Spiderhead (2022) Ending Explained
Spiderhead is the newest release from Joseph Kosinski, who earlier directed Top Gun: Maverick, which was released in the year 2022 too. This Sci-fi action-thriller stars Chris Hemsworth (who does not know him as Thor from the Marvel movies), Miles Teller, and Jurnee Smollett. The film is based on the short story “Escape from Spiderhead” by George Saunders.
The plot shows some psychologically disturbing scenes as Hemsworth plays a pseudo-protagonist character of a mad scientist trying to conduct unethical experiments on the prisoners who agree to volunteer and get their capital punishments reduced. Miles Teller and Jurnee Smollett are two prison mates who eventually fall in love and how they struggle to free themselves from the island. This movie is currently available on Netflix.
Warning Spoilers Alert!
Spiderhead Plot Synopsis Explored
The movie starts with Steve (Chris Hemsworth) operating as a jail warden with his young assistant Mark. He is experimenting on various prisoners in an isolated penitentiary research center called ‘Spiderhead.’ On the surface, the prison looks like a state-of-the-art facility where even the deadliest criminals are allowed move around freely without any barriers, somewhat described as open door setup.
Steve always keeps reminding them how fortunate they are to be in such a liberal environment with arcade games, comfortable living, restaurant-style meals, and so on. One of the prisoners, Jeff (Miles Teller), with facial scars and emotional damage, is serving his sentence for drunk driving and killing his best friend in a car accident. Now, there is a reason why the jail mates are allowed such leniency.
A device is attached to each of their backs surgically, which controls their mental state and behavior by inserting dosage of various drugs through it. Steve and his assistant Mark control the dosage with the help of an iPhone. Jeff is an easy guinea pig for Steve as he is always ready to volunteer to try and achieve redemption. In the beginning, they try to create a false illusion of a healthy environment where all the inmates are allowed to agree to the experiments by uttering the word “Acknowledge”.
It shows that Steve Jeff injects Jeff with a Drug named N-40 (a love drug) along with two other subjects named Heather and Sarah on two separate occasions, which results in physical intimacy between him and each girl. Next, Steve asks Jeff to choose the I-16(Darkenfloxx) drug dosage for one of them to see if he has developed any fondness for them. It’s one of the worst drugs that make people go to a dark state where they start harming themselves, so Jeff refuses to choose a name. Steve tries to convince him that this love drug could make many people capable of love and create harmony.
Jeff and Rogan (a scary inmate) sit in front of each other, waiting for the experiment to happen and when nothing starts, he bursts through the door and confronts Steve and Heather about the same trial of Darkenfloxx to be given to them. The first doubt occurs in Jeff’s mind when he sees Heather robotically agreeing to everything Mr.Abnesti says. Steve manipulates Mark too by trying to convince him how risky the experiments are as Steve injects the drug into his body.
The next day, Steve injects Darkenfloxx into Heather’s body, making her act violently as the dosage of Darkenfloxx increases, and asks Jeff to narrate the scene. She eventually kills herself by slitting her throat. When Mark and Steve are arguing inside the cell, Jeff takes out Steve’s journal. He discovers that this organization is not a part of state authority but belongs to Albenesti pharmaceuticals, Steve’s own company.
Also, he comes to know from a bingo card that the drug B-6 is the most crucial drug, and the love drug is just a facade. He keeps the journal back in its place before Steve comes in. Later, both inject each other with G-46 (laffodil) drug, and Jeff learns that Steve’s father abandoned him in a foster home at the age of eight. Jeff and Lizzy get emotionally attached as Jeff confesses that he had also lost his lover, Emma, in that accident.
Steve senses the closeness between Lizzy and Jeff when he sees a picture of Lizzy in Jeff’s room through a CCTV camera. After that, Steve plots to get Lizzy in the room to try Darkenfloxx on her, but Jeff completely refuses to acknowledge it, and Steve calls it off.
Spiderhead Ending: Does Steve Abnesti’s master plan work out? What happens to Jeff and Lizzy?
Steve Abnesti is a mad scientist who has manufactured several illegal drugs that is powerful enough to control human minds. He manipulates everyone, his assistant Mark, Jeff, and other prisoners saying that he is curing the world’s problems through these medicines.
In the beginning, Steve pretends to work as per orders from the protocol committee but later, Jeff discovers that the research center belongs to him. As the truth unfolds, Mark starts getting affected by these disturbing events and eventually agrees to help Jeff. The next day, Mark leaves, and Jeff gets to operate the remote control that controls the dosage. Jeff still refuses to carry on with the experiment, which angers Steve.
He forces Lizzy to tell the truth that her crime was to kill her baby. Jeff changes the setting from Lizzy to Steve, and he starts behaving weirdly. That’s when he comes to know that B-6 (O-B-D-X) is the drug that makes people obey everything. But the medicine doesn’t work on Steve and initiates the Darkenfloxx dark on Lizzy, and she starts strangling her. A fight between Jeff and Steve breaks Steve’s device, and he starts experiencing all the emotions simultaneously. Jeff and Lizzy manage to escape, but Steve again manipulates the other prisoners to stop them.
In the meantime, he leaves the center in a private plane. As Steve tries to escape, realizing his life-long dream shattered, he finds no reason to live anymore. So, he crashes his plane on a cliff and commits suicide. Lizzy and Jeff witness from the motorboat as they manage to get free. The movie ends with police proceeding toward the island on speedboats, as informed by Mark.
Chris plays a convincing role of a psychopath who seems to be quite friendly at the beginning and keeps manipulating everyone till the last. His ultimate quest to force everyone to obey orders showed his god complex. The movie depicted the use of technology which is quite ahead of its time. Some scenes include Heather slitting his throat, prisoners screaming in the cell, Lizzy strangling her, etc. could be a little disturbing.
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