''Goodbye World'' is a 2013 American
apocalyptic film directed, co-written and co-produced by Denis Henry Hennelly. It stars
Kerry Bishé,
Caroline Dhavernas
Caroline Dhavernas (; born May 15, 1978) is a Canadian actress. She is best known in the United States for her collaborations with Bryan Fuller. She played Jaye Tyler in the Fox comedy-drama series '' Wonderfalls'', and Alana Bloom in the NBC ps ...
,
Adrian Grenier
Adrian Sean Grenier (born July 10, 1976) is an American actor, producer, director and musician. He is best known for his portrayal of Vincent Chase in the television series ''Entourage'' (2004–2011). He has appeared in films such as ''Drive Me ...
,
Gaby Hoffmann
Gabrielle Mary Antonia HoffmannStated on '' Finding Your Roots'', November 21, 2017 (born January 8, 1982) is an American actress. She initially found success as a child actress, appearing in '' Field of Dreams,'' '' Uncle Buck,'' and '' Sle ...
,
Ben McKenzie
Benjamin McKenzie Schenkkan (born September 12, 1978) is an American actor and commentator. He is best known for his starring television roles as Ryan Atwood on the teen drama ''The O.C.'' (2003–2007), Ben Sherman on the crime drama ''Southlan ...
,
Scott Mescudi
Scott Ramon Seguro Mescudi (born January 30, 1984), also known by his stage name Kid Cudi ( ), is an American rapper, singer, songwriter, record producer, actor and fashion designer. Born and raised in Cleveland, Ohio, Cudi would move to New Y ...
and
Mark Webber. It follows a group of friends who gather at a
compound in the woods north of
San Francisco
San Francisco (; Spanish language, Spanish for "Francis of Assisi, Saint Francis"), officially the City and County of San Francisco, is the commercial, financial, and cultural center of Northern California. The city proper is the List of Ca ...
while the world is collapsing all around them.
The film had its world premiere at the
LA Film Festival
The LA Film Festival was an annual film festival that was held in Los Angeles, California, and usually took place in June. It showcased independent, international, feature, documentary and short films, as well as web series, music videos, episod ...
on June 15, 2013. It was released in a
limited release
__FORCETOC__
Limited theatrical release is a film distribution strategy of releasing a new film in a few theaters across a country, typically art house theaters in major metropolitan markets. Since 1994, a limited theatrical release in the Unit ...
and through
video on demand
Video on demand (VOD) is a media distribution system that allows users to access videos without a traditional video playback device and the constraints of a typical static broadcasting schedule. In the 20th century, broadcasting in the form of ...
on April 4, 2014 by
Samuel Goldwyn Films
Samuel Goldwyn Films is an American film company that licenses, releases and distributes art-house, independent and foreign films. It was founded by Samuel Goldwyn Jr., the son of the Hollywood business magnate/mogul, Samuel Goldwyn. The cu ...
and
Phase 4 Films
Phase 4 Films was a Canadian film distribution company based in Toronto. It had two branches in the United States: Los Angeles, California and Fort Mill, South Carolina. Its subsidiary kaboom! Entertainment markets children's entertainment.
Histo ...
.
Plot
The film begins with James' recitation of a
Henry David Thoreau quote, after which he states that he saw the oncoming
societal collapse
Societal collapse (also known as civilizational collapse) is the fall of a complex human society characterized by the loss of cultural identity and of socioeconomic complexity, the downfall of government, and the rise of violence. Possible cause ...
and moved his free-spirited wife Lily and young daughter Hannah off the grid. A montage shows his college friends just before the collapse: Benji, a radical activist, lectures at a college and has sex with Ariel, one of the students; Nick, James' former business partner, and his wife Becky are en route to James' house for a meeting; Laura, formerly a Senator's aide, is rejected from a job at a non-profit due to a past public sex scandal; and Lev, a computer hacker, prepares to commit suicide until he hears that a computer virus may be responsible for the collapse. They, and others, receive a "Goodbye World" text at the same time. The friends converge at Lily and James' remote
Mendocino County
Mendocino County (; ''Mendocino'', Spanish for "of Mendoza) is a county located on the North Coast of the U.S. state of California. As of the 2020 census, the population was 91,601. The county seat is Ukiah.
Mendocino County consists wholly ...
off-grid home, where Benji explains that violent riots have broken out across the nation.
When Laura and James ride into town, he asks if she was forewarned of the attacks. Although she initially denies it, she admits that
Homeland Security
Homeland security is an American national security term for "the national effort to ensure a homeland that is safe, secure, and resilient against terrorism and other hazards where American interests, aspirations, and ways of life can thrive" t ...
contacted her about Lev, whom they suspected to be involved with the virus. In town, bikers have taken over the local store and gouge the locals. Laura flashes her breasts for supplies, and they quickly leave when they see a local man bullied mercilessly by thugs. Two
National Guardsmen visit the house and request its use as their base of operations. Becky objects on Constitutional grounds, and James asks them to leave.
Laura decodes a repeated presidential message on television, revealing that the United States is now under
martial law
Martial law is the imposition of direct military control of normal civil functions or suspension of civil law by a government, especially in response to an emergency where civil forces are overwhelmed, or in an occupied territory.
Use
Marti ...
. At the same time, old rivalries flare up, and the friends begin infighting over unresolved issues from the past. Becky, who never felt accepted by the others, argues with them over her
Libertarian
Libertarianism (from french: libertaire, "libertarian"; from la, libertas, "freedom") is a political philosophy that upholds liberty as a core value. Libertarians seek to maximize autonomy and political freedom, and minimize the state's e ...
political beliefs, and James and Nick argue over an old business-related lawsuit.
The infighting intensifies, and Benji tells a disruptive Ariel to leave, but James invites her to stay. When Ariel attacks Lily, she overrides James and tells Ariel to leave. At the same time, Nick and Lily explore their feelings for each other, and Lily demands a divorce from James, who responds that he has more important things to worry about than his marriage. Ariel goes to live with James' neighbors, who have taken in the Guardsmen, and tells them of James' food and medicine supplies. Damon, the nastier of the Guardsmen, demands that James give them all the supplies. When he resists, Damon violently gropes Laura and threaten to kill Lev. They leave after James promises to deliver them tomorrow.
Lev reveals that he was partially responsible for the computer virus; he was hired to construct a text message cell phone virus that could overload an entire nation's grid, which he found an interesting challenge. When he later attempted suicide, he used his virus to send a "Goodbye World" text to the entire country, not knowing that Lily had playfully hacked into his computer, inadvertently releasing the virus' full source code into the wild, destroying the country'sand possibly the world'stechnological infrastructure.
Becky finds Benji in the woods, stuck in a bear trap. She gets him out, and the two bond, leading him to tell her about Nick and Lily. When Becky confronts them, Nick and Lily briefly leave together, but they return when Lily convinces Nick that they should be friends and not lovers.
James visits his growing group of neighbors and refuses to hand over his supplies, though he naively offers to consider any requests. Just as Damon is about to execute James, Laura kills Damon. She hands over half of their medical supplies to the other camp and reminds them that they must work together from now on. Nick returns to the house, James and Lily reconcile, Laura and Lev become a couple, and Becky leaves with Benji to help others in need.
The five remaining friends, including the two responsible for the breakdown of modern infrastructure, are later seen working with all the others from the area, planting gardens.
Cast
Release
The film had its world premiere at the 2013 Los Angeles Film Festival on June 15, 2013. It won the award for Best Feature at the New Hampshire Film Festival on October 19, 2013. Shortly after,
Samuel Goldwyn Films
Samuel Goldwyn Films is an American film company that licenses, releases and distributes art-house, independent and foreign films. It was founded by Samuel Goldwyn Jr., the son of the Hollywood business magnate/mogul, Samuel Goldwyn. The cu ...
and
Phase 4 Films
Phase 4 Films was a Canadian film distribution company based in Toronto. It had two branches in the United States: Los Angeles, California and Fort Mill, South Carolina. Its subsidiary kaboom! Entertainment markets children's entertainment.
Histo ...
jointly acquired all United States rights in October 2013. It was released in theaters and on
iTunes on April 4, 2014.
Reception
Rotten Tomatoes
Rotten Tomatoes is an American review-aggregation website for film and television. The company was launched in August 1998 by three undergraduate students at the University of California, Berkeley: Senh Duong, Patrick Y. Lee, and Stephen Wan ...
, a
review aggregator
A review aggregator is a system that collects reviews of products and services (such as films, books, video games, software, hardware, and cars). This system stores the reviews and uses them for purposes such as supporting a website where users ...
, reports that 24% of 25 surveyed critics gave the film a positive review; the average rating was 4.4/10.
Metacritic
Metacritic is a website that aggregates reviews of films, TV shows, music albums, video games and formerly, books. For each product, the scores from each review are averaged (a weighted average). Metacritic was created by Jason Dietz, Marc ...
rated it 36/100, which indicates generally unfavorable reviews. Inkoo Kang of the ''
Los Angeles Times
The ''Los Angeles Times'' (abbreviated as ''LA Times'') is a daily newspaper that started publishing in Los Angeles in 1881. Based in the LA-adjacent suburb of El Segundo since 2018, it is the sixth-largest newspaper by circulation in the ...
'' called it "an unconvincing, poorly conceived hybrid of end-of-the-world thriller and relationship drama". Nicolas Rapold of ''
The New York Times
''The New York Times'' (''the Times'', ''NYT'', or the Gray Lady) is a daily newspaper based in New York City with a worldwide readership reported in 2020 to comprise a declining 840,000 paid print subscribers, and a growing 6 million paid ...
'', in comparing it to a TV drama, called the characters overwritten and the story oblivious. Stephen Farber of ''
The Hollywood Reporter
''The Hollywood Reporter'' (''THR'') is an American digital and print magazine which focuses on the Hollywood film, television, and entertainment industries. It was founded in 1930 as a daily trade paper, and in 2010 switched to a weekly large ...
'' wrote that the film plays out like a
soap opera
A soap opera, or ''soap'' for short, is a typically long-running radio or television serial, frequently characterized by melodrama, ensemble casts, and sentimentality. The term "soap opera" originated from radio dramas originally being sponsored ...
and should have focused more on suspense. Scott Foundas of ''
Variety
Variety may refer to:
Arts and entertainment Entertainment formats
* Variety (radio)
* Variety show, in theater and television
Films
* ''Variety'' (1925 film), a German silent film directed by Ewald Andre Dupont
* ''Variety'' (1935 film), ...
'' called the characters "the whiniest, most self-entitled
rotagoniststhis side of the worst
mumblecore
Mumblecore is a subgenre of independent filmHoberman, J. (August 14, 2007).It's Mumblecore!. ''The Village Voice''. Retrieved on July 27, 2008.Lim, Dennis (August 19, 2007)Mumblecore – The New Talkies: Generation DIY ''The New York Times''. Retr ...
movie you barely remember seeing."
G. Allen Johnson of the ''
San Francisco Chronicle
The ''San Francisco Chronicle'' is a newspaper serving primarily the San Francisco Bay Area of Northern California. It was founded in 1865 as ''The Daily Dramatic Chronicle'' by teenage brothers Charles de Young and Michael H. de Young. The pap ...
'' called the characters annoying and unworthy to survive the apocalypse. Amongst the few positive reviews, Mark Adams of ''
Screen Daily
''Screen International'' is a British film magazine covering the international film business. It is published by Media Business Insight, a British B2B media company.
The magazine is primarily aimed at those involved in the global film business. ...
'' called it "engagingly performed, beautifully shot and always absorbing", while Katie Walsh of
Indiewire
IndieWire (sometimes stylized as indieWIRE or Indiewire) is a film industry and review website that was established in 1996. The site's focus was predominantly independent film, although its coverage has grown to "to include all aspects of Holl ...
called it an "entertaining and realistic" film with varying levels of characterization.
References
External links
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{{DEFAULTSORT:Goodbye World
2013 films
2010s adventure films
2013 comedy-drama films
2013 independent films
American comedy-drama films
American independent films
American post-apocalyptic films
American black comedy films
2010s English-language films
2010s American films