24 Hours to Live

24 hours to Live is a movie action that is directed by Brian Smrz. The movie features a career assassin who is given another chance to live but with the intention to seek revenge and redemption. The embodies the story of explosions, car chases, gun fights, gimmicks and taunting that is typical of a globe-trotting thriller. Travis Conrad (Hawke) is a shadowy assassin who taught his work of being a hit man had ended only to be brought back into yet another dicey conspiracy. Jim Crow, his former compatriot in the military and killer squad pulls the strings and makes it possible for Travis Conrad to resume his assassin duties but for a specific period of time, that is 24 hours.

Contrasts

The Poster

24 hours to live poster shows a vivid picture of Ethan Hawke holding a gun and looking at the front direction. The badass demeanor he cuts tells that he is up to a target. Probably corking a gun and preparing to shoot someone. The poster also has some striking and conspicuous caption with the words, “Contracted to Kill”, ”Fighting to Survive” That sends a clear message to the viewers that the main character in the movie has been hired to carry out some intricate covert mission.

The title of the movie 24 hours to live in capital letters is filled with white color and appears to catch the eye whenever one looks at the poster from afar. The sad and serious appearance on the face of Travis Conrad talk could be conveying two signals. One is that the Ex elite soldier is distressed over the recent sad deaths of his young son and wife. The other possibility is that the man could be aiming at his target since his new job is specifically to assassinate people on instructions from his boss Jim Crow.

            Behind Travis Conrad, is a photo of a white and tarnished car probably moving on a rugged road. The presence of the car behind Conrad emphasizes the fact that he is being trailed by some people. Hiring him as a hit man means that Jim Crow must also deploy safety measures such as getting someone to keep track of the movements of the assassin and ensure that he does the work that he has been hired for. Travis Conrad may choose to run away because he knows that he only has 24 hours of being alive. Therefore, even if he fails to accomplish the mission and get the work done for his boss, his fate is already decided that he has to die when the clock clocks on the 24th hour.

The Trailer

The preview of the movie begins at the point where Travis Conrad is resuscitated from the dead through the application of the experimental medical procedure by Red Mountain and at the same time he regrets the betrayal he has suffered. Conrad has lost his family and also feels that his future has been robbed. Furthermore, Conrad appears for the first time with the cunt down clock embedded on his arm showing the number of hours left for him to be alive.

            The trailer gives the audience the opportunity to notice the theme of betrayal just the outset of the movie. The poster does not convey any information regarding the possibility of betrayal. Looking at the poster alone cannot give the viewer the information of how Conrad was a member of the agency and the same people he worked with have betrayed him and his family.

The trailer has also captured different settings of where the movie is taking place. For instance, it starts at the hospital bed, then the open outside environment appears where the children and wife of Conrad appear as he explains their demise at the hands of his former colleagues. The next scenes also occur in the office and some off buildings when Conrad is chasing people who are presumably his prime targets of assassination. The poster only depicts one setting where Conrad stands in front of the road that has dust behind him and a vehicle trailing him at the back.

            Another notable difference is the color used to shade the wording of the 24 hours to live. The trailer uses a mixture of blue and red whereas the poster uses a white substance to paint the words and give them their unique appearance.

While lying on the bed, Travis Conrad reminisced about the future he would have had with his children and wife. The children running alongside their mother and jumping on top of trees. That must have been the future Conrad would have wished to have together with his family. The poster only shows his serious face probably thinking about how best he is going to reach the target and gun them down.

            The trailer also shows the Interpol agent, Lin (Xu Qing) telling Conrad that the countdown clock has been embedded in his arm. Furthermore, Xu who once killed Conrad features in the trailer a couple of times whereas the poster does not say anything about her despite being a major character.

            The poster only shows the picture of Travis Conrad with the implication that he could be the only character in the entire movie. Some viewers may wonder why only one character had to appear on the poster. Contrastingly, the preview of the movie shows various characters such as Conrad’s family members, the lady Xu, the former CIA officials and Conrad’s boss in may more.

Similarities

Some scenes in the trailer bear some resemblance to the what is on the poster. The photo of Conrad holding a gun that conspicuously fills the poster resurfaces in the trailer when Conrad is has started his mission of eliminating the targets as well as the former CIA members who differed with him and his boss. Moreover, the sentence 24 hours to live appears nearly with the same font size in both the poster and the preview of the movie.

            Travis Conrad wears the same clothing depicted in the poster as well as in the trailer. That gives it a sense of continuity. Different clothing would have created numerous inconsistencies and dissimilarities. Similarly, the word vengeance appears in the trailer of the movie whereas, in the movie poster, vengeance is written all over the face of Conrad as evidenced by the manner in which his face looks wrinkled. The facial expressions convey a very strong message to the keen viewers before they decide on whether they would watch the movie or not. Therefore, the poster must explain the story and all the themes through pictorial depictions and other artistic forms of representation.