2:22 (2017 film)

Dylan Branson works as an air traffic controller at JFK Airport. One morning he sees a TV news announcement that a supernova 30 light years from Earth can be now be observed in the sky.

Dylan has a recurring dream of a shooting taking place at Grand Central Station at exactly 2:22 pm. A few days later, at 2:22 pm, while Dylan is at work, he begins to hallucinate, seeing constellations and patterns instead of his surroundings at the airport. He breaks out of this fugue state only just in time to prevent a collision between two planes. Following this, Dylan is suspended from work.

Dylan begins to realize that the same things happen to him at the same time every day, and by 2:21 he somehow always arrives at Grand Central Station, where - although the individuals themselves differ - he always sees the same type of people: a businessman reading a newspaper, an older couple embracing, a party of school children, and a pregnant woman standing alone under the clock. And at exactly 2:22, an electrical malfunction causes glass to shatter.

Meanwhile, he meets a woman named Sarah who was a passenger on one of the planes which almost collided. Dylan and Sarah immediately feel as if they have known each other for many years and also learn that they were born on the same day. They fall in love and begin an affair.

Sarah works at an art gallery; one of the exhibiting artists is her ex-boyfriend Jonas, who still has feelings for Sarah. She wears a pendant Jonas crafted for her as a birthday present.

One evening Dylan attends Sarah’s gallery to see an exhibition of Jonas’s work, a holographic depiction of New York, which includes the interior of Grand Central. Dylan is astonished that the holograph depicts the same events he saw in his recurring dream. He accuses Jonas of having created the hologram deliberately to destabilize him; Jonas doesn’t understand what Dylan is talking about and they fight. Sarah is very upset and asks Dylan to leave.

Through a colleague of Sarah’s, Dylan learns the story of a young woman, Evelyn Mills, who was killed by her lover at Grand Central Station. The lover also shot a policeman before being killed himself. Dylan finds a packet of old letters hidden in his apartment, which reveal that a man called Jake Redmond once lived in the apartment; the letters are love letters to Jake from Evelyn Mills.

Dylan tracks down the sister of Evelyn Mills, Catherine. She tells Dylan how Evelyn fell deeply in love with Jake, with whom she shared a birthday. A detective visited Evelyn to tell her that Jake was a criminal, but she refused to believe him. Catherine says that she thinks the detective, Noah Marks, was himself in love with Evelyn. Noah was the policeman who was killed by Jake at Grand Central Station, 30 years before. Catherine is wearing her dead sister’s necklace, which Dylan notices is identical to the one which Jonas made for Sarah.

Dylan believes the supernova which occurred on the day that Jake and Evelyn died (the same day Dylan and Sarah were born) created a “cosmic cataclysm” which means he and Sarah are destined to relive the fates of Jake and Evelyn. Dylan is convinced that, if they stay together, he will kill Sarah the following day, the anniversary of the Grand Central murders. A distressed Sarah confides in Jonas, who persuades her to go away with him.

The next day, his 30th birthday, Dylan struggles to find what he believes is a missing piece of the puzzle. He breaks into Jonas’s studio, where he finds dozens of depictions of Sarah, evidencing Jonas’s obsession with her. There is also an empty gun case, and Dylan finally realizes that Jonas is destined to relive the part of Detective Noah Marks. As the time approaches 2:22, Dylan rushes to the station to find her.

Meanwhile, at Grand Central, Jonas goes to buy tickets while Sarah waits under the clock. She begins to see the same characters that Dylan described, and it dawns on her that she is the pregnant woman under the clock. When Jonas returns, she tells him she loves Dylan and cannot leave. In a jealous rage, Jonas pulls a gun, but Dylan arrives in time to block Sarah’s body with his own, taking the bullet himself. Jonas is then killed by the police.

It transpires that Jake did not kill Evelyn (who was herself pregnant) but that the pair of them were shot by Noah Marks, who was in love with Evelyn; Jake was framed for the murders by the police.

In the final scenes, Dylan has recovered and now works as a pilot. He and Sarah live happily together with their baby.

2:22 was produced by Pandemonium's Bill Mechanic, Walk The Walk Entertainment's Steve Hutensky and Lightstream Pictures' Paul Currie. Garrett Kelleher of Lightstream, David Fountain and Kel West of Flywheel Entertainment and Jackie O’Sullivan served as executive producers. Although the film is set in New York City, the actual filming location was in Fox Studios Australia and Moore Park in Sydney, Australia.[5]

Armie Hammer was attached to the film,[6] before Huisman took on the role.[3][7]

Released on June 30, 2017, 2:22 grossed $4.6 million worldwide.[1][8]

On Rotten Tomatoes the film has an approval rating of 22% based on reviews from 9 critics.[9]

Nick Allen of RogerEbert.com wrote: "With a movie like this, it's hard to tell where the good idea ran out, as it seems to have been lost many drafts ago."[10] Todd Jorgenson of Cinemalogue wrote: "The many contrivances diminish the potential for emotional investment in the characters - or figuring out what's happening to them and why."[11] Brian Orndorf of Blu-ray.com gives the film a grade "D" and writes: "Currie can't connect the dots in a fascinating way, with the entire effort resembling more of a screenwriting exercise than a hypnotic overview of celestial guidance."[12][13]

Edward Douglas of Film Journal International called the film "An intriguing exploration of fate vs. circumstance and coincidence that ends up being far better than it should be, but only if it's not taken too seriously."[14] Danielle Solzman of Solzy at the Movies wrote: "If Groundhog Day had been made as a thriller, it's possible that 2:22 could have been that film."[5]

• 2:22 at IMDb