“Major, we have saved your life. You could have been captured by the mutants.”

Drake’s rating: Is this a prequel to Planet of the Apes?

Drake’s review: Let me tell you, sometimes I know exactly how Wolverine feels. Not because I’m a jacked Canadian with adamantium bones and unbreakable claws, although that would be pretty darn cool. I’d never have to buy a hole punch again.

No, what truly makes me understand the plight of Wolverine, and the X-Men in general, is the seemingly endless amount of anti-mutant propaganda that makes its way into all sorts of media. I mean, I came into Beyond the Time Barrier looking for a cheap time travel flick and a quick review, because the High Lord of All Things Mutant keeps giving me the side eye and sighing heavily as my recent missives have crossed his desk. I think he’s getting tired of my constant forays into the 1970s. I know this, because when I showed up with Hooper tucked under my arm he literally growled, “The Seventies? Again?!!”

Far be it from me to ignore a subtle hint like that, so I went foraging for a little something from the previous decade and found what I thought to be a scifi romp fit for all ages. And it is just that, to a certain extent. But then the anti-mutant sentiment seeps in and you realize that Beyond the Time Barrier is caught up in the same hysteria that Magneto is always warning Professor X about.

So it’s just another day for Major Bill Allison (Robert Clarke, Frankenstein Island) as he takes his X-80 experimental jet on a test flight and manages to reach sub-orbital space. All is going well until he loses radio contact with his base, and he disappears from their radar. Still, Allison is fine and lands on the runway unharmed. What he finds, however, is a base that has been long abandoned, with buildings either in disrepair or simply falling apart. Even stranger, however, is the fact that there’s a futuristic city in the distance, one that was definitely not there when Allison took off a few hours ago.

There’s not much time to wonder about all of this, as the Major is quickly captured by the denizens of that city and brought before the Supreme (Vladimir Sokoloff, I Was a Teenage Werewolf), the leader of the local citizenry. Allison is questioned but his answers make no sense to the Supreme, and so he is imprisoned with a band of mutants who quiz him on movie trivia and ask him if he can churn out a thousand words about Raw Force on a two-hour deadline.

Oh, wait. Never mind, that’s what happened to me.

No, these mutants are a surly lot who can barely speak, although to be fair the majority of the city’s people, aside from the Supreme and his captain, are deaf and mute, so Allison at least gets a few answers while he’s imprisoned. He’s only left to cool his heels for about five minutes, though, since the Supreme’s granddaughter, Trirene (Darlene Tompkins, Blue Hawaii), has taken a shine to the good Major.

Trirene gets Allison sprung because she’s adorable and he’s handsome and they’d just make the cutest post-apocalyptic couple. Trirene shows him old photos of her family, and he finds out that her parents were killed by mutants, which is just blatant anti-mutant rhetoric. The mutants I know would more likely pester her parents with MST3K quotes and ask the eternally debated question, “Joel or Mike?”

In any event, Major Allison eventually finds out that he’s in the far-flung future of 2024, and everyone is living in a post-plague world. Which, huh. Yeah. I’ll give this flick a point for accuracy there. But Allison just might be able to get back to his own time and keep the plague from ever happening, since his X-80 is still sitting out there on the runway and evidently doesn’t need its fuel tanks topped up.

Beyond the Time Barrier isn’t too bad for a scifi cheapie, although even at a scant 75 minutes it tends to drag. Budgetary issues kept it restricted to a few sets, but it’s still a good-looking film, with a cast that’s more than capable of keeping the thin premise afloat. Still, it would have worked better in a shorter format as an episode of The Twilight Zone or The Outer Limits, and honestly could have used Rod Serling’s deft touch. There are a few plot twists here and there, but there’s no sense of urgency, and Allison lacks a clear motivation since he’s confused for far too long about where he truly is.

Quibbles aside, Beyond the Time Barrier is a surprisingly solid B-movie that showcases ideas that would later appear in more well-known works such as Star Trek and Planet of the Apes. It’s worth a watch if you’re in the mood for some low-budget fun from the early ‘60s, as long as you can ignore the anti-mutant sentiments.

I mean, sure, some of us do run around and terrorize the inhabitants of futuristic cities, but that’s really only a weekend thing.

Intermission!

• Star Wars-y credit sequence with the titles fading at the top. I wonder if a young George Lucas saw this?
• Weeds everywhere. Gardening is a thing of the past by 2024.
• I know that CGI can make a more believable future city, but those old matte paintings were cool.
• Mutant riot! This actually happens every year after Movie Swap week.
• Fight choreography by Jimmy Smith of Mrs. King’s third-grade class.
• And a twist ending! Maybe a baby M. Night Shyamalan was watching this with a teenage George Lucas.