The 100-Year-Old Man Who Climbed Out the Window and Disappeared

Take a wily centenarian, stolen money, angry skinheads, an elephant, and circus costumes, and you have the ingredients of a rollicking, slapstick cross-country road trip. Oh, and did we mention explosions? The titular old man is also a dynamite expert. The result from actor-turned-director Felix Herngren is one of 2013’s highest-grossing comedies in Sweden.

Based on the bestselling novel by Jonas Jonasson, this anarchic film follows the journey of Allan Karlsson (Robert Gustafsson), who yearns to escape from his 100th birthday party at his retirement home. After doing exactly what the film’s title indicates, Allan meets an elderly soulmate, Julius (Iwar Wiklander), and unwittingly finds a suitcase full of loot that belongs to a violent skinhead. While on the run, the geriatric duo pick up a driver named Benny (David Wiberg) and former gangster moll Gunilla (Mia Skaringer), who help them evade authorities and make new enemies. As the farcical chase rolls on and the body count rises, the film flashes back to Allan’s itinerant youth. Like a sillier, more destructive “Forrest Gump”, Allan is seen stumbling through the 20th century, shifting the course of world events with the likes of Franco, Truman, Stalin, Reagan, and Gorbachev.

With a bouncy soundtrack, cartoonish violence, a deliberate disrespect for history, and a commitment to lunacy, this propulsive black comedy reminds us that life doesn’t begin until our second century.

Sweden 2013