Seeking a Friend for the End of the World (2012)

Seeking a Friend for the End of the World is a 2012 comedy-drama film written and directed by Lorene Scafaria. The film stars Steve Carell and Keira Knightley.


Plot of Seeking a Friend for the End of the World (2012)

The film opens with an announcement that a seventy-mile-wide asteroid named Matilda is on a collision course with Earth and that a last ditch effort to destroy it has failed. The world has three weeks until impact, at which time all of humanity will be wiped out. Dodge Petersen (Steve Carell) and his wife Linda listen to the broadcast from the side of the road. Seconds later, Linda flees the vehicle without saying a word to him.

Dodge returns to a near empty workplace the next day, where he sells insurance. While everyone around him has reacted differently — from constant drugs to guilt-free sex — Dodge's life hasn't changed at all. Even his housekeeper, Elsa, continues to show up and clean his apartment despite Dodge's insistence that there is no further need to do so.

After attending a friend's party, Dodge returns home to reminisce about his high school sweetheart, Olivia, when he notices his neighbor Penny (Keira Knightley) crying on the fire escape. She admits to him that she has just ended a relationship with her boyfriend Owen (Adam Brody) for making her miss an opportunity to see her family in England. Returning to her apartment, Penny gives Dodge a handful of mail she received for him but kept forgetting to deliver – indirectly telling him that his ex-wife Linda was having an affair.

Dodge storms off into the night, guzzling cough syrup and Windex in an attempt to kill himself. The next morning, however, he regains consciousness with a note on his sweater — reading "Sorry" — and a dog tethered to his foot. He takes Sorry home and opens his mail, surprised to receive a letter from Olivia, his former high school sweetheart. On the same night, a riot breaks out. Abandoning Owen amidst the rioters, Dodge explains to Penny that he knows someone who could get her to England if she helps him find Olivia first. She agrees and the two set off.

After running out of gas, Dodge and Penny are picked up by a sympathetic trucker (William Petersen) who regales them with his life story. During a pit stop, the trucker confronts Dodge, asking him how he's going to kill him. The trucker makes light of Dodge's confusion, admitting he had hired an assassin to have himself killed just before getting gunned down. Burying the trucker, Dodge and Penny drive on to a restaurant called Friendsy's. After Penny playfully announces that they are there to celebrate Dodge's birthday, a frenzy of kissing and drinking breaks out. Penny and Dodge leave just as an orgy commences and, swept away in the spontaneity of the moment, the two make love.

Cast of Seeking a Friend for the End of the World (2012)

•     Steve Carell as Dodge Petersen
•     Keira Knightley as Penelope "Penny" Lockhart
•     William Petersen as Trucker
•     Melanie Lynskey as Karen
•     Adam Brody as Owen
•     Tonita Castro as Elsa
•     Derek Luke as Speck
•     Connie Britton as Diane
•     Patton Oswalt as Roache
•     Rob Corddry as Warren
•     Melinda Dillon as Rose
•     Rob Huebel as Jeremy
•     Gillian Jacobs as Katie
•     T.J. Miller as Chipper Host
•     Amy Schumer as Lacey
•     Jim O'Heir as Sheriff
•     Martin Sheen as Frank/Dodge's Father
•     Nancy Carell as Linda/Dodge's ex wife (Cameo)

Storyline of Seeking a Friend for the End of the World (2012)

An asteroid named "Matilda" is on a collision course towards Earth and in three weeks the world will come to an absolute end. What would you do if your life and the world were doomed? One man decides to spend his time searching for his long lost love from high school during the coming catastrophe.