In Time Information

In Time (previously titled Now and I'm. mortal) is a 2011 dystopian science fiction action film starring Justin Timberlake, Amanda Seyfried, Cillian Murphy, Olivia Wilde, Matt Bomer, Alex Pettyfer, Vincent Kartheiser, and Johnny Galecki. The film, written, directed and produced by Andrew Niccol, was released on October 28, 2011.

Plot

In the year 2169, humanity has evolved to stop aging at 25 and to be born with a digital clock on their forearm bearing a year worth of time. Once 25, the clock begins ticking down until the point when it reaches zero, when a person dies. People have turned time into the universal currency, giving time for products or services just by body contact, as well as transferring to others. A person can no longer die of old age and can only die by timing out (running out of time), having one's clock "cleaned" (murder by someone taking all their time), or simply by being reckless that age is not a factor in that reason (e.g. getting shot, overdosing, etc.). The country is divided into time zones, based on the wealth of its population; the film focuses on two time zones. Dayton, a ghetto zone whose inhabitants barely have a day if they don't work in the local factory, is one of the poorest with people being indifferent to the timed-out bodies on the streets. The other zone is New Greenwich, the wealthiest zone where the wealthy enjoy the benefits of their immortality and wealth but are constantly surrounded by body guards and are very conscious about their actions to prevent non-age related deaths.

28-year-old Dayton-resident factory worker Will Salas (Justin Timberlake), lives with his mother Rachel (Olivia Wilde). While in a bar, he saves a drunken and suicidal 105-year-old Henry Hamilton (Matt Bomer), a New Greenwich resident having a century left on this time counter from, from an attempted time-robbery assault attempted by Fortis (Alex Pettyfer), the boss of a gang called "Minute Men". Hamilton reveals to Will the truth about wealth: there is enough time for everyone to live a full but ending life, but New Greenwich citizens take and store most of the time for them to live forever and, to keep the status quo, raise the cost of living to get back time. Hamilton tells him that "For few to be immortal, many must die". Hamilton gives his entire 100 years of his time to a sleeping Will, leaving only five minutes for himself and dies on the Dayton bridge. The police force, or Timekeepers, led by Timekeeper Raymond Leon (Cillian Murphy), sees Hamilton's clock and realizes that his time was taken. They look at video footage and suspect Will, who tried to run to Hamilton, of being the new owner of Hamilton's time and suspect him of cleaning Hamilton's clock.

Will visits his friend, Borel (Johnny Galecki), his alcoholic best friend, and gives him 10 years of time and says goodbye as he plans to send himself and his mother to live in New Greenwich. Meanwhile, however, Rachel gives all but an hour and a half of her time to pay her debts to Weiss Time Lenders and is not capable of paying the bus fare going back to Dayton, as the price has risen, and is forced to run. When he sees that Rachel is not in the scheduled bus, he deduces what has happened and begins to run to her. He attempts to save her, but a second before they can touch, she times out and dies. Remembering what Hamilton told him about the inequity of the time system, Will decides to seek revenge and leaves for New Greenwich. He enters a casino and meets millionaire time-loaning businessman Philippe Weiss (Vincent Kartheiser). He also meets Weiss' twenty-seven year old daughter Sylvia (Amanda Seyfried). While playing poker, Will nearly dies by betting all but thirty seconds of his time but wins back the pot of a eleven hundred years. Sylvia invites him to a party in the Weiss mansion.

At the mansion, Will seduces Sylvia with the thought of an exciting life. He is later apprehended by Leon, who confiscates all but two hours of Will's time, but Will escapes when he takes Sylvia hostage. He returns to Dayton with her, but he drives into an ambush by Fortis, knocking both of them unconscious. Fortis attempts to take all of Sylvia's years, but leaves about half an hour when the Timekeepers arrive. They visit Borel to get back some time, only to find out from Borel's wife Greta (Yaya Alafia) that he has died of an alcohol overdose by squandering almost a year on drinks, and died with 9 years still left. Sylvia pawns her diamond earrings for more time, but when the pawn shop owner sees that she is desperate, he cheats her by only giving her two days. Will calls Weiss and demands a 1,000-year ransom for Sylvia so it will be distributed to the lower class of Dayton. Sylvia's mother is willing, but Weiss isn't as Leon has already traced the call.

Will discovers that Weiss did not pay but decides to let Sylvia go. Leon arrives to arrest Will, but is shot in the shoulder by Sylvia, who now wants to help Will help the poor. Will transfers two hours of time to Leon so that he can walk out of Dayton, and Will and Sylvia escape in a hijacked police car. Will tells her that she can walk away from this, but she refuses, saying that her life in New Greenwich had no purpose. Meanwhile, Leon issues a warrant for Sylvia's arrest as well, warning Weiss not to help his daughter in any way or he will be arrested. They begin a series of Time Bank robberies by stealing Time Capsules and then distributing them to the poor.

They rent every room in a hotel in Dayton for the night, renting every room so as to not allow anyone possibly tracking them. However, a resident who was denied a room at the hotel saw them and, when threatened to be timed-out by the Minute Men, told them where they were. Fortis is desperate to get both Will and Sylvia as their bounty has been raised to 116 years. Will and Fortis get into a duel to the death involving an arm-wrestling/time stealing match. Will manages to outwit Fortis and manages to kill him and his men.

When the inflation rate raises after another robbery, they realize they would need a million years to cause any significant damage to the system. The two succeed in stealing a million years from Weiss' private headquarters. Despite Leon crashing into them, Will manages to pass the capsule to a young girl (Shyloh Oostwald) who distributes the time among the people. Leon eventually catches up with Will and Sylvia outside the city, holding them at gunpoint. Will deduces that Leon himself was from the ghettos once but managed to successfully circumvent the system. Leon realizes that he had neglected to replenish his own time before going after them, and dies. Will and Sylvia are left with seconds to live. Will runs to Leon's car and takes his allotted time. The scene where Will tries to run back to Sylvia is similar to the way how he failed to save his mother, and so he runs faster and saves Sylvia with just a second to spare.

Will and Sylvia continue robbing banks as part of their efforts to crash the system, while the rich attempt to cope with the sudden surge of people who now have enough time to change zones arriving from the lower time zones. Lower class workers, now rich with Time, cross Time Zones, signifying the end of inequality among the people. The last scene shows Will and Sylvia preparing to rob a huge Time Bank and continue disrupting the unfair system.

Cast

• Justin Timberlake as Will Salas
• Amanda Seyfried as Sylvia Weis
• Collins Pennie as Timekeeper Jaeger
• Cillian Murphy as Timekeeper Raymond Leon
• Olivia Wilde as Rachel Salas
• Matt Bomer as Henry Hamilton
• Alex Pettyfer as Fortis
• Vincent Kartheiser as Philippe Weis
• Johnny Galecki as Borel

• Ethan Peck as Constantin
• Yaya DaCosta as Greta
• August Emerson as Levi
• Sasha Pivovarova as Clara
• Jesse Lee Soffer as Webb
• Bella Heathcote as Michele Weis
• Toby Hemingway as Timekeeper Kors
• Aubrey Allen as Tyler
• Melissa Ordway as Leila
• Jessica Parker Kennedy as Edouarda
• Christoph Sanders as Nixon
• Jeff Staron as Oris
• Matt O'Leary as Moser
• Nick Lashaway as Ekman
• Ray Santiago as Victa
• Kris Lemche as Markus

Production

On July 12, 2010, it was reported that Amanda Seyfried had been offered a lead role. On July 27, 2010, it was confirmed that Justin Timberlake had been offered a lead role. On August 9, 2010, Cillian Murphy was confirmed to have joined the cast.

The first photos from the set were revealed on October 28, 2010. 20th Century Fox and New Regency distributed the film, and Marc Abraham and Eric Newman's Strike Entertainment produced it.

In an interview with Kristopher Tapley of InContention.com Roger Deakins stated that he would be shooting the film in digital, which makes this the first film to be shot in digital by the veteran cinematographer.

The Dayton scenes were filmed primarily in the Skid Row and Boyle Heights neighborhoods of Los Angeles, while the New Greenwich scenes were filmed primarily in Century City, Bel Air, and Malibu. Despite the name of the "ghetto zone" suggesting Dayton, Ohio and the name of the "rich zone" suggesting Greenwich, CT, the maps used by the Timekeepers are maps of Los Angeles. But the names "Dayton" and "Greenwich" both refer to time, and were more likely chosen for that reason than for any relation to present-day geography. Residents of "Dayton" live on about a days worth of time whereas residents of "Greenwich" enjoy living at the namesake of the source of all time zones.

Using the common device of Future-Retro, the production's vehicle suppliers assembled a prodigious fleet of cars and trucks from used car lots and junkyards. Although an ancient Citroen DS21 and Cadillac Seville feature, center stage goes to a fleet of, seemingly, immaculate, Dodge Challengers and suicide door Lincoln Continentals. The rich drive around in the high gloss Lincolns, all of which have been smoothed, lowered and fitted with over-sized disc wheels on low profile rubber. The Dodges are the Time Keeper's cop cars. These too have been smoothed and externally customized, with grilles front and rear covering the lights, and low profile tires on disc wheels. In stark contrast to the Lincolns, paintwork is matte black. A slim police light-bar is fitted internally, behind the windshield. Externally this fleet may have looked immaculate but internally it was a different story. No money was spent on what would not be seen and many of the vehicles had wrecked interiors, with ripped seats, carpets and head-linings. Because the cars had been assembled from many sources and prepared to look identical, the interiors of most were of a color which did not match the black exteriors. The best of the Lincoln Continentals, for instance, whose interior is seen in the production, is trimmed out in blue.

Copyright lawsuit

On September 15, 2011, according to The Hollywood Reporter, a suit was filed by attorneys on behalf of speculative fiction writer Harlan Ellison that the film's plot was based on his award-winning 1965 short story "Repent, Harlequin!" Said the Ticktockman. The suit, naming New Regency and director Andrew Niccol as well as a number of anonymous John Does, appears to base its claim on the similarity that both the completed film along with Ellison's story concern a dystopian future in which people have a set amount of time to live which can be revoked, given certain pertaining circumstances by a recognized authority known as a Timekeeper. Initially, the suit demanded an injunction against the film's release; however, Ellison later altered his suit to instead ask for screen credit before ultimately dropping the suit, with both sides releasing the following joint statement: "After seeing the film In Time, Harlan Ellison decided to voluntarily dismiss the Action. No payment or screen credit was promised or given to Harlan Ellison. The parties wish each other well, and have no further comment on the matter."

Similar works

A very early instance of a storyline with time as currency occurs in "Mandrake and the Goldman", a Lee Falk comic issue based on the popular Mandrake the Magician character, and published in India in the year 1972. It is possible that the original US publication of this comic happened before publication of the Harlan Ellison short story.

Many of the elements of In Time can be found in the 1987 short film The Price of Life, which aired on PBS as part of their "American Playhouse" series. The Price of Life was a 38-minute short film with story by Stephen Tolkin and Michel Monteaux in which everyone is born with 1000 years placed on a credit card physically linked to their life, thus another example of using time as currency. An elite upper-class is portrayed as living hundreds of years or more. The protagonist is given a certain amount of time as an infant, and as young boy adds days and years to his time account by buying valuables from people and selling them to visiting tourists from the rich enclave. After his sister dies after gambling away her time, the protagonist (now a young man) sets out on a journey to the enclave of "the Old Ones" in order to save the life of his mother, who is (literally) running out of time. He gets there and meets a beautiful older woman who co-opts him into the immortal lifestyle. Despite the striking parallels in the basic plot and storyline, the movie In Time gives no acknowledgment to this film.

A short story entitled Time is Money, by Lee Falk (the creator of the comic strip Mandrake the Magician), appeared in the December 1975 issue of Playboy. It portrays a society that includes many of the elements later used in In Time, a society in which time is the currency for its inhabitants and when someone runs out of time, he dies on the spot. It includes a timekeeper implanted in the body, time banks, transactions by handshakes, no aging, and social class differences according to accumulated time. The movie In Time did not give any acknowledgment to Lee Falk for his story either.

A similar theme recurs in Hannu Rajaniemi's novel The Quantum Thief. {In what way? Elaboration needed.}

Reception

The film received mixed-to-negative reviews from critics; review aggregator Rotten Tomatoes reports that 36% of 152 critics gave the movie a positive review, with a rating average of 5.2 out of 10. The website's consensus reads, "In Times intriguing premise and appealing cast are easily overpowered by the blunt, heavy-handed storytelling." Metacritic, which assigns a weighted average score out of 100 to reviews from mainstream critics, gives the film a score of 53 based on 36 reviews. CinemaScore polls reported that the average grade moviegoers gave the film was a "B-minus" on an A+ to F scale. Roger Ebert gave the film a positive review with 3 stars out of 4, noting that the "premise is damnably intriguing", but "a great deal of this film has been assembled from standard elements".

Box office performance

The film opened at #3, behind Puss in Boots and Paranormal Activity 3, with $12,050,368. It earned $37,520,095. The film grossed $173,930,596 worldwide ($136,410,501 internationally).

Home media

In Time was released on DVD and Blu-ray on January 31, 2012.