IF YOU WERE THE LAST
Section: Narrative Spotlight
Director: Kristian Mercado
Screenwriter: Angela Bourassa
Logline: Adam (Anthony Mackie) and Jane (Zoë Chao) are three years into a NASA mission that has gone very wrong. Their ship is broken and now they drift between Jupiter and Saturn, finding ways to pass the time as they become more certain that no one is coming to save them. Adam paints, and Jane attempts to repair the ship. They argue over what movies to watch. And every day, they dance. One day, Adam poses that maybe they should sleep together. Jane laughs the idea off — why mess up their great dynamic just to add one more (admittedly very fun) activity to their list of time-passing options? Thus begins a friendly, flirty debate about whether they’re better off spending their remaining days as friends or something more.
Sales Agent: UTA
Panelists: Anthony Mackie, Zoë Chao, and Kristian Mercado
Premiered: March 11, 2023
Key Quotes: Mercado: “If You Were The Last is a beautiful journey of friendship and love that takes place in space. It’s about two friends who are figuring out how things evolve from friendship into love, which are complicated feelings that arise.”
Chao: “It’s sort of a pandemic-adjacent story with Jane and Adam navigating abandonment, loss, and isolation.”
Mackie: “I tried to get my fainting goat hired [for the film] but somebody didn’t want it. Shout out to the fainting goat! His name is Josh and he lives in Cascade Stables.”
The Deadline Studio at SXSW runs March 10-13, where the cast and creatives behind the best and buzziest titles in this year’s lineup sit down with Deadline’s festival team to discuss their movies and the paths they took to get to Austin, Texas.
Anthony Mackie, Kristian Mercado, & Zoë Chao at the Deadline Studio at SXSW Film and Television Festival held at the Thompson Hotel on March 11, 2023, in Austin, Texas.