When a passing asteroid begins to affect how people perceive time, one man struggles to keep up with a life that is quickly disappearing into the future.

To steal a phrase from the master of time and space, Dr. Who, this is “a big ball of timey wimey stuff”. Showing at this year’s Tribeca Film Festival, Jesse Middelstadt’s sci-fi short, Flyby (2018), is a time-bending carousel ride through one man’s life in the span of about 10 minutes.

Flyby begins in outer space, trailing an asteroid passing dangerously close to Earth. News anchors and radio stations are relentlessly and feverishly reporting on the asteroid, named Chrono-7, putting many on edge about a possible doomsday situation. According to scientists on the TV screens, the asteroid will not hit the earth, but for some people, its presence affects time, seemingly speeding up their chronology. Grabbing drinks at a bar, we meet a group of 30ish friends, who share their anxieties about their situation. One in particular, Cora (Tommee May), catches the eye of a newbie named Bill (Riley Egan), and they pull away from the group, subsequently deciding to hookup because YOLO.

Little would they know, they soon realize Bill will be one of the unfortunate few who will experience their life in pieces because of the asteroid. The next morning, Bill happily wakes up from his one-night stand with Cora, though it is apparent many nights have since passed as Cora is now 9 months pregnant. To his surprise, pictures on the wall of his erstwhile bachelor-pad display his wedding, gray hairs are spotting his once baby-slick chin, and unrecognizable technologies and drug paraphernalia vex his already perplexed situation.

If I know my Greek mythology, Chronos is the god of time, or Father Time, if you will. Ah, I see what you did there, Middelstadt, the Chrono-7 asteroid hanging out around Earth, and who’s to know if it is alien in nature as it seems to come, stay, and then randomly go by the end of the movie, is a manifestation of that Greek god in control of time. While the asteroid is with us, it cuts away time from an unlucky subset of the population, and who knows why it doesn’t affect just everyone. So many questions about the plot, but it is okay because by the end I get the point – time flies by, life is short, and it could even be over for you 3 minutes from now. Reflecting on the film, Jesse Middelstadt recounts that he “…can’t say that the idea behind Flyby came in a moment of inspiration. It was more like a moment of fear. It was the moment when I realized just how quickly time was passing me by, when my own life started to feel like something I was racing to catch up to”. This feeling is something so many people can relate to in our bustling and disconnected world, and I feel Jesse Middestadt and her cast successfully connect and convey this idea to audiences through their original and intriguing narrative, nicely done VFX done by Redi Studios, and a dynamic cast. The film stars Riley Egan as Bill the time jumper and Tommee May as his frustrated partner, who are forced to tackle existential crisis caused by this wayward asteroid tugging on the fabric of time.

In this film, time does not happen in its natural progression, it flies by while slipping through busy fingers, much like in real life, though thankfully real life isn’t quite this fast. From the first glance at Bill’s watch to the last, the clock hands had only moved about 3 minutes for him, chronologically, though his full life had happened without his recollection. It is a bittersweet and clever end as he comes to his senses with the departure of the asteroid from our orbit, and along the way, Jesse Middelstadt filled her short with clever attention to detail that made this an interesting watch. The 18th annual Tribeca Film Festival, taking place April 24 – May 5, 2019, will be screening the world premiere of Flyby at the following times and places:

• 4/27 9:00 PM REGAL CINEMAS BATTERY PARK
• 4/30 8:45 PM REGAL CINEMAS BATTERY PARK
• 5/3 5:45 PM VILLAGE EAST CINEMA
• 5/4 11:00 PM VILLAGE EAST CINEMA