Retro Movie Review: TSJ Reviews FREQUENCY from the Year 2000 |

Retro Movie Review: TSJ Reviews Frequency from the Year 2000

Today at Life After Gateway, I wanted to spotlight a Science Fiction film from the year 2000: Frequency, starring Dennis Quaid and Jim Caviezel, written by Toby Emmerich, and directed by Gregory Hoblit (Primal Fear).

Here’s the page at IMDB, where the film has a 7.4/10 with 122,000 ratings.

The story in Frequency is both compelling and unique: during a freak sunspot storm, accompanied by intense “Northern Lights” in the NE United States, a firefighter in 1969 NYC and an NYPD cop in 1999 somehow connect via ham radio signal. The catch? They are father and son, separated by thirty years but living in the same house and using the same radio setup.

But to make things even more gripping, while speaking to each other in the evenings over the span of just a few days, they accidentally change history, and a serial killer operating in 1969 called “The Nightingale Killer” — targeting nurses — murders the mother. Now the father and son must work together — across three decades — to save future victims before they are killed, and also save the mom from the killer’s grasp.

Concurrently, during October of 1969, residents of the city were celebrating the World Series and the “Amazin’ Mets,” who were facing off against the Baltimore Orioles. This all melds into the “time travelling” narrative, involving family, friends, and coworkers, and a series of murder mysteries to solve.

The explanation behind the bizarre communication is not addressed, but it’s not needed. All we need to understand is that it’s happening; the reason why is not what the film is about. As a writer, I can get behind this. Another movie might feature scientists investigating the causes and so on. But this film is about a father and son investigating a mystery across time.

Communicating across thirty years

It’s a gripping narrative that on paper might sound unrealistic, but director Hoblit pulls it off and makes things absolutely believable and tense. Moreover, he manages to switch from 1969 to 1999 and back again within the same scenes and make it completely understandable to the viewer. Technology (phones, televisions, etc.), music, automobiles, hairstyles and clothing cues give the time periods away. The viewer has to pay attention to what’s happening, but it all makes perfect sense and tells a cohesive narrative.

Quaid is a NYC firefighter in 1969

The murderer is also a mystery here. There are a few suspects, and a few red herrings, as any good mystery should have. The serial killer story seems secondary at first, before it explodes into the forefront in the final hour of the film when the two leads have to pursue clues and discover the identity. Quaid, in 1969, is not a police officer, so he is hesitant to pursue the leads that his son is sending from the future. He does, however, because his wife’s life is on the line, and plot complications keep piling up for them.

Here is a scene from the film, embedded below. One of the interesting elements to the movie is that in 1999, after history is changed, Jim Caviezel’s character remembers both timelines: the original, where there are no changes, and the new one, after his Dad has changed the past. Caviezel can therefore direct his father to try and correct things. Credit to YouTube channel R1093P for the clip.

In addition to the compelling story, there is a strong undercurrent of emotion in Frequency. The father’s early death is a thread that the two tackle, as is the son’s troubled relationship with a girlfriend, who walks out on him early in the movie. The father/son dynamic is strong, demonstrated by their shared love of family and also baseball, and this is a film that if you have not seen, you should give a chance.

Frequency is a powerful and emotional film with unique and interesting twists and turns.

TSJ’s review of Frequency: 8/10

(Note: the Frequency story was remade for a television series on the CW network in 2016, but I have not seen it.)

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A Blanket of Steel by Timothy S. Johnston and from Fitzhenry & Whiteside, LTD. is the recipient of the 2024 GLOBAL Thriller Award GRAND PRIZE and the 2024 CYGNUS Award First in Category.

— Timothy S. Johnston, 5 February 2026

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Praise for Timothy S. Johnston’s A Blanket of Steel

“Fans of Clive Cussler’s NUMA Files will be delighted with Timothy S. Johnston’s undersea novels. Truman McClusky and Dirk Pitt are cut from the same adventurer’s cloth.” — Nick Cutter, author of The Deep and The Troop

“Action that ranges from close range combat to torpedo-fueled attacks. The result is a thriller that keeps moving from confrontation to confrontation … with constant danger and the vast depths of the ocean as a setting, there is always reason to keep reading.” — Kirkus Reviews

“Read the book and prepare to be blown away by one of the best writers I have ever had the pleasure to read. Timothy S. Johnston is simply amazing.” — FIVE Stars from Readers’ Favorite

“A Blanket of Steel is not simply a ‘daring do’ thriller … It’s prescient.” — Amazing Stories

“A priority selection. An action-packed story that is hard to put down. A Blanket of Steel is outstanding.” — D. Donovan, Sr. Reviewer, Midwest Book Review

“Innovative technology, Mac taking risks no one else would dare and thinking his way through to brilliant solutions … But the stakes are higher than they’ve ever been before. This is it. The countdown to the final battle … Johnston does an excellent job of keeping the tension taut as he plays with the reader’s perceptions of characters we thought we knew and trusted …” — SFcrowsnest

“Expect to be left breathless. Trust me here. Please. I COULD NOT PUT IT DOWN.” — Michael Libling, author of The Serial Killer’s Son Takes A Wife and Hollywood North: A Novel in Six Reels

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A BLANKET OF STEEL is out now!

WATCH THE GRIPPING BOOK TRAILER HERE.

FOR PURCHASE OPTIONS CLICK HERE

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A Blanket of Steel from Timothy S. Johnston and Fitzhenry & Whiteside, Ltd.

Book Cover & Jacket Copy:

AN UNSTOPPABLE THREAT!

A mysterious assassin has murdered Cliff Sim, Chief Security Officer of the underwater colony, Trieste. Cliff was a mountain of a man, highly trained, and impossible to defeat in combat. And yet …

Someone brutally beat him and left his broken body in a secret Chinese facility at the bottom of the Pacific Ocean.

And included a calling card for Truman McClusky, Mayor of Trieste.

Taunting him.

Mac has led the underwater colonies in their fight against the world’s superpowers. Climate change has devastated the surface; nations suffer famine, drought, rebellion, rising waters, and apocalyptic coastal flooding. But now, as Mac leads the underwater colonies to freedom and independence, he’s faced with the gravest threat of his life: a Russian assassin, hellbent on killing Mac and everyone he cares for. Now Mac must uncover the identity of the killer, face him in combat, and at the same time lead people in battle against the largest underwater force ever assembled. It’s Mac’s final test, and to win the war, he must use every tool at his disposal, including the most surprising and devastating underwater weapons ever invented.

If Mac fails, all hope is lost for the future of human colonization on the ocean floors.

But the assassin could be anyone …

Watch your back, Mac.

A Blanket of Steel is the most gripping thriller yet in The Rise of Oceania.

FOR PURCHASE OPTIONS CLICK HERE

The other books in The Rise of Oceania series by Timothy S Johnston:

The War Beneath 9781771484718
The Savage Deeps 9781771485067
Fatal Depth 9781554555574
An Island of Light 9781554555819
The Shadow of War 9781554556007