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RJ Nakajima had a job with a consulting company. When he and two colleagues entered a hotel lobby, they had the following conversation:

WOMAN: Half hour before last call?
NAKAJIMA: I can’t, guys. I have to prep for tomorrow’s session.
WOMAN: Really?

I’m not sure exactly what "Half hour before last call?" means here. Does it mean "Can you free up half an hour?" or "Do you want to go for drinks?"

Reference

Skogland, Kari, dir. “New World Order.” The Falcon and The Winter Soldier, season 1, episode 1, Disney+, 2021.

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    "Half hour before last call" means that the bar will stop serving drinks in half an hour. So it's late in the day. I think that by using it as a question, the woman is simultaneously asking if her colleagues want to get a drink now, while there is still time. Perhaps it's commonly used that way somewhere.
    – Jeffrey Carney
    Commented Jul 13, 2021 at 10:37
  • In the UK, the phrase would have been "last orders" which is possibly slightly clearer. Otherwise @JeffreyCarney is quite correct.
    – MikeB
    Commented Jul 13, 2021 at 11:26

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last call: (in a bar) said to inform customers that closing time is approaching and that any further drinks should be bought immediately.
source: Oxford English Dictionary

The woman is informing her companions that the hotel bar is closing in half an hour. Her question is asked as an invitation to join her for a drink. It doesn't specifically mean 'do you have 30 minutes to spare' as much as it means 'join me for a drink before the bar closes'

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I'd be tempted to add an ellipsis here:

Half hour before last call ... ?

The sentence is actually a statement, with the actual question implied rather than spoken.

The "last call" (in British English, "last orders") is the announcement that the bar is about to close for the night. So "half hour before last call" means "there is half an hour before the bar closes for the night".

The implied question is "Would you like to join me for a drink during that half hour?"

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