Safety Not Guaranteed

"What would you go back for?"

2012 1h 26m EN

👍

6.8

SOLID

★6.8TMDB · 1,696

ComedyRomanceScience Fiction

Synopsis

Spoiler shield

Three magazine employees head out on an assignment to interview a guy who placed a classified ad seeking a companion for time travel.

“What would you go back for?”

WhatsApp X Facebook Telegram

Where to watch · US

Amazon VideoRent

Apple TV StoreRent

Google Play MoviesRent

Google Play MoviesBuy

YouTubeBuy

Fandango At HomeBuy

Cast

Aubrey Plaza
Darius
Mark Duplass
Kenneth
Jake Johnson
Jeff
Karan Soni
Arnau
Jenica Bergere
Liz
Kristen Bell
Belinda
Jeff Garlin
Mr. Britt
Mary Lynn Rajskub
Bridget

Credits

Behind the camera

Director: Colin Trevorrow
Writers: Derek Connolly
Languages: English
Countries: United States of America

Want more? Switch to Cinephile mode in the header for DP, composer, budget, box office, production companies, keywords, and release history.

Did you know?

Fun facts 🍿

1 / 8

RUNTIME

Did you know

86 minutes exactly — the "classic feature" runtime most directors aim for.

MoodPlayr · trivia#01

2 / 8

MONEY

Did you know

Shot for just $0.8M — micro-budget by Hollywood standards.

MoodPlayr · trivia#02

3 / 8

MONEY

Did you know

Made its money back 5.9× over at the box office.

MoodPlayr · trivia#03

4 / 8

ERA

Did you know

Released 14 years ago.

MoodPlayr · trivia#04

5 / 8

DIRECTOR

Did you know

Directed by Colin Trevorrow, shot by Benjamin Kasulke. Note their partnership — DPs and directors often return to each other across a career.

MoodPlayr · trivia#05

6 / 8

DIRECTOR

Did you know

Original score by Ryan Miller. Worth a dedicated listen after — most great films lose half their impact without the score.

MoodPlayr · trivia#06

7 / 8

DIRECTOR

Did you know

Editor Franklin Peterson shaped the rhythm. On an edit-heavy film, the editor does more to control your pulse than the director.

MoodPlayr · trivia#07

8 / 8

CAST

Did you know

Aubrey Plaza and Mark Duplass and Jake Johnson carry the top of the cast.

MoodPlayr · trivia#08

Cinephile deep dive

The take

Colin Trevorrow directs. Benjamin Kasulke behind the camera. Ryan Miller scores. Franklin Peterson cuts. Runs lean at under 100 minutes. Made its budget back several times over at the box office. Produced in United States of America. Dialogue in English.

Trivia

Things worth knowing

186 minutes exactly — the "classic feature" runtime most directors aim for.
2Shot for just $0.8M — micro-budget by Hollywood standards.
3Made its money back 5.9× over at the box office.
4Released 14 years ago.
5Directed by Colin Trevorrow, shot by Benjamin Kasulke. Note their partnership — DPs and directors often return to each other across a career.
6Original score by Ryan Miller. Worth a dedicated listen after — most great films lose half their impact without the score.
7Editor Franklin Peterson shaped the rhythm. On an edit-heavy film, the editor does more to control your pulse than the director.
8Aubrey Plaza and Mark Duplass and Jake Johnson carry the top of the cast.
9Marketing tagline: "What would you go back for?".
10IMDB entry: tt1862079 — still the authoritative cross-reference for credits and trivia.
11Classified under 21 themes, including "time travel", "time machine", "loss of virginity", "womanizer".
12Released under 12 different titles around the world.

The technical file

Cinematography: Benjamin Kasulke
Original score: Ryan Miller
Editing: Franklin Peterson
Production design: Ben Blankenship
Costume design: Rebecca Luke
VFX supervisor: Ed Mendez
Sound: Brendan J. Hogan
Runtime: 86 min · 1h 26m
Aspect ratio (typical): 1.37:1 (Academy)
Status: Released
Budget: $750,000
Box office: $4,424,699
Return: 590% of budget
Original language: EN
Certification (US): R
IMDB: Safety Not Guaranteed (2012)

Awards

The Waldo Salt Screenwriting Award

Individual records documented via Wikidata; the summary above may count more.

Also by

Colin Trevorrow

Stills · wallpapers

Selected frames

Full-resolution frames — open one to save it as a wallpaper.

Wallpaper

Trailers & featurettes

Watch the pieces

Community reviews

What people are saying

edward2017-02-08
Quirky little comedy that asks you to believe in the impossible. Some good chuckles and some sweet scenes between Plaza and Duplass, but nothing really of substance. But it's easy to sit through.
Kamurai2020-09-25
★ 8/10
Great watch, will watch again, and do recommend. I love the philosophical discussions that happen in this movie, both explicitly and as part of the situations. I love the story within a story within a story aspect of the script structure, with multi-threading as well. While the roles are a little (by design) stock characters, their personalities grown and change and stay interesting while keeping their core tenants. The investigative style to the main story line intuitively delivers as a mystery, with proper drip-fed information and misleads. It all properly builds to a significant moment in the story where you begin to question things. I highly recommend this for fans of conspiracy, time-travel, mysteries, or just weirdos with wishful thinking.
Peter McGinn2021-12-01
★ 8/10
I wanted to watch this movie because I like stories about time travel. It turns out it isn’t really a time travel movie, though one character says he has done it and plans to do it again, and there is a lot of talking about traveling into the past. But that is not the point. It is a an entertaining movie for the patient viewer who doesn’t mind an oddball comedy. There is witty dialogue, especially observations drily delivered by lead character Darius. There are a couple of ordinary and almost cliched subplots involving the two men accompanying her on the investigative assignment to talk to the alleged time traveler, so don’t go to the fridge for a snack when she is onscreen. Fortunately that is for most of the scenes. I don’t know that I will ever watch it again, because I am not young and there are a lot of movies I still need to watch. But neither do I regret the 90 minutes I spent with it. As a final side note, the movie ends where many time travel films begin, but I will say no more than that.