Now this looks interesting….
For those who are unable to watch the trailer, the set-up for In Time is simple enough. In a world set twenty minutes into the future, people no longer have to age beyond a physical 25. But of course, in order to make sure people stay good and productive, people are paid — and pay for things — with time remaining on their lives. Needless to say, the poorest people have very little time indeed, while the rich literally have all the time in the world.
All good science fiction is about the present, and this is set up as a very powerful allegory about the present indeed. I have a feeling that I’ll be watching this one when it comes out. It looks phenomenal.
Shades of “Repent, Harlequin!” Said the Ticktockman . . .
of course, the villains we have here are corporate-flavored rather than Soviet totalitarian.
Fascinating premise–the best of sci-fi is like that, using the genre to probe profound issues.
After watching this trailer, I suggest googling a list of life-expectancies by country.
What you do after that, other than weep into your hands in impotent guilt and/or rage, I do not know.
Standard Loneliness Package by Charles Yu has a very good treatment of this theme:
http://www.lightspeedmagazine.com/fiction/standard-loneliness-package/
@Mandolin–
That’s an excellent story. Thanks for sharing the link. And yes, it does cover the same ground well.
Yawn. They really need to stop writing that story.
Lets have a film where everyone is 1000, can have any body (or anybody) they like, and the issues are elsewhere rather than in these base mechanical matters.
Ie. like it WILL ACTUALLY BE.