Get ready to party like it’s the last day of 1999 in Y2K. High school juniors Eli (Jaeden Martell) and Danny (Julian Dennison) are the lovable outcasts who want to fit in with the popular kids. On New Year’s Eve, the duo crash their classmate’s house party. Eli hopes to attract the attention of his crush Laura (Rachel Zegler), while Danny wants to break out of his shell.
Then, the clock strikes midnight, and the Y2K nightmare becomes a hellacious reality. In this alternate reality created by co-writers Kyle Mooney and Evan Winter, Y2K imagines a technological takeover, one where electronics come to life and overthrow humans to become the most powerful beings in the world. These electronics aren’t peaceful, as they embark on a murder-filled quest to eradicate humanity. To save the world, the surviving teens must put aside their differences and fight together as a team, or risk becoming slaves in this new, tech-run world.
In an interview with Digital Trends, Mooney and Winter discussed how to use nostalgia to power the story, their decision to subvert the coming-of-age genre, and how they landed Limp Bizkit’s Fred Durst in the film’s most crucial role.
Note: This article has been edited for length and clarity. The interview includes spoilers.
Digital Trends: I saw you screened the film in San Diego. It was hosted by Tony Hawk, and to a certain generation, he is the Michael Jordan of skateboarding. He’s a San Diego guy as well. I was wondering if you were skaters growing up. Did Tony Hawk have a huge impact on your teen years?
Kyle Mooney: Yeah, I tried to skateboard. I’m from San Diego, and surf and skate culture is pretty ubiquitous there. It’s within the fabric of that city. My older brother skated. I skated with my boys, Dave and Joe. I never really could land like a proper ollie. Definitely not a kick-flip, but I wore all the clothes. I remember one time, my friend Dave was like, “Dude, maybe you should stick to longboarding.” Then, later in life, probably like 10 years ago, I got back into skating. I started skating with some people who are very good at it, and it sort of reinvigorated my love for it. Yeah, Tony Hawk’s a full hero. He’s, like you said, the icon of skateboarding.
Evan Winter: I did not really skate myself, but I hung out with a crew that were skaters when I was a kid. But we’re talking Tony Hawk Pro Skater 2 here. He’s a full-on legend, and one of the all-time coolest guys, probably in history.
With this story, there’s a definitely a balancing act with nostalgia-driven stuff. How do you find the right balance of relying on nostalgia while trying to tell a story?
Winter: I think that’s pretty well said. There is a balance you have to find. I think in the writing process, there were a lot of fun moments that we had, pitching things back and forth. Like, I haven’t heard about Herbal Essence girls in a long time. That’s a fun thing to pull out of the hat, with other cultural touchstones and references that are set in the period. But then, you don’t want it to overwhelm and become like a game of “remember this.” You need to fit it in a way that feels natural to how the kids from the era would talk, act, or care about. Hopefully a few times, we found the ability to fit those references in a way that they either call back later or there is some story impact, so it doesn’t feel like just empty gestures.
Mooney: I think it’s just a gut check throughout the process of being like, “Are we entering cringey or corny territory?” Also, I feel like what Evan’s getting at is trying to stay true to the characters and the story.
The film takes a turn at the party. Everyone starts dying in the most brutal ways possible. Did any horrific deaths get left on the cutting room floor?
Mooney: Definitely in the writing process, we lost some horrific deaths. I think that pretty much everything we shot made it into the movie.
Winter: Again, when we were writing, it was pretty fun to just pitch in this world that we’ve created. What are the things that could kill people, and how? We were kind of going through all the different technologies and all the different elements that could potentially be deadly. And you always try to come up with inventive ways to do it.
Mooney: [To Evan] I want to say, wasn’t there a remote-control helicopter?
Winter: At one point? Yeah. There was also a car that had GPS. Once it turned on, it controlled itself, like a full-size car.
Mooney: We had a series of construction-site robots made up of power tools. Ultimately, you have to deal with the budget.
That’s fair. I was surprised by one of the deaths. The film is definitely set up as a buddy comedy with Eli and Danny. And then Danny dies at the party. I was like, “There’s no way he’s going to die here. He’s going to come back to life,” and he does die. Take me through that process. Did you always plan to kill him [Danny] early? What went behind that decision?
Mooney: Yeah, it was there from moment one. I think, speaking for myself, I was really excited by subverting that sort of classic, trope-y, best friends and high school party thing and turn it into something completely different. I also get really excited about eliciting reactions from the audience, whether it be laughter, tears, a scare, or something like that.
And in the same way that our movie shifts from one movie to another, this felt like another way to shift into an entirely different thing, where now all of a sudden, this incredibly tragic thing is a catalyst for the story and the characters that evolve and everything that unfolds. So to me, that move is just incredibly exciting. This is something that you don’t know or expect, and all of a sudden, you’re like, “Oh my god. Did that just happen?”
Winter: It’s a good way to keep the audience on their toes. We change the genre and the tone so drastically, but then you also make it clear that people aren’t safe. There’s not like a plot armor [for the characters]. On a story level, in the teen coming-of-age genre, it’s the idea that as you’re growing up, you’re becoming the person you’re meant to be.
Other people, friends, and things that you were interested in when you were younger, like at the start of the movie, aren’t always going to be there. You can’t rely on that, so there was something that felt right to the genre and that element of growing up. … This kid, who’s very shy and looks inward, loses the only person who really understands him, and how it forces him to change and become who he’s meant to be.
I was like, “Am I getting emotional for the guy who just sang The Thong Song two minutes ago?”
Mooney: That really is the hope. You want to tug at the heartstrings.
Speaking of the music, it’s a huge part of this movie, especially for the time period. As soon as that Fatboy Slim song drops in the beginning, you know exactly where you are. Was there a list of songs you knew you wanted in the movie? Were there any tough cuts? Take me through working with the music supervisor to curate the soundtrack to this movie.
Mooney: We had songs in the script from moment one for pretty much all the major moments in the screenplay. It [music] just always felt pretty essential to tell the story of this period. … Music is always around and important to people, but it does feel like in that era, we were so mesmerized with TRL on MTV and seeing which music video would be No. 1 that day. I feel like we’ve talked about this a few times. I don’t know how many songs from the script actually ended up in the final film. Definitely the Limp Bizkit stuff.
Winter: And Faith.
Mooney: Ultimately, I feel like the stuff you end up with is sort of what you were meant to end up with. It’s kind of perfect, and I think we feel great about where we landed.
Winter: Yeah, absolutely. This is maybe stating the obvious. At the beginning of the movie, our main character is making a mixed CD. That continues to follow him throughout the movie and plays a pivotal role in multiple huge moments. It feels like it was so baked into the DNA of the movie that these needle drops and songs are not just like, “Remember this era? Remember these songs from this period?” They are critical to the fabric of the film. It’s [the songs] woven into it.
Mooney: Though, at the same time, if you aren’t enjoying the movie, you can be like, “Well, I kind of like that song.”
Winter: Yeah, something for everyone.
A cheat code.
Mooney: Yeah, exactly.
When you went to Fred [Durst] with Faith, was he on board right away?
Winter: I mean, just in general, we wrote Fred into the movie. He was probably in the structure within the first week or two. So we knew we wanted him from day one. We always talked about who would be a backup if he wasn’t interested. And truly, nobody that we threw around as a backup came anywhere close to doing what Fred did. Faith was always in there, and he always played this role. When we got the go-ahead to make the movie, he [Fred] was the first person we went to, and very fortunately for us, he got it. He was into it and liked the idea of both poking fun at himself but then becoming this gigantic, heroic version of the guy that people remember from that period.
He [Fred] was a monster back in the day. I don’t think people realize this. I was looking up first-week album sales. If you get over 100,000 now, that’s considered pretty good. I believeSignificant Other did 600,000 in their first week, and then over 1 million forChocolate Starfish. It’s insane.
Mooney: Totally.
Winter: He was the man.
Were you always going to act in this, Kyle?
Mooney: Yeah, that was always part of the plan. I mean, I wanted to be in there. Obviously, I knew I couldn’t play a teenager. I don’t know at what point in the pitching process we ended up with Garrett. The video store is like such an iconic setting of the era and a place that I think is important to both Evan and me. I love the idea of being in there just enough to score. It was really fun.
With the drug rug on. It was a nice touch.
Mooney: Yeah. I watched several YouTube videos of dudes going to Phish concerts in 2001, along with the people that Evan and I knew growing up. It was a fun character to explore.
With most of the cast born after this moment [Y2K], I saw you made them mixtapes and told them what songs to listen to. Did the cast come to you for advice? How in-depth were they with the research?
Winter: I think it fully depended on the actor. I would say Lachlan, who played Ash, was very well-versed in the era overall. Specifically, the rap-rock scene. He had pretty strong working knowledge, and I would say got the majority of the references and the more niche stuff in the movie. Some of the other actors would ask, “How do you pronounce Abercrombie?”
Mooney: I called that actor out on that [the Abercrombie line] earlier today, and he was like, “No, I didn’t. I know what that is.”
Winter: Well, he didn’t know how to say it. [laughs]
Mooney: We were there if they needed us. But also, the characters are sort of timeless, and so I think they could relate to them even without the whole period component. They had the chance to invest as much or as little as they wanted to.
Final question. What were your screen names?
Mooney: I was “TQuestForNow” because I was really into A Tribe Called Quest. I was also forward-thinking enough to be like, “Well, this is what I’m into right now. I can’t say that this is going to be forever, so I’m TQuestForNow.
Winter: I feel like it’s a very mature thought process for someone at that age.
Mooney: Thinking about it right now, I’m going to say TQuestForever because there hasn’t been a moment in my life where I’ve decided that I’m not into A Tribe Called Quest
Winter: That is tight. I was Lantern218.
Mooney: What is the significance of lantern?
Winter: [laughs] I collected lanterns. I was really into vintage lanterns. No, when I was a little kid, probably like 8 or 9 years old, when I got my first screen name, I went to the comic shop every day, and Green Lantern was my favorite superhero.
Mooney: Green Lantern, of course.
Y2K is now in theaters.