Spiderhead Ending Explained: Do Jeff And Lizzy Manage To Escape? Netflix Film Ending
Chris Hemsworth stars as the villain in Netflix’s new movie Spiderhead which plunges the audience into the questionable, emotion-altering drug tests of a group of convicts. We explain how this science fiction film, also starring Miles Teller, ends. Can you imagine a medicine that makes you laugh even if they are telling you about a tragedy? What allows you to fall deeply in love with someone you just met? One of the Netflix releases of June 2022 features this type of drug in the movie Spiderhead.
Spiderhead Summary and Plot
Based on the short story Escape From Spiderhead by George Saunders, ‘Spiderhead’, also known as ‘The Head of the Spider’, transports the audience to a vast residence on a remote island where Dr. Steve Abnesti (Chris Hemsworth) works with a group of convicts, including Jeff (Miles Teller), in a clinical testing program for drugs that influence their emotions. Jeff and his colleagues have tried different substances such as the N-40 supply, Affecting, which makes what is in front of their eyes look more beautiful, from scenes to people; the G-46, Humoril, which makes them laugh even in the saddest moments or when they say tragic things to them, or the most feared by all I-16, Terrofloxx, which puts them in a state of trauma, fear, and rage.
These supplies are administered from a device on their backs, called a ‘movie pack’, and can only enter their bloodstream if prisoners agree to it. Saying “Acknowledged” gives Steve and his assistant Verlaine the green light to manipulate from a cell phone the degree of dose that the study subjects receive. In case of refusing these drugs, inmates can be transferred back to a normal prison and thus be deprived of the comforts they enjoy in the facilities of Dr. Steve Abnesti, who also has his movie pack to test his drugs.
Accepting to be Dr. Steve’s guinea pig is one way Jeff punishes himself after the incident that landed him in prison: a car accident that killed his girlfriend and friend. Experiencing the alterations of his emotions or even having sex with other people like Heather and Sarah under the effects of Affectin, even when he has feelings for another inmate (Lizzy), seems to be his way of doing penance. However, Jeff begins to doubt these tests when he must choose who will receive Terrofloxx: Heather or Sarah. According to Steve, this will allow them to know if Affectin has any effect on Jeff’s feelings days after receiving the dose, but he refuses.
At one point it seems that Steve accepts Jeff’s decision, but shortly after he tells him that the committee in charge of the investigation did not accept his refusal and subjects Jeff to see Heather under the effects of Terrofloxx. Unfortunately, Heather’s traumatic episode causes her to damage her ‘movie pack’, which further upsets her and leads her to commit suicide in front of Jeff, Ste, ve, and Verlaine. These two run to her aid, leaving Jeff alone in the control room, an opportunity she takes to find out more about Steve’s true plans.
Jeff discovers that Steve Abnesti is solely responsible for the clinical program, so the committee he constantly blames doesn’t exist. Furthermore, he realizes that the drug he is testing is B-6, a supply that they always carry with them because it was presumably a placebo.
Spiderhead Ending Explained: Do Jeff And Lizzy Manage To Escape?
After learning a little about Steve Abnesti’s true intentions, Jeff questions Verlaine about his complicity in these tests and motivates him to do the right thing. The next day, Verlaine does not show up for work with a suspected cold. However, this doesn’t stop Steve from testing Jeff again, only in this case, it makes it more personal: Lizzy will be the one receiving Terrofloxx. Jeff refuses again, but Steve has an ace up his sleeve, leading Lizzy to tell him the real reason why she was sentenced to prison and hoping that Jeff’s opinion of her will change.
“I am the mother who killed her baby,” says a desperate Lizzy, who explains that her 9-month-old daughter died after leaving her in the car for three hours while she worked. She likewise, tells Jeff to supply her with whatever Steve is asking for. Jeff manipulates the cell phone, but in reality, it is not Lizzie who experiences the effects of the drug, but Steve. Yes! Verlaine decided to do the right thing and altered the supplies in his boss’s movie pack, who after being questioned by Jeff, reveals the real reason for the test program: knowing the effects of B-6, a drug that would go by the name ‘Obediex’ created to make people lose their free will and obey orders without question and exceptions.
After knowing this, Jeff warns Steve that he will pay for everything he did and that Verlaine is on his way to the island with the police to arrest him. Also, he makes it clear to her that he is under the influence of B-6 so she will obey him even if he doesn’t want to. However, Absenti reveals to him that the B-6 has a flaw, people do not obey when it comes to hurting what they love, and in his case it is about his career. This causes Steve and Jeff to go head-to-head for control of the cell phone, which Steve quickly gains control of and gives Lizzy four doses of Terrofloxx.
This angers Jeff who lunges at Steve and slams him into the stairs, thus damaging his move pack, causing Absenti to begin intermittently experiencing the various effects of his drugs. Jeff runs to Lizzy’s aid, takes the Terrofloxx from her, and together they try to flee the Absenti facility, who, in a monumental effort to control his emotions, not only orders the other inmates to capture Jeff and Lizzy but also manages to escape in his plane. However, the cocktail of substances in his blood continues to take its toll on him mid-flight, blinding him completely: Steve thinks he’s seeing a wonderful sky while he’s flying straight into a mountain, where he crashes and explodes.
The big explosion is heard from afar by Jeff and Lizzy, who managed to escape in a boat. Their escape from the Absenti facilities does not make them fugitives from justice, since both had already finished their sentences, only Steve preferred to keep that information to himself to continue testing them. Together Lizzy and Jeff have the opportunity to accompany each other in their freedom and journey to find peace after the acts that led them to prison since there is no drug for self-forgiveness.
