You know that science fiction trope where there’s one guy who both sees the system is corrupt and has the moral / mental fiber to do something about it? And usually there’s a lot of running involved? In Time casts Justin Timberlake in that role, railing against metaphor run amok. Actually, it’s not that bad of a metaphor, and it’s certainly[1] timely, it’s just that I can’t decide if I wish there had been a subtler writer or if in fact the metaphor itself is too hamfisted for any given presentation of its message.

See, it’s like this. For reasons that are unexplored (and there’s nothing wrong with that, it’s why sci-fi exists), humanity has been genetically engineered to remain forever young, the aging process halted at 25. On the downside, the currency of trade is time, and the only place time comes from is the one year of additional life beyond 25 that everyone is born with. (Well, okay, there are mathematical problems with that claim, but as far as I know nobody ever claimed to an additional source.) And so the poor people live, literally, day to day, while the rich are functionally immortal. And if you thought that ‘day to day’ reference was a little bit twee, well, that’s my point when I was wishing for a bit more subtlety. But still, it is a genuinely apt metaphor that brings into stark relief why someone might have a problem with a CEO earning an eight-figure salary, even if our fictional née gold-backed currency system is less literally deadly and less literally draining out of our accounts, moment by moment. Plus, there are lots of pretty people running and a somewhat hilarious central irony.

But man, it would piss me off that I was paying to be at work, even if I made back more at the end of the day. Or perhaps it is more accurate to say that it does piss me off, since the currency being split into two forms doesn’t make it less true that I’m spending my life away in this office, one second at a time. On the bright side, though, I got to spend a few of them on you, my readers!

[1] Forgive me.