Save Yourselves!(2020)

Plot Summary

• A prologue states that this was the year the Earth was lost. A 30-something Millennial couple, Su (Sunita Mani) and Jack (John Reynolds), decide to "disconnect" from their internet-obsessed and superficial lives in Brooklyn by turning off their phones for a weekend and staying at friend's cabin in the woods. As they drive away, objects begin descending from the sky.At the cabin, the couple reconnect with one another, discussing various ways to "become better people", such as by baking bread, going vegetarian, or starting a community garden. During their stay, Jack notices a strange fuzzy ottoman-like object sitting in the den and asks Su if it was there when they arrived, but Su ignores it and attempts to have Jack do several exercises she wrote down from an online list to help them become closer and more motivated as a couple and as adults. This irritates Jack and the two fight, causing Jack to go outside to chop wood. Angry at Jack, Su secretly turns on her phone and listens to several strange voice mails from her mother about "giant rats" that consume ethanol infesting New York. Before she can listen further, Jack returns, and Su quickly turns off her phone. Jack admits to Su that he feels inadequate as an adult, but is committed to them becoming closer.The couple make up, but in the morning, they realize the sourdough starter and their whiskey bottles are empty and that the fuzzy ball, which they dub a "pouffe", has moved on its own. Realizing the starter and the whiskey contain ethanol, Su recalls her mother's voice mails and admits to Jack that she broke their disconnecting agreement, but that she thinks the voice mails may be related to what's going on. The two hide upstairs and turn on their phones, learning from various belated voice mails and texts that the pouffes are alien invaders that have attacked New York, forcing a mass evacuation, and that the pouffes feed on ethanol.They attempt to attack the pouffe, but it flees using a projectile proboscis. Stunned, the couple then find that their phones have lost signal, and make a plan to escape in their car back to the city in hopes of regaining signal and more information about the alien invasion. However, they find that the pouffes have pierced the car's gas tank to feed on the ethanol-based fuel, and are forced to use the farm's gasoline-tank car, though they struggle to use the stick shift.Driving through the woods, they witness a stranded couple get killed by another pouffe, but throw a bottle of wine off the road as a distraction to lead it away. As they pass, they discover a baby in the stranded car. Deciding that they cannot abandon it, they gather it up, but a woman emerges from the woods and steals their vehicle at gunpoint, stranding them with the baby.With no other options, Su and Jack take the supplies in the abandoned car and head into the woods. Su becomes despondent, worried about her family and lamenting that they have no life skills to survive the invasion, or to offer in any future society in the wake of the discovery of alien life. They encounter a pouffe in the woods and Jack blocks it from attacking Su with his own body as it shoots its proboscis at Jack numerous times. Its proboscis becomes stuck in the baby harness Jack is wearing. Su grabs a knife and cuts off the proboscis, killing the pouffe. Jack finds he is unharmed because his cell phone in his shirt pocket protected his heart.Touched by one another's willingness to save the other, Jack and Su climb to the lookout point along the trail with the baby, and marvel at how they feel more mature and in love compared to how they were when they arrived at the cabin. They commit to marrying one another and intend to raise the baby as their own in the woods, achieving the next steps of their adulthood.Su notices a strange translucent structure growing out of the ground nearby and investigates. She finds it is some sort of force field and Jack examines it as well. The two then discover that their phones have mysteriously regained signal and immediately check them for information. They become so absorbed in the various videos and content on their phones that they fail to realize the force field has enveloped them in a bubble. Unable to break through, they and the baby are carried upwards through the sky. As it climbs higher, the bubble begins releasing oxygen for them. As they break out of the Earth's atmosphere, they notice many other bubbles carrying people like them. Unable to determine what this means, they initially laugh and ask if this means they have been saved, but their faces become uncertain as they float away into space.

Storyline

• Jack (John Reynolds) and Su (Sunita Mani) are a hip Brooklyn couple who, like many of their friends, find themselves dependent on technology and unable to put down their phones. Fearing their mindless scrolling may impact their connection with each other, they seize the chance to head to an isolated cabin in the woods, vowing to unplug from the outside world for a week. Sheltered from texts and push notifications, they are blissfully unaware that the planet is under attack. As strange events unfold, the couple must figure out a way back to civilization-or what's left of it.