So watching the classic Nightmare On Elm Street last night, (As is required at least once every Halloween season) I noticed something odd, something that had never jumped out to me before. The timeline in the 3rd act is completely fucked. Now I know “It’s just a movies” and a sacred movie at that, but hear me out.
Right when Nancy calls her dad, who is across the street cleaning up bits of a Jonnie Depp slushie, she says, “Just come here, and break the door down in exactly 20 minutes, can you do that?” To which her Dad replies “yeah sure,” While ROLLING HIS EYES! Nancy continues, “it will be exactly half past midnight, time enough for me to fall asleep and find him.” Time enough to do a whole lot of things, as the film shows us. Ok. So, from the time of Nancy's phone call to her Dad, it is 20 minutes to 12:30, so lets say its 12:10 at that very moment. We then cut to a home alone montage moment where Nancy begins setting her traps. She begins by poking a hole a light bulb.
She then rigs some sort of life saver candy trip wire. The most delicious of traps.
UNLOADS LIKE 15 SHOTGUN SHELLS worth of black powder into the lightbulb from earlier!
installs a deadbolt on her door, and sets up a falling sledge hammer trap.
Nancy then says goodnight/goodbye to her Mom, tucks her in to bed; and finally lies down to sleep, checking her watch which says 12:20.
12 fucking 20! She got all that shit done in 10 minutes! I dare you to try and complete any one of those tasks in 10 minutes. Now she has 10 minutes to fall asleep and find Freddy Kruger before her dad is supposed to come break down the door, which he doesn’t. Nancy, we have seen you pounding coffee like your mom pounds vodka, you aren't falling asleep in 10 minutes.
But wait, there’s more, just a few scenes earlier, when young Johnny Depp was getting turned into a bloody old faithful the scene opens with his TV playing the star spangled banner and an announcer saying its 12:00 midnight.
Wait, hold on. So if young Ichabod Crane is getting sucked into the bed blender at 12:00 midnight and Nancy is calling her dad at 12:10 that means in 10 minutes Depp’s parents found him, four cop cars worth of police showed up, and paramedics, AND a coroner (who has been puking since he got here.)
I know it’s just a movie but damn the emergency response time in Springwood (unnamed in the first film) is impeccable. Now this odd IMDB goof worthy timeline doesn’t ruin the movie for me, if anything it’s inspiring. The next time you are complaining about getting shit done, just think about Nancy Thompson and everything she accomplished in 10 minutes. We should all try to be more productive, like Nancy. #whatcanyoudoin10minutes
