Bullet Points: 24 Hours to Live

I was sold on this movie solely for the fact that Ethan Hawke and Rutger Hauer share the screen in a movie about revenge. I tend to like most movies that end up with one character going on a suicide mission to take vengeance on any number of people but Ethan Hawke has been trying hard lately to do his version of Taken and I never miss an opportunity to see another man pushing 50 go on a revenge-fueled killing rampage. Let’s find out if 24 Hours to Live lives up to my expectations.

Synopsis: Hawke plays a CIA agent who sacrifices everything for his employers, including his family and, ultimately, his own life. No sooner has he shuffled off this mortal coil, though, than he finds himself mysteriously resurrected for one last mission that’s timed to last exactly 24 hours. Once the countdown clock embedded in his arm reaches zero, he’ll once again nod off into an eternal slumber if he hasn’t completed his task. Before that happens, expect him to wreak bloody havoc on both his targets and his former CIA minders.

• Contract Killers: Aidan Whytock plays a former military contractor who witnesses some horrible shit and is planning on testifying. Ethan Hawke’s Travis Conrad is hired to take out Whytock but he confronted with the task of first getting close enough to take him out and that means dealing with Lin (Qing Xu).
• Secret Agent Hawke: You can tell he’s a pro because he sleeps with the girl before he tries to kill her. That is a classic move on the part of any assassin guy. Also…he puts on a leather jacket first. Not only is a pro, but he’s also deadly serious.

• A Lordly man: I can’t see Liam Cunningham and not think about Game of Thrones. Here he plays a head honcho who is pulling the strings behind this whole operation to kill Aidan Whytock’s character.
• Question: Ethan Hawke must escape from a bunch of bad guys and he’s just been woken from the dead. What does he grab first? Answer: A gun, idiot! But once he has the gun he totally grabs a leather jacket and wears it without a shirt. A kickass look that I’m going to have to try out.

• Breakdown: I don’t know if it’s a side effect of being brought back to life, but Hawke has visions of his dead family at the most inopportune times. Maybe he’s just struggling with their loss after only a year but it is clearly something that is important because it keeps happening over and over.
• That’s one hell of a distraction: Shit metaphorically hits the fan and Hawke is a man who only has hours to live. That means that he stops giving a damn about his own physical health and plays out the rest of the movie like he’s a character in a video game. That also means that we’re treated to some killer action in the form of car chases, shootouts, and Ethan Hawke blowing shit up.

• You never knew you wanted it: Rutger Hauer is a national treasure in both the US and the Netherlands. He doesn’t hang around too long in the movie but long enough to make an impression on several characters.
• Them Heart Strings: As a father, I found myself falling deeper and deeper into the story of Travis Conrad and his lost family. It’s a sad story when a man puts his career ahead of his family but it’s even more sad when that career has to do with killing people and the man is fraught with demons from losing both. Trust me, after this movie…he’s gonna have some serious demons.

The Verdict: I really enjoyed 24 Hours to Live. I’ve always liked Ethan Hawke and the story is simple enough with plenty of action to keep you satisfied. What the movie delivers is more than just a simple action movie, though. It’s a story of vengeance, no doubt, but it’s also a story about redemption and remorse. Hawke is perfect for the role and you can tell that he still has a good 10 years before his true Taken role will come. The locations for the film are excellent and the action set pieces are better than I expected. All in all, a really good movie.