Upgrade is an Australian movie where the protagonist gets an experimental implant after an accident that enhances his abilities and, eventually, his mind is controlled by the A.I. program that had started out just assisting him. Remnant is an Australian movie where the protagonist gets an experimental implant after an accident, which enhances her abilities, and, eventually, her mind is controlled by the A.I. program that was just occasionally helping her so far. One of these movies is extremely good, and the other one is really bad. Today, we have gathered here to talk about the latter, specifically its ending, which hinged on the revelation of the identity of a murderer and whether or not the protagonist had superpowers. So, bear with me as I try to understand what the hell was the point of all the sci-fi shenanigans and the serial killer subplot.
Spoiler Alert
What Is The Film About?
Remnant is centered around Grace Wheeler. She was the daughter of Sarah Grace Wheeler and John David Wheeler. Grace had a friend called Kate, who was more like a sister to her because Grace’s parents raised her as their own after Kate’s parents didn’t put in the effort to care for her. Grace and Kate were close to the Bridges family, i.e. Kevin and his two children, Tom and Sophie. But their dynamic changed when Sophie died by suicide and Grace found her suicide letter, which vaguely hinted at Tom being responsible for her death. Tom worked as an employee at the local theater, thanks to his highschool friend Brian, while also tending to his father’s farm. Kate went away to live with her girlfriend, Ava. And, well, Grace ended up in a car crash.
One night, the Wheelers were returning home from Sophie’s funeral when a girl came in front of the car. In order to save this girl, John tried to steer the car away from her and hit a tree. The impact apparently killed both John and Sarah, and Grace was severely injured. While hospitalized, the head of the neurology department, Doctor Adriana Stone, collaborated with Bio Neural Solutions (BNS) and put a special chip in Grace’s head to see if they could find a solution to helping people with severe spinal injuries walk again. Given how Grace woke up from the coma she was in after the accident with just a sore head, it was clear that part of the experiment was successful. However, a long road lay ahead of Grace. That was why Stone put a bunch of hidden CCTV cameras all over Grace’s home and kept a watch on how well she was adapting to the device in her head. Other than that blatant invasion of privacy, there were two issues: Grace was being haunted by a ghost, and there was a serial killer on the prowl.
The Serial Killer Is Tom Bridges
Remnant’s ending revealed that Tom Bridges was the serial killer. Here’s how it all went down. Unbeknownst to everyone, Tom and Sophie’s father, Kevin, was an abusive man, and he regularly tortured the two kids. Tom had decided to kill his own father, but he was unable to muster up the courage to get the job done. So, he unloaded all his frustration and anger on his girlfriend, Anna Symes, who allegedly mistreated him as well. While running away from Tom, Anna’s car broke down on a dirt road leading to the highway, and her phone ran out of juice too. Tom used this opportunity to try to kill Anna, but she momentarily ran away from him. She saw the Wheelers’ car and tried to flag them down. That led to the whole accident. As mentioned before, John and Sarah allegedly died on the spot. Grace was injured, and so was Anna. Tom killed Anna first. Then he noticed that John and Sarah were still breathing, and he decided to put them out of their misery instead of, you know, taking them to the hospital. However, for some reason, Tom let Grace live. I guess he was too fond of her to kill her.
Anyway, all this murder and mayhem gave Tom the confidence to kill his dad, and he gutted him like a pig. Brian witnessed this and Tom killed him too while making it look like Tom had killed himself so that nobody would suspect him. While Tom was doing all this, Grace was being haunted by Anna’s ghost, who directed Grace to the spot where her car and dead body were kept. When Grace reached the dirt road and discovered the result of Tom’s heinous actions, Tom appeared out of nowhere and abducted her. Tom captured Kate too when she came to his house looking for Grace. In addition to all that, Tom stabbed and kidnapped John Barnes (Doctor Stone’s associate) when the latter came to Grace’s house to sedate her and take her to Stone for further experiments on her implant. When all three of these hostages regained consciousness, they found themselves in the local theater where Tom used to work.
Grace Is A Cyborg
The implant in Grace’s head was certainly warping her understanding of reality. The past was melding with the present, and she was constantly seeing the ghostly figure of Anna Symes. But I don’t think there was a ghost to begin with; it was all a visceral depiction of Grace’s observational skills that was being enhanced by the BNS implant. It’s because of that device that Grace saw a young Tom with a butchered animal in his hands, thereby hinting at his dormant homicidal tendencies. She had probably suppressed that memory, but after everything that had happened in her life, that image surfaced from her subconscious and gave her a hint as to who could’ve killed Anna. Also, I don’t think there was a real ghost in the movie. The shadowy entity that Grace kept seeing was a figment of her overactive and paranoid brain that had been powered up by the implant. During the accident, Grace’s mind was able to register the moment where Tom strangled her parents to death, and she had probably made a connection between the distraught Anna and Tom too. Normally, those memories would’ve faded away, but the implant kept pushing Grace to remember what she had seen so that Tom could be nabbed.
When Tom admitted to killing Kevin and Anna to cope with Sophie’s death and proceeded to slit Barnes’ throat and stab Kate in the stomach, Grace’s implant took full control of her body and severely injured Tom. Grace, who was being steered by the BNS implant, was about to drive Kate to the hospital, but then she noticed that Kate had succumbed to her injuries. As Grace was deciding on her next step, Tom attacked her again, and this time she ran him over and then slit his throat to make sure that he never hurt another soul in this life or the next.
During Remnant’s mid-credits scene, we saw Grace returning to her home with Kate’s lifeless body and tucking her into her bed. Then, Grace turned to one of the CCTV cameras to reveal that her hand was glowing. Stone noticed this and smiled because she was glad that her gamble had paid off. I guess that the implant was slowly transforming Grace into a cyborg, and it was only a matter of time before the A.I. program running the implant completely took over Grace’s motor controls. Grace taking care of Kate’s dead body might make it seem like there’s still a bit of her soul left in that body. However, the A.I. program could’ve simply copied all her memories and behavioral patterns to have a better handle on her body. I guess we’ll know all about it if this movie finds its audience on Prime Video and gets a sequel.
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