Seconds is a 1966 Science Fiction film directed by John Frankenheimer, starring Rock Hudson, John Randolph, Will Geer, Jeff Corey, Murray Hamilton and Salome Jens.
Arthur Hamilton is a middle-aged banker who is restless with his job and his marriage. One day, he is contacted by an old friend (whom he thought was dead), who urges Hamilton to contact an organization simply known as The Company. Mr. Ruby, the representative he meets, presents Hamilton an offer; they will fake his death, and in return, give him a complete surgical makeover - removing his fingerprints, changing his face, teeth and voice, making him look younger - and offer him a chance to make a fresh start with his life. Eventually, Hamilton agrees to it, and he becomes Tony Wilson, a painter. However, he soon discovers it's not all that it's cracked up to be.
It was a Box Office Bomb on initial release, but has since become a cult hit. No relation to the comic book of the same name.
This film provides examples of:
- An Aesop: Life is not a video game which you can just reboot. You have to work to make your life better instead of wishing for a magical solution.
- Be Careful What You Wish For: You don't say...
- Blackmail: When Hamilton hesitates about signing up, Mr. Ruby shows film of Hamilton roughing up a prostitute, which he did after being drugged by the Company, and Ruby implies the footage will be released unless Hamilton agrees to sign on.
- Does This Remind You of Anything?: At the bacchanal grape scene, when Tony finally loosens up and dances with Nora, it plays like a sex scene.
- Downer Ending: Hamilton decides he doesn't want to live his new life, but is ultimately killed to serve as the body of a new client.
- Enemy Eats Your Lunch: Mr. Ruby eats some chicken off of Arthur's plate in his conversation with him.
- Face Cam: One of the many great camera effects in the movie.
- Faking the Dead: What The Company offers its clients.
- Faux Affably Evil: The Old Man, to a tee. Many of the other employees of the Company count as well.
- The Film of the Book: Adapted from the 1963 novel of the same name by David Ely.
- Genre-Busting: It's an avant-garde/psychological drama/thriller/mystery/mid-life crisis film with a science fiction twist.
- I Did What I Had to Do: The Old Man, during his bedside conversation with Tony, tells him that he believes the Company provides an important service, and that it's important enough for him to have made compromises in order to keep it going. We soon learn one of the compromises is having Tony murdered.
- Karma Houdini: The Old Man and his corporation don't receive any comeuppance.
- Manic Pixie Dream Girl: Nora, whose first eccentric appearance after meeting Tony is to run into the sea and talk to it, then later invites him to a hippie wine festival. All simply an act to get him to enjoy his new second life, as she's really a company employee.
- No Name Given: Will Geer's character is simply known as "Old Man".
- Non-Indicative Name: The title, while taken over from the novel, has multiple meanings and connotations.
- Punch-Clock Villain: The surgeon who transformed Arthur into Tony tells him, "You were my best work," and apologizes just before killing Tony with a cranial drill.
- Sleeping Single: Arthur Hamilton and his wife sleep in single beds, underpinning their loveless marriage.
- Smug Snake: The Old Man, who never loses his slimy, reptilian countenance even as he sends Wilson to his death.
