In Time

In Time is a 2011 American science fiction

action film written, directed and produced
by Andrew Niccol. Amanda Seyfried and
Justin Timberlake star as inhabitants of a
society which uses time from one's
lifespan as its primary currency, with each
individual possessing a clock on their arm
that counts down how long they have to
live. Cillian Murphy, Vincent Kartheiser,
Olivia Wilde, Matt Bomer, Johnny Galecki,
and Alex Pettyfer also star. The film was
released on October 28, 2011.
 In Time

Theatrical release poster

Directed by Andrew Niccol

Written by Andrew Niccol

Produced by Andrew Niccol

Marc Abraham
Eric Newman

Starring Amanda Seyfried

Justin Timberlake
Alex Pettyfer
 Cillian Murphy

Cinematography Roger Deakins

Edited by Zach Staenberg

Music by Craig Armstrong

Production New Regency[1]

companies
Strike
Entertainment[1]

Distributed by 20th Century Fox

Release dates October 20, 2011

(Westwood, Los
Angeles)[2]
October 28, 2011
(United States)

Running time 109 minutes[3]

Country United States

Language English

Budget $40 million[4]

Box office $174 million[5]

Plot
In 2169, people are genetically engineered
to stop aging on their 25th birthday.
Everyone has a timer on their forearm that
shows their remaining time, when it
reaches zero the person "times out" and
dies instantly. Time has become the
universal currency, transferred directly
between people or stored in capsules. The
country is divided into areas called Time
Zones; Dayton is the poorest, a ghetto
where people rarely have over 24 hours on
their clocks. The richest area is New
Greenwich, where people are wealthy
enough to be effectively immortal.

Will Salas is a factory worker who lives in

Dayton with his mother Rachel. One night,
he rescues a drunken man named Henry
Hamilton from time thieves Fortis and his
gang the Minutemen. While hiding,
Hamilton reveals to Will that the people of
New Greenwich hoard most of the time
while constantly increasing prices to keep
poorer people dying. The following day, he
transfers all but five minutes of his time to
a sleeping Will before deliberately timing
out and dying. Raymond Leon, the leader
of the police-like Timekeepers, assumes
that Will killed Hamilton and pursues him.

Will visits his friend Borel, who warns him

against having so much time in Dayton. He
gives Borel ten years, one for each year of
their friendship. Will then sets off to meet
his mother, intending to take her with him
to New Greenwich. His mother runs short
of time and can't afford bus fare, she is
forced to run to meet Will but times out
and dies in his arms. Heartbroken and
angry, Will vows to avenge his mother's
death by taking the people of New
Greenwich for everything they have.
Arriving in New Greenwich, Will meets
time-loaning businessman Philippe Weis
and his daughter Sylvia at a casino. While
playing poker, Will wins over a millennium
while nearly timing himself out. He
catches Sylvia's eye and she invites him to
a party. Will is confronted at the party by
Timekeeper Leon and arrested. Leon
confiscates all but two hours of Will's time,
disbelieving that Will didn't kill Hamilton.

Will escapes and takes Sylvia to Dayton as

a hostage, but Fortis' gang ambushes and
robs them, leaving them with 30 minutes
each. Will attempts to get some time back
from Borel, but his wife Greta tearfully
explains that he has drunk himself to
death. They manage to get a day each by
selling Sylvia's earrings at a pawn shop.
Will then calls Weis to demand a 1,000-
year ransom to be paid to the people in
Dayton in exchange for Sylvia's safe return.
Weis refuses and Will releases Sylvia just
as Timekeeper Leon finds Will. Sylvia
shoots Leon in the arm and Will gives him
enough time to survive until the other
Timekeepers arrive. Will and Sylvia steal
Leon's car and use it to pull over a New
Greenwich resident, whom they rob of her
time.
Will and Sylvia rob Weis' time banks, giving
the time capsules to the needy. They soon
realize they can't significantly change
anything, as prices are raised faster to
compensate for the extra time. Fortis'
gang ambushes them intending to collect
the reward for their capture, but Will kills
Fortis and his gang. Will and Sylvia then
decide to rob Weis' vault of a one-million
year capsule. Leon chases them back to
Dayton but fails to stop them from
distributing the stolen time; Leon times
out, having neglected to collect his day's
salary. Will and Sylvia nearly time out
themselves but survive by taking Leon's
salary.
TV reports show factories in Dayton
shutting down as everyone has enough
time and abandons their jobs. Having seen
the consequences of his obsession with
the pair, Leon's colleague Jaeger orders
the Timekeepers to return home. Will and
Sylvia progress to larger banks, still trying
to crash the system.

Cast
Justin Timberlake as Will Salas, a
factory worker who learns the truth
about the time system after a chance
encounter with a man in a bar.
Amanda Seyfried as Sylvia Weis,
daughter of Phillipe Weis. She is
kidnapped by Will and later becomes his
willing accomplice, using her knowledge
of her father's business to help them
upset the system.
Cillian Murphy as Timekeeper Raymond
Leon, a former resident of the ghetto of
Dayton who escaped and became a
Timekeeper.
Alex Pettyfer as Fortis, a thug and time
thief who preys on the residents of
Dayton.
Vincent Kartheiser as Philippe Weis, a
major banker whose companies control
the time system.
Olivia Wilde as Rachel Salas, Will's
mother. Her death by timing out in Will's
arms motivates Will to attack the time
system.
Matt Bomer as Henry Hamilton, a
centenarian who wants to die. He goes
to a bar in Dayton hoping to be killed but
is saved by Will.
Johnny Galecki as Borel, Will's best
friend.
Collins Pennie as Timekeeper Jaeger
Ethan Peck as Constantin
Yaya DaCosta as Greta, Borel's wife
Rachel Roberts as Carrera
August Emerson as Levi
Sasha Pivovarova as Clara Weis, Sylvia's
grandmother and Philippe's mother-in-
law
Jesse Lee Soffer as Webb
Bella Heathcote as Michele Weis,
Sylvia's mother and Philippe's wife
Toby Hemingway as Timekeeper Kors
Melissa Ordway as Leila
Jessica Parker Kennedy as Edouarda
Jeff Staron as Oris
Matt O'Leary as Moser
Nick Lashaway as Ekman
Ray Santiago as Victa
 Kris Lemche as Markus
Laura Ashley Samuels as Sagita

Production
Before the film was titled In Time, the
names Now and I'm.mortal were used.[6]
On July 12, 2010, it was reported that
Amanda Seyfried had been offered a lead
role.[7] On July 27, 2010, it was confirmed
that Justin Timberlake had been offered a
lead role.[8] On August 9, 2010, Cillian
Murphy was confirmed to have joined the
cast.[9]

The first photos from the set were

revealed on October 28, 2010.[10] 20th
Century Fox and New Regency distributed
the film, and Marc Abraham and Eric
Newman's Strike Entertainment produced
it.[11]

In an interview with Kristopher Tapley of In

Contention, 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.[12]

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. Although the names of the ghetto-
like zone and wealthy enclave reflect
Dayton and Greenwich, respectively, the
maps used by the Timekeepers are maps
of Los Angeles.

For the retrofuturistic setting, the

production's vehicle suppliers assembled a
fleet of cars and trucks from used car lots
and junkyards. Although an old Citroën DS
21 and Cadillac Seville feature, center
stage goes to a fleet of seemingly
immaculate Dodge Challengers and
Lincoln Continentals. The rich drive around
in the high gloss Lincolns, all of which
have been smoothed, lowered and fitted
with oversized 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.

The use of retrofuturism is one of many

elements that the film shares with Niccol's
earlier work, Gattaca; Niccol himself
referred to it as "the bastard child of
Gattaca".[13] That film also features
electrically powered vintage cars (notably
a Rover P6 and again, a Citroën DS), as
well as buildings of indeterminate age.
Gattaca also deals with innate inequalities
(though in its case genetic, rather than
longevity) and also features a character
seeking to cross the divide that his
birthright is supposed to deny him.
Similarly, he is pursued by law
enforcement officers after being wrongly
identified as having committed a murder.

Similar works
The series Tales of Tomorrow in 1952
included an episode, "Time to Go" (episode
29),[14] in which aliens from another galaxy,
who have learned how to use time as a
currency, set up a "time bank" on Earth.
The aliens solicit Earthling customers to
bank some of their time in the bank in
order to earn interest in the form of
extended life. However, the aliens use a
loophole in the contract with their
customers to take all of their time, thus
leaving the Earthlings dead. In Harlan
Ellison's 1965 short story " 'Repent,
Harlequin!' Said the Ticktockman", the
crime of being late is punished by a
proportionate amount of time being
"revoked" from one's life. The ultimate
consequence is to run out of time and be
"turned off". This is done by the Master
Timekeeper, or "Ticktockman".
Many of the elements of In Time can be
found in the 1987 short film The Price of
Life,[15] made by Chanticleer Films. Its
basic premise and storyline are so similar
that In Time has been called an
unacknowledged remake of the earlier
film.[16] The Price of Life was a 38-minute
short film (story by Stephen Tolkin and
Michel Monteaux) in which a time account
is physically linked to every infant at birth,
with death automatic when the balance
drops to zero. 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 a
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.

The novel and movie Logan's Run (1976)

depict a world where everyone is
destroyed when they reach the age of 30 in
the film or 21 in the book. The antagonists
are Sandmen who hunt Runners trying to
avoid destruction.[17]

David Firth's 2008 A Short Cartoon About

Time also has the same concept of selling
time for monetary gain.[18]

Copyright lawsuit

On September 15, 2011, a lawsuit was

filed against the film by attorneys acting
on behalf of Harlan Ellison, author of
" 'Repent, Harlequin!' Said the
Ticktockman". The suit, naming New
Regency, director Andrew Niccol and a
number of anonymous John Does,
appears to base its claim on the similarity
that both the completed film and 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;[19] however, Ellison later
altered his suit to instead ask for screen
credit[20] 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."[21]

Reception

Critical response

In Time received mixed reviews from

critics. Review aggregator Rotten
Tomatoes reports that 37% of 174 critics
gave the film a positive review, with an
average rating of 5.30/10. The website's
consensus reads, "In Time 's intriguing
premise and appealing cast are easily
overpowered by the blunt, heavy-handed
storytelling."[22] 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.[23]
CinemaScore polls reported that the
average grade moviegoers gave the film
was a "B-minus" on an A+ to F scale.[24]
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".[25] Henry Barnes
noted that Will is "one of the 99%" and
calls the character "a Rolex Robin
Hood".[26]
Box office

In Time grossed $12 million on its opening

weekend, debuting at number three behind
Puss in Boots, and Paranormal Activity 3.
The film declined later on during its 14
weekend box office run. The film
eventually grossed over $37.5 million in
the US and $136.4 million internationally
for a worldwide total of $173.9 million.[5]

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2. Ng, Philiana (October 20, 2010). " 'In Time'
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3. "IN TIME (12A)" (https://www.bbfc.co.uk/A
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ww.comingsoon.net/news/movienews.ph
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"TECH SUPPORT INTERVIEW: 'True Grit'
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hive.org/details/Tales_Of_Tomorrow_-_Tim
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llywoodreporter.com/thr-esq/harlan-ellison-
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20. Moore, Roger (August 26, 2014). "Ellison
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21. O'Neill, Brian (December 1, 2011). "Ellison
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23. "In Time Reviews" (https://www.metacritic.c
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24. Finke, Nikki (October 30, 2011). "Snow Ices
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25. Ebert, Roger. "In Time" (https://www.rogere
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RogerEbert.com. Retrieved June 25, 2018.
26. Barnes, Henry (November 4, 2011). "In Time
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External links
Wikiquote has quotations related to In
Time.
In Time (https://www.imdb.com/title/tt1
637688/) at IMDb
In Time (https://www.allmovie.com/mov
ie/v531172) at AllMovie
In Time (https://www.boxofficemojo.co
m/movies/?id=now.htm) at Box Office
Mojo
In Time (https://www.rottentomatoes.co
m/m/in_time) at Rotten Tomatoes
In Time (https://www.metacritic.com/mo
vie/in-time) at Metacritic
 Official trailer (http://www.shavemagazi
ne.com/video/entertainment/intime)

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