Episode 6 - Safety Not Guaranteed - 9/10

Safety Not Guaranteed - Colin Trevorrow

I remember the times when I was five years old and I’d have a giant box and would imagine it was a race car or a rocket ship or an airplane flying through the air, all the controls magically working and all I had to do was hold onto the steering wheel and spout gibberish to the control tower. We all did this and from these fantasies, some of us were inspired to grow up and become race car drivers, astronauts, or pilots. Others grew up and were convinced that giant box really was a race car, a rocket ship, or an airplane and they held onto that box and went crazy in a dark alley somewhere or in an old house in the middle of the forest where sane people dared not tread…unless they wanted a good laugh.

When Kenneth Calloway was five years old, his giant box was apparently a time travel device and years later, there is still some part of him that believes he’s really capable of going back in time. So tells the story of Safety Not Guaranteed, inspired by an actual 1997 classified ad where someone was looking for a partner to travel through history with, granted that person brought their own weapons (because…duh).

Desperate for a story/vacation, Seattle magazine reporter Jeff Schwensen (Jake M. Johnson) decides it would be in his best interest to do a piece on the man behind this wild request and drags two unenthused interns to Ocean View, Washington so they can do all the work and he can enjoy some R&R (ah, the power of interns). Having already dealt with many “sane” people who just wanted a good laugh, Calloway dismisses the request for an interview which forces the trio to acquire information through more desperate means.

For anyone who’s ever been or worked with an intern, “desperate means” means “intern gets to make an impression.” In Star Trek, these people are called “ensigns” and they wear red shirts and we feel for them the moment they become part of an away team. In Safety, this doomed role was to be played by Darius Britt (Aubrey Plaza) whom the film ultimately focuses around. 

Darius is a girl whose giant box was an airplane and she’s been on autopilot since the death of her mother. She’s aware that she should have goals and dreams, but nothing has really inspired her to do more than wake up, do stuff, and go to bed. Life is mundane and the “opportunity” to investigate a whack-job like Calloway is just another slap in the face. 

However, if there is anything that is the anti-thesis to the mundane, “a whack-job who thinks he can travel through time” pretty much takes the cake so when Darius pretends like she’s a legitimate responder to the ad, she does so with such a profoundly perfect lunacy that it’s almost like some alter-ego put in the ad themselves and summoned her real self to go through the motions.

Safety plays out the bond between Darius and Calloway perfectly. From exquisitely playful dialogue to purposely exaggerating conspiracy theories, to racing through the city like super-spies, it was reminiscent of the times my friends and I would embark on missions through the hallways of my house. The insanity of this dynamic duo is one step below “they should probably take medication” and one step higher than “the floor is hot lava.” It’s perfect, charming, funny, sweet, and what was originally “let’s make fun of the psychopath” quickly changes to a mindset where you just want to believe. 

Calloway’s madness is hilariously genuine, but I was so drawn in to Darius taking the wheel and enjoying the thrill of the flight that I started to feel bad that it was all a ruse and this movie played into that reaction (like a jerk). It was the same blissful conflict that occurred when all of the mental patients in K-Pax kept staring out a window searching for “the bluebird of happiness” that I just felt sorry for them until that incredible moment where the damn thing actually showed up and suddenly, it was all worth it and I looked like a jackass. 

Safety Not Guaranteed followed the K-Pax formula in a lot of ways, but unlike K-Pax where the relationship was one of intrigue and mystery, this was one of hope and passion and a group of people rekindling a lust for life through such an unlikely situation and as a result, this was one of the most fun watches I’ve experienced all year. 

In a review I did for Purple Violets back in Season 1, I stated that ”independent films have the ability to surprise you because they can't fall back on big actors and big special effects; they simply focus on story.” Safety Not Guaranteed is an incredible example of that and with my highest recommendation of the BackLOG this year, I award it 9 dustbusters out of 10. Of course, if these guys did their research, they would have known that all you need to travel through time is a hot tub and a crazy energy drink.