notgoingback | You don't want to upset the system.

With the discovery of DNA in 1953 the space race took a backseat to biological discoveries. While other worlds reached for the stars, the In-Time Universe reached inward and began steadily working on mapping the human genome despite the global differences between companies. The people who could edit human DNA faster were the ones who earned the brownie points in the world.

The first leaps-much like our own history-were made by Russians as Russia announced it had developed a genetic therapy for the common cold and cancer. The United States had to top them and so set out for immortality breaking away from the United Global Research Effort to focus on their own project within the white house.

1961- The Human Genome project is on the lips of everyone. After a succcessful campaign John F Kennedy
ends up in the white house and pours funding into a golden age for America. America leads the world in
Education, Healthcare, and prosperity for it's citizenry. The Men and Women of America are blessed
And it is only natural that they should lead the world in everything.

While the later half of the 1960s was consumed by greed and fear and racial justice, in this America-in this
terrible America the focus had been and would be on age and immortality. The world was fragile and as
political and socio-economic climates around the world deterioriated people's focus turned to survival.

A number of pojects designed to prolong human life were funded across the globe in various locations. The
United States buried eight scientists and three research assistants at Berkley in a series of labs owned
and funded by the Senex Grant. A small program surprisingly well funded with people who had to look at the
lines growing on their fellow's faces as they worked on the fundamental problem racing the ticking clock of the
crocodile.

1980.

They were rats. Three of them. One was named Peter Pan, One was named hook, and one was named Crocodile and they
all were petted and loved and for twenty years they had each remained consistantly-biologically-a year old.

crocodile was black and brown and had bright pink eyes, hook was gray and the fattest of all of them. His weight
did not rise or fall for over twenty years despite the same metabolic intake.

Peter pan was pure white and bright eyed and leapt through mazes and bars with the ease of someone lived life to the
fullest. He danced on wheels and jumped and spun like his namesake and all of the members of the Clotho Project
Funded by the Senex grant watched in horror when one of the technicians burst out with "...You guys realize these rats
are technically ghosts right?"

Living, breathing, functional ghosts.

January 18th, 1980. Patient Zero has the "Clotho" Gene turned off. A volunteer at Berkley's Campus, he is monitored
and promised a full ride paid for by the Senex Grant and by default the United States Corporation. Three of the scientists
involved in the project in 1961 pass away.

Patient Zero begins to suffer psychological effects from the gene and develops a drinking problem. With the aging gene turned off
however it is discovered that while he drinks regularly the Clotho gene also effects physical health. In effect, by removing aging
from the equation patient zero is made indestructable. This does nothing to limit the mental effects of watching his friends,
loved ones, and family die without him.

April 15th, 2010. Patient Zero is exposed and assassinated. The Senex Grant's funding sources are outed. Governments demand
access to the technology claiming it is something to be shared with the world.

As a last ditch resort, the Senex labs are stormed at Berkley and thousands have the aging gene turned off. Causing widespread panic
San Francisco declares martial law in the city. Individuals who escape the eventual blockade run to southern California carrying one of the
researchers making money off of selling the Clotho Gene to the young starlets of the city. The FBI launch
a federal investigation and shut down the motion picture industry.

An illicit Faux Clotho therapy is proported. Thousands age too rapidly and die-some literally within a matter of hours.

January 2011. Riots break out in San Diego California as a "Fate" an illicit Genetic Therapist is shot and killed outside of a hospital.
The individuals responsible attack the city. The Government sends in the military and the city is leveled by other resources leaving thousands
of homeless to flock to Los Angeles.

2011~

Clotho Therapy spreads across the United States. Most Records are hazy of the time.

2012~2015

The United States declares Martial Law. All Gene Therapy is halted for a full FDA investigation. The instability of the previous therapies is revised.
The United States dollar collapses. Crack downs begin across the globe on people who attempt to illicitly perform the procedure. Individuals who
have received successful therapy are put into camps where they are monitored. It is discovered that their children are born with the gene
intact.

2017~

The Atropos Protocol is put into effect. Time is quantified and measured and it can again be given and taken away-treated like currency. Individuals
without the Atropos protocol are incarcerated however by this time as the Clotho treatment is considered for widespread use the federal government is
not penalized for the sudden "disappearance" of the supposedly "immortal" generation.

2020~

Everyone at the age of 25 has officially received the Clotho therapy. The older generation is "revered" by their younger peers. By proxy the
medicine system across the country

Febuary 10th 2021~The last member of the original Senex team to not recieve the therapy dies. The world mourns.

July 18th 2086 ~ Raymond Leon is born to Kaylee Moira Leon and Steven Leon.

I think the biggest problem with In Time is the way that people treat dates and ages. You see a wide range of personalities and and emotions. Just because a person physically stops aging that doesn't mean they don't "age" persay. Hamilton himself points out that they're "not meant for this" and that this is a temporary solution to a much larger problem.

Raymond Leon is no exception. He's been around a lot longer then Will Salas's character. I think that while his methods are wrong-he plays the typical "secret policeman" role who willingly supports the system despite his feelings against it. Ray's behavior in "The Minutes" indicates that he completely lives for his job.

You play someone with a young PB who basically has the attitude of someone like Lennie Briscoe from Law and Order. He's got the jaded attitude of someone who's been on the job for years and who ultimately makes the decision to support the system no matter how his attitude might effect the people involved. When people try to bribe him he insists-point blank-that he will issue a warrant for their arrest. That suggests that he believes in the law above all else no matter what else.

As it is said "There is no creature on earth as terrifying as a truly just man."

The problem is that his faith in the system is fundamentally flawed because it's a flawed system that basically gives the majority of the population (the 99 percent) a death sentence while the one percent lives for decades and millennia. If you assume that he started the job when he was twenty-perhaps terrified by the possibility that when his clock starts he ends up fighting then he's over 70.

He's been through the wringer.

When you ask yourself what fueled his devotion to this system which basically saved his life (or saved him from becoming Will Salas) it had to be something so traumatic to make him live on a day to day basis. Timekeepers are cops that are paid by the day (supposedly the equivalent of being paid by the hour?) who are little better then the people in the ghettos who they are supposed to be fighting against-keeping under the yoke of the regime.

I assume that he grew up poorer then Will. While he might not have been a direct victim of a crime he witnessed them enough to make him terrified of what would happen when his clock started. They're told it's a "Crime what we pay our TimeKeepers" so why would he jump from the frying pan into the fire without a need for a change of location? You're basically told in the movie that there are dozens of locks on the doors and that people basically sleep four hours a night (thank goodness they're basically uber healthy)

He lives that same lifestyle except without the constant threat of being murdered. He has been doing this for years. Overworked and stressed, by the time of the movie he doesn't want anything to threaten that. Something scared him enough as a child to fully embrace the system and make a deal with whoever he could to get out of the ghetto proper to protect his own life or the lives of his family.

However by his nature-riding in his car alone, being dismissive with his partner he doesn't particularly make attachments. He put himself in a leadership position by choice and distanced himself from human relationships. That might also be common in the ghetto-but he's seen what having attachments do to people.

The thing that differentiates him from Lennie is that he doesn't have a lot of faith in humanity-he's tired and just doing the job. I doubt he sees a lot of options or a lot of gore murder with weaponry however (which differentiates him from Hoffman. Killing someone before you steal their time cuts their clock off and there's no time for anyone to steal.) No, they monitor the minutemen or "gangs", keep their eyes on the general population but there hasn't been an honest to goodness murder in years. Taking a life is honestly the last resort they're trained to do.

I doubt that TimeKeepers oversee body dump and disposal. They know about the concept of justice, they know about the typical job of cops who were their predecessors. They know how to kill it's that they think they are above the idea. Raymond only thinks about killing as the movie progresses when he's getting really angry with how Will alludes him.

This is the world where the 99 percent lost and the one percent won. They get slower and slower while everyone else speeds up.