**NOTE**–I’ll try hard not to put too many spoilers in this review, though by necessity there have to be some. Just so you know.
Sam Rockwell has always liked playing quirky characters in quirky movies, seems like. This time he heads an ensemble cast including Michael Peña, Haley Lu Richardson, Zazie Beetz, Juno Temple and Asim Chaudry, in a movie that’s hard to describe. The IMDB plot précis describes it as “A man claiming to be from the future takes the patrons of an iconic Los Angeles diner hostage in search of unlikely recruits in a quest to save the world.” Gnaw on that one for a moment. The preview I saw online showed a bearded man (whom I didn’t recognize) in a clear plastic raincoat, dressed as a homeless man, looked like, jumping on a table and yelling “Hey!” at the top of his voice. He held the trigger of what looked like a bomb vest in one hand. So after the disappointments of Worldbreaker and Shelter (not a bad movie, but just another Jason Statham action flick, not much different from any other one), I was ready for a good genre flick—though at first, I wasn’t so sure it was a genre film.
Well, here goes: it’s definitely a genre movie, though it takes a while to be sure of that. This is a film that goes into the past of several major cast characters—the Man From the Future (Rockwell), Ingrid, the “princess” (Richardson), Susan (Temple), and Mark (Peña) for the usual—or in this case, pretty unusual, background bits. So this is the actual plot: (I can’t remember the character’s name, but it could be “Tim,” so I’ll call him TMFTF or Rockwell) at 10:11 p.m. a crazy-looking and –sounding guy (TMFTF) enters Ron’s Diner in LA, claiming he is from the future, and the future is really bad for the human race, so he’s come to the past to save it. And he wants a crew to help him; said crew to come from the 30-some people in the diner. When some try to leave, he pulls out a button, which he says controls a bomb vest strapped to his body, and if anyone leaves he’ll blow himself and everyone else up. While he’s recruiting the six people who eventually join him, a waitress calls the cops and the whole little bundle of scared people plus TMFTF hides in the kitchen.
TMFTF tells the group that they can’t escape the diner, but they have half an hour to go several miles to a house where they will confront a 9-year-old boy who’s about to invent the equivalent of Skynet. We cut to Mark (Peña) and Janet (Beetz), who are high-school teachers. The school teens are all hooked on their phones, but Mark makes a mistake and touches one of those phones—and the teens, like zombies, turn on him. The pair barely escapes from the school. Back in the diner, Susan informs them there is a hidden door in the diner’s office with a vent leading outside the police cordon, so they all go that way. TMFTF is surprised by this, because he’s done this—with various combinations of diner patrons one hundred and 77 times and never heard of this hidden door! He also tells them than not everyone will reach the target house.
We also find out that the Princess (Richardson) is allergic to phones and WiFi in a backstory. The most common symptom is a nosebleed. It also appears that Susan has lost her son in a school shooting—which might be a trigger for some folk watching this; but apparently in LA at least, those shootings are extremely commonplace. She is sent to a support group. In the previous flashbacks as well as this one, we see the kind of dystopia that our world is headed for; the whole film is a not-very-well hidden commentary on what’s happening in the U.S. (and by extension, the whole of Western civilization) today. (Duh.) Also, the group’s passage to the house of the nine-year-old genius will be marked by chases and conflicts. Maybe, TMFTF tells them, this will be the group that finally gets him there before the timer on his wrist runs out. (But he doubts it….
There’s a fair amount of violence and gore in this movie, but much of it is very comedic gore and death; none of it is really dwelt on. Most of it is used to comic effect as a background to the dangers of the journey, like the guy who gets shotgunned and is thrown back 20 or so feet—we all know that that’s physically impossible for several reasons—yet it emphasizes the dangers that have faced the group on their way. The acting—especially Rockwell’s—is good, and the timing is excellent; I can’t think of a moment when this film drags. Long before they reach the house we the audience as well as the six people, are convinced TMFTF is telling the truth. Yet I can’t describe it any further without giving too much away. It’s a comic/horror/science-fiction movie, is all I can really say. But if you’re anything like me in your appreciation of quirky movies, you’ll like it. A lot.
NOTE 2: This column is in no way written, edited, proofed or composed by AI, though some of my photo editing software uses it in some capacity. This is a human column and will remain so.
I’d really like to hear what you think. Comment here on Amazing, or on Facebook, or you could email me (stevefah at hotmail dot com). Whether you liked it or not, let me know! My opinion is, as always, my own, and doesn’t necessarily reflect the views of Amazing Stories or its owner, editor, publisher or other columnists. See you next time!
Steve has been an active fan since the 1970s, when he founded the Palouse Empire Science Fiction Association and the more-or-less late MosCon in Pullman, WA and Moscow, ID, though he started reading SF/F in the early-to-mid 1950s, when he was just a sprat. He moved to Canada in 1985 and quickly became involved with Canadian cons, including ConText (’89 and ’81) and VCON. He’s published a couple of books and a number of short stories, and has collaborated with his two-time Aurora-winning wife Lynne Taylor Fahnestalk on a number of art projects. As of this writing he’s the proofreader for R. Graeme Cameron’s Polar Borealis and Polar Starlight publications. He’s been writing for Amazing Stories off and on since the early 1980s. His column can be found on Amazing Stories most Fridays.
