Nirvanna the Band the Show the Movie (2026) on Netflix
R20261h 40mAdventureComedySci-Fi
Matt and Jay have chased a Rivoli gig since forming Nirvanna the Band in 2008. A spilled bottle of Orbitz in the RV Matt modified sends them to 2008.
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- Netflix4.3/5
- IMDb7.7/1012,903 votes
- Rotten Tomatoes95%
Trailer
Plot summary
Jay has grown tired of Matt's failed plans. The pair, performing as Nirvanna the Band, have spent seventeen years trying to get booked at Toronto's Rivoli, where they hoped to play since 2008. Matt proposes parachuting from the CN Tower down to the SkyDome while a Blue Jays game is under way; the roof closes as they fall. He next decides that pretending to be time travelers will win the Rivoli over, and fits their RV with imitation time machine parts. Jay, meanwhile, has quietly booked an open mic night in Ottawa. The next morning he tries to drive off alone, finds Matt still aboard, and a bottle of Orbitz spilled inside the rig carries both of them back to 2008.
Cast
Did you know?!Facts and trivia about Nirvanna the Band the Show the Movie (2026)
Can contain spoilers, watch the movie first.
- In May 2024, while shooting a scene with presenters Roz Weston and Mocha Frap, the crew heard of a shooting at Drake's Bridle Path mansion, rushed to the scene and filmed Jay McCarrol running from the house during the police investigation; news coverage of the shooting was also used in the film.
- The CN Tower scenes were shot without permits; because Matt Johnson and Jay McCarrol expected security to refuse them access, they filmed an alternate in which Jay trespasses into the SkyDome dressed as the Blue Jays mascot, and McCarrol was arrested while shooting that sequence.
- The film was shot over 200 days with a crew of only four to eight people: exterior scenes were often filmed in public without permits, using unsuspecting passers-by in hidden-camera style, and the storyline was developed during filming from those encounters.
- Part of the CN Tower ledge scene was shot on a GoPro worn on the helmet of an oblivious tour guide; Matt Johnson said they got the man to look and move where they needed for the sequence's beats without him realizing, and left with the footage.
- Toronto rules limiting how high drones may fly over the Greater Toronto Area complicated shooting from the height of the CN Tower's tip, so the production's drone operator reprogrammed the drone to treat the top of a tall building as ground level.
- In February 2026, Matt Johnson said the film had been recut twice, after its world premiere and after its TIFF premiere, based on audience reaction, and that the Blu-ray and digital version might be different, calling it "a major change".
- The film began as a US road-trip version inspired by A Confederacy of Dunces, with a New Orleans sequence parodying The Talented Mr. Ripley; after reviewing the footage, Johnson and McCarrol judged it lacked the scope for a feature and turned to a Back to the Future-style time-travel plot.
- The film uses audiovisual material from Back to the Future without permission from its copyright holders, relying on its status as a parody for "fair use" protection under United States copyright law.
