‘The Struggle by Lumon’ is a pulse-tapping sci-fi/action fan film from writer/director/racing driver Micheál Fitzgerald, who also stars as a haunted version of himself – or rather, two versions. The film offers a cinematic glimpse into an imagined world where consciousness is corporate property and reality is split across the speed of thought. But blink and you’ll miss it – this is a two-minute bullet train.
Shot and edited by Henry Trickey, the visuals alone deserve the checkered flag. Racing sequences shimmer with glossy precision and razor-sharp cutting create the feeling of velocity, even if we never get behind the wheel ourselves. There’s an energy here, bottled in the craft, that hints at a much bigger machine rumbling under the hood.
The synopsis suggests an ambitious concept: a Severance-style split-mind experiment embedded in a Formula 1 fever dream. In execution, though, ‘The Struggle by Lumon’ feels more like a teaser than a narrative. We watch Micheál walk, observe, brood – the film lives in implication, in suggestion. There’s no overt exposition, and none of the sci-fi premise is directly visualized. It’s not a flaw per se – just a deliberate choice to stay enigmatic, to provoke curiosity over closure.
As an experimental short, it thrives on mood over mechanics. The racing scenes are genuinely spectacular. The sound design is equally tight and immersive. But the film’s biggest move is its restraint – giving us just enough to ask “What is Lumon Racing really up to?” without giving away the keys.
This is essentially a signal flare. A visual dispatch from a fictional universe that wants expanding. Let’s hope this is just the warm-up lap.
