25th Hour is a 2002 American drama film directed by Spike Lee and starring Edward Norton. Based on the novel The 25th Hour by David Benioff, who also wrote the screenplay, it tells the story of a man’s last 24 hours of freedom before going to prison for 7 years for dealing drugs. The film was in the “planning stages” at the time of the September 11 attacks and so Lee decided not to ignore the tragedy but to integrate it into his story.