Gattaca director and Justin Timberlake fight aging with In Time

07 August 2011

John Howell

While director Andrew Niccol’s recent films haven’t come close to his classic genetic twisting debut Gattaca, perhaps his new science fiction thriller called In Time will. Starring Justin Timberlake, Amanda Seyfried, Alex Pettyfer and Cillian Murphy, In Time is set in a dystopian future where time has become the ultimate currency. After 25 everyone stops aging, fixed in their youth. However, there’s a major catch - after you hit age 25 you only have one year left to live unless you can buy your way into the future, purchasing time just as you would purchase your next meal.

In a genetically fixed form, the rich can go on living for hundreds of years, with money the only obstacle to immortality. It sounds a lot like Logan’s Run, which also gives its futuristic residents a fixed age limit. In Logan’s Run however, there’s was no possibility of a reprieve, only the option to become a “runner’.

The film’s premise could be a great basis for some interesting analogies. Is this not similar, for instance, to the current American approach to health care? If you’re rich you can be treated for major illnesses and are more likely to live longer. If you can’t afford treatment, however, your future is less assured...

When Will Salas (Justin Timberlake), a young poor man from the wrong side of the tracks, is falsely accused of murder, he is forced to go on the run and takes a beautiful rich hostage Sylvia Weis (Amanda Seyfried) with him.

The trailer below shows Will being given a extraordinary amount of time by a rich upper class man who no longer wishes to live. The upper class man dies after he transfers his time credits to Will while Will sleeps. Everyone has a time clock embedded in their arm, which slowly counts down.

Of course, a good premise will only take you so far. The trailer looks engaging and the idea intriguing but we’ll have to wait until we watch the entire film to see if Niccol has followed through. You can watch the In Time trailer on YouTube below.

 In Time hits theatres in Australia 27 November 2011, in the US 28 November 2011, and the UK 1 November 2011.

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