[This story contains spoilers from HBO‘s movie Mountainhead.]
For a lot of HBO’s film Mountainhead, the comedy in writer-director Jesse Armstrong’s script is especially darkish. 4 tech moguls gathered for a bros’ weekend at a Rocky Mountain retreat owned by one among them watch on TV and their telephones because the world descends into chaos, thanks in no small half to the social media app one among them controls. Because the unrest grows, the 4 … see it principally as a chance to seize extra wealth and energy.
Then the elder statesman of the group, enterprise capitalist Randall (Steve Carell), decides that one other member of the quartet, Jeff (Ramy Youssef), must die for not being sufficiently aligned with the group’s ideas — i.e., Jeff is a “decelerationist” who doesn’t suppose that reaching transhumanism in 5 years is a sensible objective. Randall, who has a presumably terminal medical situation, has a strongly vested curiosity in seeing that occur.
He enlists the opposite two members of the group, Venis (Cory Michael Smith) — he of the harmful social media app — and Hugo (Jason Schwartzman), the host, into the plot. From there, Mountainhead turns into a farce because the three plotters take more and more foolish steps to off Jeff, who in flip turns into ever extra determined to cease them.
“It’s such a genius flip within the script,” Youssef informed The Hollywood Reporter. “I feel the whole time you might be form of considering, ‘Man, these are a bunch of little boys,’ after which they really act the way in which that little boys would, as a result of it turns into this bodily farce. It was actually enjoyable to play.”
Succession creator Armstrong — who additionally informed THR about bringing the film collectively in below six months — and the solid broke down the extraordinarily insular world the Mountainhead characters inhabit, attempting to grasp the mindset of individuals with basically limitless wealth and enjoying the bodily comedy of the homicide plot. Mountainhead started streaming on Max early Saturday forward of its on-air premiere on HBO.
Frenemies, A Love/Hate Story
Whereas there’s not a lot backstory concerning the 4 central characters within the completed movie, Armstrong informed THR {that a} scene minimize for size had a bit extra about how Jeff, Hugo and Venis grew to become buddies: They have been a part of a Silicon Valley accelerator that Randall funded, they usually remained shut as their careers took off and three of the 4 grew to become multi-billionaires. Hugo has (ahem) solely $521 million to his identify, which saddles him with the nickname “Souper.” After a snowmobile outing, the 4 write their internet worths on their chests, donning headgear to suggest their relative place — or in Hugo’s case, a necklace constituted of a soup ladle to suggest that of the 4, he’s closest to being poor and thereby needing a soup kitchen to assist him survive.
“One in all my favourite issues concerning the film is that he thinks of himself because the frequent man, the grounding presence,” Schwartzman stated of Hugo. “In his thoughts, he’s the person of the streets. What I really like is that Jesse adjustments the place the ground is. So I’m on the lowest [point], however it’s 521 million tales up there.”
Though the 4 guys clearly have shared historical past and a closeness, there’s additionally a palpable sense that they won’t like one another all that a lot. Jeff, whose AI firm may provide an antidote to the deepfake instruments on Venis’ app which are inflicting the worldwide meltdown, challenges Venis repeatedly within the early going, whereas additionally seeing his on-paper wealth skyrocket within the wake of the disaster.
“I feel they respect one another because the forces that they’re. These are guys who’ve manifested and created these monstrosities which have unimaginable energy over society,” stated Smith. “Nevertheless, on the finish of the day, [the character’s view is] we’re liable for our mental property, and for those who do something to decrease my means to succeed, otherwise you deliberately goal my entity, I’ll take you down. I such as you as a result of you might have the ability to do this. If you happen to do it, I’ll come after you. However let’s go snowboarding, bro.”
“They’re buddies as a lot as they’ll present friendship,” added Youssef. “That is in all probability the deepest relationship in every of their respective lives, and that claims lots.”
Ramy Youssef, Cory Michael Smith, Steve Carell and Jason Schwartzman in ‘Mountainhead’
Macall Polay/HBO
Danger Evaluation
Because the chaos on this planet unfolds, political leaders together with the (unseen) president begin calling members of the group and asking them to get a deal with on the scenario they largely created. The quartet reacts in a “wow, did you see this” form of approach, however they’re up to now faraway from penalties that slightly than discussing easy methods to assist, they get out a Danger recreation board and actually begin to divide up elements of the world they’ll purchase and produce below their management.
Jeff largely stays out of these conversations, which is among the causes Randall turns his ire towards him. However whilst he tasks essentially the most concern for the state of the world, Jeff doesn’t take any actual steps to resolve the issue.
“After we first began crafting the character, Jesse left it as an open query with me, which was, Is Jeff’s empathy simply strategic, or is it actually what’s occurring with him?” Youssef stated. “The selection I made was that his empathy was honest, and I feel that makes him a extra harmful character, as a result of he’s truly conscious. … Jeff truly does see the ache that’s being inflicted, and he nonetheless chooses his personal pockets. That, to me, makes him essentially the most harmful character in a approach.”
Worst Assassins Ever
For as a lot energy as they’ve — and the inflated senses of self that include it — it’s clear all through Mountainhead that the 4 central characters have very poor interpersonal abilities and don’t know easy methods to do staple items. Carell’s Randall decides to boil an egg at one level, for example, however doesn’t put any water within the pot.
Their lack of contact with the common human world involves a head after Randall convinces Venis and Hugo that Jeff needs to be killed. They first resolve to push him over a railing, making his dying appear to be an accident — however Randall and Venis pull up on the final second and Hugo solely offers a few half-hearted shoves. Plan B entails smothering Jeff whereas he sleeps, which additionally goes badly sideways and by some means entails Randall attempting to drop a bowling ball on Jeff’s physique, which he does very gingerly, in one of many comedic highlights of the movie.
“We couldn’t wait to get into that stuff. After I first learn it, when it took that flip [it was] utterly surprising,” Carell stated with amusing. “It’s one of many issues I liked about Succession too. You simply didn’t know the place any of it was going. I’ve been likening [Mountainhead] to Dr. Strangelove, within the sense that it’s extremely darkish and really related for the time, however on the similar time, Jesse’s capable of weave on this satire, some farce, some broad moments. He by no means needed us to play them for his or her broadness. He needed us to play them as actually as we may and permit the comedy to only come out of that, versus play it for the comedy, which I feel is a very sensible transfer.”
After locking Jeff inside a sauna and (ineptly) attempting to fill it with gasoline, Jeff agrees to promote his AI firm to Venis and calm the scenario on this planet. Hugo additionally will get his desperately needed first billion, and Randall believes he’s discovered a strategy to transcend his physique with Venis and Jeff’s assist. Jeff, nonetheless, leaves Hugo’s compound after convincing Venis to chop Randall out of no matter deal they make, they usually half as (seemingly) buddies as soon as extra.
“I feel they’re buddies, no matter friendship means, significantly for males,” Armstrong stated of the 4 characters. “We don’t like to consider it, however there’s one thing transactional in friendship, proper? You’re buddies with your folks so long as there’s an unwritten contract that you simply carry on giving one another one thing. What these males want is to really feel that they do have some buddies. There’s a excessive bar for the friendship to interrupt, as a result of I feel they actually like the sensation that they’re like regular guys who go and hang around, drink beer and have a poker weekend. There’s one thing performative about their friendship, which I feel perhaps is the false word you could hear ring via the film.”