Mayday had its world premiere at the Sundance Film Festival on January 31, 2021, where it was nominated for the Grand Jury Prize. The film was theatrically released in the United States on October 1, 2021.
Ana works at a hotel with her friends Dimitri, a DJ, and cook Max. Ana and her coworker June comfort Marsha, a new bride who is experiencing cold feet. Ana is abused by the cruel head waiter. When a storm knocks out the power, Ana hears a voice spelling out "mayday" in a modified NATO Phonetic alphabet. Following the voice, she crawls into an oven and falls into the ocean.
Emerging on an unknown shore, Ana encounters Marsha, now brimming with confidence. She is in shock and realises she has no memories. A man dressed as a World War Two aviator emerges from the sea and says that his plane crashed in the ocean and that there's a war on. As the girls leave the beach the pilot is shot to death. Marsha takes Ana to a beached submarine where she and two other girls, Gert and Bea, live. Marsha explains that this land is a utopia where the girls can live without fear of male violence and predation.
Marsha tells Ana there are camps of women all over the island fighting and winning a war against the men trying to invade.
The girls show Ana how to shoot a rifle, something she proves adept at. When the three others go swimming, Ana is too afraid to jump from a cliff and join them. She is attacked by the head waiter, now dressed as a soldier, but manages to escape.
Marsha shows Ana her telescope and shows her how to view the stars.
Ana joins the girls in their ongoing mission: sending out fake distress signals to lure men to their death in the storm which surrounds the island. When a group of men manage to make it to the island alive, Ana finds herself unable to kill them. This alienates her from the bloodthirsty Marsha.
Ana begins having a recurring dream of herself driving a car through a tunnel.
While alone in the control room a distress call comes across the radio, Ana answers it and talks to the man, he tells her he isn't far from shore but they are having electrical problems. Ana plans to go out and swim to their ship but he tells her he is in a submarine that can't surface because of the issue but he promises to come back for her when it is fixed. Marsha catches her and knows she is lying when Ana says she was not talking to anyone on the radio.
Bea is captured by men and the girls run to rescue her. They find her being forced to dig her own grave and Ana hesitates but in the end has no choice but to shoot the men to save her friend.
Gert speaks to Marsha and questions why Bea would be out in the forest by herself and Marsha says she told her to go out there, she knew Ana’s heart wasn't in it but now it is.
Ana goes out on patrol and finds a photographer and his squad. Ana prepares herself to shoot them but bombs suddenly start to drop, she runs away but is knocked out by a blast, she comes to and stumbles into a field with a large camp of soldiers and they engage in a dance routine; this is likely a hallucination, as she has killed them all. Ana wakes up on the ground and goes back to the submarine.
In the control room Marsha tells Ana she is a nobody and they scuffle. Ana tells her she has stopped hurting herself and started hurting others.
Out on patrol, this time Ana has no problem shooting soldiers she finds scaling the cliffs.
Marsha is unhappy that she is losing control of the group, during an air raid she refuses to come inside to comfort a hysterical Bea.
On patrol Ana finds an older man peeling potatoes, the chef Max. He tells her he is lost, she says she is too, they share a drink and he says he wants to be in a place where there is no war and suggests maybe they should go home. Ana lays her head against his knee and falls asleep.
She dreams again about driving through a tunnel but this time she sees a light from the end of the tunnel.
Ana wakes up to find she is asleep on Marsha’s knee, they fight and Ana calls Marsha a monster.
Ana tells Gert she wants to leave the island that she doesn't think she is meant to be here, Gert agrees to help her.
Ana hears a radio broadcast by the man on the submarine, he says he's dying from the fumes and apologises for not being able to come back to save her. He says he has ‘never had much luck with the ladies’ and tells her she should say goodbye; Ana replies, saying she’s ‘not that kind of girl’, echoing a conversation they had at the start of the movie. The memory of the conversation makes her realise it is Dimitri, and she suddenly remembers everything.
Gert tells her she definitely doesn't belong here, and sends her to meet with June, now a mechanic, who she tells about her plan to leave the island. June warns her that she is like a star, and if she leaves it will be like a star dying; everything around it gets pulled in, and they all disappear, everyone on the island will be snuffed out of existence. June also tells Ana that to get through the storm she will need precise calculations.
Ana returns to the sub and tells Gert and Bea she has changed her mind and isn't leaving, but Gert reveals they already know what will happen and they still want her to try. Ana asks them to come with her but they tell her they can't. They tell Ana she can go and protect other girls from becoming like them, victims of men.
They then show Ana that they have already spoken to all of the other camps on the island and they are all in support of Ana leaving.
Gert, Bea, June and Ana, with the help of the other camps via the radio, track the storms and formulate a plan to get Ana through the storm and back to the point she entered.
They think they have kept it all a secret from Marsha, but she has actually been listening to them via the radio. She confronts Ana and tells her she can't believe that after everything she has given her, after making her a hero, she wants to go back to a kitchen. Ana replies that she's made her into a psychopath and Marsha says it's the same thing. She tells Ana that she is going back to so much darkness and Ana tells her that in the dark she will see the stars.
Ana and Bea lie in bed, Ana tells Bea she doesn't want to leave her, and Bea says she will go first and to close her eyes, Bea then disappears.
June, Gert and Bea check all of the parameters are correct and tell Ana it's time.
They watch from the control room as Ana jumps into the sea and swims towards the storm but she gets caught in a rip tide, is pulled under and starts to drown. Marsha gets on the radio and encourages her repeating the same message Ana heard on the radio in her dream. Ana is able to float to where she needs to be and finds Dimitri floating there; as she reaches him, she is transported back to the hotel.
The film ends with Ana walking into the banquet hall where Dimitri is DJing. She approaches the microphone and opens her mouth to sing.
In November 2019, it was announced Grace Van Patten, Mia Goth, Juliette Lewis, Soko and Havana Rose Liu had joined the cast of the film, with Karen Cinorre directing from a screenplay she wrote.[3]
On Rotten Tomatoes, 50% of 66 reviews are positive, and the average rating is 5.80/10. The critics consensus on the website reads: "Viewers may not be left sending out distress calls, but despite interesting ideas and a solid setup, Mayday leaves a frustrating amount of potential untapped."[8] On Metacritic the film has a score of 45% based on reviews from 6 critics, indicating "mixed or average reviews".[9]
Related Research Articles
The Princess Diaries 2: Royal Engagement is a 2004 American romantic comedy film and the sequel to 2001's The Princess Diaries. Unlike the first film Walt Disney Pictures, this film is not based on any of the books. Before she can succeed her grandmother as queen of Genovia, Mia learns that she must marry or else relinquish the throne.
Real Women Have Curves is a 2002 American comedy-drama film directed by Patricia Cardoso, based on the play of the same name by Josefina López, who co-authored the screenplay for the film with George LaVoo. The film stars America Ferrera as protagonist Ana García. It gained fame after winning the Audience Award for best dramatic film, and the Special Jury Prize for acting in the 2002 Sundance Film Festival. The film went on to receive the Youth Jury Award at the San Sebastian International Film Festival, the Humanitas Prize, the Imagen Award, and Special Recognition by the National Board of Review.
Welcome to the Dollhouse is a 1995 American coming-of-age black comedy film written and directed by Todd Solondz. An independent film, it won the Grand Jury Prize at the 1996 Sundance Film Festival and launched the careers of Solondz and Heather Matarazzo. The story follows the unpopular middle schooler Dawn as she goes to extreme lengths trying to earn the respect of her vicious fellow students and her uninterested family. Dawn reappears in two of Solondz's other films, Palindromes and Wiener-Dog while her brother and father appear in the former in addition to Life During Wartime. The film's working title was Faggots and Retards.
The Reckless Moment is a 1949 American film noir melodrama directed by Max Ophüls, produced by Walter Wanger, and released by Columbia Pictures with Burnett Guffey as cinematographer. It starred James Mason and Joan Bennett. The film is based on The Blank Wall (1947), a novel written by Elisabeth Sanxay Holding. The 2001 film The Deep End is a remake based on the same source material.
Risurrezione (Resurrection), is an opera or dramma in four acts by Franco Alfano. The libretto was written by Camillo Antona Traversi and Cesare Hanau, based on the 1899 novel Resurrection by Leo Tolstoy. The first performance was given on 30 November 1904 in the Teatro Vittorio Emanuele, Turin, Italy.
The Last Fling is a 1987 American made-for-television romantic comedy film directed by Corey Allen, written by Mitchel Katlin, and starring John Ritter and Connie Sellecca.
Fifty Shades Freed is the third and final installment of the erotic romance Fifty Shades Trilogy by British author E. L. James. After accepting entrepreneur CEO Christian Grey's proposal in Fifty Shades Darker, Anastasia Steele must adjust not only to married life but to her new husband's wealthy lifestyle and controlling nature. The paperback edition was first published in April 2012.
Afternoon Delight is a 2013 American comedy-drama film written and directed by Joey Soloway. It stars Kathryn Hahn, Juno Temple, Josh Radnor, and Jane Lynch. The film premiered at the 2013 Sundance Film Festival, where it was awarded the U.S. Dramatic Directing Award. It was given a limited theatrical release in the United States on August 30, 2013.
A Teacher is a 2013 American drama film written and directed by Hannah Fidell, in her feature directorial debut. It revolves around a female high school teacher's illicit sexual relationship with a male student that turns from infatuation into obsession. Principal photography for the film took place in Austin, Texas. The film had its premiere at the 2013 Sundance Film Festival on January 20, 2013. The film was released on video on demand on August 20, 2013, prior to receiving a limited release on September 6, 2013, in the United States.
Juliette Jolene Barnes-Barkley is a fictional character and one of the two leads in the ABC/CMT musical drama series Nashville. Juliette is portrayed by actress Hayden Panettiere since the pilot episode, which aired on October 10, 2012. Juliette was a teenage country sensation and is now making more mature music. She tries to take the throne, as Queen of Country music, from rival Rayna Jaymes. Panettiere has received critical acclaim for her performance as Juliette including nominations for two Golden Globe Award for Best Supporting Actress – Television Series Drama in 2013 and 2014, a Satellite Award for Best Actress – Television Series Drama in 2012 and a Critics' Choice Television Award for Best Supporting Actress in a Drama Series in 2016.
People Places Things is a 2015 American comedy film written and directed by James C. Strouse. The film stars Jemaine Clement, Regina Hall, Jessica Williams, Stephanie Allynne and Michael Chernus. The film was released on August 14, 2015, by The Film Arcade.
Mia Gypsy Mello da Silva Goth is a British actress. After modelling as a teenager, Goth made her acting debut in the erotic art film Nymphomaniac (2013). She earned recognition with the films The Survivalist (2015), High Life (2018), Suspiria (2018), and Emma (2020). She achieved a career breakthrough for playing Maxine Minx and Pearl in the X film series (2022–2024), which established her as a scream queen.
Eleanor "Elly" Conway is a fictional character from the Australian soap opera Neighbours, played by Jodi Gordon. She was originally played by Kendell Nunn from her first appearance on 13 December 2001, until her departure in May 2002. Neighbours marked Nunn's first television role. The character was introduced as Susan Kennedy's teenage niece, giving her instant connections within the show. Nunn said Elly had "a lot of attitude", while she was also billed as being rebellious and spirited. Elly did not like living in Ramsay Street, but she eventually befriends her neighbour Michelle Scully. A notable storyline for the character focused on her relationship with her estranged father Ian Conway. When she gets in contact with Ian, he leads her to believe that Susan's husband Karl Kennedy is actually her real father.
XX is a 2017 American horror anthology film directed by Jovanka Vuckovic, Annie Clark, Roxanne Benjamin, and Karyn Kusama. It stars Natalie Brown, Melanie Lynskey, Breeda Wool, and Christina Kirk. It had its world premiere at the Sundance Film Festival on January 22, 2017, and was released in the United States in select theaters and through video on demand on February 17, 2017, by Magnet Releasing.
Grace Van Patten is an American actress. She has appeared in two films distributed by Netflix, Tramps (2016) and The Meyerowitz Stories (2017), and in Hulu's miniseries Nine Perfect Strangers (2021) and Tell Me Lies (2022). She is the daughter of director Timothy Van Patten and niece of actors Joyce Van Patten and Dick Van Patten.
Sweetheart is a 2019 American survival horror film directed by J. D. Dillard, written by Dillard, Alex Theurer and Alex Hyner, and starring Kiersey Clemons, Emory Cohen, Hanna Mangan-Lawrence and Andrew Crawford. It was produced by Jason Blum, Dillard, Theurer, Hyner and Bill Karesh. The movie tells the story of a castaway who washes up on an island and must survive there while being stalked by a humanoid sea monster.
Hope Springs Eternal is a 2018 indie comedy film directed by Jack C. Newell from a screenplay written by Stephanie Mickus. The movie was filmed in Chicago, with scenes in the neighborhoods of River Forest and Arlington Heights. Production offices were set up in a house that would later be demolished in Deerfield, Illinois. The "mean girls" in the film are played by three members of the pop band Cimorelli: Amy, Dani, & Lisa. The film was released on iTunes.
Cha Cha Real Smooth is a 2022 American romantic comedy drama film written, produced, and directed by Cooper Raiff. The plot centers on a 22-year-old college graduate (Raiff) who starts making money as a party starter while he also strikes up a relationship with a 32-year-old mother. The cast also includes Raúl Castillo, Odeya Rush, Evan Assante, Vanessa Burghardt, Brad Garrett, and Leslie Mann.
Havana Rose Liu is an American actress, model, dancer, activist and designer. She is best known for her modeling career and her lead role in the comedy film Bottoms.
This page is based on this Wikipedia article Text is available under the CC BY-SA 4.0 license; additional terms may apply. Images, videos and audio are available under their respective licenses.
