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Ten years later Walker is an integral part of the TEC, mostly being shot back in time to prevent evil-doers from wrecking the fabric of space-time. On one of these missions Walker tangles with his partner, a TEC agent who's gone rogue and is busily buying shares during the Wall Street crash. Despite their professional relationship, Walker is determined to bring his man to justice. Interestingly, before they return to 2004, his prisoner reveals that he is being controlled by presidential candidate Senator McComb (Ron Silver). He won't stand as a witness but at least Walker is now alerted to the nefarious manipulation of McComb, and that half of the TEC force are compromised. Details get a little sketchy when McComb tours the TEC facilities, which he intends to disband, and implies that he knows what Walker knows. Perhaps this is why Walker gets assaulted in his apartment the following morning (a cue for gratuitous acrobatics).
After surviving this dawn attack, Walker finds that he's picked up a tenacious Internal Affairs officer, Fielding (Gloria Reuben). Since it was his partner who went bad Walker is now under some suspicion, which doesn't help when he tries to explain the situation to boss Matuzak (Bruce McGill). He only half believes that McComb is really raping the past for campaign funds, even though he'd like it to be true. However, when their instruments register a massive fluctuation in temporal energy (originating nearby), the arguments are clearly over. Walker and Fielding are thrust back a decade to pick up the perpetrators, who may or may not be connected to McComb. A succession of explosions later it looks as though Walker is in the position he likes best; just him against everyone else.
Whilst Timecop is a straightforward vehicle for Van Damme, it does manage to raise some interesting questions on the complications of time-travel. Disappointingly these are never actually resolved, just pushed aside when the action sequences roll into view. Since the episodes where Van Damme gets to jump in the air, do karate kicks and disable his opponents are the reason for watching Timecop it's strange that they aren't more exciting. Generally it's too dark to see much and, if you do, the choreography is hardly outstanding. When Van Damme does get round to killing some of the bad guys, in cartoon style, he does so with a quip. If only he had the comic instinct to pull these off, instead of expressing acting ability comparable to a railroad. The rest of the cast do their best with the limited script but there isn't much room for maneuver. While Timecop isn't absolutely dire, the risible dialogue and inability to remain self-consistent mean that there are better films on similar themes. I did like the rippling motion-through-time effect though!
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