MovieChat Forums > 10 to Midnight (1983) Discussion > My Title Theory

My Title Theory

posted 19 years ago by curtis-8
24 replies | jump to latest

I've read people's comments here and there wondering why the movie is titled "10 to Midnight." I always thought I knew, but the last time I watched the flick I could find nothing that would explicitly explain the title (except the poster, which mentioned a "deadline" that doesn't exist in the movie).

Now back when I saw this on TV around 1990, my impression had been that the title referred to the time of the initial murders and the killer's alibi--that he had made it seem like he had been in the movie theater between 10pm and midnight when he was really out committing the murders. 10 to Midnight.

Thompson's later Bronson films were always hastily edited (usually by his son) with lots of bloopers. Maybe a shot of a clock got mistakenly edited out?

Does anyone else have any ideas?

[–] paul_johnr 19 years ago

It sounds like a good idea, but the one problem I see...wasn't it still daylight when he committed those murders?

[–] rino7789 19 years ago

Yes, he did kill during daylight hours.

[–] paul_johnr 19 years ago

I heard once that Cannon was ready to make another film with this title but it fell through. The producers liked the title, though, so they gave it to Bronson's film.

It sounds like a horror film title...I wonder if ideas from a horror film were worked into the script?

[–] curtis-8 19 years ago

Hmmm...you're probably right. I'll have to go back and look. Seems like it was evening when the killer was in line for the movie...

[–] martyates77 19 years ago

I always kinda thought that it was called this because 10 to midnight is nearly the end of the day and is getting close to the end. Bronson is getting close to catching him. Its kind of like he is running out of time til another murder is commited.

To be honest thinking about it i have no idea. Top film though for all the wrong reasons.

Imagine the future, woke up with a scream, i was buying some feelings, from a vending machine

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[–] CappieGuy 19 years ago

Usually the title is made by the ending so it could be just Warren's last 2 hours of killing before he died.

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[–] bic-9 18 years ago

When I was a kid I used to think it was because HBO would only show the film later at night (too explicit for the 8 PM time slot).

[–] ka_t_ia 18 years ago

I like to think this movie has this title because of (in my mind) what it is. 10 (minutes) to midnight , when the danger comes out on the street to all the unprotected girls...time to go to bed! whatever this means...

[–] mcfly-31 18 years ago

I think it was a marketing ploy. As someone else stated, I thought it was a horror film as well; midnight, darkness, werewolves, vampires, who knows. Makes it sound like something dark and scary.

Maybe, as someone else suggested, it's because it ends around midnight with a run through the streets. Because he killed the first girl in the woods during the day, the second after the funeral during the day, then the final spree of the students and the hooker at night. Plus he was placing obscene calls at night. Who knows.

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[–] paul_johnr 18 years ago

I recently read Bronson's Loose: The Making of the Death Wish Films and it's explained there. Cannon Films and Bronson's agent went to the Cannes Film Festival to plug their upcoming movie (in 1983, I think). They didn't have a working title or even a script yet, so they decided to call it 10 to Midnight, which didn't really mean anything. Later on, they picked out the script, originally called Bloody Sunday, and renamed it 10 to Midnight.

[–] smoko 15 years ago

Well the title Bloody Sunday makes about as much sense as 10 to Midnight (i.e. none).

[–] Bloom6000 13 years ago

The titles of Hitchcock films often related to the events at the start of the film (eg. The Man Who Knew Too Much). Maybe in this movie, the 10 To Midnight refers to the last 20 minutes of the film, where the sequence occured around 10 to midnight.

CAPS LOCK: Are you ready to unleash the fury?

[–] movieperson113 14 years ago

Mostly when they title a movie it's to GET THE AUDIENCE TO SEE IT. So they come up with a title that will pull people in over telling what the movie is about.

Instances where the distributors title a movie to bring in people...

I DRINK YOUR BLOOD originally titled PHOBIA, nobody really drinks any blood in that...

THE INCREDIBLY STRANGE CREATURES THAT STOPPED LIVING AND BECAME MIXED UP ZOMBIES...
- none of the creatures in the movie die and come back to life

[–] DeepFriedJello 13 years ago

It's not 10 till midnight, and not 10:00 to midnight, or 10 pm to midnight.
I think it means running ten naked blocks before he is dead at midnight.
Or. He wanted to kill ten girls before midnight.

[–] MisterHex 13 years ago

I think the title was concocted for the reasons we've heard before: Golan and Globus had wanted to use it for another film, but when those plans fell through, they pasted the name "10 to Midnight" onto Bronson's movie. It was at this point in the 1980s when action films were christened with stupid, cheesy titles that held no bearing on the plots of the movies itself.

Though, apart from "10 to Midnight," I do have to give props to J. Lee Thompson for titling his "Kinjite: Forbidden Subjects," since it relates to a line said in the movie. They could have easily called it "Hard Justice" or some other generic name.

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[–] strangenstein 9 years ago

I posted my thoughts on another thread, but they bear repeating here.

While the title apparently came before the movie proper and has nothing to do with the film, I like to tie the title with the poster artwork for the film. You'll see the killer with one arm stretched straight up (toward 12 o'clock/midnight), while the other hand, holding a knife, is pointed at 10 o'clock; hence, "10 to Midnight". That's how I like to make it work!

The title may not have anything to do with the movie but I still think it's atmospheric as heck.

[–] millsey72 (10947) 3 years ago

I didn't see this movie but my college professor is a big fan of any Charles Bronson films. He told me if you look at the poster for this movie, its a guy with one hand straight up at 12 o clock and the other hand holding a knife in the 10 o clock position, hence the title 10 to midnite