This movie felt like another of Keira Knightley's films, "Seeking a Friend for the End of the World," except it was much less funny. This film never made me laugh, or even smile. It has some awkward quirky moments where the writer attempts humor, but misses the mark.
The basic premise is the government has announced that the world is ending, and they've handed out "exit pills" (suicide pills) to the population so that they don't needlessly suffer. Except for illegal aliens and the homeless. Because according to the film, "they don't count." Ironically, as you'll later find out, this might mean the meek shall indeed inherit the Earth.
In the first act you find out that the end comes from an environmental disaster that has created a toxic cloud moving across the globe that kills people by liquifying their organs. They really don't even try to touch on the science about what caused it, but it is said in the dialogue that humanity has polluted the world to the point that "the world spews it all back us." To avoid an agonizing death, the government is actively promoting that everyone should take the exit pill.
Old college friends gather at a country estate for one last Christmas party before the toxic clouds arrive, and they take their government-provided "exit pills" to avoid dying said horrible death. This part of the movie was a little like a millennial version of the 1983 movie "The Big Chill." Which also had old college friends from the boomer generation gather for a weekend reunion.
There is an interracial lesbian couple, an interracial heterosexual couple, and two white heterosexual couples with kids, kids who drop a lot of F-bombs.
The second act they all drink, dance, play games, reminisce and tell each other awkward and inappropriate secrets about their past. I sense that the writer wanted some of this to be funny but in my opinion really missed the mark.
We learn that one of the characters is pregnant and doesn't want to take the pill because she doesn't want to kill her baby.
One of the other couple's sons also doesn't want to take the pill because he wants to survive, and questions the government's narrative. This uncertainty regarding the narrative's validity is shared by several other characters. Maybe the government and scientists are lying, maybe they are just mistaken.
At the start of the third act the son who proclaims he isn't going to take the pill runs off, he finds a car by the side of the road with a family in it that have all taken the exit pill and are dead. The boy begins to scream as one of the toxic dust devils blows in exposing him to the toxin. His father picks him up and takes him back to the house, where he announces it's time to take the pills. There are some more awkward quirky moments which follow.
In the end, they all take the pill except the youngest son, who they believe is dead from exposure to the mysterious toxic cloud. He is unconscious and has bled from his eyes, nose, mouth and ears. .
The final scene we see it is morning. The cloud is gone, and it's bright snowy morning. We then get a cinematic survey confirming that everyone has indeed committed suicide-even the young pregnant woman who didn't want to kill her unborn child finally gave in to her boyfriend's insistence that they "go together." The lesbian has stabbed to death her lover because her lover vomited up the exit pill, the scene shows them both dead on the kitchen floor.
The final shot is on the face of the young boy who earlier we assumed had died and thus didn't take the pill. He opens his eyes. Confirming that he has survived. The government lied or was wrong. Then the credits roll.
Filming for this movie wrapped before the COVID lockdowns. Which I think is a strange coincidence because it lightly touched on several themes that we're all dealing with today. Should you blindly trust the media and authorities?
I'm not sure how I'd categorize this film. It's not a serious piece of fiction. It most certainly wasn't a comedy, and it wasn't much of a horror movie either. With that said, I kind of enjoyed it because of the actors.
The basic premise is the government has announced that the world is ending, and they've handed out "exit pills" (suicide pills) to the population so that they don't needlessly suffer. Except for illegal aliens and the homeless. Because according to the film, "they don't count." Ironically, as you'll later find out, this might mean the meek shall indeed inherit the Earth.
In the first act you find out that the end comes from an environmental disaster that has created a toxic cloud moving across the globe that kills people by liquifying their organs. They really don't even try to touch on the science about what caused it, but it is said in the dialogue that humanity has polluted the world to the point that "the world spews it all back us." To avoid an agonizing death, the government is actively promoting that everyone should take the exit pill.
Old college friends gather at a country estate for one last Christmas party before the toxic clouds arrive, and they take their government-provided "exit pills" to avoid dying said horrible death. This part of the movie was a little like a millennial version of the 1983 movie "The Big Chill." Which also had old college friends from the boomer generation gather for a weekend reunion.
There is an interracial lesbian couple, an interracial heterosexual couple, and two white heterosexual couples with kids, kids who drop a lot of F-bombs.
The second act they all drink, dance, play games, reminisce and tell each other awkward and inappropriate secrets about their past. I sense that the writer wanted some of this to be funny but in my opinion really missed the mark.
We learn that one of the characters is pregnant and doesn't want to take the pill because she doesn't want to kill her baby.
One of the other couple's sons also doesn't want to take the pill because he wants to survive, and questions the government's narrative. This uncertainty regarding the narrative's validity is shared by several other characters. Maybe the government and scientists are lying, maybe they are just mistaken.
At the start of the third act the son who proclaims he isn't going to take the pill runs off, he finds a car by the side of the road with a family in it that have all taken the exit pill and are dead. The boy begins to scream as one of the toxic dust devils blows in exposing him to the toxin. His father picks him up and takes him back to the house, where he announces it's time to take the pills. There are some more awkward quirky moments which follow.
In the end, they all take the pill except the youngest son, who they believe is dead from exposure to the mysterious toxic cloud. He is unconscious and has bled from his eyes, nose, mouth and ears. .
The final scene we see it is morning. The cloud is gone, and it's bright snowy morning. We then get a cinematic survey confirming that everyone has indeed committed suicide-even the young pregnant woman who didn't want to kill her unborn child finally gave in to her boyfriend's insistence that they "go together." The lesbian has stabbed to death her lover because her lover vomited up the exit pill, the scene shows them both dead on the kitchen floor.
The final shot is on the face of the young boy who earlier we assumed had died and thus didn't take the pill. He opens his eyes. Confirming that he has survived. The government lied or was wrong. Then the credits roll.
Filming for this movie wrapped before the COVID lockdowns. Which I think is a strange coincidence because it lightly touched on several themes that we're all dealing with today. Should you blindly trust the media and authorities?
I'm not sure how I'd categorize this film. It's not a serious piece of fiction. It most certainly wasn't a comedy, and it wasn't much of a horror movie either. With that said, I kind of enjoyed it because of the actors.