Safety Not Guaranteed is a 2012 American science fiction comedy film directed by Colin Trevorrow and starring Aubrey Plaza and Mark Duplass.

One of the magazine's writers, Jeff Schwensen, proposes to investigate a newspaper classified ad that reads:[6] *WANTED* Someone to go back in time with me.

I have only done this once before.Jeff's boss Bridget approves of his story idea and Jeff selects his team: Darius and Arnau, a studious UW student interning at the magazine to diversify his résumé for medical school applications.

Jeff's ulterior motive for this out-of-town assignment is to track down his long-lost love interest who lives in town.

Darius's disaffected attitude serves her well, and she quickly endears herself to Kenneth as she poses as a candidate to accompany him on his mission.

While Kenneth is paranoid and believes secret agents are tracking his every move, Darius gains his trust as she participates in a series of training exercises in the woods around his house and she begins to develop feelings for him.

Kenneth says that his mission is to go back to 2001 and prevent the death of his former girlfriend, Belinda, who was killed when someone drove a car into her house.

The ad was featured on The Tonight Show with Jay Leno and discussed repeatedly on the Car Talk radio series.

Connolly wrote a first draft of the script as a buddy comedy but later re-wrote the lead role with Plaza in mind, after seeing her performance in Funny People.

Wanting to gain permission of the ad's writer to adapt the concept into a film, Connolly eventually tracked down Silveira who gave his blessing.

The site's critical consensus states: "Safety Not Guaranteed's ostensibly modest ambitions are outmatched by the movie's strong performances, beguiling charm, and heartfelt story.

[12] Stephen Holden of The New York Times wrote that the story's shenanigans are "harnessed to a plaintive underlying theme about the fading dreams of those aspiring professionals in their 20s and 30s.

"[13] Roger Ebert praised the film for the quality of the dialogue, characters with depth and dimension, as well as Mark Duplass for his balanced performance.