The film had its world premiere at South by Southwest on March 9, 2024, and was theatrically released by A24 in the United States on December 6, 2024. The film has received mixed reviews from critics and grossed $4.4 million against a budget of $15 million.[6]
Plot
In 1999, best friends Eli, Danny, and Garrett discuss plans for New Year's Eve while their parents are out. Eli has a crush on his classmate Laura, but is too nervous to talk to her despite Danny's encouragement to kiss her at midnight. They watch as Laura and her friends Trevor, Madison, and Raleigh sneak out some alcohol and decide to crash a party held by Soccer Chris, Laura's boyfriend. While partying, Eli watches in dismay as Chris and Laura kiss at midnight until the power suddenly goes out.
As a student is found dead with a piece of a fan lodged in his head, a toy car arrives on its own and burns Trevor's face with a hairspray and a lighter, killing him. The terrified partygoers realize that all technology have become sentient and attempt to leave, but many of them are gruesomely killed. In the ensuing chaos, a VCR smashes Madison's head with a VHS tape, Chris' head is melted by a microwave, and a Tamagotchi drills through Raleigh's head. Eli, Danny, and Laura escape with juvenile delinquents Farkas, CJ, and Ash, but Danny is fatally impaled by a blade and Farkas dies when he hits the ground while attempting to be cool on his skates. Eli and his friends begin on a journey to his family.
The group go to an old mill without electricity, while the sentient machines kill several residents throughout the town. They also find Garrett and Laura's ex-boyfriend Jonas, and learn the threat is a collective consciousness of all electronic devices worldwide planning to enslave humanity. Laura successfully creates a kill code to shut down the algorithm, now dubbing itself the "Amalgamation", but a computer attacks her. Eli douses it in water, shutting it down. The group is then cornered by the Amalgamation, who is using electronics to make itself bigger. Garrett tries to fend it off, but is decapitated. The group hide in portable toilets and ride them down a hill. They take refuge in a VHS store and meet musician Fred Durst, whom they encourage to join.
The group arrives at the local high school where, they learn, the machines are due to a new internet connection installed. They sneak inside and discover the townspeople have been reduced to mindless slaves by brain-implanted chips. CJ sacrifices himself to save Fred from a machine while the group learn the Amalgamation has now grown to a monstrous size and is forcing people inside it, converting them to the aforementioned slaves. Fred, Ash, and Jonas distract the machines guarding the townspeople to let Laura make her way into the Amalgamation, but it electrocutes her. Eli arrives in time to save Laura and attempt to insert the kill code himself, but fails to do so as the Amalgamation keeps electrocuting and mocking them. Eli then uses a condom Danny had given him earlier and wraps it around Laura's hand like a protective glove. While Fred, Ash, and Jonas continue distracting the machines, Eli and Laura successfully insert the kill code, shutting down the algorithm worldwide, destroying the Amalgamation. Eli shares a kiss with Laura and they reunite with the surviving townspeople as dawn breaks.
Five years later, in 2005, a now college-aged Eli, Laura, and Ash visit their friends' graves. While they leave the cemetery, Ash's new iPod starts to glitch, revealing that the algorithm has not been fully destroyed.
In the United States and Canada, Y2K was released alongside Werewolves and Pushpa 2: The Rule, and was projected to gross $3–5 million from 2,108 theaters in its opening weekend.[19] The film made $923,110 on its first day, including $300,000 from Thursday night previews. It went on to debut to $2.1 million, finishing in eighth.[1][20]
Critical response
On the review aggregator website Rotten Tomatoes, 42% of 105 critics' reviews are positive, with an average rating of 5.2/10.The website's consensus reads: "Y2K earns points for ambition and sheer audacity, even if it struggles to keep the laughs coming while maintaining a messy tonal blend."[21]Metacritic, which uses a weighted average, assigned the film a score of 49 out of 100, based on 29 critics, indicating "mixed or average" reviews.[22] Audiences surveyed by CinemaScore gave the film an average grade of "C–" on an A+ to F scale, while those polled by PostTrak gave it a 65% overall positive score, with 50% saying they would definitely recommend it.[1]
Clint Worthington of RogerEbert.com gave the film 1.5/4 stars, unfavorably comparing it to Brigsby Bear and concluding, "Y2K doesn't want to break stuff; it wants to dig it out of the trash and pine nostalgically for it. That's just not as interesting."[23]Variety's Owen Gleiberman wrote, "Y2K turns out to be an attack-of-the-machines movie. Yet it's still very much a period-piece high-school comedy. So how well do the two go together? In my book, not very well... the last hour of it, the cheeky dystopian alien-tech horror farce, simply isn't very good."[24]
Adrian Horton of The Guardian gave the film 3/5 stars, calling it "a promising if wildly uneven debut that banks heavily, often successfully, on Mooney's penchant for late 90s nostalgia."[25]Bloody Disgusting's Meagan Navarro gave it a score of 4/5, writing, "While some of its meaner horror impulses get largely forgotten by the end, it's tough to mind at all thanks to the nonstop, playful tone, killer soundtrack, wacky murder bots, and talent in front of and behind the camera that ensure a party worth rewinding the clock for."[26]
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