B-Movie Inspirations: Dimension 5 (1966)

A rare opportunity to see Jeffrey Powers outside of his usual cowboy roles, this movie interested me for it’s sci-fi and espionage aspects. Watching the trailer, it has be at “.. action, adventure and electronic espionage!” At first you are introduced to Justin Power (played by Jeffrey Hunter of Star Trek The Cage) in a James Bond style chase up a mountain road somewhere in what I would guess is South America. At some point in the chase, Powers uses some kind of teleport device to escape being shot.
We later find out that it is a time device developed by scientists of Espionage, Inc., Power’s employer. This is where things get real similar to James Bond – cool gadgets, global threats and Powers is told by his superiors that the mission he just returned from was a dry run for the time device – a device that fits around his waster – and now they are going go on a real mission to go up against an Asian crime ring called Dragon. Headed by crime lord Big Buddha, they have discovered that Dragon plans to destroy Los Angeles unless the United States pulls its forces out from Southeast Asia.
At one point, Powers uses the Time Travel device to “preview” an assassination of a key asset and then change it based on what he observed. So the time travel device is simply meant to be used in the short term. Later in the film, the max it can travel is about 8 weeks, but fore the most part, they travel in terms of either seconds, minutes and hours. I found this idea interesting and inspired.
The movie goes through many of the tropes you would expect for a made for TV James Bond film and kind of ends abruptly with a twist that didn’t really make a lot of sense. Unexpectedly, Big Buddha’s mute servant girl turns on him and eventually stabs him, not even giving the heroes the satisfaction of getting the big bad. Nothing in the movie stood out to me that would have clued me into that but maybe I missed it.
This movie felt like a movie pilot and probably was going to be one at some point. A show based on this concept could have done well based on the success of shows like Time Tunnel, Time Cop and Time Traks, just to name a few.
From an RPG stand point, the device could be used in a manner that puts the characters in a position to remember details. It doesn’t have to be a modern or sci-fi setting – it could just as easily be a fantasy setting with a magic item that does the same thing. A one shot where the players have this ability somehow could be very interesting.