15 Fascinating Premises That Were Bigger Than The Movies Themselves

4. In Time

The Premise: In the future, everyone stops aging at 25; they then have a single year to live, which is counted down on a display on their arm. One man goes on a quest for live longer, finding out that the richest people are keeping all the time for themselves. Whilst many directors try to highlight the gulf in modern society between wealth and poverty, In Time is a film that perhaps showcases the difference simply, yet poetically. Time is money; it's a really subtle idea, but one that's explored through the concept of the richest people being the ones with the longest to live. There are parallels to class systems and to the world we live in now, and the film elaborates on the idea that those who own time can sustain their life for longer; the rich people live in a separate time zone, hoarding millions of years for themselves while the poorest people die at 25, and it's up to Justin Timberlake's Robin Hood-like character Will to distribute that time equally. And though the film goes awry, becoming a black-and-white, action adventure for Timberlake to save the day in, some of the themes and ideas that could have been explored are intriguing. Not a completely wasted story, but it's almost a case of a premise being too good for the plot.