In the future, when people turn 25, they stop aging. The bad news: a clock, engineered into every human at birth, activates, giving the person one year to live. Time thus becomes currency, as people can earn currency at work, spend it at businesses, or give it to one another. The poor have just enough time to stay alive, while the rich, living in a barricaded city, more time than they need. The story focuses on Will, a blue-collar worker who one night saves a drunk at a bar in an act of kindness. The drunk turns out to be a 105-year-old man from the rich city, who tells Will that the rich have enough time for every person to live a long life, but they keep it all to themselves in order to be immortal. The drunk then gives Will 116 years and walks over to a bridge until his last couple of minutes run out and he drops into the river, dead. Meanwhile, Will's mother has to pay off her debts with time, and while she races home to Will as fast as she can, she gets there seconds too late and dies right in front of him. Will heads for the rich city, furious at the wealthy. He meets a beautiful young woman named Sylvia, whose father is the wealthiest man, possessing over a million years. While at a party in Sylvia's home, a cop named Leon arrives, to arrest Will for "robbing" the drunk from the beginning. Will takes Sylvia hostage and they run for it, but when their car crashes and all of their time is robbed by scavengers. Will tries to demand a ransom for Sylvia, but when her father refuses, it enrages Sylvia, who shoots the cops that arrive and demands that Will help her do something about this injustice. They begin robbing banks, taking time from them and distributing them evenly to the poor. They even rob Sylvia's father of his million years. With the cops swarming on them, and Leon bent on revenge, Will and Sylvia must be careful to avoid capture.
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Best part of story, including ending:
It has a neat premise on paper, but the use of literal time as currency is strained paper-thin, and the use of many time puns in the script clashes with the serious tone.
Best scene in story:
Near the end, when Leon finally has caught Will and Sylvia, and they look like they're done for, Leon realizes he's forgotten to give himself more time and dies, in a bit of poetic justice.
Opinion about the main character:
Will means well, but the character is blandly written and unfortunately for Justin Timberlake, he's not really cut out to be the lead in a big science fiction film like this.