(courtesy IMDb)
SNAPSHOT
The mysterious disappearance of every human on earth leaves a service robot wondering what his purpose is. (courtesy YouTube (c) DUST)
The end of the world is not generally a happy or freeing time.
It’s usually marked by death and destruction and a quite pronounced end of things, and while that last part is very much the case in DUST’s 14-minute Big Boom, it is also quite warmly the beginning of something quite special.
When we meet Jimbo, the service droid at GoGoGas, a 24-hour service station that “never” closes, it’s been 37 days since a human has been seen and a sale has been made.
All of his robotic companions from the rubbish-hungry dumpster to the eager, bug-chomping zapper to A.D.A. the sultry-voiced if slightly disinterested data assistant console keep hoping the humans will return and restore some sense of purpose to their highly-programmed lives.
But alas that doesn’t happen and much of the film is marked by Jimbo trying to work out what to do when everything that once defined his digital days is gone.
Gone, and with no explanation of any kind.
His only joy is talking to Bob, another service droid 200 or so miles away with whom he has a very close and loving attachment and whom he wishes to see more than anything but a sentinel droid keeps menacingly urging him to return to his post and so Jimbo does because isn’t that what he’s always done.
But then the power starts to run down, and suddenly, anything is possible … what will Jimbo do?
The enveloping joy of Big Boom is that it offers one of the most beautiful takes on the end of the world I’ve ever seen.
Sure, the setting is unsettling and sad and every one of the droids knows that without humans, eventually their power source will decline to nothing too, but in that small window where power remains, Jimbo has the chance to follow his heart and see where it will take him.
Watching him trying to make sense of his new purpose-less reality, his programmed wheels spinning like crazy as he tries to work out where the people are and where their absence leaves him, is agonisingly sad, but through his questioning and pondering with non-answers by A.D.A. met with quiet resignation, we witness Jimbo start to work out that maybe it’s time for him to do what he wants and not be captive to his programming any longer.
It’s a beautiful slow motion scene of liberation and of hope against the odds, and DUST nails how it’s possible to stay hopeful and expectant even as everything around you, everything you have ever know, falls in formless oblivion.
Ultimately Big Boom is about new beginnings, and even though their lifespan may not be long, the fact that they are there, and that Jimbo takes hold of them is a heartwarming, soul reviving slice of sublime joy in a short film that absolutely grabs your heart and doesn’t let it go, while you’re watching and even long after Jimbo has trundled off to see where this brave new people-less world, and road, will take him.