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I recently reviewed In Time, the 2011 movie where time is currency. Sicne writing that review, some other plot points relating to their concept of immortality really bothered me.
A quick recap for anyone who hasn’t heard of the movie: Time is now the currency. Talk about high prices for coffee, it costs you four minutes of your life. Everyone is born with a clock on their arm worth one year which begins to tick down when they turn twenty-five. Time is earned and paid, added and subtracted with a stamp or twist of the arm. When the clock starts ticking at age twenty-five, that’s it. You stop growing, stop aging. Your physical appearance never changes.
Ignoring how creepy it is to be the same physical age as your great grandmother, there’s more problems with this concept that the writers completely overlooked. As Ermisenda commented, it’s a great concept, but it was not pulled off as well as it could have been. Think about this for a moment, your physical appearance never changes.
There’s a scene where two of the characters discuss the moment their clock began to count down. The girl said she looked in the mirror and marveled that she would never look any different. I realize this is incredibly shallow, but how depressing! I just got my hair cut, and I’m a little freaked out because it’s shorter than the picture I took in to show them what I wanted, but not being immortal, I have the bright light at the end of the tunnel that my hair will actually grow back. Now take that to a more serious level.
Your genes have completely stopped. What happens if you get sun burned? What happens if you break your leg? Does a doctor put you in a cast and you are just SOL forever? What if you get shot, rip a nail off kicking your sheets (so incredibly painful), knock out a tooth? The writers had a great concept with time being a currency, and they did present the concept that immortality is unnatural and not as great as it sounds on the surface, but after that they really missed the mark. I revoke my original 3 star rating (I don’t think I actually mentioned a number) and give it a 2. The improper use of Darwinism as an excuse for warped capitalism and the overlooked complications of the system of immortality has caused In Time to be less than satisfactory. Am I over-thinking it? Sure, so if you just want an action movie with a twist, it’s worth watching, otherwise not so much.
-Eliabeth Hawthorne
See the original review of In Time here.