The 25th Hour

The 25th Hour is the 2001 debut novel by David Benioff. A film adaptation for which Benioff wrote the adapted screenplay was directed by Spike Lee and released in 2002.

Plot summary

Montgomery Brogan is on a farewell-tour through New York. He is saying good-bye to his friends, his father and also to the city he loves and in which has lived his entire life. The following day he will have to go to prison to serve a seven-year sentence for drug dealing. It is clear from the outset that Monty was not caught selling drugs, but that the police were given a tip-off. Contrary to what is shown in the filmed version, in the novel Monty already knows that it was his business partner Kostya who betrayed him.

But before leaving for prison, Monty has to get things settled with Nikolai, a Russian mobster for whom he has been working, who is questioning his loyalty and threatening his life. During his walk through New York he tries to gather pictures of the city which he wants to have in mind when serving his sentence: "This is what he wants to see when his eyes are closed, tomorrow night and every night after for seven years."

On his last walk through the city Monty reminisces about his life. He remembers how he got to know his girlfriend Naturelle, and he recalls his mother's early death. He blames himself for missing the opportunities he was given. During a stop-over at his father's bar, which features a memorial to New York Fire Department firefighters killed in the September 11th terrorist attacks, Monty engages in a spiteful, bitter monologue to himself, in which he lambasts New York's different socio-ethnic groups, the US government, Osama Bin Laden, his friend Frank (whom he believes to covet Naturelle), his own father, and finally himself.

Monty spends the last night in freedom out at a night club together with his two best friends: Jakob Elinsky, an immature and confused high school teacher who has a severe crush on one of his under-aged pupils and Frank Slattery, a self-confident and successful Wall Street banker. In the night club Monty gets things straightened out with the Russian mobsters, so that in the future they will leave him and his father in peace. In the film version the mob boss reveals Kostya's betrayal and presents the helpless traitor to Monty in one of the club's back rooms. The mobsters try to goad Monty into killing Kostya, but Monty, who is filled with rage at Kostya for earlier suggesting that Naturelle must have sold him out, instead tells the boss to clean up his own mess.

At the end of the night the three friends are all in a state of agony. Jakob is totally confused after kissing his student who he meets at the club. Monty is terrified because for the first time he is fully becoming aware of the fact that he will be imprisoned for seven years, and Frank is ridden with self-guilt for never making Monty quit drug dealing.

In the dawn of the next morning Monty asks Frank for a crucial favour. As he is very good looking, Monty fears to get raped in prison. To avoid this he wants Frank to beat him up and make his good looks disappear. At first Frank refuses, but after Monty taunts him, he loses control of himself: "Slattery keeps hitting Monty, the blows beginning to sound wet. The sound of a fist unmaking a face." A few hours later Monty’s father drives him to prison. As he begins the drive, his father offers to drive Monty west, where he can go underground to avoid prison. In the preceding montage, the viewer sees an imagined future where Monty says farewell to his father in a small town in the Desert, and settles down to make himself a new life, finally reuniting with Naturelle and starting a family. The final line of the film, "It all came so close to never happening" is said by Monty's father as the audience sees the car skip the turnoff and continue up-state towards the prison.

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