Last Night 1999

In Toronto, a city bracing for an unexplained, long-foretold apocalypse, a sense of quiet resignation settles over the streets as chaos ebbs into surges of sporadic violence. A group of friends and family navigate the last hours of the world they know, trying to hold onto normal routines even as fear lingers in the air.

Sandra scavenges for leftovers in a supermarket, only to have her car vandalized, leaving her stranded in a landscape that feels both intimate and hostile. Meanwhile, Patrick gathers with his extended family for a mock Christmas dinner, a ritual meant to defy the countdown to the end. Duncan, Sandra’s husband, spends much of the day reassuring his customers that their heating gas will stay on until the very end, a practical promise in a moment when such assurances can feel almost absurd. Craig is absorbed in his own world, sharing intimate moments with Lily as he tries to mark every sexual milestone he can think of before the clock runs out.

Patrick leaves the dinner early to be alone with his thoughts in his apartment, but fate has a different plan. He encounters Sandra at his front door, and he reluctantly lets her in to use his phone to contact Duncan. In a moment of reluctant camaraderie, Patrick offers to help Sandra steal a car, though he concedes he doesn’t know how to hotwire one. The day’s frictions are echoed in the private drama around Craig and Mrs. Carlton, who are engaging in sex, while Donna turns up the music and lets herself go in the power company’s building after Duncan has left.

As the day unfolds, Patrick reconnects with a high school friend, Menzies, who drives around handing out tickets to a concert with his cousin while Patrick and Sandra try to hitchhike their way to some sense of a final plan. Later, Patrick visits Craig in his apartment, and Craig lends Sandra a car. Once Sandra leaves, Craig presses Patrick to embrace the final hours through sex, revealing his omnisexual outlook as he explains his method of addressing all of his fantasies before “the end.” He insists he isn’t belittling Patrick but trying to inspire him to live the moment. When Patrick is leaving Craig’s place, Craig makes another overture toward him, but Patrick refuses, even though he loves Craig.

The local DJ marks the clock by spinning the “Top 500 of All Time,” a playlist that leans heavily on early-’70s pop from groups like The 5th Dimension, Looking Glass, The DeFranco Family, and Edward Bear. In a lighthearted aside, he giggles that it’s the Top 500 “According to me!” > “According to me!”

In the final hour, tension tightens. Duncan opens the door after hearing a gunshot on the street, only to be taken hostage by Marty. On a sparsely attended concert, Mrs. Carlton slips inside as Menzies plunks away on the piano, delivering a melancholy counterpoint to the city’s last moments. Sandra faces a roadblock when protesters stop her and vandalize the car she borrowed from Craig, forcing her to retreat back to Patrick’s apartment. Using Patrick’s phone, Sandra listens to Duncan’s voicemail in which he assured his power company customers that the gas would be running “til the end.” Realizing she cannot reunite with Duncan, she asks Patrick to join in the suicide pact she and Duncan had formed. Patrick initially refuses, wanting to know her better and to find a reason to love her before committing to such an end; they share stories, turning the conversation toward Patrick’s lost loved one and the memories that make life meaningful, even in a coming apocalypse.

As midnight nears, Craig reunites with Donna and struggles to believe that she is a virgin; Donna feels a sting of shame, but Craig manages to turn the moment around and they have sex. In parallel, Patrick and Sandra chase a call to Duncan, only to learn that he was killed by a mob. The two sit on a rooftop, faces almost touching, each holding a loaded pistol to the other’s temple as the clock ticks toward the final seconds. In a moment of overwhelming emotion, they lower their pistols, and in a tender, devastating embrace, they share a kiss, choosing connection over final defeat as the world ends around them.