What if you have a chance to turn your life around after everything going wrong for a while, including losing your job, but it comes at the price of your life as the chance you have received involves you being a part of a game where you have to hide from a group of hunters, and if you survive to the end you will win a huge cash prize?
Directed by Jake Johnson, the comedy-thriller titled “Self Reliance” is made on a similar storyline, with Tommy being a lost cause due to him not being over his ex-girlfriend and being unemployed until one day he gets the chance to improve his life by becoming a part of a game that involves life and death situations.
The game involves a group of hunters who have to hunt Tommy for a fixed period of time, and if he survives to the end, he will win $1 M, but the twist comes in the end that leaves the audience wondering if the game is real or not thus giving viewers the thrill that the recent films are failing to provide.
Mary Holland playing Amy’s character, Emily Hampshire playing the role of Mary, and Nancy Lenehan plays the role of Laurie in the lead.
Self-Reliance proved to be a decent movie with funny scenes and an ending that left the viewers confused as to whether everything was Tommy’s dream where he imagined the game, with the only advantage Tommy has involved being the confirmation that the hunters couldn’t harm him in the presence of a crowd.
Premise
The film “Self Reliance” focuses on Tommy, a struggling middle-aged man having financial problems, thus living with his mom due to unemployment with no love due to his girlfriend leaving him a month back and leaving him to stumble through life’s obstacles with no support.
To cope with his life, Tommy would often stand outside his former girlfriend’s house but fail to have the courage to knock on the door, and while he tries to find work, he continues to fail due to the lack of a strong career path, so he continues to live his boring life until some excitement knocks on his door in Andy Samberg’s form.
Andy Samberg, a comedian, approaches Tommy one day in his limo and informs him about his selection to participate in a dark web game show that involves him getting hunted by trained assassins, and he has to survive, and if he does, then he will win $1M.
In a desperate attempt to escape from his dull and depressing life, Tommy decides to hear more about the game, so Andy takes him to an abandoned warehouse, where he encounters two mysterious men and learns that he will be required to stay alive for 30 days with trained assassins targetting him with the motive of ending his life with the assains not being able to harm him in crowds being his only advantage in the game.
The men further try to convince Tommy by telling him that he has a great chance of survival due to the hunters being all around the world, so it is a possibility of the hunters not coming to Los Angeles, and the entire sequence will be filmed 24/7 with sneaky production assistants tailing him.
Tommy would be required to wear microphones and hidden cameras before entering the game, and after learning about the rules, Tommy opens up about his worry about others being harmed, but the men assure him that he will be the only target, so the hunters won’t target him in the crowd.
It is revealed that in the past, when Tommy’s dad abandoned the family after a night of playing video games with Tommy, he started telling his classmates lies, including the plan to move to Japan to become a samurai with his father to cope with the feeling of loneliness.
This makes Tommy’s family believe that he is again making up lies as his former girlfriend now has a new boyfriend and a baby, but Tommy continues with his plans and posts an advertisement on Craigslist in an attempt to find other players playing the dark web game.
After Tommy starts to see the hidden camera in his home, he goes to stay with his brother-in-law but gets kicked out after he sees a man with a gun outside of his brother-in-law’s house and locks him in the bathroom.
After a series of similar incidents, Tommy starts to befriend people, he wouldn’t normally befriend, with the first being James, a homeless man he paid to tail him at all times.
Things go well for a while, but one day James doesn’t show up; Tommy gets attacked by a man wearing a Michael Jackson costume. At the same time, James gets fired from his job, and his mother kicks him out of her house.
After James walks out, Tommy encounters Maddy, a woman who informs Tommy that she approached him after seeing his ad on Craigslist as she is also a part of the game, so the two decide to team up to win the game together, and soon they develop a close bond, and with Maddy’s encouragement, Tommy confronts his ex and gets the closure.
Tommy and his dad get closure after his dad apologizes for abandoning him and informs him of his perfect life in Ohio, following which Tommy visits Maddy and Maddy informs him that she wasn’t playing the game, but after seeing the advertisement, he thought they were doing some elaborate role-play to pass time.
Maddy soon apologizes after she realizes that Tommy thought the game was real while his family decides to stage an intervention to help him, but Tommy runs off with James, who reveals his real name to be Walter, to a homeless camp, but he wakes up alone in the morning.
After a series of attacks, Tommy wins the game and receives the prize money, but he doesn’t become a millionaire after he informs his family about the game. They tell him they are happy for him, but it is hinted that the game might be real after his family can see Wayne Brady in their living room.
Filming Locations
The filming of the comedy-thriller titled “Self Reliance” took place over nineteen days, with Los Angeles as the prime location for the production crew.
1. Los Angeles, California
Known for being home to several Hollywood celebrities and gorgeous beaches with beautiful views, a sprawling city in the southern part of California, Los Angeles, was used to film the entire sequences by the production crew, with Jake and his crew taking over the city’s neighborhoods and streets, especially the east side of Los Angeles that was turned into a set.
