The Advent of The 'Tech Bro' Billionaire
How Jesse Armstrong's Mountainhead perfectly encapsulates the deranged billionaires who run our world
Jesse Armstrong has long cemented himself as a great satirical writer with credits on TV shows such as Peep Show, Succession, The Thick of It and films like In the Loop. His newest release, Mountainhead carries on his legacy. I was able to catch a preview of Mountainhead at the BFI Southbank accompanied by a Q&A. Throughout the screening, there was rapturous laughter. In response to a film which feels absurd, yet uncomfortably close to the reality and world we live in today. This is a film about the ‘tech bro’, but more than that, it’s about the weird balance of power we find ourselves in. Open up Twitter and news story about men like Elon Musk and Donald Trump will certainly grace your timeline and dominate headlines. It’s concerning how billionaires have tightened their grip on politicians and the sheer power their wealth affords them. When Trump was sworn in as President, he was flanked by Musk, Bezos and Zuckerberg, a scene which felt like it should have been a NYT cartoon. But it wasn’t. The American oligarch are brazenly showing off their proximity to the most powerful man in the free world. Where else would you find someone with Elon Musk’s track record leading a government department? Mountainhead taps into that uneasy space between reality and farce using its cast, incredible production design and sharply written dialogue to portray its themes
Mountainhead follows a group of ultra-wealthy tech moguls on a weekend retreat in Park City, Utah set during a pivotal moment in global politics. Fictional social media site ‘Traam’ has unleashed a swathe of AI features which has led to deep fakes and AI-generated disinformation spreading like wildfire. The group of friends consists of Ven (Corey Michael Smith), Randall (Steve Carrell), Souper (played by Jason Schwartzman) and Jeff (Ramy Youssef). Ven, the richest of all the friends, is directly responsible for unleashing the AI tools which fuel the chaos we watch unfold. Randall is the the second wealthiest having made his money in infrastructure, and his age positions him to be the mentor and father figure. At the beginning of the film, he has been diagnosed with terminal cancer after a long period in remission. He’s keen to use AI’s capabilities to accelerate human-kind towards a cure and living beyond our planet. Souper, the least wealthy of the group plays the host. He’s chasing billionaire status and hoping to convince his friends to fund his new lifestyle app in a bid to finally crack the $1 billion net worth he has failed to achieve so far. Jeff, the youngest of the group, runs an AI company. Where Ven’s use of AI is reckless and has the capabilities to pose much harm, Jeff’s AI company is the complete opposite with features like moderation and fact-checking in place to prevent misuse, deep fakes and disinformation.
The house itself is our main location for the film. It is Souper’s new modernist home and from our introduction to him, he is anxious to impress his friends despite being the poorest of the group. Armstrong cleverly throughout the film interrogates the financial hierarchies that can dominate friendships, particularly male ones. Throughout the film, the others poke fun at Souper for his lack of taste when commenting on his house, his millionaire status and his name is of course, reminiscent of the term soup kitchen. Mountainhead feels like a fifth character. Over the weekend, it insulates the group far away from the collapse of society and the violence following.
Breaking news clips they flick through on their phones and push notifications are our only point of reference, alongside various discussions. We see the riots, the murders and assassinations of world leaders through this lens. The characters use the design of the house to scheme and plot. At one point, in fear and paranoia the Chinese government are after them, they retreat to Souper’s basement. A world map is positioned opposite the two lane bowling alley (one lane would be too constricting, of course!). The friends discuss potential countries to target for a series of coups. Souper at one point has serious conversations with a government in an attempt to launch a coup in South America and install himself as a technocratic leader. This is of course, conducted in the safety of his own home in a home movie theatre. As the weekend progresses, the four friends get increasingly hostile. Their scheming ways take place in hushed whispers and spirited discussions in rooms with ceiling to floor windows. They are annoyed by the sheer inconvenience and volume the news of world disorder poses to their weekend and net worth.
In TV shows and films, production design is a useful tool to delve into our characters in subtle ways. Posters on a wall, the selection of furniture and the interiors can tell us about a character’s personalities, their psyche and their histories. Mountainhead is a mansion purposefully constructed to suit a tech millionaire who is insecure about his status and wealth. The physical location where it juts out from a mountain is imposing. It feels unnatural, artificially constructed. During the Q&A, Jesse Armstrong revealed the house was selected because it felt unsettling to the production designer who toured it. As I watched the film and observed features of the mansion’s interior, I wondered, are rich people bound by an uninspiring aesthetic? It feels like we’re living in the age of dull. Mountainhead’s interiors like many other wealthy mansions are bland. A sea of grey, white and dull. Colours are added to rooms through the paintings that adorn the walls. A few well-placed art pieces from semi-famous artists signal that the owner is wealthy enough to afford those and also, wise enough to know that the minimalist approach of wealthy homes barely works with tasteful accessories. The production designers were able to create a home with a sterile atmosphere. Nothing feels comfortable or colourful. It's deeply uninspiring and sad. Like Souper.
Was your decorator, Ayn Bland?
AI’s position in this film, is as its central theme. It stokes the tension and sets the backdrop for political instability. Mountainhead is smart enough to know there is no hopeful resolution to the issue of AI and deepfakes. When AI first became popularised, a lot of its outputs were discriminatory. Microsoft famously had to shut down its AI chatbot in 2016 when the bot posted antisemitic content. The film and that incident is a harsh reminder that AI does not exist in a vacuum, it is influenced by those who create it and reflects their biases and hate. Ven does not have a substantial change of heart or a coming to Jesus moment. There is no moral turnaround or lesson learned. Ven is reckless, driven by his net worth, AI’s role as a disruptor and his own power and influence. He does not care for the real-world consequences, he’s shielded from them.
As deep fakes emerge and AI is misused, the demand for Traam increases. Ven does not resolve to roll back his AI tools and have them go through iteration to ensure they cannot be exploited, but rather, he looks to Jeff’s AI technology which is able to discern misinformation, misuse and prevent deep fakes. The sense of irony is not lost on the audience. A man is confronted by the evils caused by his own invention, and instead of trying to resolve, the solution to buying Jeff’s AI is far easier. There is no impetus to do better. Jeff, to his credit, is deeply unsettled by the global disorder. He recognises the costs of what is unfolding and sees through his phone, the vast human tragedy. As the nation-state across many countries collapses and technocratic dictatorships threaten to emerge in the form of the other three men, he hesitates to sell his app. He is unable to put away his feelings towards Ven for the greater good. It is accurate and depressing that he with his faults, remains our most morally upstanding character. It plays into the ever-creeping sense that the wrong people are in charge.
Mountainhead is a film which truly interrogates the perverse nature of wealth, influence and power and the toxic masculinity in male friendships. The weekend retreat of four tech bros sets the scene for an unexpected turn of events. They are above nothing and their wealth shields them from the consequences. Its relevance to the current political climate cannot be understated. Are we anywhere close to confronting the role of billionaires in our politics? With the rise of ChatGPT and generative AI (I remember that Barbie doll AI trend on TikTok), will the dangers of AI through deep fakes force our most powerful and wealthy to confront its ability to harmful and begin conversations about regulating it? It’s hard to say. This film does an incredible job at positioning these questions to the forefront of your mind. You can stream the film on Sky Entertainment and Now TV, it’s worth the watch.
Thank you for reading this post, I loved the film a lot and I would be so interested to see thoughts and opinions from others. Did you enjoy it? Did you see the parallels I saw with The Big Short?
Was it too on the nose? I do think it suffers a similar fate to The Apprentice, both well-crafted films with incredible performances, but because of its relevance, it feels as if it’s come too soon.