Stealing Time

The film unfolds in a contemporary setting, shifting from college days to a year after graduation. The narrative threads move from campus routines to urban adulthood, with a meticulously planned bank robbery as the central pivot. A brain tumor adds a ticking clock element, blurring lines between reality and perception as time presses on the characters.

The story moves between Eugene, Oregon, a classic college town with a campus culture and hangouts like Rennie’s Landing, and Salt Lake City, Utah, where the friends face adult responsibilities. Eugene anchors the earlier chapters with college life and bookstore hustle, while Salt Lake City frames the later years as they chase new jobs and bigger dreams. Together, these two settings highlight the transition from student camaraderie to navigating careers, relationships, and consequences.

⏳ Time and Consequence

Time drives the plot and the characters’ decisions, turning small choices into irreversible outcomes. The plan to rob a bank is approached with minute-by-minute precision, highlighting how every moment can tilt fate. The reveal that much of the later events are illusions challenges how time shapes our sense of responsibility and guilt. The ticking clock becomes a metaphor for mortality and the fragility of plans.

🤝 Friendship Under Pressure

Four friends lean on each other to cope with life changes, from college to adulthood. Their shared plan exposes loyalties, ambitions, and hidden resentments, testing how far they’ll go for one another. When dreams collide with reality, trust fractures and tragedy follows, reminding us how fragile bonds are under strain. The outcome reframes their friendship as a study of what remains when choices unravel.

🎭 Reality vs Illusion

The film toys with what is real by embedding the later events in hallucination, driven by Alec’s brain tumor and his desire to control outcomes. Viewers are invited to question what they see as the story rewinds and reorders itself. This twist turns the bank heist from a bold plan into a meditation on perception and the limits of agency. The line between fantasy and reality becomes the central mystery that drives the emotional impact.