Mr. Happy
Genre: Drama/Thriller
Director: Hiro Murai
Writer: Wyatt Allen
Based on the short film
Cast: Jesse Plemons, Adele Exarchopoulos, Rob Riggle, Nonso Anozie
Plot: Steve McNulty (Jesse Plemons) is expressionlessly sitting down in the dark on his apartment floor. His apartment is only furnished sparsely, no flowers or pictures of his friends or family to be seen. A big plastic bag in his hands that he examines. He lays down while putting the plastic bag over his head and tightens it around his neck, trying to suffocate himself with that. We see him gasping for air for a bit until his hands let go of the plastic bag and it loosens. Steve takes the plastic bag off.
The next day at work. Steve seems bored from his everyday life. He is working at a home depot store but doesn’t seem to care much about the things going on around him. One loud and extroverted coworker is approaching him, we can see his name tag that says Lonnie (Rob Riggle). Lonnie only calls Steve by his last name McNulty and asks him about his weekend. Before Steve even could answer Lonnie tells him about the weekend he had. He tells Steve about a woman he met a while ago on a dating app and how he finally got to sleep with her with this weekend. He tells Steve that he „fucked her brains out“ and gives some explicit details about it. Steve replies that he is happy that Lonnie has found someone.
In his lunch break Steve is looking at a dating app on his phone. He goes through some of the women’s profiles and swipes a couple of them right. He checks if he matches with any person he liked, finding out that he unfortunately has zero matches.
After work Steve is sitting in front of his laptop in his apartment. The only light is coming from the display. Steve is searching the internet for ways to kill himself. In a forum thread where one guys is asking the exact same question he sees some posts about how life is beautiful and suicide is not the solution. The advice given to the original poster asking the question is that he should seek out professional help and he shouldn’t deal with this alone. But another poster is sharing the link to a website called „mrhappy.com“ and suggest to take a look at it. Of course Steve clicks on the link, sending him to a website that looks like it was made in the 90s and didn’t change since than. The website is covered in smiley faces. In a bright red comic sans type font it says „MR. HAPPY“.
Another day at work and Steve seems to be relieved and even a bit happy. Not even Lonnie could get on his nerves this day. Suddenly while he was reordering the things in the shelves. A big intimidating customer (Nonso Anozie) is asking Steve in a serious tone if he is Mr. McNulty. Steve is visibly a bit scared not knowing what to expect from that but of course he says the he is indeed Mr. McNulty. The tone of he customer changes with a friendly smiles he says that he heard that Steve is the expert in drills and he would love to get his opinion on a drill he wants to buy. Steve helps him and on his way back he sees a female customer (Adele Exarchopoulos) looking overwhelmed. He asks her if he could help and she says that she would like to know where they store their batteries. Steve leads her to the place where they store their batteries and shows her the exact ones she needs.
After work Steve drives in his car to make some purchases. He notices a black car behind him, following him wherever he drives to. He grows more and more suspicious of the car but shortly before arriving at his destination the car behind him turns differently, letting go of him. He walks to the grocery store where he sees a tough looking guy in front of it, staring him down. The guy reaches for something of the inside of his jacket. It looks like he is pulling out a gun at first and we can see the panic in Steve’s eyes. It is shown that it wasn’t a gun but just a lighter and a pack of cigarettes that the tough guy was pulling out of his jacket.
After leaving the grocery store and wanting to get back to his car, he gets surprised by the woman he helped to find some batteries at work earlier that day. Steve reacts very frightened to her, but soon recognizes her. She introduces herself to him as Victoria. Steve sees that Victoria is packing things from a transporter into some sort of art gallery and is asking her about it. She tells him that it’s her own art gallery, she rented the place for today in hopes of getting people to buy her paintings. She tells Steve that he should come too and bring some friends with him.
Steve is sitting in front of his computer in his apartment. He contemplates going to the art gallery. On an online board he is asking if anyone wants to visit an art gallery with him.
Steve visits the art gallery alone. It’s already pretty late and Victoria is the only one there, she is happy to see Steve but still seems disappointed. Steve asks her if she sold any of her paintings. She didn’t. She is drinking wine out of a bottle while Steve is looking at her paintings, telling her that she is really talented. She tells him that he is nice for saying that. She grabs his hands and tells him that she wants to show him something. She grabs another bottle of wine while leading Steve to the roof of the building. On the roof she gives the bottle to Steve and tells him to take a look at the stars and the beautiful night sky. She is tipsy and dances around, telling Steve that she feels so free under the stars. She wants Steve to dance with her, but he is too shy to. They instead sit down enjoy the night sky while Victoria takes another sip out of the wine bottle, she asks Steve if he has any dreams he wants to accomplish. Steve tells her that he stopped dreaming a long while ago, he is more pessimistic now. Victoria mentions that Steve seems to be more on the quiet side. Steve apologizes for that but she smiles at him and tells him she likes it that way. She mentions that she seems to have a thing for quiet guys as they come close to kiss each other.
The next morning Steve wakes up in his bed next to Victoria. She tells him that the has to rush, but she really enjoyed last night and that he should call her. After she leaves Steve has a huge smile on his face that soon turns into a facial expression of panic. Steve starts his laptop hectic and opens up mrhappy.com. He reads a disclaimer that already completed deals can not be taken back. He also finds a number to contact them.
We go back to the day where Steve found the mrhappy.com site for the first time. It is revealed that this website offers the service to order somebody to get yourself killed. Steve has to go through a form, entering his name and address, giving reasons on why he wants to end his life and choosing how he wants to be killed. Steve chooses the painless option. There is one last hindrance on the website asking Steve if he is really sure he wants to do this. Steve takes a deep breath and thinks about it for a few seconds, he than clicks yes to continue. He verifies his information and pays for the service with his credit card. He gets the confirmation and it says that his order will be fulfilled in the span of one week. Steve leans back, he is relieved.
Back in the present, Steve is trying to call that number but can’t reach anyone. He double checks if he really got the right number. He does but still no one answers his call.
Steve and Victoria are eating dinner at a restaurant. Steve is visibly nervous, always carefully watching the people sitting around them and the people entering the restaurant. Victoria tells Steve that she still feels pretty much isolated after moving from France to the states. Steve can empathize with that as he often feels so too, telling her that he only has his brother and his brother’s kids he visits from time to time. A man dressed in all black with sunglasses on enters the restaurant. He is looking for someone. He directly looks at Steve with a determined look on his face. A woman behind Steve signals the man dressed in black to come sit with her, as it turns out that he wasn’t looking at Steve.
Once again Steve is trying to call that number to take back his order but he is not successful in that as he can’t reach anybody through the phone. He writes a message to their contact form explaining his situation and telling them that he doesn’t want to do the deal anymore but that they can keep the money he already paid. Steve looks up when he made the „order“, finding out it will be exactly one week after the weekend. By thinking that every order is guaranteed to be fulfilled in one week, Steve thinks that he only needs to make it through the weekend. He calls Victoria and asks her even though it is a bit spontaneous to go on a weekend road trip with him to visit his brother. Victoria is a bit unsure but agrees to come with him
Steve and Victoria are driving in Steve’s car. She tells Steve that she can’t really believe that she is doing this, they just met and now she is already on his way to meet his family, but she says that she is really excited to meet Steve’s brother and also his brother’s kids, while Steve is permanently checking the rear view mirror paranoid thinking that they are being followed. Victoria seems to have taken notice that something is off about Steve and asks him if everything is fine. Steve tells her he is fine, he is just a little nervous as he doesn’t really often bring someone with him when visiting his brother. He goes on to tell her that he was is in a very dark place lately before meeting her but he feels really good with himself for the first time in a long time. Victoria leans onto him.
They stop at a gas station, Victoria was sleeping but is just waking up. Steve informs her that they still have a while to go and they need to refuel. Victoria uses the gas break to visit the restroom, while Steve fills the car with gas. Steve seems lost in his thoughts but a happy smile comes apparent on his face. We zoom out a bit and see that a gun is aimed at the back of Steve’s head. The trigger is pulled and Steve gets shot in the head. It is revealed that Victoria is the one handling the gun and pulling the trigger. We see a lot of conflict on her face, as a black SUV pulls up behind her. She gets in the SUV and they drive away. As they flee we are shown the license plate, it says „MRHAPPY“.
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