Yesterday I went to see the movie, “In Time” with Justin Timberlake. I’m not a big movie theater person (costs are nuts), but I thought the concept of this movie was interesting and I needed to get away from looking at pictures of me. LOL! I have to find a picture for the back cover of my book and the publisher’s website…of course one where I don’t look like I’m harboring a week’s worth of food in my cheeks, my aging skin isn’t drooping in too many places and my nose isn’t taking up most of the picture. But that’s another problem for another day—back to “In Time”.
The movie is about people living off time instead of money. Time is the currency. When you’re born, your clock is set to zero until you hit your 25th birthday and then the one-year clock (given to everyone) starts up. No one ages after 25 years, but you have to earn time in order to live (when your clock runs out, you immediately die). The rich are immortal while the poor die young.
You pay with time. If you want a car, it could cost you 5-years of your life. In the movie, timekeepers make sure the poor remain poor and the rich continue to live. The rich raise taxes and time costs whenever they feel like it. Each social class is in a particular time zone, and when you attempt to cross to the next time zone, you have to pay extensively to prove you belong there.
When we got out of the movie, we talked about how it isn’t that much different from the struggles in the world today. The corporations buy enough minutes to live long, greedy lives while the poor to middle class struggle to survive each day. Zip codes divide our economic status and taxes and costs are raised whenever, many times without reason.
It’s scary to think that technology and government control could make our seconds, minutes, hours and days our currency. We then started thinking about how government and corporations could control (more than they do now) what we eat and do in life. What if a beer costs a day of your life? Or a cigarette costs you a week of your life? What if a cheeseburger costs five days of your life?
If you wore the seconds, minutes, hours and days on your arm, and saw it decrease with every purchase, would you think twice about what you do in life, and if so, what would you stop doing?
Tick tock and ageless,
Bea
Wow, this is a really thought provoking post. Before I even got to the end, I was already thinking to myself how the movie's depiction of the rich staying rich and the poor growing poorer is not much different than our current society. The only difference being time as the currency. I even thought about how our individual zip codes are indicative of our social and economic classes. Then I read on and saw that you had drawn the same conclusion. Of course, if I wore my life clock on my arm I would think long and hard before each purchase. I suppose I would only purchase basic necessities to live, but then is that really a life worth living, if you never have pleasure? I really want to see this movie now.
ReplyDeleteThank you for visiting my blog and I apologize that you had such a difficult time leaving a comment. I think it is because I started using DISQUS. Thank you for bringing it to my attention because you prompted me to check out my "about" and "projects" pages and much to my horror I discovered that my content from one of them has disappeared. I am going to fix it, but I have been so busy with NaNo. Thank you for your kind email.
Oh, and I am sure your author's photo is beautiful, but I did laugh at your story. My son once told me that my cheeks looked like a squirrel storing nuts for the winter. LOL
Interesting concept. I love thought-provoking movies where you can't help thinking of all sorts of 'what ifs' and questions about life after you see it. And dang, I would never want to have a countdown ticking away the minutes and hours of of my life—although you'd better believe I would think long and hard about purchases if the currency used was time.
ReplyDeleteHey, Ms. tick-tock, just use a picture from when you were ageless at 25 for your author photo. ;-) Don't be so hard on yourself; I'm sure you'll look beautiful no matter what.
Melissa, We do think alike.
ReplyDeleteIt’s a frightening thought though if our current society switched from currency to time. I wonder how many people would cut out many things in their life just to survive, or if they’d live very short lives and enjoy it.
No problem about your blog. I was able to comment this time around.
Barb, the ‘what if’s’ movies are great as long as those what if’s really couldn’t happen. YIKES!
I thought about using an old picture, but then I thought if someone met me they’d say, “GAH! What happened to you?” LOL! Thanks for the quote you emailed me.
I never imagined that such a movie would be so thought provoking. As one of the poorer of folks, I'll admit it'd be a paradox; barely buy anything and never truly 'live', or buy whatever you want just to die quickly? You just can't win.
ReplyDeleteA Beer for the Shower, I don’t normally talk about movies as being thought provoking…and you’re right, there isn’t a win/win way to live.
ReplyDeleteThanks for stopping by and commenting.
Wow - what a concept. I never even heard of the movie. May have to check it out. Spanks :)
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