Siphon. They battle, Seth leaves Alex to fly the ship with Sarah and find out what happened to Jack. Eventually, they toss the Siphon down the exhaust portal to its destruction. The kids drop off Alex and Jack leaving them with Junkyard and a device so they will always be able to find them. Then they fly off into space.
• Alex and Jack write a book about their experience with Seth and Sarah called, Race to Witch Mountain and become very famous. Jack gets the Mustang he’s always wanted and the two drive off into the distance when the device starts to chime.

Imponderables: [add your own in the comment section below]

• How is Seth, who can change his molecular density to prevent an SUV from crashing into him, unable to stop a tranquilizing dart from piercing his neck?

• When they are captured, Seth and Sarah are re-outfitted in white garb for the government testing. Why on earth are they also outfitted with fancy, silver-trimmed boots?

• How does the Siphon keep finding them?

• If Jack knows the government is after him and the kids, why does he answer the cell phone call from his boss?

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