Sunday also served as second unit director, additional camera operator, and music editor along with starring in, co-editing, and co-producing the film.

Per school policy, Archie is sent to the counselor Mrs. Ellis (Sandy Martin) and soon taken into police custody for giving sardonic answers to her questions.

Most of Archie's peers witness him handcuffed outside by a Ventura County Sheriff, including his crush Sierra Silver (Brooke Nevin).

Archie's mother Gretchen (Nora Dunn), a lawyer and local activist, along with his father Daryl (Robert Kurcz), a football quarterback-turned-El Pollo Loco franchisee, also arrived at the scene and made a failed attempt to persuade the sheriff to let him go.

They asked about his idea for the film—ranging from general concern to nihilistic support, an outrage motivated by preventing suicide contagion.

Archie is later brought back to the mental institution for psychiatry sessions, during which he bonds with his new therapist Gafur Chandrasakar (Joe Mantegna) over their shared love of cinema and morbid sense of humor.

And Sierra begins to open up about her brother Shane's death in a car crash one year ago, along with the intense pressure that her wealthy parents place on her to succeed academically and socially.

Archie drives to Los Angeles to clear his head, and rings the doorbell of filmmaker Jesse Gabriel Vargas's modest house in Boyle Heights.

They later walk through Skid Row together, where they see homeless people keeping each other company, listening to a street preacher, and helping each other forage for supplies.

Vargas encourages Archie to find purpose in being considerate of other people, and metaphorically kill negative parts of his old self rather than commit suicide altogether.

Sierra's parents (Mariel Hemingway and Tim Halligan) run into her room and, at first glance, falsely assume Archie facilitated her suicide.

Co-writer Eric J. Adams and executive producer Karen Dean Tritts are credited as background players.

So they started giving that feedback and saying "I’m an Archie because I’m depressed and I hate my family, or I’m creative and I love making art but people don’t understand it."