“I don’t know that I will ever make something else that has had that effect on people,” says Luke Barnett of his quick movie “The Crossing Over Express.”
“I still get messages once a week, three paragraph-deep messages from somebody who has lost someone close to them who saw it and had a cathartic experience. It’s been heavy, but it’s what we all dream of as artists. You can’t ask for more than that.”
Again in 2022, Barnett — an LA-based actor and author identified for the 2020 Christian movie business satire “Faith Based” — acquired an out-of-the-blue message with a hyperlink to a video of his late mom, who had handed away when he was simply 17. In it, she instructed him how proud she was of him and the way she puzzled what he’d turn out to be.
Struck by the notion of what you’ll do in case you may have one closing dialog with a liked one, Barnett teamed along with his long-time inventive collaborator Tanner Thomason to make a brief movie based mostly across the concept.
“The Crossing Over Express” — shot in 2024 for next-to-nothing with a bunch of buddies over in the future — grew to become a viral hit. The movie starred Barnett (additionally making his directorial debut) as a person who visits a travelling ‘doctor’ who can elevate the useless from the again of his lorry — however just for two minutes — so he can converse to his deceased mother.
After it was posted on the In need of the Week web site and on X in September 2024, Barnett says “it took off,” touchdown half 1,000,000 views in its first 72 hours (it neared 2 million after a month) and amassing widespread acclaim and a spotlight. Selection was amongst those who lined the viral movie on the time.
Lower than two years on and “The Crossing Over Express” should still be touching individuals emotionally. However the 10-minute quick has additionally lit a hearth underneath Barnett’s personal profession and. As he claims: “It’s had a far greater impact than anything else I’ve done in over a decade of traditional industry work.”
Earlier this yr, he was among the many new additions for season 4 of AMC’s hit psychological thriller collection “Dark Winds,” a recurring function as an FBI Particular Agent, taking him into status TV for the primary time. And it was a job he says got here straight due to “The Crossing Over Express.”
Amongst those that got here ahead to reward the quick was “Dark Winds” government producer Max Hurwitz. “He told me that he liked it, that it really affected him and he thought my performance was great. But I didn’t think too much of it,” says Barnett. “And then five months later, my agent gets an email from the casting director that just says: the producers of ‘Dark Winds want you to tape for this role in season four.” Two weeks later he was capturing in Sante Fe.
Barnett notes that his character within the unique books by Tony Hillerman is described as having a “bushy moustache” very like his personal — “which probably doesn’t hurt” — however it was all actually all the way down to Hurwitz remembering him from “The Crossing Over Express.”
“If it weren’t for making that short film, I would have never even been on their radar,” he says.
“Dark Winds” can be the beginning of Barnett’s busiest yr. After two months filming in Sante Fe, he then shot an episode of Peacock’s new comedy-drama collection “The Burbs” adopted a recurring function in season 5 of Apple TV’s sci-fi “For All Mankind” (which he had already joined in season 4 because the Mars-based head of spacesuit logistics). However there’s lots extra to come back and lots of with direct hyperlinks to the “The Crossing Over Express.”
“I have two movies hopefully being shot back-to-back and both with directors I’ve admired for a long time,” he says. “And both are them were scenarios where the director saw the short and basically offered me a role. And that’s never happened to me before.”
In a single occasion, Barnett says he bought a message from a author who stated he’d been on a bunch chat with a director singing his praises for “The Crossing Over Express.”. Not lengthy after, a composer texted to say how the identical director had simply introduced up his identify and love for the quick.
“And then three weeks later, I just get a straight offer to basically play a strong supporting role in his next movie,” he says.
Luke Barnett in ‘Dark Winds.’ Credit score AMC/Michael Moriatis
Whereas Barnett’s work as an actor could have erupted, there’s lots occurring behind the digicam too — which has additionally been given a significant enhance due to due to the quick.
One other of those that bought in contact with Barnett after “The Crossing Over Express” was horror web site Fangoria, which invited him to a gathering the place he claims they “basically said, do you want to do another short with us?”
Now in post-production and coming from the brand new Fangoria Studios label is the creature characteristic horror quick “Goodbye, Monster,” directed by and starring Barnett and based mostly on an concept he’d been mulling over for some time. A couple of 12-year-old boy who receives a closing go to from the creature residing underneath his mattress, the movie has additionally managed to draw a high-level inventive crew that he says was largely found via the quick. Amongst them, Bear McCreary (“Outlander”), who has written the rating, Jeff King (“Star Wars: The Bad Batch”) of Skywalker Sound who’s doing the sound design and Patton Oswalt, who’s lending his voice.
“These people would have no idea who I am or would be doing my short if it weren’t for ‘The Crossing Over Express,’” he says.
There have been different flashes of extra just-make-it homespun creativity too. Final yr, Luke wrote and carried out “Ovation,” a hilarious quick taking satirical goal on the rising obsession over standing ovations at main movie festivals. Directed by Noam Kroll (who first met Barnett after casting him in current characteristic “Teacher’s Pet”) and impressed by watching Joaquin Phoenix trying deeply uncomfortable within the Cannes ovation for “Eddington” earlier in 2025, the movie sees Barnett’s suited star rise from his seat to wild applause and, throughout 5 minutes of close to continuous whoops and cheers, run the total spectrum of feelings.
Very similar to “The Crossing Over Express,” “Ovation” was made for subsequent to nothing (on this case, $50), with a two-person crew (Kroll and DP Andy Chinn) and a handful of actor buddies. Whereas it could not have had the identical mainstream success, due to its pointed subject material it’s actually attracted a good array of business followers.
Barnett and Kroll are actually working collectively on a short-form collection known as “Fatherhood” — a micro-dramedy about parenting from a dad’s perspective he describes as “‘Bluey’ meets ‘Louie’” — which they’re capturing of their spare time.
After which there’s “The Crossing Over Express” characteristic, which predictably grew to become a subject of debate nearly instantaneously after the quick caught hearth. Having been “totally caught off guard” by the success, Barnett and Thomason didn’t have something ready for the inflow of consideration. As an alternative of leaping into one thing, they determined to take a second and “not force this idea out.” However now, after loads of again and forths, that characteristic adaptation is starting to take form.
“Ultimately, it’s still a grounded supernatural drama and about grief and longing to connect with someone you’ve lost,” says Barnett. “We’ve expanded it in a way that I think makes for a bigger and more commercial movie, but it’s still has that ‘Field of Dreams’ meets ‘Edward Scissorhands’ feel to it.” Particulars, together with the manufacturing firm and solid, are anticipated to be revealed quickly.
For Barnett, as he seems to be to maintain the momentum going, there’s a vastly constructive message to take from his expertise with “The Crossing Over Express,” one which chimes with the spate of on-line creators comparable to Markiplier, Curry Barker and Kane Parsons now turning the business on its head.
“It definitely made me a big believer in trying to taking control,” he says. “I think the hard thing about this industry — which I get — is that nobody wants to take a risk on anything. As an actor, they almost have to see that you can do it before they pay you to do it, like ‘Oh, I’ve seen that guy can be good in someone else’s thing, so he can be good at my thing.’ And for me, it took making the thing for them to be willing to take the risk on me.”
