Plot
A man claiming he is from ‘the future’ bursts into a diner with several dozen people in it one night. He is dressed as an ‘un-housed’ person and is strapped with a bomb! (It’s not though…)
His claim? That in a few short hours an evil AI program with be born, which ruins humanity for the future he and begs for volunteers to assist him on his mission… and that this is his 117th time trying to save the world. Taking seven people instead of his usual six, can this be the team that saves the day?
Direction
Directed by Gore Verbinski. This was his first film in nearly a decade, following his Pirates run. I haven’t seen enough of his work to really determine his trademarks but I enjoyed his ‘alternative’ present.
Breakdown/Cast
Sam Rockwell plays “The Man From the Future” who is unnamed. As usual he delivers a solid performance with the right amount of comedy and heart. I loved his character, especially some of the diatribe he belts out (fantastic screenplay by Matthew Robinson), which we can only agree that the world is indeed going to shit.
As the film also has a series of vignettes with most of The group getting their own “flashback”
Michael Pena and Zazie Beetz play Mark and Janet. They are high school teachers who also, seemingly have a mourning for the ‘past’ and hate that kids today are addicted to their phones. They have recently had a day from hell when Mark inadvertently caused a “zombie” apocalypse by touching the phone of one his phone addicted students. Their day is also interrupted by a school shooting.
If I could have asked for more here, it would have been an answer to ‘why’ did Mark’s touching the girls phone cause the ‘outbreak’ – and why exactly are all the teachers on sabbatical?
Juno Temple plays Susan, a woman whose son is killed in a recent school shooting. However in this ‘alternative reality’ cloning exists, and her son is returned to her, but his personality is not the same. She discovers an option to talktime her son on the phone, in which he tells her to “go with the man”…
Hayley Lu Richardson plays Ingrid, the seventh (and unwanted by The Man) member of the group. She is a child entertainer who is allergic to technology.
Other cast include Asim Chaudhry as Scott and Georgia Goodman as Marie.
The film goes back and forth between the ‘then’ and the ‘now’ with all the flashbacks to the secondary characters, and at times even after 116 attempts, The Man gets surprised by what this new group uncover on their mission to stop the AI from being created.
This also has some interesting commentary on school shootings, that have clearly become so normal in the American culture now that some (very minor) characters are so apathetic and immune to them, that it doesn’t even phase them. This of course leads into the cloning story-line – with ‘cheaper’ alternatives (with ads!).
The third act, like many films before it crams a lot into the plot, including that Ingrid, who was never meant to come along, is pregnant, the boy who is creating the AI is a clone, and that The Man From the Future (whose own mother died when he was a little boy) just so happens to be… you guessed it.
The final final ending, is pretty fun, considering all The Man went through. Fingers crossed 118 goes better…
Overall
Pretty fun ride, with some great performances. There is a fairly obvious twist, but you’re okay with that.
It’s a little long, and the third act drags slightly, (and some questions go unanswered), but all in all this is a fun ride.
A recommend nonetheless.
4/5
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