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2024 FANON WIKI AWARD NOMINEE! |
The Commune is a 2021 apocalyptic psychological horror film starring Emma Stone, Martin Henderson, Rodney Eastman, Marguerite Moreau, Katherine Waterston, Virginia Gardner, Michael Pitt, and Pat Healy. It follows a married couple who drop out of society and become affiliated with a ragtag group of idealists, only to realize that their unhinged leader has something laying in store for them that they could never have anticipated.
Summary[]
Emily and Gabriel Hudson are a middle-class married couple living in a Manhattan apartment and who are becoming increasingly discontented with their aimless, ungratifying lives. Emily is a magazine writer struggling with a severe and seemingly permanent case of writer's block, fueled by her mother's gradual decline in health due to lung cancer. Gabe is a history teacher employed at a high school, which barely pays him enough money to fix the malfunctioning dishwasher in his and Emily's kitchen. After her mother ultimately succumbs, Emily loses all motivation until she comes across a ragtag group of idealists led by the charming and emotionally perceptive Joseph. Fed up with the condition of ennui in which he finds himself, Gabe reluctantly agrees to hit the road with his newly enthusiastic wife to live with their new family. What begins as a refreshing and downright blissful change of pace in their spiritual lifestyle deteriorates sharply into a surreal nightmare dominated by Joseph's growing belief that the end of the world is approaching.
Plot[]
In Manhattan, New York on a snowy night, Emily Hudson is visiting her mother, Robbi, in the hospital. Robbi has been afflicted with a terminal lung cancer, and is resting on her bed while Emily sits on the window sill, looking outside at the beautiful view of the city with a melancholy expression. Emily makes a strenuous effort to withhold her sorrow and maintain a casual conversation with her mother, who appears extremely frail and is having difficulty breathing as she speaks, talking about how much she loathes the wintertime and apologizes for her husband not being there, explaining that he had to stay behind for work. Robbi asks her if she has spoken to her sister lately and insists that it is important for her to reach out before it is too late, but Emily overrides her plea and makes it clear that she has no interest in making the first move. Realizing how late it is becoming, Emily tells her mother she should get ready to go home in order to prepare dinner for her and her husband before he arrives. Robbi tells her daughter that she doesn't have to stop by to visit her tomorrow, suggesting instead that she get together with some of her friends who she hasn't seen in a while, but Emily insists that she will be back and intends to spend as much time with her as she possibly can. After putting on her jacket and wrapping her scarf around her neck, Emily grabs her purse and bends down to give Robbi a passionate kiss on her cheek. As she's walking out of the room, Emily sees a nurse standing by the door and gives her a wave and a forced smile. Suddenly, her mouth begins to form a heartbroken frown as she walks briskly into a nearby bathroom, where she finally breaks down in tears. Emily stands before a mirror sobbing and holding her hand against her chest before she walks into a stall and locks herself in, collapsing on the floor. She tries to compose herself and takes a few deep breaths, yanking off a piece of toilet paper to wipe her teary eyes and her running nose. Emily then exits the stall and returns to the sink to run her hands under the faucet with soap and water. She splashes cold water onto her face and takes one more deep breath before walking out of the bathroom.
Leaving the hospital, Emily stumbles across a homeless man sitting on the curb and panhandling for money. She regrettably informs him that she doesn't have any change at her disposal, to which the man meekly replies that he would be thankful to receive anything she has in her bag, no matter how meager. Emily once again tells him she has nothing to give and apologizes, and while she's walking away, the man rises to his feet and bitterly exclaims, "Come on! You're going someplace warm tonight!" Terrified, Emily hastens across the parking lot to get inside of her car. Once inside, she accidentally drops her car keys out of fright and bends down to pick them up off the mat. Emily plunges the key in the ignition and looks over her shoulder to ensure that the homeless man isn't coming after her. As soon as the engine starts, she frantically backs her car up into the street and proceeds to her apartment.
Emily prepares dinner in her apartment kitchen when her husband, Gabriel, arrives home and comments that something smells delicious, giving her an appreciative kiss on the lips as he walks by. Gabe, understanding that she's going through a deeply traumatizing experience, tells Emily he would've been happy to order takeout for the two of them, to which she assures him that she prefers to cook because it helps keep her mind focused and off of her mother. While Gabe sits down on the couch to watch a football game on television, Emily continues to cook her food, watching her husband with a look of discontent.
Emily and Gabe sit across from one another at the kitchen table, eating their dinner in fraught silence. In an effort to crack through the discomfort, Gabe asks Emily how her mom is doing, and with a shrug of resignation, she weakly replies, "The same", explaining that the doctors have done all they could for her and are essentially just making her comfortable until she ultimately succumbs. Gabe is visibly devastated by the crushing news and expresses his regret at Robbi's dire circumstances, apologizing for not being there with her at the hospital. Emily says she understands and changes the subject, asking Gabe how his day was at the high school. He tells her it went by just like any other day, hopelessly trying to convince a bunch of apathetic teenagers of the importance of history lessons. Emily then reminisces about her days as a teenager in high school and relates to Gabe's students because she also didn't feel much interest for academic subjects, but assures him that he will get through to the kids since he's a terrific teacher. Gabe questions Emily about getting any writing done online for her magazine, but she tells him she wasn't able to focus while in the hospital watching her mom's health deteriorate, and as a result, accomplished very little.
Emily is at the sink rinsing the dishes while Gabe is sitting on the sofa resuming his football game. Emily places the dishes inside the dishwasher and turns it on, causing it to emit a loud groaning noise before breaking down completely. Annoyed, she quickly turns off the dishwasher and opens the cabinets above to discover several glasses and bowls covered with grease and tiny food bits from previous meals. Emily angrily alerts Gabe that their dishwasher is broken, to which he reminds her that they recently had a plumber come over to repair it. She claims that whoever stopped by to assist them did a worthless job, and consequently removes the plates and kitchen utensils from the dishwasher to commence scrubbing them by hand. Sympathizing with his wife's predicament, Gabe reluctantly decides to get up off the sofa and offers to finish washing the dishes. Emily tells him she doesn't mind the cleaning, but he insists on helping her out, telling her she has done enough work for the both of them. Emily flashes a smile of gratitude to Gabe and gives him a kiss on the cheek before sauntering into the living room, finally taking some time to relax on the sofa as Gabe stays behind in the kitchen to scrub the dishes.
Later in the nighttime, Emily is sitting upright in bed with her laptop, attempting to carry on writing her article for a women's magazine. Gabe is in the bathroom brushing his teeth and attempting to make idle conversation with Emily, but she merely gives him halfhearted responses due to the fact that she's growing deeply frustrated by her inability to think of much to write. Detecting a note of vexation in his wife's voice, Gabe retires into the bedroom and gets into the bed with her, thoughtfully holding her hand as he promises her it's understandable that she's having difficulty in writing her story. He tells her that her mind isn't in the right place due to her mother's condition, and convinces Emily to close the laptop and put it aside for the night, despite her annoyance. In an effort to relieve her of her stress, Gabe begins to entice Emily via caressing her forehead and kissing her all over her face down to her abdomen. At first Emily tries to enjoy the foreplay and attention, but she finds herself too mentally distracted to go any further and regretfully forestalls Gabe's advances, much to his disappointment. However, he expresses his understanding and agrees to try again some other time.
Early the following morning, Emily drives over to the hospital to pay another visit to her mother, but after she parks her car in the parking lot and takes her key out of the ignition, she sits deep in thought. While taking an extended moment to decide what she wants to do, Emily reluctantly gets out her cellphone and calls her friend, Sharon, asking if she would like to get together for a chat over a cup of coffee. Sharon happily agrees to meet up at a nearby coffee shop, but expresses her confusion at Emily's offer, assuming that she would rather be spending time at the hospital with her mother. Emily tells her that she needs some time away from the oppressive atmosphere of the hospital and is desperate to socialize with a friend in order to clear her head. Sharon informs Emily that she is going to take a shower and will arrive at the coffee shop in approximately 50 minutes. Emily smiles in relief and tells Sharon she'll see her in a little while. Stuffing her phone back into her pants pocket, Emily puts the key in the ignition and drives off.
While sitting at a table in the cafe waiting for Emily, Sharon busies herself with her thesis paper. As soon as she hears a loud honk emanating from an approaching car, Sharon looks outside through the window and locks eyes with her longtime friend, the two women smiling and waving to each other. Emily joins Sharon at the table and they sit drinking coffee while conversing amicably with regard to what they've been up to; Sharon is in the middle of writing her thesis to earn a bachelor's degree so she can become certified as a special education teacher, and is also looking to conceive with her husband. Emily feels a twinge of envy for Sharon's happiness and ambitious accomplishments, revealing that she is writing an article for a women's magazine concerning female empowerment, but is currently hamstrung by a severe bout of writer's block. Sharon assures her that her ability to write will resurface and reminds her that she's under a lot of stress, emphasizing the importance of taking enough time for herself to relax. When asked if she plans on having kids with Gabe, Emily falls silent for a moment before replying that she and Gabe have discussed the subject, but decided it would be better to hold off on raising children until both of them are in a more stable personal and financial situation. Emily wants to complete her article and become published before she wades into the messy waters of motherhood, and Gabe aspires to move them out of the city and into a nice big house in a suburb of Chicago, where he intends to find a higher paying job.
At home, Emily manages to successfully repair the dishwasher and afterward, she rushes excitedly to her kitchen table, where she opens up her laptop and recommences typing in her magazine column. Once Gabe enters the apartment, Emily runs up to him, bursting with a renewed sense of joy and excitement, and throws her arms around his neck before giving him an impassioned kiss on the lips. Gabe remarks that she seems to be in a significantly jollier mood than usual, to which she informs him that taking a break from the hospital and hanging out for a few hours at the cafe talking to Sharon reinvigorated her spirit. Emily joyfully tells Gabe that she has completed several more paragraphs for her article and decided on a whim to skip cooking dinner for once and instead picked them up a pizza. While Gabe sets the table, Emily takes the pizza pie out of the oven and expresses her relief at being able to enjoy a delicious dinner without having had to prepare it herself. Gabe tells her that he spoke to the principal of his school and worked out a deal to get off of work early in the afternoon the following day so that he can go with her to the hospital to visit Robbi. Emily smiles in appreciation, and Gabe takes his first bite of his slice of pizza, which he immediately spits out. Emily breaks out in laughter as she reminds Gabe that she just took the pizza out of the oven. His mouth burning intensely, Gabe quickly grabs a napkin and uses it to dab his tongue, while his eminently amused wife looks on and continues to laugh.
While Gabe is standing before the mirror in the bathroom, brushing his teeth, Emily walks up behind him and flashes a seductive smile. Turning around in pleasant curiosity, Gabe asks if she has completed another paragraph in her magazine column, to which Emily responds with a suggestive shake of the head. Gabe spits out a thick glob of toothpaste into the sink, runs his toothbrush under the faucet and wipes his mouth with a towel before finally approaching his unexpectedly excited wife and wrapping both hands around her neck. The stimulated couple begins kissing one another passionately on the lips as they progress slowly into the bedroom and collapse onto the bed, removing each of their clothes and engaging in powerful, prolonged intercourse for the first in an exceedingly long time. Following their long-overdue lovemaking, Gabe comments that much of the pleasure was derived single-handedly from him, earning him a scornful chuckle by Emily, who also gives him a playful punch on the shoulder. She tells Gabe that her mother is going to be so happy to see him at the hospital, and he replies that he too is looking forward to spending the afternoon with Robbi, but both agree humorously that it would be prudent not to mention the activity in which they're currently involved to her.
As Gabe is lecturing to his class, his cellphone begins to vibrate with an incoming call from Emily, which he fails to notice. A colleague makes an unexpected visit to the classroom to inform Gabe that he is wanted in the main office, earning him the oohs of his suddenly enthusiastic students. Gabe asks if he has done something wrong, to which his fellow worker assures him that it's merely a phone call from his wife, adding that it sounds urgent. Ordering the students to behave themselves during his absence, Gabe thanks his colleague for temporarily taking over for his class and makes his way to the front office, where he picks up the phone and is instantaneously shattered by the hysterical cries of Emily, who begs him to come to the hospital straight away. Sprinting toward his mother-in-law's hospital room at the very end of the corridor, Gabe finds his heartbroken wife sobbing in anguish as she desperately clings to Robbi's arms, refusing to accept the fact that her mother is truly gone. In a futile effort to calm her, Gabe wraps his arms around Emily and squeezes her tightly to his chest, but she angrily pushes him away and smothers her unresponsive mother with kisses all over her cheeks and forehead. Collapsing to the floor, Emily buries her face in her hands and continues to cry uncontrollably. Gabe sits down beside her and embraces Emily, enabling her to rest her head comfortably on his shoulder.
Later that night, Gabe nestles against Emily and folds her in his arms as she lies inert in their bed, sobbing quietly. She tearfully expresses regret at passing on what turned out to be her final opportunity to spend time with her mother in exchange for hanging out with a friend, but Gabe empathetically shushes Emily and assures her that she has nothing to be sorry for; he reminds her that she stayed by Robbi's side almost every day for the last seven months, and that her mother even urged her to take a break from visiting at the hospital to live her life. Filled with loathing at the thought of not being there to comfort her mom when she took her dying breath, Emily gives an unrestrained moan of despair.
The following morning, Emily remains motionless on her side in bed, staring blankly at the unvarnished white wall in front of her while her laptop sits untouched on top of the nightstand.
That night, as Emily and Gabe sit down across from one another in their eat-in kitchen, forcing themselves to eat their meal in silence, Emily merely twirls her fork in the pasta and looks down at her plate with a look of disgust. Gabe is able to detect her sickened state of mind, and not wanting to make waves, proceeds to uncomfortably eat his food while trying to resist the urge to stare directly at his wife. The silence becoming too overwhelming to ignore any longer, Gabe makes an innocuous crack to Emily that she might enjoy his cooking a little better if she actually bothered to taste it, resulting in a sorely unamused Emily shooting a glare at Gabe before she drops her fork harshly on the plate, rises from her chair and storms off to her bedroom, slamming the door behind her. Gabe looks instantly regretful of his words and makes an attempt to calmly return to his food, but instead decides to drop his fork as well as he leans back in his chair and lets out a sigh of dejection.
As Emily sits in desolation on the edge of her bed, she suddenly hears her cellphone vibrating and pulls it out of her pocket to see that the number is one she doesn't recognize. Out of curiosity, Emily answers the phone and holds it against her ear without uttering a word. Following a brief moment of silence, the caller, revealed to be a woman, begins to request a response. Having recognized the sound of the woman's voice, Emily decides to remain silent but keeps the phone pressed against her ear, unsure whether she wants to say anything or leave the caller hanging. The woman finally calls out for Emily, suspecting that she is on the other line as she can hear her breathing. Emily hangs up and remains still for a moment before getting to her feet and snatching her purse from the nearby bureau, walking out of the bedroom in a flash.
Sitting at the bar inside of a nightclub, Emily takes a shot of whiskey before enthusiastically asking the bartender to bring her a full glass. As he prepares her drink, Emily turns her head around to survey the conviviality of the dance floor and its sleek, well-dressed patrons, envious of their happiness and carefree demeanors. Turning back around to find her pitiful glass filled to the top in front of her, Emily kindly thanks her bartender and starts sipping her whiskey, looking to her left to find a pair of handsome, young men sitting a few chairs beside her, staring at her with interested eyes. Emily takes a sip of her beverage and eyes the men back with a flirtatious smile, prompting them to get up and move closer to her. Emily introduces herself and the men follow suit, revealing themselves as Blake and Jeremy. While the three cheerfully engage in conversation, Emily inquires Jeremy about a mysterious substance within a zip-lock bag sticking out of his jacket pocket. Jeremy pulls out the bag and insists jokingly that he carries around a lot of sugar in case he ever finds himself in need of making something sweeter. Blake tells his friend to put it away before he scares Emily off, but she bluntly volunteers that her mother recently died and is looking to let go and have a little fun while she still has plenty of life left in her. Surprised by her lack of inhibition, Blake and Jeremy escort Emily to the bathroom, where each of them takes turns snorting the cocaine. Following their reckless endeavor, the trio heads for the dance floor and begins dancing with the rest of the upbeat crowd. Blake asks Emily what she does for a living, to which she informs him that she writes for a magazine column. When he asks what kind of material she writes about, Emily nonchalantly replies, "Just stuff about women mostly. Respecting them, acknowledging their worth and honoring their accomplishments. You know, all that stupid shit nobody really cares about." Blake assures her that he cares deeply about women and their struggles, provoking Emily to ask who his favorite woman in history is. Blake tells her that Hillary Clinton is his biggest female inspiration and insists that she would've done an abundance of good for the country had she been voted in as president, but then states that she has just been bumped to second place, flattering Emily into breaking out a smile.
Collapsed on the floor within a bathroom stall, Emily hovers over the toilet retching in agony. Her vision is becoming blurry and her knuckles turning white as she grips both sides of the toilet, gagging incessantly in a desperate attempt to purge herself of the toxins overwhelming her body. Unable to withstand the pain for another minute, Emily sticks her fingers down her throat and forces herself to retch up a thick cascade of vomit. Resting her back uncomfortably against the locked door of her stall, Emily coughs up a thin stream of saliva and wipes her mouth thoughtlessly on her sleeve. She rises unsteadily to her feet and walks out of the bathroom and back into the club, where it seems the music has gotten significantly louder. It reverberates through her intoxicated head until only a repulsive, shrill ringing takes its place inside her ears. Emily desperately tries to block out the ringing with her hands but it only gets louder as she begins to bump into other people. Rather than helping the terrified, disoriented woman, the patrons just stare at her in annoyance and confusion, walking directly past her and pushing her aside. Lacking the ability to speak intelligibly, Emily calls out weakly for Blake and Jeremy to come help her, but they're nowhere to be found. She stumbles out of the nightclub through a backdoor and suffers a dizzy spell that results in her falling head first onto the ground vomiting several more chunks all over the grass. Picking her head up slowly to find that the world is still spinning rapidly before her blurred eyes, Emily eventually regains enough vision to discern Gabriel standing a few feet away with a look of disgust on his face. She stares back at him with an expression of unadulterated humiliation and regret, seemingly aware of how low she has sunk.
During the drive home, Gabe remains utterly silent at the wheel as he devotes his attention to the road ahead. Emily sways uncontrollably in the passenger seat, looking over at her husband to notice his look of resentment hasn't faltered in the slightest. Gabe turns to Emily for a moment before refocusing his eyes on the windshield, provoking Emily, still mired in a drunken stupor, to scoff and mumble to Gabe to stop giving her that look. She tells him she doesn't need his judgment and insists that he isn't so perfect himself. Struggling to maintain his composure, Gabe clenches his teeth and keeps his lips sealed, ultimately pulling into the parking lot of their apartment building. Irritated by the relentlessness of Gabe's silence, Emily gives an insincere apology, which Gabe refuses to acknowledge. While the troubled couple sits still and quietly in the car for an uncomfortably extended duration, Emily bends down and vomits on the floor beneath her seat. Having reached the pinnacle of his exasperation, Gabe storms out of the car and forcefully pulls Emily out of the passenger side, laying her on the nearby lawn. Emily jokingly asks Gabe if this is how he intends to enjoy some alone time with her while she's too intoxicated to defend herself, giggling at her own witless remark and referring to Gabe as a pervert. Instead, Gabe rolls out a hose and, without warning, sprays Emily all over the front of her body, causing her to let out a scream of infuriated stupefaction while the vomit quickly washes off her face down to her clothes. Emily makes an attempt to stand herself up, only to plop back down onto the soaking wet grass.
With her arm wrapped around his neck, Gabe carries Emily into their apartment and lays her down gently on the sofa. He bitterly complains that it's going to take weeks to get the rancid smell of her vomit completely out of his car as he walks over to slam the door in front of him, to which Emily responds by sarcastically asking which member of his family has just died. Fed up with her wallowing in self-pity and refusal to accept responsibility for her own actions, Gabe tells Emily to quit using her mother's death as an excuse to commit foolish acts and asserts that he will not continue to tolerate her despicable behavior, claiming that tonight will be the last time he ever goes searching the streets for her and from now on will let her clean up her own mess. Emily reiterates her deep regret at not having been there for her mother when she passed away, commenting that Gabe could have no way of comprehending what exactly that feels like. Gabe reminds her that there was nothing she could've done to prevent Robbi's passing, stating that even if she had been by her side at the precise moment she took her final breath, it wouldn't have made the slightest difference. Due to the excessively high volume at which they're speaking to each other, a next-door neighbor bangs on the wall a few times, putting a sudden end to their confrontation and bathing the room in silence. Gabe takes a moment to compose himself and stares sympathetically at Emily's bereft face. Slowly, he moves toward her with outstretched arms in an attempt at an embrace, but Emily recoils with tears streaming down her face. She repeatedly urges him to stop, but Gabe gets down on his knees and clasps Emily in his arms, making her feel comfortable enough to break down entirely as she apologizes for what she put him through. Gabe quietly assures her that it's okay and kisses the top of her head lovingly.
Emily goes to a library in search of books that specialize in managing grief, and while there, she stumbles across a room in back of the shelves filled with a mysterious group of people congregated and setting up chairs in front of a stage. She takes a peek from behind the window in the middle of the door and notices many of the women are speaking to one man in particular who appears to be the leader of the group. Walking away to find a quiet spot to get started on her reading, Emily sits down at a vacant table and opens up a self-help book, skipping to a chapter that offers solutions to recovering from the passing of a loved one. As she quietly gazes through the book, a young blonde woman by the name of Bliss approaches Emily and disrupts her concentration. Bliss reveals to Emily that she caught her briefly staring at her group in the backroom, embarrassing Emily and causing her to stumble over her words as she contrives an excuse. Though Bliss offers an invitation to join them, Emily declines and says she just came to read by herself. Sensing an unpleasantness in Emily’s demeanor, Bliss takes a seat across from her and glances at the books she has stacked up beside her, recognizing that Emily is in a great deal of suffering. Bliss rests a hand tenderly on Emily’s and tells her that she’s lost someone close to her, surprising Emily into looking up from her book, at a loss for words. Bliss asks whose death she’s mourning, and with tears gradually building in her eyes, Emily lets it out that her mother died. In an effort to bring a sense of comfort, Bliss confides in Emily that her infant daughter passed away 3 years ago as a result of contracting pneumonia, instantly earning a tearful Emily’s sympathy as well as her trust. Bliss mentions that her grief over her daughter’s death nearly resulted in her own as she subsequently became addicted to heroin and attempted to commit suicide on a few different occasions, but experienced a life-saving turnaround when she met a charismatic spiritual guru named Joseph. Using a disarming, pleading smile, Bliss convinces Emily to meet Joseph and his wife, Bernadette, the matriarch of their found family.
Emily takes a seat among the group and listens to Joseph and Bernie as they stand atop a podium and preach their values of a non-materialistic society. Joseph believes that the human body is merely a vessel containing a spirit that has existed since the beginning of time and will continue to transfer into other bodies once its current one concludes. Therefore, there's no purpose in vanity, and the most important thing we can do with the time we're given is to treat ourselves and others with endless love and tenderness, sharing and sacrificing material possessions. After their speech, Bliss takes Emily to meet Joseph and Bernie one on on, and they each give her a hug upon learning of her mother's passing. Swayed by their idealistic attitudes and promises of familial devotion, Emily pleads with Gabe to take a couple weeks off his job to meet and travel with the family. Gabe greets the idea with skepticism and disinterest, believing Joseph to be a con artist who preys on people's weaknesses and vulnerabilities. However, he experiences a change of heart after receiving a reduction in his salary and seeing that most of his students are failing his class. Gabe and Emily take a bus to Joseph and Bernie's rented house in a secluded, wooded valley, where they become acquainted with the occupants and are supplied with hallucinogens.
Emily experiences visions of her mother, and Gabe is seduced by Michelle, but he manages to resist her advances. While all of his followers are under the influence, Joseph, who has covertly consumed half of his acid tablet, preaches that soon enough, their souls will depart one by one from their "vehicles" and transcend to outer space, where an alien spacecraft will be waiting to transport them to a magical, dreamlike planet called "Lunetheria." During her hallucination, Emily follows Robbi into the forest to a large cherry tree. Robbi wraps her arms around the tree and tearfully accuses Emily of abandoning her in her final moments before spontaneously combusting. Emily begins to scream and cry for her mother, and Joseph envelops her in an embrace, soothingly assuring her that she'll be okay and has to let herself die in order to be reborn. As her nerves begin to calm, Joseph directs some of his followers to shower her with hugs and kisses. Gabe wanders outside in a daze, combatting surreal hallucinations while men and women copulate around him. He looks in through a window to see his wife being caressed by several people, including Joseph, who locks eyes with and smiles at him. Gabe stumbles inside and carries Emily away from the others and into the kitchen, where he gives her water from the sink. He then carries her into a bedroom and lies beside her in bed, arguing that they should leave. Emily believes they were summoned to the commune for a reason, physically feeling her grief over her mother "melting away." Joseph watches them as they fall asleep.
Waking up the next morning, Emily and Gabe join Joseph and the others for breakfast, with no recollection of the prior day's occurrences. Emily notices that the men are given greater portions of food than the women. When she points out the imbalance, Patty reasons that the men are responsible for carrying out more physical labor and protecting the more delicately built women, and therefore require more sustenance. Afterward, Gabe and the rest of the men head outside and commence chopping firewood and loading buckets of water from a well while Emily and the women clean the kitchen and tend the garden. During a conversation with Gabe, Warren and Beau make cryptic allusions to an impending "cleansing" at a nighttime campfire. While feeding the dogs, Emily hears someone retching nearby. Peeking in through the cracked bathroom door, she sees Bernadette vomiting blood in the toilet. Emily asks what's wrong, and Bernie claims it's her body purging itself of impurities. Emily sits with her and rubs her back.
In the nighttime, the group gathers around a campfire, where Joseph distributes glasses of ayahuasca. Each member divulges a piece of their backstory before taking a sip to free themselves of their prior lives and hang-ups. Emily expresses grief over not being by her mother's side when she passed, as well as insecurity over her ability to write persuasively and confidently. Gabe feels like a failure for being a middle-aged man struggling to make ends meet, and desperately yearns to become a father. Bliss confesses that her infant daughter's pneumonia arose from the two of them living in the freezing cold streets; contrary to what she initially claimed, Bliss became a heroin addict prior to losing her daughter, and was consequently fired from her job as a retail clerk and kicked out of her apartment. Warren's preteen son committed suicide after enduring years of bullying at the hands of a group of boys at his middle school; in retaliation, Warren drove to the home of the ringleader and beat him into a coma, landing him in jail for several years. Caleb has been sexually abused by his father since early childhood, and after dropping out of college in the first semester, he ran away from home. To earn money on the streets, he became a pimp, ultimately getting apprehended and put on probation. Joseph was an English professor at Stanford who lost his tenure after he was caught having relations with one of his male students; subsequently, he attended conversion therapy before falling in love with Bernadette, who worked alongside him at Stanford as a nurse.
Joseph and Bernie lead their followers to a lake, where they strip off their clothing and swim under the moonlight. To demonstrate his self-professed otherworldly power, Joseph instructs a willing member, Ryan, to confess his "sin" of harboring homosexual desires, after which he dunks him beneath the water until he loses consciousness. Joseph then carries Ryan out of the water, lays him gently on the ground, and performs mouth-to-mouth resuscitation. After a nerve-racking delay, Ryan comes to and regurgitates the water, earning the joyous tears and applause of most in attendance, excluding Emily, who looks deeply unnerved. Gabe is propositioned in the woods by Michelle, and while at first he gallantly attempts to resist her advances, he ultimately gives in, pleasurably allowing her to perform fellatio. As Emily wanders through the woods, experiencing vivid hallucinations including riding a water slide, she encounters Gabe and Michelle having sex. Devastated, she runs into the house and collapses on the floor, sobbing hysterically. Joseph comes in and soothes her, carrying her into a bedroom where they proceed to make love. The next morning, while Gabe is drinking organic coffee at the breakfast table, Emily walks in, prepares herself a cup, and nonchalantly reveals she had sex with Joseph before walking outside. Gabe is visibly discomfited, but opts to keep his mouth shut and remain seated.
Over the next several months, the family spends their days planting crops in the garden, feeding a growing number of animals, and dropping acid. One afternoon, Joseph sends a select few to head into town and steal food from a grocery store owing to rotten produce. Once caught by security, Crystal makes a failed attempt to seduce the manager in exchange for their freedom. Subsequently, Joseph orders several members to get part-time jobs to afford food and clothes. Emily takes a position as a cashier at a convenience store, where she runs into her estranged friend, Sharon. When Sharon questions her whereabouts, Emily gives vague and evasive answers, saying she and Gabe needed a change of scenery and are living with "some friends." Sharon quickly becomes suspicious and asks for an address, but Emily withholds, gently insisting she must get back to work. After Emily finishes her shift and drives back to the commune, Sharon, who's been waiting in the parking lot, follows her. While Emily and the other women sit in a sewing circle, Sharon approaches and urges Emily to come home with her. Joseph and Bernie invite Sharon to join their family, promising a relief from the materialistic society in which she's currently ensnared, but she declines. Emily hesitantly affirms her loyalty to her newfound family and enviously wishes Sharon luck with her successful life. Disheartened and concerned for her friend's welfare, Sharon turns around and returns to her car, which Beau ominously compliments. She expresses cautious appreciation and drives off.
In the nighttime, Emily is woken from her sleep by muffled cries. Not wanting to wake Gabe up, she quietly gets out of bed and follows the sound to the bathroom. Gingerly, Emily cracks open the door and spies Bernadette, sitting beside the toilet, sobbing and bleeding from her mouth, while Joseph tries to console her. Unable to suppress her concern, Emily asks Bernie if she's okay, and Joseph, angered by her intrusion, promptly shoves her out and orders her to go back to sleep. As Emily continues to pry, Joseph smacks her across the face, admonishing her for questioning him. Gabe, who had woken up in time to witness this, rushes out of his room and pins Joseph against the wall, threatening to murder him if he ever touches his wife again. As Emily stands crying, clutching her cheek, Patty takes her aside and informs her that Bernie's very sick, and gently urges her not to make things harder for Joseph. Having regained his composure, Joseph embraces Emily and expresses forgiveness for her perceived disobedience. The next morning, while Bernadette is sitting by herself at the kitchen table drinking coffee, she stabs herself in the eye with a fork, screaming at the top of her lungs as she forcibly removes the eye from its socket. Joseph and Bernie gather the group together and inform them that the latter has been privately suffering ocular melanoma, and that she maimed herself to take control over her body.
To demonstrate support for Bernie's deteriorating condition, Joseph orders the men and women to cut their hair and stitch it into a quilt in her honor. Joseph's landlord pays him a visit and is disturbed to see the bedraggled state of the house as well as the occupants' extreme devotion to their leader. When Joseph pays him his rent money, the landlord complains the amount is insufficient. Joseph says his people just started working and expects to come into more in the following weeks. The landlord sees Bernadette's missing eye and becomes horrified. Joseph lies that the cancer took it. After the landlord leaves, shaken, Bernadette gathers the men together in the living room to perform impromptu vasectomies, claiming they need to "purify" themselves for their souls to be transported to the promised land. As she commences cutting off Caleb's testicle, he begins to bleed profusely and scream. She stops the bleeding with a towel and chastises him for moving too much and not trusting the procedure. Caleb's wound becomes infected and he decides to leave the family, despite Emily's plea for him to stay. He tells her everything Joseph and Bernie have told them is a lie, that they're delusional and trying to transfer their delusion to everyone else. In the middle of the night, he sneaks out. Joseph becomes paranoid that Caleb checked himself into a hospital and told the doctors what they've done. He removes the doors from every bedroom and orders everyone to keep an eye out for police.
Beau enrolls at a local college and recruits Dianne into the family. Emily assumes the role of her mentor and teaches her how to farm. Because she's the youngest member, Joseph feels it's necessary to strip Dianne of her purity; he plies her with alcohol, laced with acid, and makes her the center of a group orgy. Emily reluctantly participates, and while everyone is having sex with her, Dianne slowly awakens and begins to panic. Joseph gags her with his shirt and caresses her cheek and hair, insisting they're purifying her body of all its inhibitions and impurities. Throughout the ordeal, Emily holds her hand. Overwhelmed with guilt, Emily experiences trouble falling asleep and voices her displeasure to Gabe, who adopts Joseph's declaration that it was good for Dianne. Emily crawls into bed with a whimpering Dianne and comforts her.
During Christmas, Joseph enables his followers to visit their families. Emily visits her father in a nursing home. Due to his advanced dementia, he struggles to remember who she is. She tells him about her and Gabe's new family, and because her father used to be a pastor, she asks if Joseph is a false prophet. Unable to concentrate, he remarks that she resembles his wife and asks where she is. Smiling through tears, Emily falls silent. Upon her return, Emily learns that Bernadette has passed away. Subsequently, Joseph's behavior grows more unhinged. He expresses concern over not having witnessed the spaceship descend on the property and collect Bernadette's body. To save face, he insists the aliens must have removed her soul invisibly from space. Gabe theorizes that the only way for one's soul to be freed from its vessel is to sacrifice oneself, as opposed to waiting for God to provide relief. At a nighttime gathering around the campfire, Joseph recites the last rites to a willing follower before stabbing him in the chest with an axe. As the man lies bleeding and convulsing, Joseph passes the axe around to his followers, encouraging them to help him "come to now." A few take turns stabbing the man, ultimately severing his head, which they hold up toward the sky and toss into the forest. Emily and Dianne hold each other in horror. Emily runs off and collapses onto the ground, vomiting and crying. Gabe rushes to her aid and insists the man's soul has been elevated to a better place. Emily reveals she's pregnant, and believes it belongs to Joseph.
Michelle confronts Emily with an accusation of glaring at her incessantly, and despite Emily's denial, Michelle pushes her to the ground. Emily goes into labor prematurely and gives birth to a son. Joseph puts her on bed rest in a sealed room for the next several months, feeding her and the baby a diet of milk, fruit, and grains from the land. Emily secretly breastfeeds her son instead. She begins to hear strange scratching noises from behind the walls. Emily uses the telephone on her nightstand to call Sharon, but her husband answers and says Sharon has gone missing. While Emily sits up in bed cradling her sleeping son, Joseph gently removes him from her arms, cradles him, then without warning slams him on the floor and stomps him. As Emily begins to utter a scream, she wakes up and is comforted by Gabe. Emily tells him Sharon is missing, and Gabe believes she was discontent with her life and decided to run away. The noises behind the walls intensify, causing Emily to suffer a mental breakdown. She tears up the wallpaper and accuses Joseph and Gabe of enslaving Sharon behind the walls. Joseph restrains her, and she spits in his face. Joseph force-feeds Emily apple sauce laced with acid and tells Gabe she's suffering from postpartum depression. Emily pleads with Gabe to leave the family, fearing for their safety and that of their son, but Gabe has become fully immersed in Joseph's ideologies and refuses to abandon him. During their argument, Bliss lingers in the doorway, eavesdropping. Emily screams at her to give them some privacy.
Several years later, Emily's son, Adam, is around five, and he's the first of several children in the family. In response to the emergence of Covid-19, Joseph turns off the water supply, believing it to be contaminated, and requires his followers to remain at home, forfeiting their jobs. He preaches that the virus is ushering in the apocalypse, and because of their lifestyle and commitment to nature, they will be chosen first to inhabit the cleansed, utopian planet. The crops become tainted, and many of the children fall ill from dehydration and malnutrition, their teeth blackening. Emily implores Joseph to take one of them to a hospital, but he refuses, arguing that the virus is at its most contagious in a hospital and that only God has the power to cure sick children. He believes doctors only scam patients out of their money in exchange for pointless treatments and false assurances. The women are forbidden from eating more than one meal a day, while the men are permitted to continue with breakfast and dinner. After the men finish dinner one night, the women clean up after them, and Dianne sneaks a bite of one of their leftovers. Ryan catches this and elbows her in the face, grabs her by the back of her hair, and threatens to cut her tongue out unless she spits it out, and she painfully complies. Joseph awards Ryan a nod of approval. Emily, Bliss, and Patty take Dianne into a bedroom and console her, washing the blood off her face with a wet rag. Despite her moral support, Patty subtly assigns the blame to Dianne for breaking Joseph's rule.
During a hunting expedition in the woods, Joseph instructs Adam to shoot a deer. He aims the rifle at the deer and cocks it, causing the deer to turn its head toward him in alarm. Looking into its eyes, Adam suffers an instinctual attack of conscience and freezes up. Disappointed, Joseph yanks the rifle from his hands and promptly fires a bullet between the deer's eyes, shooting it down alive. As the deer lies on the ground moaning and bleeding, Joseph hands Adam a hunting knife and instructs him to put it out of its misery. Initially hesitant, Adam stabs the knife into the deer's stomach. Invigorated by Joseph and Gabe's praise, and comforted by their assertion that the deer's soul is already being transferred to Lunetheria, Adam continues to stab it repeatedly, a smile of glee lighting up his face in the process. Gabe then decapitates and eviscerates the deer, mounting its head on the wall above the fireplace and serving its insides for dinner. While the family eats, Emily questions Joseph as to the morality of killing and consuming an innocent living creature. Joseph bites back with misogynistic remarks and insinuates that if she keeps talking she'll suffer an identical fate to that of the deer.
One of the children becomes violently ill, and Joseph, thinking he's afflicted with Covid, prepares to shoot him to prevent him from transmitting it to everyone else. Emily stops him in the nick of time, and Joseph instead isolates the children in a single room. Joseph unearths Bernadette's corpse and cradles it in his arms, whimpering and begging her guidance. Unbeknownst to him, Emily witnesses this from afar. At nightfall, Joseph takes his family into the woods and distributes acid around the campfire, preparing a mass suicide. Emily pretends to ingest the acid, hiding it in her hand and burying it in the dirt. Patty administers cups of poisoned ice cream, and for those too scared to take their own lives, Ryan, Beau, and Warren assist via stabbing them with a machete. Emily sneaks away and tries to escape with Adam, but Patty follows her and demands she stay away from the children to avoid contamination. Patty makes Emily a sandwich laced with several tabs of acid, causing her to suffer a panic attack. Emily runs into the arms of the landlord, who's returned to quarrel with Joseph and offers to fetch medical assistance, but Patty sneaks up behind him and impales him through the back with a fireplace poker. Emily makes a run for it through the woods and collapses on a highway, where a motorist stops and drives her to a hospital. Waking in the morning, Emily is given milk and reunited with her sister, Cassidy, who invites her to stay at her lakeside log cabin.
They stop off at a diner, where Cassidy coaxes Emily to tell her where she and Gabe have been, but Emily remains tight-lipped and gives vague answers. When a man resembling one of the cult members walks in, Emily becomes paranoid and rushes to the bathroom. At night, she lies awake in bed, struggling to fall asleep. Hearing a tap on the window, Emily gets out of bed to investigate. A pebble is loudly hurled at the window, frightening her into spending the rest of the night under the bed. The next morning, Cassidy lies on the floor beside Emily and begs her in vain to communicate. Standing in line at a grocery store, Emily feels claustrophobic by the people behind her, and the beep of the barcode scanner sounds amplified in her mind. At night in the cabin, the phone rings, and Emily begs Cassidy not to answer, fearing it's one of the cultists. She confesses that she and Gabe joined a suicide cult and that she gave birth to a son, whom she left behind. Cassidy promises to help retrieve her son, and reminisces through a family album about their childhood and the good times they shared.
After Emily gets out of the shower, she hears the smash of glass and goes downstairs to find Cassidy bound and gagged on the couch. Joseph, Ryan, and Warren emerge, armed with pistols and a hunting knife. Bliss escorts Emily upstairs to put clothes on, and Warren and Joseph scrounge money while Ryan holds Cassidy at gunpoint. At the nod of Joseph's head, Warren slashes Cassidy's throat. Emily runs to a neighbor's home for help and is let in by a married couple. When the wife dials the police, she's shot in the head through her window, waking her young son. Emily and the husband run upstairs with the son and lock themselves in the husband's bedroom. Emily and the son hide in a closet, and the husband loads a shotgun, aiming it at the door. Beau stealthily crawls out from beneath the bed and ambushes the man from behind, stabbing him multiple times in the chest and stomach. The son springs out of the closet and pummels Beau ineffectively, and Beau subdues and ties him to his bed, sealing his mouth with duct tape. Emily tearfully implores Beau to let the boy go, but unwilling to risk a witness, Beau stabs him to death. He drags Emily downstairs, and as she struggles, Bliss arrives at the doorway and stabs Beau in the back. She breaks down in tears and apologizes to Emily before slitting her own throat. Emily cradles Bliss in her arms and applies pressure to her bleeding throat, to no effect. As she wails in mourning, Gabe appears and embraces her. Once Emily lets her guard down, Gabe renders her unconscious with chloroform and carries her to the car.
Back at the commune, Emily, in her drugged state, is walked in procession with the rest of the cult deep into the woods. They stop and gather around Adam, whose hands are tied around a tree. Emily pleads with Joseph and Gabe to not hurt him, but Adam naively insists he's ready to "meet Grandma." Gabe holds Emily down while Joseph douses Adam with gasoline and lights him on fire. Emily screams and cries helplessly. Everyone else cheers and cries tears of joy. The cult unveils the corpse of the landlord and tosses it in the fire. Joseph calmly suggests that Emily make herself a cup of tea. She lies inert in bed, traumatized and soaked in tears. Gabe brings her a cup of hot tea and sits at her bedside, whispering sincerely that their son is in a better place and that she'll feel better after some rest. Emily gives no reaction.
The men and women give themselves pixie cuts and change into sweatshirts, sweatpants, and sneakers. Emily is too numb to participate, so Crystal cuts her hair for her and Gabe puts on her clothes. Joseph pours glasses of vodka and Patty makes chocolate pudding, both poisoned with fentanyl, and they distribute them to every member, allowing them to choose. Emily, seeming to have snapped out of her trance, offers to assist via cooking a pot of chicken noodle soup, of which she prepares herself an unpoisoned bowl.
While Emily lies on her side in bed, Ryan comes into her room and quietly approaches, turning her over. Emily appears lifeless, then as Ryan bends over, she stabs him in the side of his neck with a pair of scissors. As he lies bleeding on the floor, Dianne appears, having been given an unpolluted bowl of soup as well, and stomps on his head several times. They leave the room and find Michelle on the floor, forcing herself to vomit. Realizing they didn't drink the poison, Michelle screams for Joseph and crawls to his room. Emily puts her in a chokehold, but while she's losing consciousness, Michelle grabs a fork off the dining table and rams it into Emily's thigh, forcing her to let go. Dianne runs up to Michelle and kicks her in the face. Emily yanks the fork out and drags Michelle across the floor into the kitchen, where she smashes her head against a cabinet, dunks her in the pot of soup, and burns her face on the burner. Afterward, Emily hugs a traumatized Dianne and instructs her to run as far away as possible until she reaches a police station. Emily duct tapes everyone else to their mattresses, gouging out Patty's eyes and breaking Warren's kneecaps with a sledgehammer. Warren screams in agony and begs Emily to kill him, but instead she breaks his fingers, leaving him to suffer before the poison takes effect. Emily wakes Joseph and disembowels him, taunting that his soul will burn in hell as she does so. She then castrates him and shoves his testicles down his throat.
On her way out, Emily is confronted by Gabe, who also abstained from consuming poison. He apologizes for allowing things to go too far and offers to leave with her. Emily admonishes him for letting the cult murder her sister and their son. Gabe breaks down in tears and begs her forgiveness, promising her a new life in a beautiful home in Chicago, along with another child. Apparently receptive, Emily begins to cry and embraces Gabe. As they hold each other and cry together, Emily suddenly stabs Gabe in the back with a butcher knife. He collapses onto the floor, and Emily stabs him repeatedly in the chest and stomach. She then grabs the fireplace poker and thrusts it into his eye, letting out an enraged scream. Emily goes into the kitchen and nonchalantly makes herself a sandwich before departing the house.
Sauntering through the forest in the dead of night, Emily sheds her clothing piece by piece and plunges into the river, swimming to the bank. She pulls herself out and lies on the ground, basking in the glow of the moonlight. Hearing a crunch nearby, she turns her head to spot a deer in the clearing. It stops and stares intently at her. She stares back with an appreciative smile. The deer peacefully walks on, and Emily refocuses her gaze on the moon. She smiles slightly, closes her eyes, and sighs contentedly.
Cast[]
Emma Stone as Emily Hudson
Martin Henderson as Gabriel Hudson
Rodney Eastman as Joseph
Marguerite Moreau as Bernadette
Katherine Waterston as Patty
Virginia Gardner as Bliss
Michael Pitt as Beau
Adam Butcher as Ryan
Pat Healy as Warren
Alex Saxon as Caleb
Maddie Ziegler as Dianne
Annie Murphy as Michelle
Deborah Ann Woll as Cassidy
Kaitlin Olson as Crystal
Lauren Storm as Sharon
Tony Hale as Landlord
Robbi Morgan as Robbi
Cast Gallery[]
