The Essential Things The Film "In Time" Reminds Us About Time

In Time is one of the life-changing films to me. It's a 2011 science fiction movie. Will Salas, the protagonist, lives in a world where people stop aging at age 25. Time is currency, so people earn and spend it. As long as they have time, they can live. The limited super-rich can live almost forever with health, whereas the rest have no choice but live from day to day literally.

In Time is thought-provoking from two perspectives:

social structure
resources of time and money

We'll look into the film from the resource perspective in this post.

Photo by Nathan Dumlao on Unsplash

Time is a resource, as is money

Time is a resource. You're probably not pressed for time if you don't have that sense. Neither did I. I'd forgotten time is a resource until I saw In Time.

In one scene, Will's mother can't afford to get a bus back home. The fare went up to 2 hours, and she has only 1.5 hours. Unfortunately, it's 2 hours on foot, so she has to run. Finally, her time is up before arriving at home.

In reality, we pay money to take a bus. We take a bus to save time. So we pay money to save time. What can we do with the time we save? We can do various things, such as meeting friends, studying, or relaxing at home. If you don't take a bus, you only have two options: giving those things up or giving other things up to spare time for doing those things. That's why time is a resource. Riding the bus is an exchange of money for the resource of time.

In another scene from the film, we see Will laboring to earn time. He spends time working and gets the hours he needs to live the next day.

In our world, many of us labor to earn money. That means laborers exchange their resources of time for their return resources of money.

Since it's easy to notice differences from reality, we begin to be aware of things we've been unaware of. I had never thought deeply about time, but In Time made me realize time is a resource.

We cling to time only when we're about to run out of it

We can all live forever as long as we don't do anything foolish. Doesn't that scare you? That maybe you'll never do anything foolish? Or courageous, or anything worth a damn?

– Sylvia Weis;

We're gonna die, Will! Do you want to die?!

– Sylvia Weis

We rarely appreciate our time when we have plenty. We cling to it only when we're about to run out of it.

Sylvia Weis, a daughter of a super-rich, isn't grateful for her plenty of time. On the contrary, she's even scared of that – before being robbed of her time. However, once finding that someone stole her time and left little time with her, she suddenly begins to get upset and fear death.

When it comes to ourselves, when we have time, we sometimes want to kill time for no reason, fearing boredom. We also make plans to fill up the emptiness in our calendars. But when we are pressed for time, we do what we have to do now, wishing we had more time. Isn't it the same for us as for Sylvia?

Next, let's think on the larger scale of life. If we spend our younger years unintentionally and without understanding the importance of time, we may regret doing this or that when we get older. Doesn't that scare us?

So, we should appreciate our time when we have time.

Spend time or money wisely when we have enough

Don't waste my time.

– Henry Hamilton

The protagonist, Will Salas, saves Henry Hamilton, a wealthy person, from gangs. Henry gives Will all his time and leaves a message – the above one.

It's one of the messages the film states. And the more time or money you get, the more important it becomes. The parting scene between Will and his friend tells you.

After receiving tremendous time from Henry Hamilton, Will visits a friend to say goodbye. Just before saying goodbye, Will gives him ten years, which is quite a lot of money for a person who is lucky if he wakes up to find he has one day left. So what does the friend do after that? He dies because of drinking nine-year worth of alcohol!

That scene reminds me of a story of a lottery winner quickly running out of the prize. You can always spend it all money, no matter how much you have. The important thing is not to do that. We are often tempted to splurge it when we have a lot of money. But if you want to spend meaningful time, you always need to ask yourself whether it will make us happy in a true sense.

That also applies to time. We often spend much time on social networking sites or watching TV to kill time. But you wouldn't do that if your life ended in 24 hours. You can kill however much amount of time. But again, the important thing is not to do that even if you have enough time to kill.

As described in the previous section, we often forget to be aware of the importance of time. And we can say the same thing about money, as it's known that income has a smaller impact on happiness beyond a certain income level. That's why we should spend time or money wisely, especially when we have plenty.

We need a purpose in life to precious our time

I can tell you one thing. If I had all that time, I sure as hell wouldn't waste it.
– Will Salas

So far, we've seen that time is a resource we should appreciate and use effectively. But why? Why shouldn't you waste your time? Isn't it okay to drink until you die if that's what you want?

There's no problem, of course, as long as you bother no one. Yet it would be tough to live without purpose. In the film, Henry Hamilton, an above-mentioned rich person, suffers from living too long at the expense of many others. Sylvia Weis fears living forever without doing something foolish, courageous, or worthwhile.

Will, on the other hand, lives to give people time and hope after Henry tells him the truth and gives him time. He's got a purpose and time – means to realize his vision. His every behavior relates to his purpose, so he doesn't waste time. Instead, he does have no time to waste. He doesn't fear or get tired of living.

Come to think of myself, I once lost my purpose after graduating from graduate school. I started a career but was disappointed. It's not so terrible, but it wasn't exactly what I'd expected. Since my goal was to get a perfectly ideal job, just daily trivial boring tasks were enough to make me realize the reality.

Once feeling less motivated, my willingness to learn began to wane and instead kill time, such as by playing a mobile game. That game was exciting, but I didn't enjoy it at heart. I felt vacant playing that game, but I couldn't stop it. I suffered from my meaningless way of spending my time, such as playing a mobile game all day. I fell into a negative spiral.

The Things That Made Me Quit Mobile Game

But after understanding there's no ideal job, I restarted my learning. I realized that I should keep learning if I wanted a better life. I'm sure I got my purpose back. Now I don't play any mobile games. I rarely feel like playing it. And even if a rare event happens, I don't do that because I know what to do now.

Have your purpose, and you'll spend your time more wisely. Spend your time more wisely, and you'll feel yourself living a life with a great purpose. We need a purpose in life. In Time tells us that.

Conclusion

Since the world is rapidly changing, we must keep updating ourselves. As a result, time has become a more and more important resource. In Time will help us think about the importance of time.

Search This Blog

Reading Watching Something