Back when the Coronavirus pandemic began in early 2020, a number of films and projects using the crisis as a setting were announced, resulting in a premature backlash. While those projects either didn’t come to pass or landed with a thud, the continuing status of the pandemic — a phenomenon that many of us never experienced before in our lifetimes — means that we can’t reasonably expect our arts and entertainment to ignore it. The reason for the initial backlash at the idea of “pandemic movies” was that no one wants to experience fictionalized misery on top of the actual misery. 

What a relief, then, to see a movie premiering at Sundance 2021 that not only deals with the pandemic but does so in a way that’s clever, insightful, heartwarming and charming. Using the tried and true trick of allegory, writers and directors Zoe Lister-Jones and Daryl Wein make How It Ends a pandemic-era film that’s welcome as opposed to being trite or tiresome, a movie that feels like the big huge hug that we all needed but didn’t know how to ask for. 

Set during an indeterminate time period — most likely an alternate present day — How It Ends sees Liza (Lister-Jones) wanting to just sit around and bliss out during what the entire world knows is the literal last day on Earth thanks to an asteroid’s rapid approach. Her morose plans are thwarted by a young girl (Cailee Spaeny), who urges her to get out into the city and not only pursue the hunk she let get away (Logan Marshall-Green) and face the jerk who hurt her (Lamorne Morris) but also reconcile with her parents (Bradley Whitford and Helen Hunt), as well as her best friend (Olivia Wilde). It turns out the young girl has more of a personal investment in Liza’s well-being than just mere friendship, as it’s revealed that she’s an emanation of Liza’s younger self, a figure Liza sees all the time but who now, on the eve of the apocalypse, is visible to everyone else, too. 

That plot point may make How It Ends sound like it deals with the Big Questions in a pseudo-fantasy manner, but Lister-Jones and Wein never let their film grow that pretentious. Instead, it engages with the big ethical issues of the end of the world in a grounded, character-based manner. For all its heavy subject matter, How It Ends is a breezy indie comedy, made obvious by the sheer number of comedy superstars (or just plain superstars) who turn up. The film reveals itself to be a road movie set entirely in Los Angeles with its protagonists on foot instead of in a vehicle. Each “stop” the two make not only develops Liza (as well as her relationship with her younger self) but also provides a tapestry of various responses to impending doom. This makes How It Ends an intriguing counterpoint to another recent “last days on Earth” dramedy, 2012’s Seeking A Friend for the End of the World. That film is also about an impending asteroid collision; a literal road movie as well as a comedy. Yet How It Ends has an intentionally narrow focus, being all about Liza, and approaches the notion of certain doom with a bittersweetness, akin to the last day of school or a vacation. 

That relative frivolity can get irksome at times, and when combined with How It Ends’ parade of celebrities, it can make the movie feel a bit like The Apocalypse Holiday Special. Certainly the film’s setting of sunny, affluent L.A. is both an ironic counterpoint to the story’s certain doom as well as a tacit admission of the filmmakers’ privilege. It wouldn’t be too hard to see How It Ends’ success at landing so many big name actors as a braggadocious flex, with Wein and Lister-Jones’ friends list clearly being a mile long. Yet what that element really speaks to is how lost and uncertain the filmmaking industry and community was during the height of 2020 — there’s no way the directors could’ve made this movie with these people had times been normal. In that sense, How It Ends feels more like a celebration, a way for these artists to not just keep working but also to have something to say in the process.