In this visual text, directed by the New Zealander Andrew Niccol, the main theme is about inequality and how we should treasure each moment as if it were our last.
Plot Summary.
In this visual text, Will Sallis, a 28 year old construction-line worker who lives in the 'Dayton Ghetto' meets Henry Hamilton, a man with more than a century on his arm. When Will acts to save Henry from local street gangs, attempting to steal his time, Hamilton donates it all to him. Before Will is able to stop Hamilton, he times himself out and dies. After he is unable to prevent the death of his mother, he swears vengeance and travels to the 'New Greenwich' timezone. There he becomes attracted to Sylvia, a young woman who is bored with her wealthy lifestyle, together they rob her father, Philipp Weis who is worth a million years, and redistribute it to the citizens in the Ghetto. .
In this film, inequality between the rich and the poor is one of the most prominent themes. The director used the idea of time being the new currency to portray his ideas on the above. When Will and Sylvia decide to rob Philipp Weis and redistribute it into the 'Timeshare centre' in the Ghetto, Weis wasn't mad because his daughter was stealing, he was mad because of who she was giving it to. "If time were to accidently be placed into the wrong hands, it could upset the very scales of our existence." and "Time is money." This made me realise that the reason for such gaps in economic scale is because our society is run to solely benefit the rich. Wealthy businessmen whose main priority is capital gain act like there is no one else on the earth there with them. This is not just a couple of cases, this is happening world-wide, each and everyday they are making decisions that not benefit them entirely but also shape our future. I believe that this is a major problem we face today, which is exactly why Niccol touched upon this.