“I don’t know that I will ever make something else that has had that effect on people,” says Luke Barnett of his short film “The Crossing Over Express.”
“I still get messages once a week, three paragraph-deep messages from somebody who has lost someone close to them who saw it and had a cathartic experience. It’s been heavy, but it’s what we all dream of as artists. You can’t ask for more than that.”
Back in 2022, Barnett — an LA-based actor and writer then best known for his “Funny or Die” shorts — received an out-of-the-blue message with a link to a video of his late mother, who had passed away when he was just 17. In it, she told him how proud she was of him and how she wondered what he’d become.
Struck by the notion of what you would do it you could have one final conversation with a loved one, Barnett teamed with his long-time creative collaborator Tanner Thomason (the two were behind 2020’s comedy feature “Faith Based”) to make a short film based around the idea.
“The Crossing Over Express” — shot in 2024 for next-to-nothing with a group of friends over one day — became a viral hit. The film starred Barnett (also making his directorial debut) as a man who visits a travelling ‘doctor’ who can raise the dead from the back of his lorry — but only for two minutes — so he can speak to his deceased mom.
After it was posted on the Short of the Week website and on X in September 2024, Barnett says “it took off,” landing half a million views in its first 72 hours (it neared 2 million after a month) and amassing widespread acclaim and attention. Variety was among those that covered the viral film at the time.
Less than two years on and “The Crossing Over Express” may still be touching people emotionally. But the 10-minute short has also lit a fire under Barnett’s own career and. As he claims: “It’s had a far greater impact than anything else I’ve done in over a decade of traditional industry work.”
Earlier this year, he was among the new additions for season 4 of AMC’s hit psychological thriller series “Dark Winds,” a recurring role as an FBI Special Agent, taking him into prestige TV for the first time. And it was a job he says came directly because of “The Crossing Over Express.”
Among those who came forward to praise the short was “Dark Winds” executive producer Max Hurwitz. “He told me that he liked it, that it really affected him and he thought my performance was great. But I didn’t think too much of it,” says Barnett. “And then five months later, my agent gets an email from the casting director that just says: the producers of ‘Dark Winds want you to tape for this role in season four.” Two weeks later he was shooting in Sante Fe.
Barnett notes that his character in the original books by Tony Hillerman is described as having a “bushy moustache” much like his own — “which probably doesn’t hurt” — but it was all really down to Hurwitz remembering him from “The Crossing Over Express.”
“If it weren’t for making that short film, I would have never even been on their radar,” he says.
“Dark Winds” would be the start of Barnett’s busiest year. After two months filming in Sante Fe, he then shot Peacock’s new comedy-drama series “The Burbs” — a recurring role as a bar manager — followed by season 5 of Apple TV’s sci-fi “For All Mankind” (which he had already joined in season 4 in the recurring role as the Mars-based head of spacesuit logistics). But there’s plenty more to come and many with direct links to the “The Crossing Over Express.”
“I have two movies hopefully being shot back-to-back and both with directors I’ve admired for a long time,” he says. “And both are them were scenarios where the director saw the short and basically offered me a role. And that’s never happened to me before.”
In one instance, Barnett says he got a message from a writer who said he’d been on a group chat with a director singing his praises for “The Crossing Over Express.”. Not long after, a composer texted to say how the same director had just brought up his name and love for the short.
“And then three weeks later, I just get a straight offer to basically play a strong supporting role in his next movie,” he says.
Luke Barnett in ‘Dark Winds’
While Barnett’s work as an actor may have erupted, there’s plenty going on behind the camera too — which has also been given a major boost thanks to thanks to the short.
Another of those who got in touch with Barnett after “The Crossing Over Express” was horror site Fangoria, which invited him to a meeting where he claims they “basically said, do you want to do another short with us?”
Now in post-production and coming from the new Fangoria Studios label is the creature feature horror short “Goodbye, Monster,” directed by and starring Barnett and based on an idea he’d been mulling over for a while. About a 12-year-old boy who receives a final visit from the creature living under his bed, the film has also managed to attract a high-level creative team that he says was largely discovered through the short. Among them, Bear McCreary (“Outlander”), who has written the score, Jeff King (“Star Wars: The Bad Batch”) of Skywalker Sound who’s doing the sound design and Patton Oswalt, who’s lending his voice.
“These people would have no idea who I am or would be doing my short if it weren’t for ‘The Crossing Over Express,’” he says.
There have been other flashes of more just-make-it homespun creativity too. Last year, Luke wrote and performed “Ovation,” a hilarious short taking satirical aim at the growing obsession over standing ovations at major film festivals. Directed by Noam Kroll (who first met Barnett after casting him in recent feature “Teacher’s Pet”) and inspired by watching Joaquin Phoenix looking deeply uncomfortable in the Cannes ovation for “Eddington” earlier in 2025, the film sees Barnett’s suited star rise from his seat to wild applause and, across five minutes of near continual whoops and cheers, run the full spectrum of emotions.
Much like “The Crossing Over Express,” “Ovation” was made for next to nothing (in this case, $50), with a two-person crew (Kroll and DP Andy Chinn) and a handful of actor friends. While it may not have had the same mainstream success, thanks to its pointed subject matter it’s certainly attracted a decent array of industry fans.
Barnett and Kroll are now working together on a short-form series called “Fatherhood” — a micro-dramedy about parenting from a dad’s perspective he describes as “‘Bluey’ meets ‘Louie’” — which they’re shooting in their spare time.
And then there’s “The Crossing Over Express” feature, which predictably became a topic of discussion almost instantaneously after the short caught fire. Having been “totally caught off guard” by the success, Barnett and Thomason didn’t have anything prepared for the influx of attention. Instead of jumping into something, they decided to take a moment and “not force this idea out.” But now, after plenty of back and forths, that feature adaptation is beginning to take shape.
“Ultimately, it’s still a grounded supernatural drama and about grief and longing to connect with someone you’ve lost,” says Barnett. “We’ve expanded it in a way that I think makes for a bigger and more commercial movie, but it’s still has that ‘Field of Dreams’ meets ‘Edward Scissorhands’ feel to it.” Details, including the production company and cast, are expected to be revealed soon.
For Barnett, as he looks to keep the momentum going, there’s a hugely positive message to take from his experience with “The Crossing Over Express,” one that chimes with the spate of online creators such as Markiplier, Curry Barker and Kane Parsons now turning the industry on its head.
“It definitely made me a big believer in trying to taking control,” he says. “I think the hard thing about this industry — which I get — is that nobody wants to take a risk on anything. As an actor, they almost have to see that you can do it before they pay you to do it, like ‘Oh, I’ve seen that guy can be good in someone else’s thing, so he can be good at my thing.’ And for me, it took making the thing for them to be willing to take the risk on me.”
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