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The2024seriesTime Banditsis an update of the 1981 movie of the same name, and in many ways, the show and the movie have a lot in common. They both focus on a misunderstood 11-year-old boy named Kevin (Craig Warnock in the movie; Kal-El Tuck in the series), they both feature a band of six so-so bandits, and they both involve Kevin and the bandits jumping through portals to go back and forth between time periods. But there’s one way in which the series and film diverge: the fate of Kevin’s parents.
In this article, we’ll tell you about the similar stories told intheTime Banditsshowand movie, share the end of theTime Banditsmovie, and tell you how theTime Banditsseries changes the ending.
What the Time Bandits Show and Movie Are About
Time Bandits
Terry Gilliam’s fantasy filmTime Bandits, which he co-wrote with anotherMonty Python member, Michael Palin, and the seriesTime Bandits, which was created by Taika Waititi, Jemaine Clement, and Iain Morris, are very similar in many ways. While Gilliamtold The Playlistthat he’s not a fan of the fact that the show didn’t use little people as the six bandits as his film did, other than that, the stories are almost identical.
Young Kevin is an enthusiast of all things historical, to the point that he doesn’t have friends and his parents don’t know what to do with him. Then one night, when he’s trying to sleep, six people come out of his wardrobe. It turns out that they’re bandits, or at least they want to be. And they’re trying to escape from someone they refer to as the Supreme Being.
As the Supreme Being, in the guise of a huge head, comes through the wardrobe after them, they find a means of escape on the other side of Kevin’s room as they push out the wall until they can escape through another time portal. Kevin, frightened by the sight of the large head, follows them. Thus begins Kevin’s and the bandits' adventures, as they travel from time period to time period in pursuit of excitement and treasure. But there’s one key difference.
Time Bandits Is Probably the Best 1980s Fantasy Movie You Haven’t Seen
Time Bandits is easily one of the most imaginative and highly creative movies of all time, and it helped shape cinema in the 1980s.
How the Movie of Time Bandits Ends
In the movie version ofTime Bandits, after having thrilling and perilous adventures across time, Kevin wakes up in his own bed, but he finds it filled with smoke. Soon, two firefighters are breaking down his bedroom door and rescuing him from the fire in his home. While his parents (David Daker and Sheila Fearn) are outside arguing over who should retrieve the kitchen appliances from the wreckage, the firefighter puts Kevin down toreveal himself to be Sean Connery, the man who played Agamemnon in the ancient Greece section of the movie, and whom Kevin told he did not want to go back to his parents.
Another firefighter comes out and tells Kevin’s parents that an oven started the blaze. Kevin’s parents open the oven and find a piece of black rock. This is a piece of David Warner’s Evil Genius who turned to stone when the Supreme Being (Ralph Richardson) came on the scene. Of course, Kevin’s parents don’t know this but Kevin certainly does. “Mum! Dad! It’s evil, don’t touch it!” Kevin shouts. Andwhat do Kevin’s parents do but touch the rock. Poof! They’re two steaming piles of ash.
How Sean Connery Saved Time Bandits According to Direcor Terry Gilliam
Time Bandits may not be what it is today without the very important Sean Connery cameo.
The firefighters, including the one played by Connery, who winks at Kevin, ride away in their truck as Kevin tries to reconcile what he just saw. The camera pulls back away from Kevin’s neighborhood, above the Earth, and through the stars until it becomes the map that the time bandits used.The map is rolled up, presumably, by the hands of the Supreme Being, and the story comes to a bleak conclusion. Though Kevin’s parents weren’t the best, the ending leaves Kevin orphaned, a fact that some have cheered and others have been less enthusiastic about.
The Time Bandits TV Series Changes The Film’s Ending
The TV series ofTime Banditsputs a twist on the film’s ending. In Episode 2, “Mayan,” a demon who was sent to Kevin’s home by the series Evil Genius, here called Wrongness (Jemaine Clement),turns Kevin’s parents (James Dryden and Felicity Ward) from people obsessed withthe new and moderninto lumps of coal. When Kevin asks if they can be saved if he goes back in time, Lisa Kudrow’s Penelope takes him with them, even though she isn’t thrilled about it.
After four episodes — which is the number of episodes that have come out so far — it doesn’t seem like they’re any closer to finding a cure for Kevin’s parents, or that that’s a major priority, but just the fact that the bandits are willing to entertain the idea is a big departure from the movie.There was no chance for Kevin’s parents in the movie; in the series, there may still be, especially because the parents didn’t touch anything they shouldn’t have.
No matter what happens to Kevin’s parents in the series, this is a major difference between the show and the film version ofTime Bandits, and it’s one that Gilliam surely wouldn’t approve of. Of the ending of the film, Gilliamtold The Playlist:
When we finished the film, the producers felt certain elements weren’t particularly good for the children. Especially the ending with the parents blowing up…. The boys certainly were, and the girls were more motherly. They were concerned about what was going to happen to Kevin now that his parents are no longer there.
Gilliam also said, “I don’t want to reassure people. I think life is much more interesting when you’re not certain about how it works.” As much as some people might like the show’s version of what happens to Kevin’s parents better, especially because it’s more encouraging, Gilliam’s lack of desire to soothe people’s fears will ensure he won’t appreciate this revision.
