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88 Minutes is a 2007 American thriller film directed by Jon Avnet starring Al Pacino, Benjamin McKenzie, Alicia Witt, Leelee Sobieski, Deborah Kara Unger, Amy Brenneman, and Neal McDonough. Filming began in the Vancouver area on October 8, 2005 and wrapped in December 2005. The film was released in various territories during 2007.
In May 2007, TriStar Pictures acquired all United States distribution rights of 88 Minutes; TriStar Pictures released this film in the United States theatrically on April 18, 2008.
The film opens in 1997 with a scene of an unknown assailant breaking into the home of two sisters. After one goes to sleep, the attacker subdues one of them using halothane and murders her after raping and torturing her, hanging her upside down with latches and rope. The assailant then rapes and tortures the other sister when she wakes up, but leaves her alive. After police questioning, the attacker, Jon Forster, is convicted by a jury after forensic psychiatrist Jack Gramm testifies against him in court. As Gramm leaves, Forster taunts him, saying "Tick tock, Doc."
Nine years later, on the day Forster is to be executed at midnight, several similar torture murders with very similar modi operandi occur. Gramm is questioned but released. On the way to his class, he receives a threatening phone call telling him that he has 88 minutes to live. He reports the threat to Shelly, his secretary, and brushes off the threat. He receives another call while teaching, and he becomes suspicious of the students. A dean, Carol, enters the classroom and warns of a bomb threat, telling everyone to leave. Gramm finds written threats in the classroom. He goes to the parking lot to see that his car has been vandalized with a similar threat.
Later, one of his students, Lauren Douglas, is attacked by an unknown assailant. Gramm reports this to the police after questioning nearby people. He later discovers through a tape that someone had accessed his secure files. On the tape is a little girl, scared, saying Gramm's name many times and asking for help. The sound of a door breaking down and the girl screaming is heard. The screaming stops seconds later. With the help of his teaching assistant Kim, Gramm tries to notify authorities while trying to uncover Forster's past at the same time.
Later, Carol tells Gramm to meet her at a location, giving Gramm a similar threat. Gramm then tells Kim that the girl on the tape was his 12-year-old sister, Kate; when he was 28, he left her alone in his house to work on a case, when a serial killer he was trying to catch broke in and savagely murdered her. The crime took exactly 88 minutes.
Soon after, Kim calls Gramm with a similar threat like Carol's. Before leaving, he manages to convince Parks, an FBI agent he is friendly with, to meet up with him. Gramm arrives and finds that Forster's appeals attorney, Lydia Doherty (who is actually Lauren under a pseudonym), had set this up and was working with Forster all this time. Carol has been hung over a balcony while Kim has been tied up. Lauren threatens Gramm with a gun and forces him to "confess" that he gave false details at the trial, but Parks arrives and shoots Lauren, causing both Carol and Lauren to fall. Gramm tries to save both of them but Lauren comes loose and falls to her death. However, he manages to save Carol. When Forster calls, Gramm tells him that Lauren is dead and it is over - "except for the clock that goes tic-tock, tic-tock" - and that Forster only has 12 hours to live.
Thursday, October 7, 2010
88 Minutes (2008)
2:28 AM
John Matt
