I recently saw the movie “In Time” starring Justin
Timberlake and Amanda Seyfried. It wasn’t the worst movie I’ve ever seen, but
it was far from the best. It was way too long, especially for a movie about two
people who essentially become Sci Fi Robin Hoods/Bonnie and Clyde. Also, the
conceit of the film does not seem to have been thought all the way through. The
concept is sort of a modern day “Logan’s Run.” Everyone is genetically
engineered to stop aging at 25. The catch is, you then have a year to live. You
can “earn” more time the same way people earn money in our world, but you also
have to pay for everything with your time, so a sudden jump in your rent can
literally cost you your life. A cup of coffee costs a few minutes, whereas a
night in a nice hotel might cost you a whole month or more. People are confined
by toll booths to different “time zones,” where the people in the ghetto rarely
have more than a day in the bank (actually, on a clock genetically built into
their arms) and people in the highest zone (New Greenwich) are essentially
immortal, with hundreds or even millions of years to spend according to their
whims. When Will Salas (Timberlake) is suddenly gifted 100 years by a suicidal
New Greenwich citizen, he decides to use his new time to go on a crusade and
collapse the system from the top on down.
This is kind of a clever idea, and an obvious allegory for
the vicious class system that are own nation enjoys, but as I said, all the
details don’t seem to have been worked out. To wit, I present the 800 (and by
800, I mean five) plot holes in “In Time.” SPOILERS AHEAD!
1. Short Timers
The stride in which
people in this society take having hours or minutes to live is completely
unbelievable. Sure, it’s all they’ve ever known, but this is essentially like
watching yourself bleed to death and thinking “oh, it’s cool, I’ll figure
something out.” In this world, the ghetto is littered with people who “time
out.” What’s important to understand is
that there’s no way to protect your time. Anyone can take time from anyone else
simply by grabbing their arm. The person can resist, of course, but if you’re
strong enough, they can’t stop you. Yet there is only one small gang that ever
goes around stealing time. In reality, if you had five minutes to live, you’d
grab the next person you saw and beg, threaten or beat them in order to get a
few more minutes. Yet in this ghetto where everyone has less than a day to
live, there is virtually no violence. It’s implied, but we never see it,
despite the fact that it should be happening ALL THE TIME.
2. The Casino
In one of the most ridiculous scenes in the movie,
Timberlake faces off against Vincent Karnheiser (Pete Campbell to you Mad Men
fans) in a high stakes no limit hold’em poker game. The actual hand is as
ridiculous as you would expect from a poker movie scene. On a board of Q 5 6 J,
Pete, holding top set, bets FIFTY YEARS, and Timberlake, who’s never had more
than a day before in his life, calls with 4 8 offsuit! Naturally, a 7 comes and
Timberlake wins a huge pot, but this isn’t the craziest part of the scene. The
craziest part is that on the river, Pete essentially puts Timberlake all in.
Timberlake calls, by putting his clock in a reader and letting it tick down to
nothing. Of course, when it actually hits zeroes, he’s dead and there’s no
coming back, so he’s relying on Pete to show the losing hand and for the
computer to register it before he checks out, which naturally, is exactly what
happens. If this were real, no casino would want players dying at the tables.
Just like our world, you would exchange your time for chips and then play with
those chips, so that going all in wouldn’t FUCKING KILL YOU.
3. The Time Zones
All that’s separating the ghetto from the next class of time
owners is a toll plaza. No tanks, no phalanx of armed men with guns, the only
way they can stop you from moving up in the world is by charging you an
excessive amount of time to cross into the next zone. There’s nothing stopping
you from rushing the barrier, as evidenced when it is crashed through in the middle
of the movie with no consequences. In a world like this, it would take exactly
two seconds for the time disadvantaged, who are nastier and outnumber the time
rich, to revolt, charge the higher zones and take all their time.
4. The Security
One of the most unlikely things about this scenario is how
easy it is to take someone’s time. Essentially, it’s like having every dollar
you own taped to your body. If this were really how the world worked, someone would
very quickly find a way to lock time, so no one could take it against your
will. At the very least, someone would invent some goddamn armored sleeves so no
one could grab your arm and “clean your clock” (from the movie, yes, very
clever) in your sleep.
5. The Bus
This one was my biggest pet peeve about the movie. In the
first major plot point of the film, Timberlake’s mom, played by Olivia “Thirteen”
Wilde, is getting ready to take the bus home to celebrate her 50th
birthday with her son. However, she is shocked to learn that the bus fare has
jumped from one hour to two, and mom has only left herself 90 minutes to get
home. The charmingly sympathetic bus driver’s advice is, “you’d better run” and
she does, only to fall seconds short of connecting with Timberlake in time for
him to give her some life saving minutes. The two bitter ironies of this moment
are 1) Timberlake has just been gifted 100 years, 50 of which he was probably
all set to transfer over to mom and 2) Mom gave Timberlake 30 of her minutes
that morning so he could have a nice lunch (which, idiot, maybe make him a
fucking sandwich?).
But wait a minute. The cost of bus fare is TWO HOURS? This
makes no sense at all. First of all, the standard of this currency is completely
out of wack. A nice cup of coffee costs 4 minutes, a nice lunch costs 30
minutes, and a ride on the bus costs TWO HOURS?? Any moron who would take the
bus in this kind of economy deserves to die. The second issue is that the bus
fare has jumped from one hour to two overnight. This type of inflation is
absolutely ludicrous. It’s explained that the rich intentionally jack up the
prices of everything so that the lower classes will keep dying, because “for a
few to be immortal, many must die” although why this is is never really
explained. But doubling overnight? Even if such a thing could happen without an
immediate revolution, you can be sure the proposed rate change would have been on
the news for weeks, and there’s no way she wouldn’t have known about it. But
she doesn’t seem terribly surprised, and neither do any of the passengers who
have just been gouged for double the normal bus fare. I mean, why would you
spend more time to ride the bus than it would take to get there on foot? You’re
all 25! Get a bike!
I’m sure there are 795 more things wrong with this movie (I
didn’t even get into the whole “timekeepers” concept), but my time is finite too,
so I’m going to end this rant here. Good try, but I think the screenwriter
should have spent a little more in time figuring out how this would all
actually work.
