Kyle Mooney talks killer robots, Limp Bizkit in film ‘Y2K’

By Hannah Son     1/14/25 10:27pm

Kyle Mooney’s sci-fi disaster comedy and directorial debut, “Y2K,” released in theaters on Dec. 6. Ahead of the release, the “Saturday Night Live” alum talked inspirations, set design and working with ’90s icons in a roundtable interview with the Thresher.

“Y2K” follows two social outcast high schoolers, Eli and Danny, on New Year’s Eve of 1999. As the clock strikes midnight, the best friends face off against now-deadly machines — from a bloodthirsty blender and a sentient Barbie Jeep to Eli’s beloved PC — on a mission to take over humanity. 

Mooney reflected on his own high school experience during Y2K — and disappointment at the unrealized catastrophe — as inspiration for the film. 

---

---

“I just hung at home with my friend Mark, and we watched the MTV New Year’s Special … maybe like a year or two later, I finally got to go to a party,” Mooney said. “I think I remember looking it up and Kathy Griffin co-hosted. 

“My mom was a little scared about something actually happening. So she got … a bunch of jugs of water and some nuts and granola and stuff, but we just chilled,” Mooney continued.

Mooney spoke about bringing the hysteria around technology to life in “Y2K” for modern audiences, saying that fears around the Internet feel more poignant in the present day.

“They thought … banks wouldn’t be able to transfer your money … or maybe even planes would crash,” Mooney said. “Today we’re so consumed by our phones … It feels like that has become very threatening and something that we need to be conscious of and how it affects our lives.”

A period piece in its own right, “Y2K” blends ’90s nostalgia with nods to modern teen culture, staging a major character moment to Sisqó’s “Thong Song” while also featuring Gen Z cast members like Rachel Zegler and The Kid LAROI. Mooney commented on seeing the recent wave of Y2K nostalgia among younger generations, particularly in fashion.

“I’ve seen Jaeden Martell, who’s our star, wearing the big pants, so I know that something like JNCO jeans are at least somewhere in the fashion world,” Mooney said. 

However, Mooney said these current trends simplify the Y2K era.

“That was not what I was wearing in 1999. I was wearing surf and skate clothing because I’m from San Diego, California,” Mooney said. “I think that whenever … fashion comes back from decades earlier, you never really get just the subtle dress. You only get the sort of big, flamboyant looks.” 

Mooney said he imbued memories and pop culture artifacts from the period into props like a Warped Tour sticker on Eli’s computer, and a “Heart and Souls” poster in the video store his own character, Garrett, manages. Beyond these, Mooney talked about studying references with production designer Jason Singleton and co-writer Evan Winter to craft character wardrobes, teen bedroom sets and ’90s tech reminiscent of the era.

“I really loved going on YouTube, looking up video yearbooks from ’99 and 2000, especially to get a sense of dress, but also pulling photographs of bedrooms,” Mooney said. “There’s a TV show that I was really into that came out in ’99 called ‘American High’ ... and it follows a handful of seniors in high school … so you really get a good glimpse into the time period. I love stealing from that stuff.”

The film’s distinct visual landscape also heavily features sci-fi costumes and effects. Mooney talked about working with special effects company Wētā to emulate the type of practical effects — as opposed to CGI — of ’90s movies in the household appliances-turned killer robots of “Y2K.”

“We were very excited about making a movie that we would have seen in the theaters in 1999,” Mooney said. “That was an interesting time because there was CG, but there was also still a little remnants of practical effects … there’s obviously something very tangible to [practical effects] and the fact that our actors can actually respond to a robot in the same space with them is incredibly awesome.”

Mooney also commented on what the experience of directing stars such as Limp Bizkit’s Fred Durst and Alicia Silverstone meant to him as a ’90s kid himself. 

“It’s always intimidating,” Mooney said. “Fred is … really into comedy, and he was a little aware of my stuff, and … he was just down, and he got it and he was like, ‘I trust you guys. I see that you’re incredibly passionate, and I see that you’re coming from what I believe to be an interesting perspective.’”

“With Alicia … it was … scary to give notes to somebody who’s a hero,” Mooney said. “But also being able to watch somebody who’s been at it for so long is always such a gift.”

In addition to directing, Mooney co-wrote the film with Evan Winter. Mooney said that several of the high school-aged characters carried parts of himself.

“C.J. is the character who’s really into underground hip hop,” Mooney said. “Starting my sophomore year of high school … I was in a group with two of my friends. We were called Instruments of Intelligence. Our whole thing was just bragging about how we weren’t mainstream, and it was very cringy and corny, and I made beats … I would like to think I was … a little more self-aware than C.J. … So it’s not something I necessarily say proudly, but I definitely relate a lot to him.”

Mooney also said he relates to the protagonist, Eli, and hopes that the character’s misfit qualities at the heart of the film resonate broadly with viewers.

“I don’t know that I was ever … incredibly confident in socializing and arguing,” Mooney said. “That difficulty and challenge of fitting in and sort of figuring out who you are … I imagine is pretty universal.”

---