Hours (2013 film)

Last updated
Hours
Hours2013Poster.jpg
Theatrical release poster
Directed by Eric Heisserer
Written byEric Heisserer
Produced by Peter Safran
Starring
CinematographyJaron Presant
Edited bySam Bauer
Music by Benjamin Wallfisch
Production
companies
Distributed by Pantelion Films
Release dates
  • March 10, 2013 (2013-03-10)(SXSW)
  • December 13, 2013 (2013-12-13)(United States)
Running time
97 minutes
CountryUnited States
LanguageEnglish
Budget$4.6 million [1]
Box office$1.7 million [2]

Hours is a 2013 American thriller film directed and written by Eric Heisserer. The film stars Paul Walker, Genesis Rodriguez, TJ Hassan, Shane Jacobsen, and Judd Lormand, and follows a father who struggles to keep his newborn infant daughter alive after the electricity cuts off in the wake of Hurricane Katrina. The film premiered on March 10, 2013 at the South by Southwest Film Festival in the Topfer Theatre in Austin, Texas. It went on general release on December 13, 2013, two weeks after Paul Walker's death on November 30, 2013.

Contents

Plot

In 2005, before Hurricane Katrina strikes New Orleans, Nolan Hayes rushes his wife Abigail to the emergency room as she is in labor five weeks early. The doctor explains that his wife gave birth to a baby girl, but died of liver failure. Nolan refuses to accept her death and is in grief. He then learns that his newborn baby needs to be kept in a ventilator for the next two days before she can breathe on her own. The only problem is that the hurricane is beginning to flood the hospital and the ventilator cannot be moved.

When the hurricane becomes too strong, everyone evacuates the building, leaving only Nolan and his baby (whom he names Abigail, after her mother) in the empty hospital. A nurse promises to bring back help. The power then goes out and he is forced to find a way to keep his baby alive. He finds a hand-cranked generator in a storeroom and is able to manually charge the ventilator battery, but it only holds a charge for three minutes. He also finds some more IVs for the baby to keep her nourished, and some food and drinks for himself. With each charge, the battery life gets shorter. he juggles trying to get help and keeping the battery charged. Sometimes, he sits down with his baby and tells the story about how he met her mother. (The two met after stopping a bank robbery together.)

Nolan finds a stray dog hiding in the hospital and takes care of it. He names the dog Sherlock, while also having illusions of talking with his late wife. Nolan goes to the rooftop to find helicopters flying around the building. When he tries to signal one, criminals distract it by shooting at it, demanding to be rescued first. This leaves him furious, but he has to go charge the battery. He finds an ambulance on a flooded street and calls for help using its radio, but cannot wait for a reply.

Nolan searches for a spare battery, but has no luck. He does find a generator in a flooded basement room, but it is ruined from immersion and almost electrocutes him. He is barely in time to charge the battery again. Despite being awake for over 36 hours without power, running low on food, and having his hand cut from cranking the generator, he continues to come up with clever ways to charge the battery (e.g. using his foot and later a rod). He also plays with Sherlock and shares his lunch meat given to him by one of the hospital cooks.

Looters break into the hospital and steal food, drugs and saline water needed for the baby. One comes in Nolan's room and tries to steal food, but gets run off by Sherlock. Nolan later realizes that this man had robbed and killed the nurse who was bringing back supplies (as she promised earlier). Since Nolan has not slept in almost two days, he takes a shot of adrenaline to keep himself awake. Two more looters break in, looking for drugs. When Nolan finds that they both have guns, he takes two shots of the adrenaline and sneaks up on one, injecting him with it and giving him a fatal overdose. Nolan takes his rifle and surprises the other thug, who has discovered his baby. Nolan shakes his head "no" while holding the rifle on him. However, the man tries to shoot Nolan in revenge so Nolan shoots him in the head.

Nolan is now so exhausted, he has to use both his hands to slowly crank the handle, but breaks it off accidentally. His attempts to fix it fail, so he gives his child mouth-to-mouth resuscitation to keep her alive, but passes out from shock, stress, and exhaustion. He then hears the ventilator beeping; it is running out of power, but he is too weak to get up. He accepts that he has failed his child. Sherlock brings two paramedics, who drag him out. When he wakes up, the paramedics hear his baby crying. Abigail has finally learned to breathe on her own. The paramedics give Nolan his baby.

Cast

Reception

On Rotten Tomatoes, a review aggregator, the film holds an approval rating of 61% with an average rating of 5.05/10, based on 33 reviews. [3] On Metacritic, the film has a weighted average score of 55 out of 100, based on 16 critics, indicating "mixed or average reviews". [4]

Variety film critic Joe Leydon wrote that Hours' "ingeniously simple setup is cunningly exploited for maximum suspense." [5]

Related Research Articles

<i>A Hatful of Rain</i> 1957 film

A Hatful of Rain is a 1957 American drama film about a young married man with a secret morphine addiction, based on a 1955 Broadway play of the same name. It is a medically and sociologically accurate account of the effects of morphine on an addict and his family. The frank depiction of drug addiction in a feature film was a rarity for its time.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Ochsner Baptist Medical Center</span> Hospital in Louisiana, United States

Ochsner Baptist Medical Center is a hospital in New Orleans, Louisiana. The complex of hospital buildings is located on Napoleon Avenue in Uptown New Orleans.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Memorial Medical Center and Hurricane Katrina</span> 2005 hurricane damage

Memorial Medical Center was heavily damaged when Hurricane Katrina struck the Gulf Coast of Mississippi, specifically Pearlington, MS on August 29, 2005. In the aftermath of the storm, while the building had no electricity and went through catastrophic flooding after the levees failed, Dr. Anna Pou, along with other doctors and nurses, attempted to continue caring for patients. On Wednesday, August 31, United States Health and Human Services Secretary Mike Leavitt reassured the public that 2,500 patients would be evacuated from hospitals in Orleans Parish, although it wasn't clear at first where they would be moved to.

<i>Casanova Brown</i> 1944 film by Sam Wood

Casanova Brown is a 1944 American comedy romantic film directed by Sam Wood, written by Nunnally Johnson, and starring Gary Cooper, Teresa Wright, and Frank Morgan. The film had its world premiere in western France after the Allies had liberated those territories following the D-Day Invasion. The film is based on the 1927 novel An Unmarried Father by Floyd Dell and the 1928 play Little Accident by Dell and Thomas Mitchell, which had been previously filmed by Universal Pictures in 1930 as The Little Accident and in 1939 as Little Accident.

<i>Crank: High Voltage</i> 2009 American action film

Crank: High Voltage is a 2009 American action film written and directed by Mark Neveldine and Brian Taylor. It is the sequel to the 2006 film Crank, and stars Jason Statham, Amy Smart, Clifton Collins Jr., Efren Ramirez, Bai Ling, David Carradine, and Dwight Yoakam. The story follows ex-hitman Chev Chelios, who, shortly after surviving a deadly fall on the streets of Los Angeles, is kidnapped and has his heart stolen by Chinese gangsters who replace it with an artificial organ designed to keep him alive for an hour. Chev then sets out to find his heart while keeping himself electrically charged to stay alive. The film also features several cameo appearances of celebrities from various entertainment media.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Human power</span> Work or energy produced from the human body

Human power is work or energy that is produced from the human body. It can also refer to the power of a human. Power comes primarily from muscles, but body heat is also used to do work like warming shelters, food, or other humans.

"It's the End of the World" is the 16th episode of the second season of the ABC series, Grey's Anatomy. The episode was written by series creator Shonda Rhimes and directed by co-executive producer Peter Horton. This episode is the first of a two-part story, concluding its plot on the following episode, "As We Know It". It originally aired on February 5, 2006, serving as the lead-out program for Super Bowl XL. On its original broadcast, "It's the End of the World" was watched by 38.1 million viewers. It is the highest rated and most watched episode of the series.

"And in the End..." is the 331st and final episode of the American television series ER. The two-hour episode aired on NBC on April 2, 2009 and was preceded by a one-hour retrospective special.

<i>Hold That Baby!</i> 1949 film by Reginald Le Borg

Hold That Baby! is a 1949 American comedy film directed by Reginald LeBorg and starring The Bowery Boys. The film was released on June 26, 1949 by Monogram Pictures and is the fourteenth film in the series.

<i>New Years Eve</i> (2011 film) 2011 film directed by Garry Marshall

New Year's Eve is a 2011 American romantic comedy film directed by Garry Marshall. The film consists of an ensemble cast consisting of Halle Berry, Jessica Biel, Jon Bon Jovi, Abigail Breslin, Chris "Ludacris" Bridges, Robert De Niro, Josh Duhamel, Zac Efron, Héctor Elizondo, Katherine Heigl, Ashton Kutcher, Joey McIntyre, Seth Meyers, Lea Michele, Sarah Jessica Parker, Sarah Paulson, Michelle Pfeiffer, Til Schweiger, Jake T. Austin, Hilary Swank, and Sofía Vergara.

"4 Days Out" is the ninth episode of the second season of the American television drama series Breaking Bad. It was written by Sam Catlin and directed by Michelle MacLaren.

<i>Citadel</i> (film) 2012 film by Ciaran Foy

Citadel is a 2012 Irish psychological horror film written and directed by Ciarán Foy, in his feature film debut. It was filmed in Glasgow, Scotland. The film stars Aneurin Barnard as Tommy, a widower who must raise his baby alone after an attack by a gang leaves his wife dead and him suffering from agoraphobia. It is an example of "hoodie horror".

<i>Storm</i> (1999 film) 1999 American film

Storm is a 1999 American science fiction thriller film directed by Harris Done and starring Luke Perry and Martin Sheen. The story and screenplay were written by Done. The story talks about the secret weather control experiment which goes awry.

<i>Boulevard</i> (2014 film) 2014 American film

Boulevard is a 2014 American drama film directed by Dito Montiel and written by Douglas Soesbe. Starring Robin Williams, Kathy Baker, Roberto Aguire, Eleonore Hendricks, Giles Matthey, and Bob Odenkirk, the film premiered at the Tribeca Film Festival on April 20, 2014. The film was released on July 10, 2015 in a limited release by Starz Digital.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Charlie Fairhead</span> Fictional character from the BBC medical dramas Casualty and Holby City

Charlie Fairhead, played by Derek Thompson, is a fictional character from the BBC British medical drama Casualty. He is the longest-serving character, having been part of the cast for over 36 years, the only remaining original character from the first episode broadcast on 6 September 1986.

<i>Evolution</i> (2015 film) 2015 film

Evolution is a 2015 French science fiction horror-thriller film directed by Lucile Hadžihalilović. It was shown in the Vanguard section of the 2015 Toronto International Film Festival.

<i>The Package</i> (2018 film) 2018 American film

The Package is a 2018 American teen comedy film directed by Jake Szymanski from a screenplay by Kevin Burrows and Matt Mider. The film stars Daniel Doheny, Sadie Calvano, Geraldine Viswanathan, Luke Spencer Roberts, and Eduardo Franco.

<i>Rattlesnake</i> (2019 film) Crime, drama, mystery film

Rattlesnake is a crime drama mystery film written and directed by Zak Hilditch and starring Carmen Ejogo, Theo Rossi and Emma Greenwell. It was released on Netflix on October 25, 2019.

<i>The Paramedic</i> Spanish thriller film

The Paramedic is a 2020 Spanish psychological thriller film directed by Carles Torras, written by David Desola and Hèctor Hernández Vicens and starring Mario Casas and Déborah François.

<i>The Good Nurse</i> 2022 crime drama film by Tobias Lindholm

The Good Nurse is a 2022 American biographical crime thriller film, starring Jessica Chastain and Eddie Redmayne, about Amy Loughren, an ICU nurse, who suspects that her co-worker Charles Cullen is a serial killer. The film is based on the 2013 true-crime book of the same name by Charles Graeber. It is directed by Tobias Lindholm and written by Krysty Wilson-Cairns. The film also stars Nnamdi Asomugha, Kim Dickens, and Noah Emmerich.

References

  1. ↑ "Initial Certification Search" (Type "Hours" in the search box). Fastlane NextGen. Retrieved May 9, 2020.
  2. ↑ "Hours (2013) - Financial Information".
  3. ↑ "Hours (2013)". Rotten Tomatoes. Retrieved March 12, 2020.
  4. ↑ "Hours". Metacritic. Retrieved January 15, 2014.
  5. ↑ Leydon, Joe. "SXSW Review: 'Hours'". Variety .
This page is based on this Wikipedia article
Text is available under the CC BY-SA 4.0 license; additional terms may apply.
Images, videos and audio are available under their respective licenses.