How Director Luke Barnett Was Inspired to Create Viral Short Film 'The Crossing Over Express' After Receiving a Message from His Late Mother

A few years ago, Luke Barnett heard from his mother, even though she had passed away 20 years ago. The actor and filmmaker received a text message from an unknown number with a YouTube link to a video his mother had made when he was 16, telling him how proud she was of him. It was especially shocking because he didn’t have many photos or any videos of her. It turned out that his friend Jon’s father had recently discovered her on an old VHS tape and posted it online.

“That video really shook me,” Barnett says. “It reminded me of my last conversation with my mom. She was in the hospital, in a coma, and they let me out one last time.” He was just 17 at the time, and says it ended up feeling more like a confession. “Talking to people years later, I learned that it’s a very common thing,” he says. Barnett began to think about the idea: What would you do if you could have one last conversation with a loved one? “I thought, if I could put it into a story, it could create a feeling that a lot of people could relate to.”

Barnett was right, as his short film inspired by the experience, “The Crossing Over Express,” received massive support and over half a million views within 72 hours of being posted on X.

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Barnett plays a man in the film who pays what appears to be some sort of doctor (played by Emmy nominee Dot-Marie Jones of “Glee”) who rides in the back of a big truck and can resurrect the dead, but only for two minutes at a time. It’s both melancholy and hilarious, a thoughtful meditation on a very personal experience that also feels universal.

Barnett wrote and directed the film with his friend Tanner Thomason, with whom he has collaborated on several projects, including the 2020 film Faith Based, in which they both starred and which they co-wrote with Vincent Masciale. The two have known each other for a long time. “Before we collaborated on shorts and features, we would collaborate on weekends, serving alcohol at NoBar in North Hollywood,” Thomason notes. “Not only do I know the guy’s creative sensibilities, but I know his drink order.” Thomason also immediately responded to the idea when Barnett told him the story. “It hit me in the gut first, and I knew right then that this was going to have an impact on him.”

Barnett had never directed the film before and initially considered asking someone else to take the helm. “But the story is so personal that I started to imagine myself sitting next to the monitor, pissing off whoever I asked,” he admits. He decided to take the plunge, with Thomason at his side. “Tanner is one of my best friends and someone I love writing with, so it made sense to ask him to do it with me. He has great instincts and ideas. I also knew he would tell me if I wasn’t doing it right.”

The 11-minute short was shot in one day in Los Angeles on a “nearly non-existent budget,” according to Barnett, with “a small crew of talented friends who did the work because they believed in the idea.” With limited time and such a personal story, Thomason admits the situation was stressful — “but in the best way.” He continues, “Not only are you trying to execute the day and the plan that you agreed on, but you also want to find a way to give your friend the space and time to push their performance to the next level.”

“The Crossing Over Express” screened at a few film festivals, but Barnett notes that it “didn’t get selected for any of the really career-changing ones.” Short of the Week posted it on YouTube, but the filmmaker really wanted to share it with the world, hence its unconventional release on X. Barnett says, “I woke up the next day to hundreds of messages from people telling me how much it affected them.”

And the reaction has continued to grow, something the duo couldn’t have predicted. “We were hoping for it, of course, but you never know,” says Barnett. “I think we knew we had something, that people could relate to it, but we also wanted to give it a twist and a darkly comedic edge. It’s a tough line to walk and we were a little worried it wouldn’t work. It was my first time directing, so to see directors I’ve admired for many years tweeting about it… I’m a little gobsmacked, to be honest.”

“The Crossing Over Express” is being developed as a series to be pitched to production companies. While the filmmakers are open to the idea of a feature film, he says the responses have led him to think it would work better as a series.

Although he started out as an actor, Barnett says he stopped in 2012 when he started getting opportunities as a writer. “Faith Based,” which starred Jason Alexander, Margaret Cho and Lance Reddick, ended up getting a bit lost during the pandemic, but led Barnett to his manager, Courtney Petrakis, who he says really believed in him as a multi-performer. He was encouraged to get back into acting, and he currently has a recurring role on the Apple TV+ series “For All Mankind.” But he says, “I’m a big believer in creating your own opportunities. I don’t want to wait for someone to cast me. As happy as I am with the roles that I’ve been given, I really wanted to show people what I could do.” I don’t know if I achieved it, and time will tell how many casting directors, directors or showrunners will see the short, but I can say that it was the performance of which I was most proud.”

He also kept the video of his mother, which he watched just before shooting the short film. “Everything that comes out of this short film, in terms of acting, I owe to her and my friend Jon’s father, who sent it to me.”

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