Goodbye World was in my queue because I love an apocalypse, but the opening Walden quote was a warning to run that I did not heed. The apocalypse is basically an excuse for a bunch of mostly narcissistic college friends to have an unofficial reunion and resolve their issues with each other with a dash of hipster “This is what democracy looks like” tacked on. The reunion is held at the wealthiest and most selfish married couple’s house in the boonies.
The husband is a know-it-all dictator with delusions of self-sufficiency. He thinks that he is living an ideal life with his tricycle riding child who was clearly rejected for being too obnoxious for The Shining and his wife who wishes that she was anywhere else with anyone else and has the maturity level of a frat boy. They are joined by the husband’s former partner, who still has a thing for his partner’s wife, and his wife, who is a Christian and libertarian, played by Caroline Dhavernas, which normally even as a Christian, would set off my alarm bells, but I actually liked her and thought she deserved better from jump. I think the filmmakers felt ambivalent about her character as if they wanted to hate her because all the characters hate her and are mean to her, but ultimately could not because she is one of the few characters who at least know who she is and what she wants. Once she sees what is going on, she is like, “Screw this BS.” They are trying to get over some past conflicts and make nice, but no one is over it, and everyone still holds the same position. It is a disaster before anything even happens globally.
When the crap hits the fan, their ex-con radical activist buddy who does the lecture circuit at colleges joins them with his latest barely legal one nightstand who then pees on the side of the road because why not. The only black guy, and hence accused terrorist (the biggest of side eyes because even in a film where a white guy goes to jail, the black guy is suspect), stops his plans when he sees the chaos and decides to visit his favorite pissing contest online competitor, the sulky, selfish wife.
My favorite character, and for me, the real star of Goodbye World, was Laura Shepherd, played by Transparent’s Abby Hoffman, as the most realistic, understated action heroine who has ever simultaneously faced the apocalypse and viral, national disgrace. She just handled her business, dealt with her emotions when it was safe and refused to be diminished by other people’s judgment. She is a sexual being who rejects people’s attempts to define her by her sexuality, is a history nerd and the only one practically prepared for an apocalypse. While her physical limitations as a woman facing off against hostile, armed men are accurately depicted, she remains self-possessed and can turn the tables without ruining the film’s credibility.
I hate when an apocalypse is really an excuse to deal with specific relationships instead of examining human nature generally. When you find out how the apocalypse started, you will roll your eyes and hate the contrived plot more. Their neighbors are right to hate these people because of who they are, not what they do. When the movie rushes to give us a paradise, it is the least plausible moment in Goodbye World. Even with no apocalypse, these people hated each other. Sure they had some epiphanies and learned some valuable lessons, but enough to have a conflict free agrarian Rousseau return to the collective, greater good? I don’t think so.