Pratik Handore
‘Prime Time’ is a Polish language thriller film that tells the story of a young man taking an employee and TV presenter of a television station hostage. The story is set during New Year’s Eve in 1999 and revolves around the protagonist’s attempts to use the hostages to demand a live television appearance. It is director Jakub Piatek’s debut feature film and stars Bartosz Bielenia, Magdalena Poplawska, and Andrzej Klak in the lead roles. If you thought the movie’s premise is reminiscent of a sensational news headline, you aren’t the only one. We got curious and investigated whether ‘Prime Time’ is inspired by any real events or true stories. If you are curious to learn more about the same, allow us to share everything we learned in that regard.
Is Prime Time Based on a True Story?
No, ‘Prime Time’ is not based on a true story. The movie is based on an original concept from director/co-writer Jakub Piatek and his writing partner Lukasz Czapski. The characters are fictional, as are their individual arc and the overall plotline. However, the premise of a man terrorizing a television station and taking hostages has some precedence in the real world.
A notable incident that comes to mind occurred in Phoenix, USA, on May 30, 1982. A 28-year-old man took four people hostage at a local KOOL-TV television station. The perpetrator named Joseph Billie Gwin held a television presenter at gunpoint and forced him to read a statement he had written on live television. Gwin surrendered after his statement was read on air. He was charged with kidnapping, assault, and burglary.
Another similar incident took place in October 1980 in Cincinnati, USA. A man named James Hoskins held nine employees of WCPO-TV hostage inside the television station armed with nearly 600 rounds of ammunition, a semi-automatic gun, and five revolvers. Hoskins held reporter Elaine Green and her cameraman at gunpoint to make his way to the news station. There he took seven more people hostage. He also did an interview with Green and confessed to the murder of his girlfriend. Hoskins later released all the hostages and took his own life by shooting himself.
Both incidents have clear parallels to the movie’s story, and rightfully so, as director-co-writer Jakub Piatek revealed that the creative team did extensive research on such incidents while working on the movie’s story. “Prime Time is a fantasy about revolt and rebellion. Just before the explosion of Web popularity and the birth of YouTube, there were numerous incidents of people breaking into TV studios during live programmes around the world,” Piatek said in a statement given to the press. He also cautiously noted that the movie is not based on any single real incident.
Other real-world elements present in the film include references to the Y2K bug, a computer bug that caused widespread panic in 1999 and led to people making many predictions, such as the collapse of the banking systems. Socio-political issues of the time, such as LGBTQ+ rights, the stigma around mental health, lack of employment, etc., are also mentioned in passing.
All things said, ‘Prime Time’ is a gripping story that explores a form of outrage and revolt in an era that predates modern social media. Its references to real-world events and the cast’s solid performances make us believe in the urgency of the situation and ground the story in reality. The story may have notable similarities with real incidents but is largely a fictional one.
Read More: Prime Time Ending, Explained
