Premise:
Justin Timberlake (yes that Justin Timberlake) stars as Will Salas a guy working a factory job living in basically the slums. He's 28 but in this films world you stop aging at 25 but everyone is only given 1 more year to live and you clock starts counting down with you being given initially 1 year. Your time is also your currency with you spending it as an example a Coffee is 4 minutes but earning it via work. In the zone where Will lives people literally live day to day often spending much of their free year on helping pay for things for their struggling families thus meaning they too end up living day by day hoping to have enough time left to survive until they can be paid more. After a chance encounter at a bar with an 85 year old from another zone who has over a century on his clock who ends up in trouble with the Minutemen (local mobsters) Will ends up rescuing him then being given over a century of time before the mans suicide by Time Out (deliberately running his clock to Zero by having given away most of his time to Will and welcoming his own death). After Will's mother fails to make it to him as she runs out of time and dies just before he can pass any on to her he vows to try and take revenge on the system and those at the top.
He starts by giving 10 years to his best friend before heading to Greenwich the high class zone. Unfortunately for Will the man's suicide is mistaken for being a robbery and murder thus setting the time keepers (basically Police) on his trail hoping to track down and recover what they believe is a stolen century. In Greenwhich Will attractions the attention of Sylvia Weis and after winning 700 years at a Casino playing poker will is introduced to her via her father Philippee Weis who invites will to his party believing Will to be from time (Old money). After learning just how careful the upper classes are as they have all the time in the world being almost immortal they have heavy security details fearing that they will die before their time is up as they can still be killed. Due to this fear they don't do much spontaneous or with any potential risk because why take the risk today when tomorrow still exists. Sylvia however longs for some kind of excitement or change in her life and Will convinces her to shake off her guards and come skinny dipping in the ocean with him. Unfortunately for Will the timekeepers come calling and take all but 2 hours of his time, just enough for him to be processed. Fearing he will be screwed over by the system because he's come from a poorer zone be makes a run for it taking Sylvia as a hostage. Unfortunately the minutemen have also laid a trap and catch Will and Sylvia with them stealing the over 1 century she had on her clock (a gift from her father) leaving her with only 30 minutes to live. Will then shares some of his remaining time with her so they have equal time left. This eventually leads to will trying to get a ransom for Sylvia from her father with the idea being to give it to the local mission in the slums that helps people by donating time to them. When her father refuses to pay the 1,000 years asked for Will decides to let Sylvia go, however angry her father refused to pay and was more than happy to prop up the system and not even give to charity to have her released she chides him over the phone and upon hearing that the timekeepers have already been sent to collect her she turns to see them about to kill Will. Sylvia turns and shoots the Timekeeper with the gun Will gave her for protection and goes on the run with Will believing herself to be a fugitive too now eventually deciding to take to robbing the wealthy and redistribute time to the poor
Longer Thoughts: A while ago I watched the Rian Johnson film Looper, it was stylish but felt ultimately hollow. In Time feels like a film that is at least as stylish but could have been far more or could have become a bit of a franchise with a bit more money but also has far more substance to it than Looper such that it could actually have carried on somehow and been more than a single film thanks to interesting world building .
Rather than being a kind of silly on the nose criticism of Darwinian Capitalism as an idea or silly criticism of capitalism that borders almost on parody like Daybreakers was In Time is a lot more nuanced and a criticism and breakdown of the flaws in the system as a whole. The initial idea being how Will's attempts to help people don't always go as planned with the 10 years he gave his friend seeing his friend burn almost a year of it drinking himself to death rather than him being able to use it to help his own family. Later in the film Will and Sylvia's attempts to get more time for the people in the poorer zone sees the results of their theft and re-distribution with the Minutemen facing more resistance and instead of just stealing peoples time they start killing those who dare stand up to them. Also Will and Sylvia witness how despite everyone being given more time now the system reacts to try and take it back from them by raising prices of goods and services in the Zone to filter the time back up to the top again. It's not merely a commentary on capitalism with some almost moustache twirling evil villain at the top, it's actively showing how the system reinforces itself and reinforces the status quo and how those at the top believe themselves to be wroth of their position but wilfully ignorant or happy to look the other way to the plight of others. It also shows of good intentions don't always end up with good results. It's kind of shame the film feels somewhat cut short near the end with just a fairly vague ending about how things continue on when I'd love to have seen more of the world that was set up and more about the idea of different people being the custodians on time zones there to maintain the system and status quo through controlling the flow of time into and out of each zone and availability in each zone. Also more on the shady other custodians or people possibly above them pushing to have the status quo maintained.
Justin Timberlake (yes that Justin Timberlake) stars as Will Salas a guy working a factory job living in basically the slums. He's 28 but in this films world you stop aging at 25 but everyone is only given 1 more year to live and you clock starts counting down with you being given initially 1 year. Your time is also your currency with you spending it as an example a Coffee is 4 minutes but earning it via work. In the zone where Will lives people literally live day to day often spending much of their free year on helping pay for things for their struggling families thus meaning they too end up living day by day hoping to have enough time left to survive until they can be paid more. After a chance encounter at a bar with an 85 year old from another zone who has over a century on his clock who ends up in trouble with the Minutemen (local mobsters) Will ends up rescuing him then being given over a century of time before the mans suicide by Time Out (deliberately running his clock to Zero by having given away most of his time to Will and welcoming his own death). After Will's mother fails to make it to him as she runs out of time and dies just before he can pass any on to her he vows to try and take revenge on the system and those at the top.
He starts by giving 10 years to his best friend before heading to Greenwich the high class zone. Unfortunately for Will the man's suicide is mistaken for being a robbery and murder thus setting the time keepers (basically Police) on his trail hoping to track down and recover what they believe is a stolen century. In Greenwhich Will attractions the attention of Sylvia Weis and after winning 700 years at a Casino playing poker will is introduced to her via her father Philippee Weis who invites will to his party believing Will to be from time (Old money). After learning just how careful the upper classes are as they have all the time in the world being almost immortal they have heavy security details fearing that they will die before their time is up as they can still be killed. Due to this fear they don't do much spontaneous or with any potential risk because why take the risk today when tomorrow still exists. Sylvia however longs for some kind of excitement or change in her life and Will convinces her to shake off her guards and come skinny dipping in the ocean with him. Unfortunately for Will the timekeepers come calling and take all but 2 hours of his time, just enough for him to be processed. Fearing he will be screwed over by the system because he's come from a poorer zone be makes a run for it taking Sylvia as a hostage. Unfortunately the minutemen have also laid a trap and catch Will and Sylvia with them stealing the over 1 century she had on her clock (a gift from her father) leaving her with only 30 minutes to live. Will then shares some of his remaining time with her so they have equal time left. This eventually leads to will trying to get a ransom for Sylvia from her father with the idea being to give it to the local mission in the slums that helps people by donating time to them. When her father refuses to pay the 1,000 years asked for Will decides to let Sylvia go, however angry her father refused to pay and was more than happy to prop up the system and not even give to charity to have her released she chides him over the phone and upon hearing that the timekeepers have already been sent to collect her she turns to see them about to kill Will. Sylvia turns and shoots the Timekeeper with the gun Will gave her for protection and goes on the run with Will believing herself to be a fugitive too now eventually deciding to take to robbing the wealthy and redistribute time to the poor
Longer Thoughts: A while ago I watched the Rian Johnson film Looper, it was stylish but felt ultimately hollow. In Time feels like a film that is at least as stylish but could have been far more or could have become a bit of a franchise with a bit more money but also has far more substance to it than Looper such that it could actually have carried on somehow and been more than a single film thanks to interesting world building .
Rather than being a kind of silly on the nose criticism of Darwinian Capitalism as an idea or silly criticism of capitalism that borders almost on parody like Daybreakers was In Time is a lot more nuanced and a criticism and breakdown of the flaws in the system as a whole. The initial idea being how Will's attempts to help people don't always go as planned with the 10 years he gave his friend seeing his friend burn almost a year of it drinking himself to death rather than him being able to use it to help his own family. Later in the film Will and Sylvia's attempts to get more time for the people in the poorer zone sees the results of their theft and re-distribution with the Minutemen facing more resistance and instead of just stealing peoples time they start killing those who dare stand up to them. Also Will and Sylvia witness how despite everyone being given more time now the system reacts to try and take it back from them by raising prices of goods and services in the Zone to filter the time back up to the top again. It's not merely a commentary on capitalism with some almost moustache twirling evil villain at the top, it's actively showing how the system reinforces itself and reinforces the status quo and how those at the top believe themselves to be wroth of their position but wilfully ignorant or happy to look the other way to the plight of others. It also shows of good intentions don't always end up with good results. It's kind of shame the film feels somewhat cut short near the end with just a fairly vague ending about how things continue on when I'd love to have seen more of the world that was set up and more about the idea of different people being the custodians on time zones there to maintain the system and status quo through controlling the flow of time into and out of each zone and availability in each zone. Also more on the shady other custodians or people possibly above them pushing to have the status quo maintained.
