Imagine a future that may or may not be too far from now in which an AI video generator is capable of cranking out an entire movie.
Then picture the movie’s script is derived from a large language model fed nothing but the entire run of the HBO series “Succession” and every article from the past six months written about the reigning tech titans of our time: Zuckerberg, Musk and Altman. Maybe a dash of Peter Thiel.
And then for the prompt intended to bring this to life, imagine typing into the AI video generator:
“Create a movie that feels like it could be set in the world of ‘Succession’ but with entirely different characters populated from Silicon Valley instead of legacy media. Make a satire of what the worst case scenario of AI run amok, leavened with plenty of humor in order to avoid inducing depression.”
That might be the best way to explain the new movie “Mountainhead,” though it’s not the product of any software. It’s just a fever dream from the brilliant mind of mere mortal Jesse Armstrong, creator of “Succession.”
Listen to the podcast here:
In stark contrast to the typically glacial speed with which most movies or TV are developed, the film was conceived, pitched and rushed through production in a matter of months because Armstrong felt strongly that his story would resonate most reflecting the current moment in our culture while we’re still in it.
Does it ever. You don’t have to work in Silicon Valley these days to be exposed to the constant churn of headlines describing the Frankenstein-like potential of a technology that allows just about anyone to conjure up hyperrealistic images of anything their minds can imagine with lowered barriers to cost or distribution.
But what’s more, “Mountainhead” is being released at exactly the moment when AI fears must be kicking into overdrive. Look at what’s just transpired in the past few weeks, starting with Google’s release of Veo3, the most sophisticated video generation tool to hit the mass market to date. If that’s not scary enough, OpenAI just unveiled a partnership with former Apple design guru Jony Ive to release new AI-powered devices. Meanwhile, Meta is reportedly running into trouble developing its own Llama LLM, invoking fears of what desperate measures the company could take in order to catch up.
How serendipitous for Armstrong then that his decision to make “Mountainhead” a rush job has resulted in a movie that couldn’t have picked a scarier time to mine our anxieties about AI and the people with the power to deploy it in pursuit of profit.
But “Mountainhead” is also a triumph of timing of the comedic variety because while its plot might sound like a 21st-century spin on 1970s disaster movies, it also manages to be uproariously funny, a master class in satire anchored by a quartet of actors capable of delivering lines with deadpan perfection.
“Mountainhead” is set in an opulent mansion nestled in the snowy mountains of Utah, where four billionaire tech mogul pals have gathered for a few days of R&R. The timing of their vacation is fortuitous as they’re fairly isolated from the rest of the world, which happens to be descending into anarchy at the same time. What’s worse, several of them just might be responsible for this chaos. As they watch the chaos unfold from the safe distance of their mobile phones, not even quality bro time or luxury amenities can keep reality entirely at bay.
And as the impending apocalypse turns the heat up on them, they start to turn on each other.
At the center of the narrative of “Mountainhead” is a fictional social network known as TRAAM, which has just been supercharged with AI content generation tools so powerful that engagement on the platform explodes. But there’s an unfortunate side effect to this innovation: too many bad actors start to create incendiary deepfakes, sparking violence all over the globe.
Part of what makes “Mountainhead” compelling is that as the action unfolds and we learn more about each character from their actions and what they say, it sparks for the viewer an interesting internal debate: Which of these characters is the most morally repugnant?
The competition is stiff, starting with Hugo, played by Jason Schwartzman, the owner of the mansion where they’re holed up. He’s the laggard of this foursome because he carries around the shame of having a fortune in the sub-$1 billion range.
He might be the most sympathetic of the bunch were he clearly not using the whole get-together as an excuse to get any of them to bankroll his new wellness app venture. And what comes clear in time is he’s desperate enough to do anything to get their validation, let alone their money.
It says a lot about “Mountainhead” that it hands a veteran comedic genius like Schwartzman what is easily his best role since the movie that gave him his breakthrough way back in 1998, “Rushmore.”
And yet the movie might belong to the least known of its four lead actors, Cory Michael Smith, who is handed the juiciest role as Venis, the CEO of the fictional TRAAM. His $220 billion net worth makes him the richest of the group. Venis is something of a mashup of Zuckerberg and Musk, melding the former’s “move fast and break things” ethos to grow his user base at all costs with the latter’s robotic ruthlessness.
Venis’s obscene wealth justifies an unbridled narcissism that reflects our worst fears of tech moguls. He repeatedly comments that other people on Earth just aren’t on the same plane of existence as he or his buddies. Fitting for someone who is profiting from manufacturing images that blur the lines between truth and fiction, he doesn’t see other people as real.
But what’s interesting here is that Armstrong doesn’t write Venis as a one-dimensional monster. As the technology he’s unleashed wreaks havoc, Venis is invested with just enough self-consciousness to be a little horrified by himself, just not to the point where he can be bothered to filter his solipsistic impulses.
If Smith is a stand-in for Zuckerberg, then Steve Carell is playing something of a Peter Thiel type, sort of an older-brother advisor figure who we learn was Venis’s first investor. But Carell’s character is trying to hide a secret from his friends, which is that he’s dying of some unspecified, incurable medical condition that gives him years to live. Of course, he too is too much of a narcissist to accept that, and he channels his denial into the belief that TRAAM will eventually evolve into supporting transhumanism, a technology that will allow his soul to live forever once he’s shuffled his mortal coil.
And that delusion puts him at odds with the last character, Jeff, played by Ramy Youssef. Jeff seems to be both the most conscientious and deplorable character. He seems the most troubled by the circumstances playing out in the real world, and yet not so troubled that he won’t be rushed into a deal with Venis to sell him his own special blend of AI, which TRAAM’s board believes will help consumers distinguish the difference between real and fake video.
It’s like Jeff has the antidote to the AI poison Venis is practically killing the world with, but won’t release it because he has overdosed on the toxic masculinity that keeps these supposed friends in a constant state of competitive one-upmanship.
“This is not someone who should have the keys to America,” Jeff dryly observes of Venis at one point.
In the mouths of anyone else on earth, the machinations about global domination would be delusional enough to merit them a ticket to the loony bin. But the sick joke of “Mountainhead” is that these characters are so powerful that they’re not entirely delusional.
Listening to them talk about their ability to fix the world as casually as they would be repairing a car will surely bring to mind Musk’s many public musings from the recently concluded DOGE phase of his career in which he convinced the current president to essentially hand over the keys to to the U.S. government.
***
The extra resonance “Mountainhead” achieves from being released at the same time as the world it’s trying to reflect is also what separates it from “Succession.”
Sure, there were flashes of moments on “Succession” that seemed ripped from the headlines of the media trade publications, but it’s largely drawn from the exploits of the Murdochs and Redstones, many of which preceded the show by some years.
”Mountainhead” isn’t a sequel or spinoff to “Succession,” but it also kind of is. Not a sequel in the conventional sense of the word, in that it doesn’t continue the mythology of the Roy family media empire in any way. But it is a sequel in the sense that “Mountainhead’s” characters feel like they belong in the same world.
Armstrong could have brought the worlds of “Succession” and “Mountainhead” together in any number of cute crossover-y kinda way. I really half-expected Kendall Roy to wander into a scene or two. Honestly, Armstrong could have swapped out Jason Schwartzman’s character for Kendall, and this movie would have held up.
I’ve always marveled at the way each installment of “Succession” was something of a bottle episode contained in the rooms of a single building. But it’s a credit to Armstrong that there’s nothing claustrophobic about this. To the contrary, it gives the action a more coiled power, as if the characters gather steam by bouncing off the walls and each other.
By squeezing the narrative of “Mountainhead” entirely into one mountainside mansion, the movie operates by a similar dynamic. So much so that I honestly think Armstrong could have, and maybe should still, put this story on a Broadway stage.
But I don’t want to overstate the similarities between the shows either, because “Mountainhead” is distinctive in a bunch of key ways. “Succession” is more of an actor showcase, for one thing. The family drama lends it more emotional depth, it tilts more toward drama than comedy than “Mountainhead.”
And I also want to make a distinction between Armstrong’s two creations because, fair warning: I don’t think every “Succession” fan is going to like “Mountainhead.” Yes, it’s situated in the same world, but there are some tonal differences that will disappoint “Succession” fans expecting the equivalent of a spinoff movie.
I don’t want to ruin the movie with a spoiler, but be ready for the story to take a turn. It’s such a departure from the “Succession” world as to almost be like crossing over into magical realism. And I don’t think some viewers are going to want to take the leap.
“Mountainhead” is like “Succession” in that it’s dark and funny at the same time, but it gets darker and darker and crazier in a way that just wouldn’t make sense for “Succession” to have done. But that’s also the fun of “Mountainhead.” It’s like watching a car slip into a whole other gear you didn’t know Armstrong could drive.
Strangely, though “Mountainhead” gets more and more absurd as the story unfolds, it manages to still capture the precariousness of the moment we as a society find ourselves in today. It conjures up just the kind of worst-case scenarios that come to mind every time you read about AI or reckless moguls.
“Strictly Business” is Variety’s weekly podcast featuring conversations with industry leaders about the business of media and entertainment. A new episode debuts each Wednesday and can be downloaded on iTunes, Spotify, Stitcher and SoundCloud.