Exam

Exam (2009), another mind blowing movie, revolving around 8 candidates to earn their dream job. The tricky part is, it was not normal interview, they were given a blank paper, and yet, they are require to provide their answer after 80min. So, what question should they answer, since there were no question on the blank paper?

In real life, people will get confused with their initial purpose or their ultimate goal when they get to ‘involved’ into the game. Those who stay firm on their character, understand their limits will shine the most.

Synopsis

8 candidates for a top job for a mysterious company gather in a windowless room after having surpassed some previous levels. They are sat in front of a piece of paper which in one sides says "candidate 1", "candidate 2", et cetera. The invigilator (Colin Salmon) arrives, and gives out the rules for the test: inside the room, there'll be no other law that what the company's rules, and - as it's a very important company, it'll be able to do whatever it wants -, the candidates cannot try to communicate with the invigilator himself or with the guard, they cannot spoil the paper and they cannot leave the room for any reason. If they break any of the rules, they would be disqualified. The test would consist in answering only one very simple question. The invigilator asks the candidates whether they have any questions, he sets the clock at 80 minutes and leaves the room.

Once alone, the candidates turn their paper around and they find nothing written on them. They look at each other in confusion, and the "Chinese" candidate (Gemma Chan) starts writing "I believe I should get..." The guard (Chris Carey) puts her out because she has spoiled her paper.

White (Luke Mably) starts talking, stands up and convinces everybody to work together until they find what the question is. He also gives insulting names to the candidates according to their physical appearance, like Blonde, Deaf, White, Brown, Dark..

First, they try to read a hidden message in the papers by placing them in front of the lighttubes. Then, they break all the lightbulbes so that the emergency lights set themselves on. This light is ultraviolet. When they break those emergency tubes on their turn, they find infrared light. None of this helps them to see anything on the paper. Throughout these motions, they discover that, if a candidate spoils another candidate's paper, none of them two will be disquialified.

They try splitting some liquids over the paper. White pees all over his one, but he finds nothing.

White acts as the leader all the time. But it's Brunette (Pollyanna McIntosh) who realises that they can touch the guard as long as they don't talk to him. She finds a lighter in one of his pockets, so she wants to set the anti-fire alarms on, because maybe they have another product different from water which will reveal a photograph with the question. She jumps onto a table, but it's not enough. White offers her a paper. Brunette sets fire to it and succeeds in setting the fire extinguishers on, but White has given her her own paper, so she is desqualified.

White picks on Deaf (John Lloyd Fillingham) who speaks only French and seems to have mental or nervous problems. He says in French that they only have to look at the papers while he tries to re-order some small pieces of glass on top of the paper. White bullies him into tearing the paper and eating it. The guard puts Deaf out.

They discover that Brown (Jimi Mistry) is a professional gambler, and he puts out the theory that the board of directors is hidden at the other side of the wall betting on who'll win. Dark (Adar Beck) is a psychoanalist who seems to be the only one who has some information about the company, the products it sells, its expansion etc..., but none of the other candidates were able to find any information in spite of doing some research. They think she's a spy of the company, because she is actually working for them and they try to torture the question from her. When Brown is going to torture her with a piece of paper, they discover that she's self-hurt herself in one of her tights before. Brown makes a cut. Blonde offers her a piece of plastic plaster.

White lied, because he had said that the group would collaborate until they guessed up the question, but it was him who tricked Brunette into disqualification. So each one starts to non-trust the rest of them. The tension ends up with White to a chair by Black (Chukwudi Iwuji) and Brown. White starts convulsioning, as he has some illness which requires him to take a pill every hour on the hour. They think he's lying, because he has no blue pill where he says he has, but Blonde (Nathalie Cox) realises that Brown had stolen the pill and stuck it under his desk with a piece of chewing-gum. Blonde makes collapsed White to eat the pill. They free him who gets on well almost immediately.

White thinks that only one will win. He and Black run for the guard's gun. They argue some more, and Black shoots White, but the gun doesn't go on. White gets it and tries to shoot Black. The gun doesn't shoot again. White figures out that the gun may only be shot by the guard, so he puts the gun onto the guard's hand and shoots. White threatens everybody that they must leave or be killed. Brown leaves. Blonde leaves and shouts "lights out" in order to give Black the opportunity to win. In the dark, White kills Black.

Time's over. White shouts to the other side of the wall that he's won. However, he's lost because Deaf has fumbled with the clock so the 80-minute time slot has not expired yet. The glass wall is turned on, and White can see the silhouette of the invigilator. He looks at Black in the floor, and realises that it's been useless, so he tries to commit suicide, but as usual, the gun will not work with other person's fingerprints except for the guard. The guard disqualifies him by putting his arm on White's shoulder as usual, and leads him outside.

Blonde enters the room again and picks up her paper. She fumblies with piece of glass and Deaf's glasses and reads "Question 1" written on the watermark of the paper very small. She offers it to the invigilator and says "no", aswering the invigilator's question "are there any questions". She is offered the job. Deaf is the CEO of the company, a troubled but genius scientist who has discovered by chance a pill to heal wounds really fast. Blonde says that she may not accept the job. When the invigilator poits to why she went through all that trouble if she didn't want the position, she points to dead Black and she that it's unacceptable. The invigilator asks "Who's told you that he'd dead?". She approaches him and sees that the bulletwound is almost healed. The invigilator says that they have put the fast-healer pill inside the bullet.

Blonde accepts the job right away.

From IMDb.