The Malta Independent on Sunday

The Dark Tower

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Eleven-year-old Jake Chambers experience­s visions involving a Man in Black who seeks to destroy a Tower and bring ruin to the world, and a Gunslinger who opposes him. Jake's mother, stepfather, and psychiatri­sts dismiss these as dreams resulting from the trauma of his father's death the previous year.

At his apartment home in New York City, a group of workers from an alleged psychiatri­c facility offer to rehabilita­te Jake; recognizin­g them from his visions as monsters wearing human skin, he flees. Jake tracks down an abandoned house from one of his visions, discovers a high-tech portal, and travels to a postapocal­yptic world called MidWorld.

In Mid-World, Jake encounters the last Gunslinger, Roland Deschain who emerged in his visions. Roland is pursuing Walter Padick, the Man in Black who had also appeared in his dreams across a desert, seeking to kill him in revenge for the murder of his father, Steven. He explains that Walter has been abducting psychic children, and is attempting to use their powers to destroy the Dark Tower, a fabled structure located at the center of the universe; this will allow monsters from the darkness outside to invade and destroy reality.

Roland takes Jake to a village to have his visions interprete­d by a seer. Learning of Jake's escape and journey to Mid-World, Walter investigat­es, and realizes that Jake has enough psychic potential to destroy the Tower singlehand­edly. He kills Jake's stepfather, then interrogat­es his mother about his visions and kills her. In Mid-World, the seer explains that Roland can find Walter's base of operations in New York.

Walter's minions, the Taheen, attack the village, but Roland kills them. Roland and Jake return to Earth. When Jake returns home to check in on his parents, he finds their remains and breaks down. Roland vows to avenge them and comforts Jake by teaching him the Gunslinger's creed and the basics of gun fighting.

While Roland re-arms himself at a gun store, Walter captures Jake. At his base, he straps Jake to a machine, intending for him to destroy the Tower. Jake uses his psychic powers to alert Roland to his location, and Roland battles his way through Walter's henchmen.

Walter confronts Roland, wounding him. After Jake reminds him of the Gunslinger's creed, Roland recovers and kills Walter with a trick shot after a brief fight. Roland destroys the machine, saving the Tower, Jake and the other children. Afterwards, Roland says that he must return to his own world. He offers Jake a place by his side as his companion, which Jake accepts. The two depart for MidWorld. Classifica­tion 12A

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