![]() ![]() ![]() In contrast, Niccol’s society evidences no particular interest in being punctual, as it focuses on other issues to be discussed, and offers no explanation as to how this system came about Salas only says, “I don’t have time to worry about how it happened.” More provocatively, and despite what you may have read elsewhere, In Time, unlike “`Repent, Harlequin!’ Said the Ticktockman,” does not take place in the future. For despite an opening quotation from Henry David Thoreau’s Civil Disobedience (1849) about the general value of rebelling against society, Ellison’s particular message is that our society has grown too concerned with punctuality at all costs, and he explicitly extrapolates that this growing tendency to “serve time” instead of “let time serve us” will eventually lead, by the year 2389, to a society in which staying on schedule is considered more important than anything else. However, it is the broader thematic differences between “`Repent, Harlequin!’ Said the Ticktockman” and In Time that will disappoint filmgoers hoping to see a genuine adaptation of Ellison’s story. Nolan and George Clayton Johnson, authors of the novel Logan’s Run (1967), to file their own case against Niccol, since they could employ less carefully chosen language to argue that both stories involve worlds where all people are forced to die at a young age unless they take special action, with the laws enforced by special agents with time-related titles (Timekeepers and Sandmen). Do the stories sound identical to you? Frankly, if Ellison has any success at all, I would encourage William F. Ellison’s Harlequin dresses like a clown and engages in elaborate pranks to disrupt the schedule of his punctuality-obsessed society before he is captured and reprogrammed to be an obedient citizen by the Ticktockman Niccol’s Will Salas (Justin Timberlake) works earnestly to obtain more time for his fellow plebeians, ultimately defeats the Timekeeper (Cillian Murphy) pursuing him, and seems poised to overturn the entire social order. ![]() But even cursory examination of the two works will reveal so many differences between them as to make any connection seem tenuous indeed: in Ellison’s story, individuals are punished for being late by having a corresponding amount of time removed from their otherwise normal lifespans, whereas in Niccol’s screenplay all citizens are “genetically programmed” to die at the age of twenty-six unless they can earn additional time, which has replaced money as society’s currency. Science fiction readers will approach Andrew Niccol’s In Time with a particular question in mind: is this film, as Harlan Ellison’s lawsuit contends, in fact an unauthorized adaptation of his classic story “`Repent, Harlequin!’ Said the Ticktockman” (1965)? Unschooled in the finer points of copyright law, I cannot offer a definitive answer, but in the unlikely event that the case ever comes to court, I could only serve as an expert witness for the defense, testifying that any alleged similarities can be conveyed solely by means of an extremely careful choice of words: yes, both stories involve a totalitarian society which employs advanced technology to scientifically control the lifespans of citizens, with one feared enforcer assigned to seek out and apprehend those who violate its policies.
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