‘He doesn’t know he’s an icon’: Ladies lose their phone in the elevator mid-TikTok, only to stumble across an undiscovered main character

Leaving your phone in an elevator so you can get a good group pic is never a good idea, as you never know when those doors are going to shut and take your expensive cellular device to another floor where it could get picked up by anybody.

Then again, what’s life without a little risk, right? The lift selfie has become something of a trend on TikTok lately, although it invariably ends in disaster. Still, sometimes you just have to take a chance to get an iconic pic with your friends.

Got to get the perfect group pic

This is exactly what TikToker Juliana did when her and her friends set a phone down in an elevator to snap a photo of the group. With the phone perfectly in place they strike a pose, successfully capturing a great picture for the gram. But you already know where this is going — as one of the girls steps towards the elevator to retrieve her phone, the doors abruptly close before she can get inside, taking her phone on an unexpected adventure.

What happens next is simultaneously wholesome and hilarious as an elderly man enters the elevator and somehow completely misses the phone right next to his head. He literally stands right in front of the camera, blissfully unaware that he is being recorded and even now he’s probably still unaware that literally millions of people have seen the video. He’s giving some real main character energy as he carries on with his day without a care in the world.

I believe the kids call it aura, or is this an example of someone being demure? I don’t know, whatever it is this guy’s got it and he’s got it in spades. Everything about this guy is just so mysterious, from his posture to those wispy white hairs on his head.

Who is Elevator Man?

Juliana may have been hoping to capture the perfect group pic, but instead she captured an undiscovered main character in the form of this old man. After this mythical encounter the elevator returns the phone to Juliana and her friends much to their relief, but they’ll be forever changed by this magical experience. It’s almost like they’ve caught a cryptid on camera. First, there was Big Foot and the Loch Ness Monster. Now, we have Elevator Man.

At the time of writing the video has absolutely gone viral with a little under 30 million views and 5.6 million likes. Viewers simply couldn’t get enough, with one commenting, “He’s sleeping happily without knowing he’s viral with 2,2 million likes.” The official accounts of companies like TikTok, Microsoft, YouTube and more commented on how cute the old man was and asking “what’s his lore we have to know.”

It seems this man’s unmatched energy has attracted the entire internet to this video, proving that he truly must be the main character — we’re all just side characters in his story.