Save Yourselves! (2020) Plot Summary & Timeline

A prologue reveals that this marks the year when Earth was lost. In a bid to escape their internet-obsessed and superficial lives in Brooklyn, a Millennial couple, “Su” (played by Sunita Mani) and “Jack” (portrayed by John Reynolds), decide to unplug for a weekend at a friend’s cabin in the woods. As they drive away, strange objects begin to fall from the sky.

Once at the cabin, the couple attempts to reconnect, discussing various aspirations to “become better people,” from baking bread to adopting a vegetarian lifestyle or even starting a community garden. Jack’s attention is caught by a peculiar fuzzy object resembling an ottoman in the den. Curious, he asks Su if it was there upon their arrival; however, she dismisses his inquiry and urges him to partake in exercises she found online to help boost their motivation as a couple. This frustrates Jack, leading to an argument where he angrily exits to chop wood. Upset, Su secretly turns on her phone to listen to a series of strange voice mails from her mother concerning “giant rats” that consume ethanol and are overrunning New York. Just as she starts to delve deeper into the voicemails, Jack returns, prompting Su to quickly switch off her phone.

In a moment of vulnerability, Jack confesses to Su that he feels inadequate as an adult but is determined for them to become closer. They reconcile, only to discover the next morning that their sourdough starter and whiskey bottles have mysteriously emptied, and the fuzzy object they nicknamed “pouffe” has inexplicably shifted positions. Realizing both the starter and whiskey contain ethanol, Su recalls her mother’s ominous messages and admits to breaking their no-phone agreement, speculating that the voicemails might tie into the strange events. They retreat upstairs and turn on their phones to learn the disturbing news: the pouffes are alien invaders attacking New York, igniting a mass evacuation while they feast upon ethanol.

When they try to confront the pouffe, it escapes using its long, projectile proboscis. Stunned at the turn of events, the couple finds that their phones have lost signal, prompting them to devise an escape plan back to the city in their car, hoping to regain signal and gather more information about the alien threat. Upon reaching their vehicle, they discover that the pouffes have punctured the gas tank to consume the ethanol-based fuel. Left with no choice, they resort to using the farm’s gasoline-tank car, although they struggle with the manual transmission.

As they navigate through the woods, they witness a stranded couple meeting a grisly fate at the hands of a pouffe. They manage to distract the creature by tossing a bottle of wine off the road. To their shock, they find a baby left behind in the stranded car. Despite the danger, they cannot leave the infant behind, but just as they gather the baby, a woman emerges from the woods, holding them at gunpoint, and steals their vehicle, leaving them stranded.

With limited options, Su and Jack gather supplies from the abandoned car and trek into the woods. Su becomes despondent, worrying about her family and the couple’s lack of survival skills as they confront an alien invasion. They come upon a pouffe, and in an act of selflessness, Jack shields Su from the creature as it attacks him. The creature’s proboscis gets stuck in the baby harness Jack wears. Summoning her courage, Su uses a knife to sever the proboscis, killing the alien creature. Jack discovers that he remains unharmed due to his cell phone acting as a makeshift shield.

Moved by their mutual willingness to protect one another, Su and Jack ascend to a lookout point with the baby, feeling a deeper sense of maturity and connection than when they first arrived at the cabin. They commit to marrying each other and raising the baby in the woods, planning their next steps into adulthood.

Curiosity piqued, Su investigates a bizarre translucent structure growing from the ground; although it looks like a force field, Jack examines it as well. Suddenly, they realize their phones have inexplicably regained signal and excitedly check for updates. So engrossed in the online content, they fail to notice the force field has encased them in a bubble. As they become engulfed, the bubble ascends, transporting them upwards through the sky. As they rise beyond Earth’s atmosphere, they see other bubbles filled with people like them. Initially laughing, they wonder whether this means they have been saved, yet as they drift further into space, uncertainty fills their expressions.