jkap Reviews: The Thirteenth Hour
Nick Quinn travels back in time in one-hour increments to stop his wife’s murder but finds his actions have disastrous consequences.
I don’t know about you but lately it seems every other script I read has a time-travel plot. SOURCE CODE, THE DAYS BEFORE, YEAR 12.
And why not? I mean don’t we all stare at our miserable pathetic lives and wish every single day for a chance to go back in time to undo all the godforsaken choices we’ve made……….or is that just me???
Okay, so the scripts opens and we meet NICK QUINN, 30 and his pretty wife JULIA. They’re happily married and successful. Life is good.
Julia’s flying out on business today. Nick works at home in a converted garage.
Julia’s plane is hit by a Cessna. The crash is horrific.
Oblivious to the plane crash, Nick walks into his kitchen and finds Julia laying dead on the floor. She’s been shot in the head.
???????????
Now that’s what I call a hook! We see Julia’s plane explode in a crash and then we find her body laying dead on her kitchen floor. How can this be? This is how you capture your audience. No one knows what’s going on at this point. The audience is compelled to watch now.
Nick is questioned by TWO DETECTIVES – DANCE and SHANNON. They have the murder weapon – an antique gun found in Nick’s garage. They also have a 911 call from Julia. They arrest Nick for the murder of his wife and take him in for questioning. It’s 10pm.
An OLD MAN comes to see Nick. The Detectives assume this is Nick’s lawyer and give them privacy. This Old Man gives Nick a watch. If you push on the crown, it’ll send you an hour back in time.
The Detectives burst into the room and tackle Nick. Nick presses the crown and is sent back in time.
Nick looks around. The watch really works. Nick realizes he’s about to be arrested for murder by Dance and Shannon. The Detectives put Nick in the back of their car to take him in. (Why they don’t handcuff him is beyond me.) Nick presses the watch and is sent back in time.
Nick finds himself at home. It’s now 7pm. Julia’s alive. Nick kisses her over and over. There’s a knock at their front door. Nick realizes this is the killer. Nick grabs a weapon and heads over to the front door. Julia makes the 911 call.
However, there are two gunmen. While Nick’s at the front door, a gunshot goes off in the kitchen. Nick rushes back to find Julia dead. Blood pours out of her head.
The gunman wears a mask. He’s startled to see Nick and flees, carrying a red computer drive.
The gunmen get into a black van. Nick gives chase in his Audi, smashing into the van.
The masked gunman flees into a Best Buy. Nick tackles him. The gunman wears a St. Christopher’s medallion.
Before Nick can rip off the gunman’s mask, he disappears and finds himself an hour back in time – 6pm.
Nick calls Julia. She’s at a client’s building where a lot of artifacts have been robbed. Nick hurriedly drives over there. Asks Julia if she knows anyone that wears a St. Christopher’s medallion. She doesn’t.
Julia states her client SEAMUS HENNICOTT has been robbed. He collects antiques. Nick freezes. This is where the murder weapon – the antique gun – has come from.
Julia installed the security system in the building. A secondary system sends surveillance tapes directly to her hard drive at home. If there’s a break-in, Julia will receive a message.
This explains the plane crash. Julia was on the plane but received a message about the robbery. She got off the plane before it took off and immediately drove over to the Hennicott building. She then went home where she was murdered.
This also explains why she was murdered. The gunmen came to her house for the red computer drive which holds the incriminating evidence.
Nick realizes he’s got to get the computer drive to learn who the killers are. Julia tells Nick she’s pregnant just as Nick disappears and ends up an hour back in time – 5pm.
Nick’s at home. He quickly removes the red drive from Julia’s computer.
Nick then drives back to the Hennicott building, picks up Julia and states they have to scan the tapes immediately to learn who committed the robbery.
They go to Julia’s office and plug in the drive. The two gunmen are there along with a third man. Julia recognizes the third man. Before she can state who it is, she’s shot dead. The gunmen are here at Julia’s office. Enraged, Nick tackles a gunman but again disappears and finds himself back at home – 4pm.
This time Nick goes to his neighbor’s house – HANK. Hank knows people in the FBI. Nick gives Hank the license plate number of the black van. He needs to know who owns it.
Hank makes some calls. The FBI sends the info via fax. Just as the fax machine spits out the paper, it jams. Nick’s hour is almost up. He hurriedly fixes the machine and rips the fax out just as he disappears.
Nick finds himself in a grocery store – 3pm. He’s holding on the fax from the FBI.
Nick learns the man’s name is PAUL DREYFUS – Paul Dreyfus is the third man on the security tape – he’s head of Gold Standard Security. Nick googles him and learns that Dreyfus has just lost a government contract.
Nick calls Julia. Learns that Paul actually designed the security system for Seamus. It’s an inside job.
Nick goes to the police station and asks to speak to Detective Dance. Dance isn’t there though. Every available officer has been dispatched to the plane crash.
Nick disappears and reappears at 2pm – eating lunch. Nick rushes to the crash site. Shannon and Dance are there. So is the black van.
Dance is one of the gunmen. He gets Nick alone and weighs him down before dumping him into the river. Nick struggles but starts sinking to the bottom. Before he can run out of air, Nick disappears.
It’s 1pm. Nick drives back to the crash site and waits for the van to appear. We learn the second gunman is a man named BRINEHART. With the help of a security officer, Nick tries to get Dance and Brinehart arrested. Instead, Dance and Brinehart kill the security officer. Huge fight breaks out. Nick manages to shoot both Dance and Brinehart. They’re dead. Nick realizes he’s gotten the innocent security officer murdered.
Even though Dance and Brinehart are now dead, Nick cannot have innocent blood on his hands. He goes back in time to 12:00pm, searching for another way out of this mess.
Nick finds Julia and tells her she has to run. They have to escape this future. Nick manages to get her on a train to New York. She’s safe. He then throws the watch away in the trash. Whatever happens this time, he’ll have to live with it.
However Dance and Brinehart are at the train station. They stop Nick and question him about Julia.
A mad scramble ensues. Nick has to get the watch back. Dance tackles him. Nick sees Dance’s Saint Christopher’s medallion. The trash can is knocked over. Nick is able to grab the watch and disappear.
We see Julia on the plane, oblivious to the fact that it’s going to crash.
Dance, Brinehart and Dreyfus are at a Denny’s, firming up their plans.
Nick reappears at a Starbuck’s. It’s 11am. Nick goes to Detective Shannon and states Detective Dance is about to commit a robbery. Shannon believes Nick. Turns out Dance is in deep to the Armenian mafia – owing over $100,000.
Nick and Shannon drive to the soon-to-be robbery site. Dance is there. Shannon confronts Dance. Dance shoots Shannon dead and takes Nick hostage.
The robbery goes off as planned…only it’s been delayed due to Nick’s meddling. Dreyfus sees the backup security system. Realizes that Julia can implicate them all.
This time Julia doesn’t get the page in time. She’s still on the plane as it takes off.
The robbery now complete, Dreyfus takes off in a small Cessna – it’s his plane that’ll cause the crash. By trying to stop all this, Nick has caused Julia to remain on the plane.
Helpless, Nick watches as the Cessna crashes into Julia’s plane, killing her.
Nick disappears. It’s now 10am. He’s at the gym, running on a treadmill.
Nick finds Julia at the airport terminal and stops her from getting on the plane.
Nick then finds out Seamus Hennicott is the old man who’s given him the watch.
Nick, Julia and detective Shannon converge at Seamus Hennicott’s building. They stop the robbery.
This time Dance shoots Dreyfus, killing him. Shannon manages to kill Brinehart and wound Dance.
Dance tackles Nick and is about to kill him when the Armenian mafia show up, wanting their money from Dance. Nick has called them. The mafia take Dance away.
Julia and Nick kiss and embrace. Nick returns the watch to Seamus Hennicott and all the wrongs have now been righted.
Okay, the two greatest time-traveling films in my book are BACK TO THE FUTURE and THE TERMINATOR. What sets these two apart from anything else in the genre??? The characters. You have to feel for them. You have to get involved in their predicaments. You have to root for them. I’m sure if I say the names Marty McFly and Sarah Connor, every movie lover will immediately recognize them. Why? Because we’ve gotten EMOTIONALLY involved with them and their plights.
Sadly, this is not the case here. Why? No emotional involvement with the characters. I doubt anyone is going to recognize the names Nick and Julia Quinn a week after seeing this film. Their fates don’t entwine us. We don’t feel enough for them. When Nick saves Julia, the emotional payoff is minimal because the writers haven’t brought them to life. We’re simply not rooting for them like we did for Marty and Sarah.
Quick example. DEJA VU contains this very problem. Can anyone honestly name Paula Patton’s character from that film???
Without an emotional involvement, the audience is simply watching the heroes instead of rooting for them.
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