How Does the Group Take Down the Machines?

Warning: Spoilers for Y2K.

Exploding with just about every reference from 1999, Y2K is a horror comedy directed by SNL alum Kyle Mooney in his directorial debut, which is also co-written by him and Evan Winter. The film follows two high school losers named Eli (Jaeden Martell) and Danny (Julian Dennison), who finally decide to live a little by crashing the house party of a classmate on New Year’s Eve in 1999. With plenty of Can’t Hardly Wait and Superbad vibes, the beginning of the film is rife with all the woes of teenage angst but rapidly shifts toward a bloody and imaginative version of the Y2K issue that plagued the country leading up to the year 2000.

In reality, nothing happened. However, in Mooney’s film, machines take over at the stroke of midnight and subsequently turn against humanity, either killing them or assimilating them. Now on the cusp of an apocalypse, Eli and Danny must do their best to survive in the face of various killer machines. Certainly more of a comedy than a horror film, Y2K ultimately takes viewers on quite a wild ride all while inundating its audience with everything 1999 had to offer.

As the beginning of Y2K unfolds, it’s easy to forget the film isn’t simply another turn of the millennium coming of age teen comedy. As with most of those films, there’s a teenage outcast who secretly has a crush on one of the popular kids. In this case, Eli has been in love with Laura (Rachel Zegler) since they’ve been going to school together. When he encounters her at a NYE house party, he hopes that he might be able to find the right moment to make a move. However, at midnight, she’s seen kissing someone else. Regardless, such a moment turns moot when the power surges and the machines begin to converge and take over.

One by one, numerous teens at the party meet their demise in various gory yet humorous ways, which forces Eli, Danny, and Laura to make a run for it if they have any hopes of surviving the Y2K apocalypse.

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Laura’s Hacking Skills Come in Handy

As the group hides in the garage with three other teens, CJ (Daniel Zolghadri), Ash (Lachlan Watson), and Farkas (Eduardo Franco), they soon realize they need a plan of escape. After agreeing to make a run toward Garrett’s (Kyle Mooney) place in the woods where there’s no electricity, they each gear up. However, in the process, Danny is attacked by one of the machines and dies, forcing Eli to leave behind the only friend he’s ever had. Subsequently, Farkas also meets his maker in a more hilarious manner after attempting a skateboarding trick on a broken basketball pole. Thus, only Eli, Laura, CJ, and Ash remain.

After safely arriving at what’s known as the Kollective, the group is able to take a break, at least for a moment. Before too long, one of the juggernaut machines appears. However, they’re able to tie it up while Laura uses her hacking skills to take a look inside its software. As a result, they discover the machines share one consciousness and plan to take over the world by implanting chips in the minds of every human. Conveniently, ground zero for said plan is at their high school. The machine ultimately breaks free and attacks Laura, but Eli manages to save her by pouring bong water all over it.

In an effort to save humanity, Eli, Laura, CJ, and Ash decide to head to their school. While traveling back through the woods, they’re attacked once again by one of the machines. Garrett does his best to save them after hilariously downing a handful of pills and twirling his devil sticks. However, he is quickly killed, and the others are forced to save themselves inside a porta potty, which subsequently slides down the nearby hill. Now covered in waste, but alive, the group continues on before making a pit stop at the video store where Garrett used to work.

Fred Durst Helps Save the Day in ‘Y2K’

While at the video store, the group encounters none other than Limp Bizkit’s Fred Durst, who was performing at a NYE concert in town the moment the machines began to attack. While there, Laura suggests they take down the machines by infecting the main computer with a special virus she has on a flash drive. With everyone on board except Durst, Ash gives him the exact pep talk he needs before handing him his signature red baseball hat. After Durst realizes they need him, they let off steam by trashing the store as “Break Stuff” by Limp Bizkit comically plays in the background.

Upon arriving at the school, one of the machines launches deadly CDs at Durst, but CJ promptly shoves him out of the way, taking two of them to the head before dying. As the group continues on, Ash and Durst perform an acoustic version of “Faith” in an effort to distract the machines while Laura hacks into the main computer. However, the machine zaps her when she tries to insert the flash drive, so Eli gives her a condom to cover her hand, and she tries again. This was the same condom Danny had been saving for Eli to finally use one day. At the last possible moment, she connects the flash drive and destroys the machine, ultimately saving everyone.

At the end of it all, Eli and Laura finally share a kiss. Y2K then jumps five years into the future as Eli, Laura, and Ash visit Danny’s grave. Durst is still a rock star but is somehow also an entrepreneur and an elected official. As the group drive away, Limp Bizkit’s “Rollin’” plays on the radio, which serves as the cherry on top of the hilarious turn of the millennium vibe ever present throughout the movie.

Y2K is currently playing in theaters.