Introduction

24 Hours to Live is a 2017 science fiction action thriller film directed by Brian Smrz and starring Ethan Hawke, Xu Qing, Paul Anderson, Liam Cunningham, and Rutger Hauer.

It follows a career assassin who is brought back to life for 24 hours to seek revenge and redemption.

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Outline

In South Africa, a convoy of interpol agents led by Lin (Xu Qing) transport a prisoner, Keith. At a checkpoint, they are ambushed. Most of the agents are killed, but Lin escapes with Keith.

Travis Conrad (Ethan Hawke), a hitman and former US Marine, fishes with his father in law, Frank (Rutger Hauer). They scatter ashes in the ocean, noting the one year anniversary of the deaths they commemorate. After Frank falls asleep, Travis goes to a bar to get cocaine. He assaults two thugs following him who tell him Jim (a friend and former US Marine) wants to see him. Jim offers Travis $1 million per day to clean up the botched assassination attempt on Keith and Lin. Though he initially refuses, claiming he is retired, the money convinces him. He travels to Hong Kong and meets Lin’s son, from whom he steals his cell phone and determines Lin’s location. He meets her at the airport and seduces her. The next morning, he gets Keith’s location from her phone but chooses not to kill her; she realises he is an agent and kills him.

Travis’ agency, Red Mountain, bring him back to life using an experimental procedure. Once he tells them Keith’s location, Jim, his friend and former fellow Marine, informs him that they just revived him to get the location, and the doctor plans to kill him upon her return. Travis obtains a scalpel and cuts his restraints; when the doctor returns he kills a guard and learns from her that with a timer on his wrist, he has 24 hours to live. He escapes with her as a hostage and pursues Lin, telling her not to make him regret not killing her.

Keith testifies against Red Mountain, revealing they experimented on over 70 civilians to develop the resurrection procedure and forced him to dispose of the bodies. Just after he testifies, Jim snipes several guards from a clocktower and Red Mountain assault the building. Lin and Keith escape when Travis arrives to help, knowing Red Mountain betrayed him. During the chase, Keith is killed, but he managed to get the camera’s memory card before they left. Travis entrusts the card to Lin, but Jim calls to inform them that they have taken her son in exchange for the card. Travis decides to help her retrieve him and collects guns and explosives from a safe house.

They travel to the village from which the civilians Red Mountain experimented on lived and enlist their help in avenging them. Travis knows prisoner transport protocol; they corner and ambush the convoy and get the boy back. Travis tells Lin to get the testimony to the authorities and decides to spend his last half hour alive delaying Red Mountain from pursuing her. He forces a surviving Red Mountain agent to drive him to base claiming he is the prisoner; when he arrives he kills several guards and drives the car into the building. He detonates the car and assaults the office in which Jim and the Red Mountain leader, Wetzler, are holed up. After killing all the agents in the room, Wetzler tries to goad Travis into killing Jim, who knew that Wetzler ordered his wife and son killed in an attempt to keep him from quitting the company. Though angered, Travis feels remorse for all the killing he’s done and lets Jim live. Jim then approaches Wetzler to kill him as police arrive. Though they warn him not to shoot, he shoots Wetzler and is killed himself.

Travis dies and has a vision of his family on a beach. He beckons for his son, but he runs away. Travis begins to hear a woman’s voice and awakes in the lab in which he was first resurrected.

Cast

• Ethan Hawke as Travis Conrad.
• Xu Qing as Lin.
• Liam Cunningham as Wetzler.
• Rutger Hauer as Frank.
• Paul Anderson as Jim Morrow.
• Tyrone Keogh as Keith.

Trivia

• The film premiered at the Austin Film Festival on 26 October 2017, and was released on VOD and in select theaters on 01 December 2017.
• It has earned $5.8 million in worldwide theatrical box office, and sales of its DVD/Blu-ray releases have earned $1.7 million.

Production & Filming Details

• Director(s): Brian Smrz.
• Producer(s): Mark Gao, Basil Iwanyk, and Gregory Ouanhon.
• Writer(s): Zach Dean, Jim McClain, and Ron Mita.
• Music: Tyler Bates.
• Cinematography: Ben Nott.
• Editor(s): Elliot Greenberg.
• Production: Thunder Road Pictures and Fundamental Films.
• Distributor(s): Saban Films.
• Release Date: 26 October 2017 (Austin Film Festival) and 01 December 2017 (US).
• Running Time: 93 minutes.
• Rating: 15/Rated.
• Country: US, South Africa, and China.
• Language: English.

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