Directed by Will Wernick, “Time Of Death” is set in December 1987 at the Seneca Ridge Penitentiary. The psychological thriller revolves around detective Frank Morley, who has a rough past and a difficult present. The case of the missing inmate at the dilapidated prison takes away several lives, but simultaneously reveals the true nature of many things. It shows us how revenge fuels human souls and leads to murder as well.
Spoilers Ahead
What’s The Film’s Story?
Two years before the timeline of the movie, Frank and his family suffered a disastrous accident. Cut to the present, the scene changes to Seneca Ridge Penitentiary, where we see one of the inmates, Tad Dowling, is given a furlough. He waits for his cab to leave the prison premises, but it never arrives. After that night, Tad goes missing, and the case is sent to the Bureau of Corrections, namely Frank, who transfers it to his junior, Alan. When Alan starts to investigate, he realizes that Tad is not only missing but is also connected to something more sinister. He gets to know about some sort of execution that took place a decade ago, but before he can prove any of his findings, Alan meets his tragic end after getting electrocuted in the bathtub.
Why Does Frank Get Unpleasant Flashbacks?
The first scene of the film is intricately related to Frank’s present and the way he behaves with the people around him. His unpleasant flashbacks are a cause of a heartbreaking tragedy that took away his family two years ago. Frank was having dinner with his wife, Brenda, and son, Timmy, at a restaurant when he kept getting messages on his pager. At first, he avoided those messages, but he knew they were from his coworker, Allie, and Brenda could smell it from a distance. She suspected Frank of having an illicit affair with Allie and confronted him when they were in the car. Although Frank dismissed those allegations, later in the film, we see him with Allie at all times. They were so distracted in the moment that their car got hit by another in the dark of the night, and it toppled over. When Frank opened his eyes, he could hear his son wailing from inside the upside-down car. While he reached out to help, he was dragged out to safety by the rescue team, and the car exploded instantly, killing Brenda and Timmy.
Ever since this happened, Frank routinely takes Valium and Klonopin to deal with his PTSD. He constantly gets flashbacks of the accident, and cannot seem to get it out of his head. No matter how much he tries to live a normal life with Allie, he loses sleep every night and constantly blames himself for the death of his loved ones. He uses Allie as his distraction to get everything out of his head, but fails every time. After spending the night together, he pushes Allie away and gets out of the house without giving her a proper explanation for his thoughts. She understands he is stressed and tries to comfort him most of the time, but something as life-altering as the accident always keeps him on the edge. He does not want his trauma to affect his work, but it does get affected somehow. The hallucinations he has about his dead son are one of the reasons why he transfers the missing inmate case to Alan.
Why Does Alan Die?
Things seem okay at first; Alan is excited about this case because he does not want to let his seniors down. He wants to solve the case on his own and earn himself a good reputation. Unfortunately, things take a dark turn for Alan as he keeps on digging deeper for the truth. He finds out that the missing inmate, Tad Dowling, is related to the execution of Dustin Reeves that took place nearly a decade ago, back in 1978. Although the Sheriff does not investigate further, we can somehow understand that Alan does not die from a mere electrocution. He has been murdered by the warden, Beau LaRue, because Alan gets to know that Tad Dowling and Dustin Reeves are somehow related. Before dying in the bathtub, Alan wanted Frank to know everything that he found about Dustin, Tad, and Seneca Ridge, but he got expertly removed from the situation to avoid further probing into this matter. After his death, when Frank ultimately visits the scene and decides to take the case into his own hands, LaRue tries to cause a diversion by telling him that Alan must have committed suicide. However, Frank immediately shuts down this speculation by calling it baseless. The cryptic message that Alan left him on the voicemail does not at all indicate that his death was just a suicide. He has a strong feeling that someone killed Alan deliberately to stop him from investigating further.
How Does Dustin Reeves Escape?
Dustin Reeves is a killer and a serious offender who has been given a death sentence. Does his death sentence stop him from planning a jailbreak? Absolutely not. With the help of Officer Bly, Clark, Tad and Meeks, he plans to flee from Seneca Ridge on 6th June at 6 pm. It is revealed that Dustin was not executed once but twice. There was a gap of thirty minutes between the executions, and during this window, Dustin was swapped with Jacob (the warden’s son). Clark, an electrician and a Seneca inmate, helped Reeves by causing a power outage for thirty minutes which delayed the execution. The power outage caused by Clark almost killed Reeves on the chair, but ultimately, he successfully evaded his impending death. But how was Jacob swapped, and why did he not protest? Well, Jacob was one of the guards of Seneca. During one summer, he got involved in a fight between the inmates that led to his throat being slit. Even though he lived after that, he could not speak anymore. Jacob was the only one who silently protested against Reeves’ escape by trying to shoot him, but the other inmates, including Officer Bly, helped him to use Jacob as a scapegoat. Reeves escaped from a place created on the walls of the shower-room, and before escaping, he made sure to kill Officer Bly because he was acting too much and dictating to him.
Why Does Beau LaRue Kill Himself?
When Frank finally unveils the entire mystery of Dustin Reeves in front of LaRue, he spirals and starts talking to himself while looking into the mirror. In my opinion, LaRue killed Tad and Meeks because they were related to Reeves, the killer of his son. Before pulling down the lever, LaRue did not know that it was Jacob and not Reeves. He cannot bear the grief and remorse of killing his own blood. In order to hide the truth, he fabricates a story in which Jacob is a nomadic son who does not stay with his father. That is LaRue coping with his grief. According to him, Jacob is still alive and living somewhere happily.
In order to avenge his son, LaRue kills Tad and Meeks. However, why does he have to do it ten years after the execution? I think it is because the penitentiary is going to shut down soon, and he does not want those criminals to live another life elsewhere. Hence, he plans to kill them one by one before they even get the chance to leave Seneca Ridge. LaRue decides to finish them off in the same place where they helped Reeves kill Jacob.
Before leaving Seneca Ridge himself, LaRue, under the weight of his own wrongdoings, decides to kill himself in the exact same manner in which he killed his son. Perhaps, he wants to meet his son in the same place that got him killed. Frank tries to stop him by telling him how he understands the grief of losing a son, but LaRue does not listen to him. Presumably, LaRue does not have a family of his own except for Jacob. His entire life revolves around being the warden of Seneca Ridge, however the place that gives him his livelihood has also taken away his beloved son from him. Therefore, unable to process things anymore, with the crumbling penitentiary, LaRue decides to end his own life as well after killing off his son’s murderers.
What Happens To Frank In The End?
While Frank watches LaRue get burnt alive, Allie comes to get him out. In the process, she gets hurt in the leg, and while Frank tries to rescue her, the poor flooring gives in to his weight, causing him to plummet down. While some of us think that Frank will make it out of the situation somehow, he cannot, as the leaking petrol catches fire and the entire room explodes, killing him.
In the end, LaRue dies in the same manner as his son, and Frank also meets the same fate as his family. The way they both die, exactly like their loved ones, may sound poetic; although in my opinion Frank’s death is unnecessary. After suffering the devastating accident, he was trying to rebuild himself. Although he was failing, he should have been given another chance at life because Allie was pregnant with his child. Had Allie not been pregnant, we could have understood Frank’s ending. Nevertheless, Frank’s unborn child with Allie holds a future for her. We don’t know how that future is going to be for the child who will be born without a father, but Allie, being the compassionate woman she is, in all likelihood, will try to provide the best for the baby.
