Threading the needle in a time travel story is never easy. Rules have to be established, like in Back to the Future, or be incredibly intricate, like Netflix’s best series, Dark. As delicate as this balance is, somehow, the best sci-fi sleeper hit of the year accomplishes this, and then some. Hulu’s Mike & Nick & Nick & Alice operates mostly as a gangster film, but that is the beauty of it. From the opening moments of the feature, the tone and stakes are established before getting into the nitty-gritty of time travel.
The sci-fi thriller follows Mike (James Marsden) on the inevitable path many gangsters come to. Fatigued by his life of violence, he wants to retire and run away with his best friend’s wife, Alice (Eiza González). The only kink in this plan is that said best friend, Nick (Vince Vaughn), found out about this and had him set up as a snitch. This setup would be intriguing in any gangster story, but Mike & Nick & Nick & Alice balances genre spectacularly in a narrative that is part action, part sci-fi, and part outrageous comedy.
‘Mike & Nick & Nick & Alice’ Is An Entertaining, Genre-Bending Romp
Whenever a feature is dumped on a streaming service, it will likely disappear unceremoniously. Mike & Nick & Nick & Alice dropped on Hulu in March without so much as a warning, but missing out on this comedy would be a mistake. The tone immediately immerses viewers in the understanding that this isn’t just like any other time travel movie. This is ridiculous fun in the best way possible.
Collider Exclusive · Sci-Fi Personality Quiz Which Sci-Fi Hero Are You Most Like? Paul Atreides · Captain Kirk · Princess Leia · Ellen Ripley · Max Rockatansky
Five iconic heroes. Five completely different ways of facing an impossible universe. One of them shares your instincts, your values, and your particular way of refusing to back down. Eight questions will tell you which one.
🏜️Paul Atreides
🖖Capt. Kirk
✊Princess Leia
🔦Ellen Ripley
🔥Max Rockatansky
01
How do you lead when the stakes couldn’t be higher? The way you lead under pressure is the most honest thing about you.
02
What is your greatest strength in a crisis? The quality that keeps you alive when everything else fails.
03
What is the thing you’d sacrifice everything else for? Your deepest motivation is your truest compass.
04
How do you relate to the people around you? Who you are to others under pressure is who you really are.
05
You’re facing a threat that no one else believes is real. What do you do? How you respond when you’re the only one who sees it defines everything.
06
What has your heroism cost you personally? Every hero pays. The question is what — and whether they’d pay it again.
07
How do you feel about the rules of the world you’re in? Every hero has a relationship with the system. What’s yours?
08
When everything is on the line, what keeps you going? The answer is the most honest thing about you.
Your Hero Has Been Identified Your Sci-Fi Hero Is…
Your answers point to the iconic sci-fi hero who shares your instincts, your values, and your particular way of facing the impossible.
Arrakis · Dune
Paul Atreides
You carry a weight most people would crumble under — the knowledge of what you’re capable of, and the burden of what you might have to become.
You see further ahead than others and you plan accordingly, even when the vision frightens you.
You are driven by loyalty to your people and a sense of destiny you didn’t ask for but can’t escape.
Paul Atreides is not simply a hero — he is someone who understands the cost of power and chooses to bear it anyway.
That gravity, that willingness to carry what others won’t, is exactly you.
USS Enterprise · Star Trek
Captain Kirk
You lead with instinct, warmth, and an absolute refusal to accept a no-win scenario — because you’ve always believed there’s a third option nobody else has thought of yet.
You take the mission seriously without ever taking yourself too seriously.
Your crew would follow you anywhere, not because you demand it, but because you’ve earned it.
Kirk’s genius isn’t tactical — it’s human. He reads people, bends rules with purpose, and wills outcomes into existence through sheer conviction.
That combination of warmth, audacity, and relentless optimism is unmistakably yours.
The Rebellion · Star Wars
Princess Leia
You are the kind of person who holds the line when everyone else is losing faith — not because you’re fearless, but because giving up simply isn’t something you’re capable of.
You lead through conviction. Your voice carries because your belief is unshakeable.
You gave up everything ordinary the moment you chose the cause, and you’ve never looked back.
Leia is not a supporting character in her own story — she is the moral centre of the entire rebellion.
That same fierce, principled, unbreakable core is what defines you.
The Nostromo · Alien
Ellen Ripley
You are not reckless, not grandiose, and not particularly interested in being anyone’s hero — you just refuse to stop when it matters.
You see threats clearly, you document the truth even when no one listens, and when the time comes you handle it yourself.
Ripley’s heroism is earned, not performed. She doesn’t have a speech — she has a flamethrower and a plan.
You share her composure under the worst possible pressure, and her refusal to pretend the monster isn’t there.
When it counts, you don’t flinch. That’s everything.
The Wasteland · Mad Max
Max Rockatansky
You have been through fire that would break most people — and what came out the other side is something the world underestimates at its peril.
You don’t ask for help, don’t need validation, and don’t wait for anyone to tell you the rules no longer apply.
Your loyalty, when it finally arrives, is absolute — but it’s earned in silence and tested in action, not in words.
Max is not a nihilist. He is someone who lost everything and found, against his will, that he still has something worth protecting.
That bruised, stubborn, ultimately human core is exactly yours.
Nick, Alice, and Mike seem to be in a fairly standard love triangle, but after those stakes are set up, the story really gets cooking. Mike’s fears of his relationship with Alice being revealed are quickly supplanted when Nick reveals that his best friend has been set up, and this is the night that he dies. This plot point is revealed in hilarious fashion when Nick instructs Mike to knock out someone for him: Himself. As it turns out, this Nick is from the future, and they have to make sure that Present Nick doesn’t get in the way of them ensuring that Mike survives the night.
Romantic machinations take a backseat to typical time travel humor — as well a classic Gilmore Girls debate. From then on, it’s a mad dash of action and comedy as the four of them band together to take out a whole host of gangsters out for blood. With supporting roles from Keith David and Stephen Root, Mike & Nick & Nick & Alice makes no question of what type of story this is.
This is a movie made to be seen on the big screen, even though it tragically wasn’t. Fans who come for the sci-fi should be surprised and pleased by the laugh-out-loud moments. Perhaps even more surprising are the touching character arcs – one that forces Present Day Nick to become a better person after interacting with Future Nick. Tragically, the action-comedy deserves far more attention than it’s getting, but viewers can still watch it over and over via its streaming home on Hulu.
