Self Reliance, directed by Jake Johnson, was a decent movie with some funny scenes and an ending that was misunderstood by some. The Hulu streamer focuses on Tommy Walcott, played by Jake Johnson, a middle-aged guy who is struggling in his life. He lacks a strong career path and has not moved on from his ex, who recently left him with his mom after breaking up.
When Tommy is picked up by actor Andy Samberg and informed that he has been selected to play a new game, his life is given a boost of enthusiasm. Later on, it becomes clear that Tommy must survive the competition—hosted on the Dark Web—for 30 days to earn a million dollars.
The catch is that during the month, hitmen, or hunters, will be actively attempting to murder him. One exception exists: Tommy cannot be harmed by these hunters while he is with someone.
What happens to Tony in the movie?
Nobody who is even remotely familiar with Jake Johnson’s Tommy immediately rejects his assertions. As a result, he befriends people he wouldn’t have otherwise.
The first is James, Biff Wiff’s devoted homeless friend, who sticks at Tommy’s side for almost the whole film. The only reason he was taken out of the game for the final few minutes was that the crowd was growing restless.
Tommy also gets a break when he runs into Maddy, played by Anna Kendrick, who also says she is playing the game.
The two hit it off and truly begin to bond. She even assists Tommy in moving past his ex-girlfriend and her new child.
Sadly, Maddy’s admission that she was never a part of the game puts a stop to their relationship. All she wanted was to spend more time with others because she was just lonely.
Before facing the last leg of the tournament, Tommy even manages to make up with his father, who has been away for a long time, in a limousine along the road due to the Dark Web’s game.
The Ending of the movie
Tommy manages to get into another limousine before the game finishes, meeting up with Andy Samberg once more. The famous person gives him the option to either quit the game and be taken home safely or to continue playing and try to make it to the prize money.
Tommy decides to see his voyage through, and when his thirty days are over, he’s still alive after spending one more night being pursued by a sumo wrestler, a cowboy, and other people.
He is the game’s first survivor, as it turns out to be genuine. Thanks to the prize money, Tommy’s even a little bit wealthy.
Unfortunately, because the money he earns is delivered to him on Danish Krones, he is not exactly a millionaire in the conventional sense. For those who are interested, $146,800 is equivalent to one million Danish Krones.
Wayne Brady has accompanied him, and he has given his family a second explanation of everything, but they still seem to be dismissive. Nevertheless, Tommy seemed content with the way things turned out.
In the film’s last scene, Jake Johnson’s character returns to Maddy’s to give her an explanation of how everything turned out and to start over. The viewer is not shown if she replies when he knocks on her door.
Was the game even real, or was it Tommy’s imagination?
Throughout the film’s daylong length, a common question that many people had was if Tommy was just dreaming up this whole game. Everyone around him appeared to think so, after all.
Now that was very much a genuine thing, is the response. Nonetheless, one could still read it that way if they wanted to see it as a massive hallucination.
It’s easy to see why so many people would draw that conclusion. Tommy said that occasionally, his “brain makes stuff up.”
Then there are the peculiar decisions he made when he was younger, such as insisting that everyone name him Michael Jackson or declaring he was heading to Japan to train as a samurai alongside his father, which is somewhat odd.
But director Jake Johnson explained, saying, “The way [they’ve] ended this movie, it seems very likely that it was real,” in an interview with Decider.
The filmmaker continued by explaining how, in response to audience comments, they altered the conclusion to make it less unclear and more explicit.
