| The Day Time Ended | |
| Director: | John Cardos |
| Producer: | Charles Band Paul Gentry Steve Neill Wayne Schmidt |
| Screenplay: | Wayne Schmidt J. Larry Carroll David Schmoeller |
| Story: | Steve Neill |
| Starring: | Jim Davis Dorothy Malone Christopher Mitchum Scott Kolden |
| Narrator: | Jim Davis |
| Music: | Richard Band |
| Cinematography: | John Arthur Morrill |
| Editing: | Ted Nicolaou |
| Distributor: | Compass International Pictures |
| Runtime: | 79 minutes |
| Country: | United States |
| Language: | English |
| Budget: | est. $600,000 |
The Day Time Ended is a 1980 American science fiction film directed by John 'Bud' Cardos and starring Jim Davis, Christopher Mitchum and Dorothy Malone.
The film was originally titled Earth's Final Fury; this was changed to Vortex, which was considered more likely to sell tickets. The final title came for unknown reasons.
A father and his elder son, an architect, welcome back the rest of their family from an extended vacation to a new, state-of-the-art home away from Los Angeles in the Sonoran Desert. Though there are news reports of a spectacular triple supernova and the young granddaughter has seen a glowing alien construction behind the barn, the family is at ease until later in the evening when UFOs soar overhead and appear to land in the nearby hills. Apparently, the triple supernova has opened a rift in space and time.
The family finds that something is interfering with their electrical power, and the granddaughter has a telepathic encounter with an extraterrestrial. The grandmother, too, sees one of these diminutive creatures beckoning to her, but it soon vanishes.
The grandfather, while trying to start the car, sees that a strange creature is approaching from the distance, and he goes inside the house to warn his family of that. Afterward, two horrific, alien monsters (both of a reptilian or amphibious nature) are locked in a fight to the death right outside the house. These creatures along with a small probe craft that resembles a camera, try to break in and get to the family. These threats are subsequently teleported away, presumably in a time warp event. They discover that they are somehow isolated from the passage of time.
In the course of the evening, the family: grandfather, grandmother, younger son, daughter-in-law, and granddaughter pack up to get away from their home, which is the center of the turmoil. The elder son tries to make his way back home from the city, but rushing UFOs cause him to crash his car. The family is separated: the grandparents with their younger son from the daughter-in-law, the granddaughter, and the elder son.
The daughter-in-law meets up with her father, mother, and brother-in-law, letting them know that all is well. She has been reunited with her husband and their daughter. Momentarily, they are all reunited before a domed city in the distance, and they decide to seek refuge there. The grandfather remarks that there must be a purpose to it all as the family walks toward the city.
The film was originally conceived by script writers Steve Neill, Paul Gentry, and Wayne Schmidt. The three offered a script for another project to producer Charles Band, who thought it was too expensive to make but offered to produce a science-fiction film if it was based in one or two locations.[1] The music score was done by Richard Band, Charles' brother. It was his first orchestral score, going to London to record with New London Symphony. 45 to 50 minutes of music was recorded during the six hour session. Months later, record label Varèse Sarabande contacted Band to make it a digital album, resulting it becoming the first digital soundtrack, beating out by two weeks.[2]
The movie was released on video cassette in 1997 under Charles Bands' Full Moon Studios as part of their "Cult Video" collection.[3]
In Creature Feature, the movie received 2 out of 5 stars, finding the effects nice and the cast watchable, but the story slight.[4] Bill Warren from Fantasy Newsletter criticized the film for having no story coherence, and spoke negatively of the stop-motion animation for having the wrong "movement-to-frame ratio", making the final result look like it was shot underwater.[5] TV Guide gave it one star, calling it "derivative" and "overly ambitious" while giving specific criticism towards its special effects and stop-motion animations.[6] Alan Jones for Radio Times also gave it one star, comparing the special effects to cardboard while calling the movie a "crudely assembled affair".[7] In 1980, Marcy Lafferty was nominated for "Best Supporting Actress" at the 7th Saturn Awards, but lost to Veronica Cartwright for Alien.[8]
Director John "Bud" Cardos did not speak favorably of his experience making the film and considers it his worst film he directed.[9]
The film is one of six movies featured in Season 12 of Mystery Science Theater 3000.[10]