Save Yourselves! is a 2020 sci-fi comedy film written and directed by Alex Huston Fischer and Eleanor Wilson.
Su and Jack (Sunita Mani and John Reynolds) are an average millennial couple from Brooklyn who, upon realizing how addicted they are to their screens, vow to disconnect from the internet for a week and stay at a friend's cabin in the woods. During their stay at the cabin, the two try to reconnect with each other, all while trying new activities in an attempt to become better people.
However, when strange events begin occurring at the cabin, the couple realizes that Earth has seemingly come under attack by strange, pom-pom-like aliens (nicknames "pouffes" by Su) during their isolation from the rest of society. The couple must find a way to survive and find their way back to civilization, despite the unusual circumstances they face.
The film had its world premiere on January 25, 2020 at the Sundance Film Festival. It was released on October 2, 2020 by Bleecker Street in both theaters and digitally.
Save Yourselves! contains examples of:
- Action Survivor: Despite being an ordinary millennial couple with practically zero experience when it comes to surviving on their own, Su and Jack manage to endure an Alien Invasion surprisingly well.
- Alien Invasion: The main conflict of the film arises from a hostile species of aliens referred to as "pouffes" landing on Earth. While their arrival seems to have been intentional, their actual motives are never known.
- Ambiguous Ending: While wandering through the woods, Su notices some sort of strange, translucent, bubble-like structure. The couple goes up to inspect it, with their phones mysteriously regaining signal. They immediately check their phones for information, and while distracted by their devices, the structure reforms itself to envelop them and the baby within it. The couple attempts to break out as the structure begins to float up high into the sky. As they leave Earth's atmosphere, the couple notices many other bubbles carrying people within them. Not knowing what's happening, they laugh and ask if they've been saved, but their tone and faces indicate uncertainty about their ultimate fate.
- Bizarre Alien Biology: The pouffes are a species of aliens that resemble animate pom-poms, with features such as eyes or mouths not being visible. They also feed specifically on ethanol, consuming Su and Jack's sourdough starter and whiskey, as well as draining their car's gasoline.
- Bizarre Alien Locomotion: The pouffes' primary method of movement is via the usage of a long, grappling hook-like tendril that they can shoot from their bodies, which allows them to drag themselves to any surface and stick to it. The tendril is also shown to be strong enough to pierce a hole through the metal shell of Su and Jack's car, as well as through people's heads in order to kill them. Aside from this, the pouffes are also able to simply slide along surfaces and jump through the air. At one point, a pouffe is even able to levitate and float around.
- Boom, Headshot!: The pouffes manage to instantly kill multiple people by simply shooting their tendrils through their heads.
- Cell Phones Are Useless: While Jack and Su both have their phones with them, their isolated location means that they barely get any signal, essentially rendering the phones useless.
- Citywide Evacuation: Through some voicemails and texts, Su and Jack eventually learn that the pouffes' invasion has forced a mass evacuation of New York City.
- Enemy Rising Behind: Played for Laughs. When Su comes out of the cabin after having ran into it to gather supplies, Jack begins to softly shout "Pouffe on the roof!" to alert her about a pouffe she doesn't see sliding across the cabin's roof behind her.
- Expy: The pouffes bear a heavy resemblance to Star Trek: The Original Series' tribbles, being aliens that look like fluffy balls and serve an antagonistic role in the story. In contrast, however, the pouffes are shown deliberately causing harm to people, unlike the tribbles, which were only a threat due to being very Explosive Breeders.
- Jitter Cam: The camera becomes shaky during some more intense and chaotic moments, such as Su and Jack's rush to gather supplies.
- Minimalist Cast: The main cast consists of only Su, Jack, and later the baby. While several other characters do appear, they all get very little screentime compared to them.
- Mushroom Samba: While wandering through the woods with the baby, Su and Jack suddenly begin to hallucinate, seemingly a result of getting sprayed with some sort of gas by a pouffe earlier. The couple visualizes things such as bunches of baby bottles appearing in their hands, all while the screen acquires a blurry filter. They become too engrossed in their fantasy to notice the baby crawling away, and they're only able to recover when Su injects both of them with the epinephrine from their kit.
- Non-Action Guy: Jack is hilariously incompetent when it comes to doing "action" things. He's unable to chop wood with an axe, and he's reluctant when he realizes he may have to learn to handle a gun in order to fight off the pouffes.
- Pun: While the couple is sitting in the cabin at night, Jack cracks a particularly poor one:Jack: What did Sean Connery say to the hostage who had a beard? I came here to shave you.Su: Are we gonna have to shave ourselves?
- Straying Baby: While Su and Jack are undergoing a Mushroom Samba, the baby they rescued ends up wandering away. Once Su is able to end their trip via an epinephrine ejection, the couple immediately searches for the baby. They eventually find it sitting in the woods... right near a pouffe.
- This Loser Is You: Su and Jack are meant to be somewhat of a mockery of the target audience, being a millennial couple who is addicted to technology and is awkwardly unskilled when it comes to performing various tasks that don’t involve technology, such as chopping wood.
- The Voice: Su's mother is heard through voicemails, but is never seen in person.
