Nick of Time
About the Film
Gene Watson is an ordinary, mild-mannered accountant who steps off a train at Los Angeles’s Union Station with his little daughter Lynn, only to have his life upended in an instant. A pair of ruthless operatives seize the girl and confront Gene with an impossible ultimatum: he has just ninety minutes to assassinate the governor of California, or they will kill his child.
Unfolding in real time, the film follows the desperate everyman as he is handed a gun, briefed on his target and set loose in a luxury hotel under the constant surveillance of his daughter’s captors. With no one willing to believe him and the clock ticking down second by second, Gene must find the courage and ingenuity to outwit professional killers, protect the governor and save Lynn before time runs out.
Plot synopsis by johnny-depp.org.
Johnny Depp
Johnny Depp plays Gene Watson against type — not a rogue or an eccentric but a soft-spoken, bespectacled accountant, an utterly ordinary man thrust into an extraordinary nightmare. Depp anchors the real-time thriller with mounting panic and quiet resourcefulness, letting the audience feel every second of the ticking clock as an average father is pushed to the edge to save his daughter.
Cast & Crew
Cast
Gene WatsonJohnny Depp
Mr. SmithChristopher Walken
HueyCharles S. Dutton
Governor Eleanor GrantMarsha Mason
Brendan GrantPeter Strauss
Ms. JonesRoma Maffia
Krista BrooksGloria Reuben
Lynn WatsonCourtney Chase
Crew
DirectorJohn Badham
ScreenplayPatrick Sheane Duncan
MusicArthur B. Rubinstein
CinematographyRoy H. Wagner
ProducerJohn Badham
StudioParamount Pictures
Filming Locations
- Los Angeles Union Station, California
- The Westin Bonaventure Hotel, Los Angeles
- Downtown Los Angeles, California
More about this film
Trivia
- The film plays out in real time — its running length matches the ninety minutes the villains give Gene Watson.
- It reunited Johnny Depp with Christopher Walken, who plays the chillingly calm Mr. Smith.
- Director John Badham (WarGames, Saturday Night Fever) was known for tightly-wound thrillers.
- Much of the action was staged in and around the landmark Westin Bonaventure Hotel in downtown LA.
