In Time (2011)

[MythOfProgress]

not quite a post-apocalyptic film like the some of the movies i've listed , but still one with dystopian roots. not sure how long youtube is gonna keep this video up, but if it gets deleted and i'll find some clip to fill in for it later lol.

Setting
in the future,taking place in the late 22nd century (precisely in 2169) humans have pretty much figured out the secret to indefinite lifespan(more precisely biological immortality, which is something we've observed in some animals but replicating that process in humans is something else entirely if not extremely difficult)-something that is genetically engineered into all humans by this point(having taken into account the ages of the some of the rich elite, it would seem the system of bio-engineering humans with immortality started around 2050). the process of biological immortality starts once people reach the age of 25 and are given one free year to start off with. people are able to give and take each other's time by using their arms.

on the other hand, as a way of avoiding overpopulation; people's time has become the universal currency represented by a green bio-luminescent light on their arms with the time ticking(i dont know what the genetic engineers were thinking when designing that- it'd be hard to sleep with a green light on my arm ticking), and when that "time" runs out, the genetic enhancements seems to turn into a killswitch- killing the person and timing them out of the world.

of course, just because they discovered biological immortality doesn't mean they're invulnerable to all forms of damage- humans can still get hurt by guns, cars, general violence and the like, disease doesn't seem to be a factor but they do all still need to eat and drink.

as mentioned before in the text, the world of In Time seems to be similar to our own-being separated into different time zones with 12 existing at least here where we see the story take place(only 2 show up in the main story however, the first is Dayton which is the ghetto our protagonist lives in, and the second being New Greenwich where the wealthy live) with the rich class having the most access to resources and more importantly time- to which some of them have centuries or millennia on their personal clocks, the "middle-class" (who dont actually show up that much, but im assuming are the normal workers that we see in the more rich time zones) having access to a few decades and the working-class/poor who live day-to-day(oftentimes having hours on their hands all the time which can be anxiety-inducing, not unlike the financial insecurity of our times today)

for some reason, despite the setting being set in the late 22nd century, it seems as if the movie takes place in some kind of retro-future except its for the early 21st century. the only technology that seems to be advanced is the life extension, everything from cars to telecommunications and etc seems mostly like the present-day tech we have.

The police force around this time seem to call themselves the Timekeepers- who seem to be in collusion with the rich elite in making sure there's no suspicious activity around "Time" and making sure no forms of revolt/revolution occur. strangely, we dont see any humans who have refused to be genetically altered with immortality in this movie- which either means they're in hiding or in refuge somewhere, or probably just died out as the prospect of living forever captivated people so much they'd rather stick around than die.

a criminal gang referring to themselves as the Minutemen are dreaded as they steal time from poor neighborhoods and time zones, their leader of course being Fortis(Alex Pettyfur), a man in his 70s by this point.
Plot
as the setting has hinted at, this is a movie that seems to make a nice but preachy critique of capitalist societies and the way they operate, pricing people out of existence(in this movie i guess its to be taken literally, not sure about in real life though)- more particularly the treatment of the working class.

speaking of the working class, the main protagonist of the movie; Will Salas(Justin Timberlake) is part of them- being a factory worker who lives with his mother Rachel Salas(Olivia Wilde)- who is 50 years old at this point. Will comes into contact with a drunk rich man; Henry Hamiliton(Matt Bomer) from New Greenwich- who's about to be killed off by the Minutemen- however Will's good nature comes into being and escapes with the man- saving his life and running away from the gang.

Henry and Will have a discussion with each other as they hide out in some abandoned building- with Will talking about his experiences in the ghetto of Dayton and chastising Henry(a rich man) for openly showing his huge time clock on his arm in a poor area alongside Henry revealing the secret to the system that the rich elite are maintaining to keep themselves in power and the working-class downtrodden as they constantly increase the prices for everyone's time so as to avoid overpopulation.

Henry sees Will's altruistic nature, giving him 116 years to live and do with his time- killing himself in the process as Will tries to run back give him his time but fails to make it in time. he goes to see his mother Rachel, but she also dies in his arms as she tries to run back to the house- realizing that she didn't have enough time left for the bus fare. with the newfound time he has, he gives his friend 10 years(who also dies, having drunk himself to death according to his wife) he goes on to move past several time zones before ending up in New Greenwich, the richest time zone and meeting a rich girl by the name of Sylvia Weis(Amanda Seyfried) at a party who's life is boring from all the safety and security she has- seeing Will as being an interesting cut above the rest as he makes risky plays at a card game with a couple of rich people.

eventually, shit pops off and he becomes a fugitive from the Timekeepers who recognize his unnatural presence in the rich time zone- kidnapping Sylvia in the process- although she seems to develop some type of Stockholm syndrome as they team and band up together to become revolutionaries to overthrow the unjust system.
Mohs Scale of Science Fiction Hardness
normally i'd use mohs scale of science fiction hardness in evaluating how plausible the tech in a universe seems, but because In Time as a movie doesn't feature any advanced technology besides life extension, i guess i'd just critcize that feature instead.

the movie takes a few liberties(as it should, its a movie and the writers can choose what they want to do with it) and seems to assume that you can commodify lifespan itself, focusing on one particular type of aging and defeating it- calling it the "aging gene"(which the movie says they suppressed, but again doesn't make sense when looking at the actual process of how aging works), aging is caused by a variety of factors, damage to DNA being one oftentimes because of cells constantly replicating in the body, the skin becoming more wrinkled, joints wearing down through overtime usage, etc, which is why its such a difficult task of extending lifespan indefinitely having to take all these into account.

i'm not gonna say this is impossible, but in terms of how plausible it is- i'd say its pretty implausible to have something like this be widespread and available to the public at large especially considering the implications of a society that has developed longer lifespans. of course, there's always gonna be someone that talks about space travel and how we can put people on other planets- for that i'd say requires a self-sustaining ecosystem that's capable of being maintained without any resources coming from Earth- if that's possible; maybe i'd consider this to be something worthwhile of pursuit.

[funkervogt]

The movie can't be taken seriously.

The ultra-stratified socioeconomic order is further cemented by legal housing segregation, with walls separating rich and poor neighborhoods, which are referred to as different “Time Zones” (this movie is full of “time”-related puns like that). Tolls to pass through the gates are set too high for the poor to afford it.

In other words, this is liberal Hollywood’s vision of how the world works, taken to a comical extreme.

...I thought In Time was a superficial movie that made me a little sick with its moralizing. Its deathism also made my eyes roll, with Timberlake and other characters spouting out epic-sounding lines like “No one should be immortal.” That bravado sounds great until you realize that the same rhetoric could be used to justify denying life saving medical technologies to dying people today. Like a fool who likes to watch boxing matches while yelling at the TV set that he could easily beat up one of the professional fighters, everyone is stoic and tough-talking about death until they have to face it, in which case 99% of people plead for God, weep like babies, and will use any technology to live just one more day. I expected nothing better from this film, but it disappointed me nonetheless.

https://www.militantfuturist.com/review-in-time/