Trancers - Watch Order: Release Order

Other Watch Orders:
1984 - 20026 Films8h 15m2.4 Average

The Trancers series is a low-budget sci-fi action franchise starring Tim Thomerson as Jack Deth, a tough-talking cop from the 23rd century who travels through time to hunt down Trancers - zombie-like creatures controlled by the villainous Whistler. The series spans six films, combining time travel, interdimensional adventure, and mostly straight-to-video production values.

This release order watch list follows Jack Deth's complete journey from his initial mission in 1980s Los Angeles through alternate dimensions and into the next generation. The films maintain a consistent timeline and narrative progression, making release order the natural way to experience the entire franchise, though quality drops off significantly in the later sequels.

Linear Timeline: Release Order = Story Order

1
Trancers poster

Trancers

19841h 17m3.1
Director: Charles Band
Cast: Tim Thomerson, Helen Hunt, Biff Manard, Michael Stefani, Art LaFleur

Angel City trooper Jack Deth is sent back in time from 2247 to 1985 L.A. to inhabit the body of his ancestor. Deth's assignment is to find his archenemy, Whistler, who turns people into zombies, before the fiend is able to kill all the ancestors of the future's governing council.

Science FictionCrime
2
Trancers II: The Return of Jack Deth poster

Trancers II: The Return of Jack Deth

19911h 25m2.9
Director: Charles Band
Cast: Tim Thomerson, Helen Hunt, Megan Ward, Biff Manard, Martine Beswick

Once again someone from the future has come back to create an army of Trancers, human zombies who do what they're told without question or pause. Now officer Jack Deth, a cop from the future stranded in the past, must once again go forth to stop them. This sci-fi action sequel chronicles his courageous actions as he struggles to save the future. His difficulties are compounded when his boss sends his first wife back from the future to help Deth who has unfortunately, married a 20th-century girl.

ActionScience FictionThriller
3
Trancers 3: Deth Lives poster

Trancers 3: Deth Lives

19921h 14m2.9
Director: C. Courtney Joyner
Cast: Tim Thomerson, Melanie Smith, Andrew Robinson, Tony Pierce, Dawn Ann Billings

A time traveling cop, Jack Deth, from the future is taken back to the past to be given the task of destroying the Trancer program before it has a chance to get out of control, sending the world into a state of chaos and war.

ActionScience FictionThriller
4
Trancers 4: Jack of Swords poster

Trancers 4: Jack of Swords

19941h 23m2.2
Director: David Nutter
Cast: Tim Thomerson, Stacie Randall, Ty Miller, Terri Ivens, Mark Arnold

Jack is now back in the future. He had since lost Lena, and finds out that he's lost his other wife Alice to none other than Harris. While heading out for another assignment, something goes awry with the TCL chamber. Jack finds himself in a whole new dimension. He also runs across a different version of trancers. These guys seem to be in control of this planet. Jack manages to assist a rebel group known as the "Tunnel Rats" crush the rule of the evil Lord Calaban.

Science FictionAction
5
Trancers 5: Sudden Deth poster

Trancers 5: Sudden Deth

19941h 31m1.7
Director: David Nutter
Cast: Tim Thomerson, Stacie Randall, Ty Miller, Terri Ivens, Mark Arnold

Jack Deth is back for one more round with the trancers. Jack must attempt to find his way home from the other-dimensional world of Orpheus, where magic works and the trancers were the ruling class (before Trancers IV, that is). Unfortunately, Jack's quest to find the mystical Tiamond in the Castle of Unrelenting Terror may be thwarted by the return of Caliban, king of the trancers who was thought dead.

ActionThrillerScience FictionComedy
6
Trancers 6: Life After Deth poster

Trancers 6: Life After Deth

20021h 25m1.4
Director: Jay Woelfel
Cast: Zette Sullivan, Jennifer Capo, Robert Donavan, Timothy Prindle, Jere Jon

In a return to the groundbreaking original film's premise, Jack Deth is back - traveling back in time and into the body of his own daughter, Josephine, on a mission to save her life and save the world from the most lethal Trancers yet. Jack/Jo must adapt and survive being a girl while avoiding many assassination attempts by more powerful and dangerous zombie-like Trancers than he's ever faced before.

Science FictionActionHorror