In “Mountainhead,” as the world falls apart, a group of tech billionaires considers consolidating their power.
The HBO film, written and directed by “Succession” creator Jesse Armstrong, stars Steve Carell, Jason Schwartzman, Cory Michael Smith and Ramy Youssef as four friends and tech moguls spending a weekend together on a mountain retreat “against the backdrop of a rolling international crisis,” per the official logline.
In a new trailer, a CNN anchor is heard saying that “U.N. officials are now openly attributing the recent uptick in ethnic tension to powerful new generative AI tools unveiled last week on Traam,” referring to a social media platform owned by Smith’s character, Venis.
“I just wanna say this is not on you, Venis,” says Hugo (Schwartzman). Venis replies, “Obviously this is not on me. Why would you even say that?”
As the news gets worse, the men begin to think about their place in the crisis.
“We are the smartest men in America. We literally have the resources to take over the world,” Randal (Carell) says. Venis adds, “This ugly death-trap house might have just become humanity’s global HQ.”
“Guys, we could actually do this,” Venis adds in another scene. “I could handle Argentina and Paraguay,” Hugo volunteers, and Randall notes, “We could probably buy Haiti. Or Belgium, those chocolatey assholes.”
Only Jeff (Youssef) seems to express concerns about whatever the group is cooking up. As Venis repeatedly tackles a tree outside, Jeff watches through a window and says, “This does not look like somebody who should have they keys to America,” then later tells Venis, “The world wants your algorithm to stop being racist and shitty.” At the end of the trailer, Jeff says, “This was a terrifying experience, and I don’t know that I’ll ever recover,” while the rest of the men mock him.
“Mountainhead” is executive produced by Armstrong, Frank Rich, Lucy Prebble, Jon Brown, Tony Roche, Will Tracy, Mark Mylod, and Jill Footlick.
The film premieres on May 31. See the trailer below.
