NICK OF TIME

US, 1995, 95 minutes, Colour.
Johnny Depp, Christopher Walken, Marsha Mason, Charles S. Dutton, Peter Strauss, G.D. Spradlin.
Directed by John Badham.

Action fans should be satisfied with Johnny Depp in Nick of Time, entertaining while it is on the screen but has a plot full of credibility holes the more you think about it. Two members of a conspiracy choose a random father and little daughter as their victims. The assassination target is the governor of California and, with his child abducted, the meek, bespectacled accountant has to do the murder. He is supervised by an omnipresent ruthless killer. Johnny Depp is the accountant who has to do the job within 90 minutes (and the film uses a real time 90 minutes) but who, we know, will come out trumps. It is a change to see him in an `ordinary' role. Christopher Walken has no trouble in persuading us that he is evil.

1. Entertaining suspense thriller?

2. The use of the natural time of the events with the running time of the film? Greater sense of suspense? Identification with the characters? The situation? The constant reference to clocks?

3. The title and its play on words, with Nick's name?

4. The Los Angeles background: Union Station, the streets, the Bonaventure Hotel? The atmosphere of the hotel? The musical score and its moods?

5. The opening with Nick and his daughter arriving in Los Angeles, the ordinariness of a family movie? Nick as an accountant, his love for his daughter, the death of his wife, the memories and the discussion about kissing? The sudden transition to the conspiracy thriller?

6. Christopher Walken as the sinister assassin? His associate? Their watching people at the station to choose their victims? The irony of the French couple kissing? Picking Nick and his daughter? Nick at the phone, the rollerblader trying to take his daughter's doll? The approach of the assassin, pretending to be police, going into the mini-van? Presenting the conspiracy scenario? The abduction of his daughter? Banging him on his knee? The time-line?

7. Nick, character, personality? Bewilderment? Wanting to save his daughter? The taxi and the taxi man’s talk and his not hearing it? Wanting to approach the police and the assassin almost there? Going to the shoeshine man? Telling him the story, giving him the $20? The further connections and the assassin always being there? Urging him on, the passing of time? In the elevator with the governor and the discussion about the autograph?

8. His attempt to save his daughter but her being threatened? The associate with the Mexican stand-off? The walkie-talkie and the contact with his daughter?

9. Returning to the shoeshine man, his believing him, pretending to be deaf, the assassin giving him all the details? The shoeshine man helping him - the associates in the hotel, changing the trousers, going to the room? The false lead with the governor's assistant and her being shot with the revelation of the conspirators?

10. The governor, what she stood for, considered a bleeding heart? Her husband against her, the big business interests? The security guards being paid? Nick entering the hotel with the gun? The shooting of the assistant?

11. The governor, Nick and the gun, explaining his case? Giving her the clue that the talk would not be cancelled? The governor and her scream, pretending to have a nightmare, the pressure by her husband? Her assistant's absence? Her decision to give the talk?

12. Nick and his return to the toilet, the assassin taking him upstairs? The set-up in the room? Nick turning and shooting at the assassin? The assassin shooting? The mayhem? Bodyguards being shot? The husband and his going to his wife, taunting her, thinking her dead? The irony of her being alive?

13. Nick and his race towards the daughter, pursued by the assassin, the fighting? The van near the hotel, the associate getting ready to kill the little girl, her escaping in the back of the van? The shoeshine man and his intervention? The shots? The killing of the assassin? His using his artificial limb to stop the associate?

14. The resolution of the plot - how farfetched? Credibility while watching? Being drawn into the action? American political conspiracies? American heroism in thwarting such conspiracies, the role of the heroic individual, even under pressure?