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Trial Run
Movie

Trial Run

2015 • Unknown

Woke Score
5
out of 10

Plot

Following a humiliating job search, Gabe looks set for success after answering an online recruitment ad. He soon finds himself on a bizarre cross-country odyssey filled with strange signs and symbols, seedy hotel rooms, dead prostitutes, and possibly extraterrestrial garbage men. Can Gabe put the pieces together and maintain his composure, or will he stay a victim of his own neuroses?

Overall Series Review

Trial Run (2015) is a low-budget psychological thriller centered on Gabe, a man spiraling into neurosis following a failed job search, who embarks on a bizarre cross-country recruitment odyssey. The film's core theme is an overwhelming sense of nihilism and existential decay, using surreal and seedy imagery like 'dead prostitutes' and 'extraterrestrial garbage men' to illustrate its bleak worldview. The narrative is heavily focused on the protagonist's subjective breakdown in a world that is repeatedly condemned as fundamentally corrupt. This focus on deep-seated existential pessimism results in extremely high scores for Oikophobia and Anti-Theism, as the movie's philosophy rejects the value of human life and moral order. Conversely, the film does not engage with modern identity-based political lectures, gender empowerment tropes, or explicit LGBTQ+ ideology, keeping those scores very low. The woke virus is absent in the social/gender categories but manifests intensely in a civilizational and spiritual self-hatred.

Categorical Breakdown

Identity Politics2/10

The plot centers entirely on the male protagonist Gabe’s individual psychological trauma and ‘neuroses’ following a career setback. The conflict stems from an internal, existential failure and a chaotic external reality, not from systemic oppression, race, or immutable characteristics. The narrative is focused on an individual's struggle for sanity, not a lecture on intersectional hierarchy.

Oikophobia9/10

The film’s philosophy is explicitly nihilistic, with commentary describing humanity as 'weeds' and the world as a 'sick fucked up goddamn putrifying fucking world.' This is a near-total condemnation of all human existence, exceeding mere cultural critique and framing civilization itself as fundamentally corrupted. The presence of 'extraterrestrial garbage men' suggests a moral cleanup by an external, implicitly superior, non-Western force.

Feminism3/10

The protagonist, Gabe, is depicted as emasculated, suffering from 'neuroses' and career 'humiliation.' However, the female representation, notably the mention of 'dead prostitutes,' is relegated to a peripheral, objectified plot device in a dark odyssey rather than an empowering 'Girl Boss' figure. The main focus is on the male anxiety and breakdown, not a lecture on anti-natalism or gender dynamics.

LGBTQ+1/10

The narrative, a surreal psychological thriller focused on an employment odyssey and the protagonist's mental state, provides no evidence of centering alternative sexualities, promoting gender ideology, or deconstructing the nuclear family. Sexuality is present in the form of dark, degenerate plot elements and remains private or exploitative, with no political lecturing.

Anti-Theism9/10

The movie explicitly promotes a spiritual vacuum through its core theme of nihilism, stating that the world is 'goddamn putrifying.' This viewpoint posits that life is meaningless and that morality is subjective chaos, denying the existence of objective truth or a higher moral law. The film’s wholesale rejection of human value and order is a thematic endorsement of anti-theistic despair.