December 2, 2025 – A brilliant performance by Rainn Wilson highlights this searing dark comedy about a burned out paramedic and those who witness his last day on the job.
Wilson (“Weird: The Al Yankovic Story”) plays paramedic Randy, who is burned out, frustrated and angry at everyone. He is also the best paramedic in the fleet, and so is chosen to host a ride-a-long passenger for one day, Jessica (Aimee Carrero of “The Menu”). He, Jessica, and his partner, Mike (Lil Rel Howery of “Get Out”) climb aboard the ambulance for a wild 24-hour shift.
The first stop is for food, but Randy's events still prevent him from eating for hours, exacerbating his bad mood. Along the way, the irascible Randy gets a phone call that cheers him up so much that he frightens Jessica and Mike. His good mood is totally unlike his usual demeanor. The phone call has to do with Randy finally being able to leave this job after 18 years. He just has to last one more day.
That day, the trio responds to a number of calls, including a drunk motorcyclist who has had a bad accident, car accidents, drug overdoses, mental patients, a dead person at a nursing home, and a kid whose heart has stopped after being hit in the chest by a baseball. There are minor triumphs and major tragedies along the way.
Randy tries to distance himself emotionally from these ups and downs, but it is hard. His mask of anger and indifference slips from time to time. He also seems to suffer from panic attacks from time to time during the day. A constant source of frustration is the abrasive Doctor Serano (Rob Riggle of “Bad Man”). The trio encounters Doctor Serano several times that day, and he always has some demeaning words for them. In one memorable speech, Doctor Serano tells Randy about his own frustrations with his job. It turns out both of them have frustrating, difficult jobs.
There is a very nice scene between Mike and a mental patient, Charlie (Rafael Castillo of “Cinnamon”) who thinks he is the president of the United States. Mike, Jessica and Randy have managed to calm him down and are headed to the ambulance, when the police show up with guns drawn. The flashing lights and guns get Charlie riled up, and Mike desperately tries to calm him down, while Randy and Jessica try to get the police to de-escalate the situation.
In another scene, Jessica and Randy have to dodge traffic while trying to save a woman badly injured in a traffic accident. While Jessica is clearly shocked at what she is seeing, Randy and Mike have seen it all before. Jessica gradually comes to respect just how good Randy is at his very demanding job.
Another person who respects Randy is his supervisor, Shanice (Yvette Nicole Brown of “K-Pops!”) she is quite aware of what a pain in the ass Randy is, but she also knows how good he is at his job. After yelling at him for angering a nursing home supervisor, she later goes to bat for Randy in a contentious phone conversation with the same nursing home supervisor.
Bureaucracy, endless paperwork, frustrations caused by a terrible health system are highlighted here in a way that most documentaries can't touch. Most of all, though, this movie is about Jessica, Randy, Mike and Shanice and how they deal with very challenging jobs in a humane way. The story is great and the acting is superb, especially by Rainn Wilson. This movie rates an A.
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