Rachel Zegler’s new movie revisits a real millennial ‘apocalypse’: Y2K explained

The title Y2K alone is enough to send more mature moviegoers whirling back to a novel (if not hysteric) point in time. Rachel Zegler’s latest film may not ring any bells for Gen Z though.

Kyle Mooney’s new A24 movie revisits a cultural touchstone. The disaster comedy turns back the clocks to one night that would change everything – at least, that’s what some people thought.

Picture this: it’s New Year’s Eve 1999. You’re wearing a tube top and trying to enjoy the night. Your computer programmer friend is in the corner sweating. They say the apocalypse is nigh! Your sober buddy double-dips his nachos, unbothered.

What the heck is going on? Well, the new movie allows young viewers to experience a delightful and harmless hoax. We’ve broken the real thing down (with no film spoilers), so we can all enjoy it together.

What is the Y2K movie about?

Y2K is about two high schoolers who crash a 1999 New Year’s Eve party. Disaster strikes and they have to fight for their lives.

The characters attend the party, joking about how some people think the change to the year 2000 will mark the end of the world. Unfortunately for them, technology goes on the fritz as the bells toll. And by on the fritz we mean Varsity Blues VHS tapes and wired landline phones try to kill them.

It’s your typical teen movie. Alcohol is consumed, crushes are lusted over, and the world threatens to end.

The real Y2K explained

The Y2K bug was a computer programming flaw that some thought would cause catastrophic problems when dates changed to 2000.

When complex computer programs were written during the 1960s-1980s, engineers used a two-digit code for the year; the 19 was left out. Instead of ‘1970’, for example, it read ’70’. The dates were shortened because data storage was costly and took up a lot of physical space.

Invention often involves ingenuity and fast-paced creation without much consideration for what things may look like in 50 years. Most consumers were not thinking about car emissions when motor vehicles became commonplace, and engineers weren’t planning for the year 2000 when programming computers.

Why people were worried

As 2000 loomed, programmers realized computers may interpret 00 as 1900, not 2000. This was known as the ‘millennium bug‘. This made December 31, 1999, an anxiety-inducing day. Nobody knew the extent of what would happen during the transition to January 1, 2000.

Banks, which calculate interest rates daily, were a real concern. Instead of the rate of interest for one day, a computer might calculate a rate for minus nearly 100 years, as explained by National Geographic.

“Centers of technology, such as power plants, were also threatened by the Y2K bug. Power plants depend on routine computer maintenance for safety checks, such as water pressure or radiation levels. Not having the correct date would throw off these calculations and possibly put nearby residents at risk.”

And of course, in worrying times there are those among us liable to panic. A media frenzy was whipped up and the world’s end was joked about in schools and at dinner parties.

The aftermath

You know it was big because The Simpsons parodied it.

Trembling hands opened blinds in the morning and found… the world not on fire (though it very much is in the Y2K movie).

There were a few problems when Y2K arrived. But they were mostly mitigated by software and hardware companies that raced to fix the bug and engineered programs to help. Dates were expanded to four digits on as many systems as possible.

Not everything went perfectly: A Japanese energy facility in Ishikawa had some radiation equipment fail. But backup facilities ensured no threat to people. The US also detected missile launches in Russia and attributed them to the bug (that one does make us sweat). In reality, the missile launches were part of Russia’s conflict in the Republic of Chechnya.

“Countries such as Italy, Russia, and South Korea had done little to prepare for Y2K. They had no more technological problems than those countries, like the US, that spent millions of dollars to combat the problem,” National Geographic added.

Y2K’s legacy is that of a hoax, but legitimate concerns sparked the worries.

Gen Z might watch the movie and not know about the real event

Whether you were alive and independently thinking during Y2K or are just an internet historian, it’s your duty to inform your younger cinema buddies Y2K was a real thing… sort of.

A24

The world didn’t end, but consider this: we live in the age of TikTok. Every day there’s a new disinformation cycle or reason to believe we’re on track for true unmitigated disaster.

Drama was much harder to find in 1999, so this was a moment! Knowing that context will make the sci-fi movie a lot more fun, even if some of the 90s references go over younger heads.

The Y2K movie releases in cinemas on December 6, 2024 (a missed opportunity for an NYE midnight screening, but we’re not in charge).

You’ll next catch Zegler in the live-action Snow White. For more scares, see the best horror movies on Amazon Prime and best horror movies on Disney Plus.