The Assessment (2024) Recap & Ending Explained – Do Mia and Aaryan pass the assessment?
The Assessment is a sci-fi movie and the directorial debut for Fleur Fortune. The film is written by Neil Gargarth-Cox, John Donnelly, and Dave Thomas and presents a depiction of humanity's possible fate in a future where climate change destroyed the whole world and whatever is left is strictly controlled by the state.
The film introduces a couple, Mia (Elizabeth Olsen) and Aaryan (Himesh Patel), who are among the privileged group enjoying more exclusive perks, unlike the rest of the world, who dwell in wastelands. Mia is a plant biologist, while Aaryan is an AI expert.
Due to the limited resources, childbirth is state-regulated in this new world. Residents are only allowed to have a child after passing an assessment test. Mia and Aaryan feel that they are ready to raise a child.
Therefore, they have to undergo the state-mandated observation by Virginia (Alicia Vikander) for seven days, after which she will report to the superiors on the couple's eligibility to become parents.
What happens during the Assessment Test?
Virginia does not inform Mia and Aaryan what will be tested. She says that keeping them in the dark is part of the assessment process. The couple is kept in the dark to make sure that their actions are genuine.
Virginia tests the couple's relationship and gets to understand their work. She becomes an active and passive participant in Mia's and Aaryan's lives. Sometimes, Virginia behaves like a child, throwing a tantrum to assess how they respond to such situations. She even invites Mia and Aaryan's old colleagues, with whom they do not get along with for dinner.
Virginia tries to constantly provoke Mia and Aaryan to reveal their bad side, which the couple starts to find odd and wonder if it is all part of the assessment.
How does Virginia disrupt Mia's and Aaryan's lives?
Virginia tries to create conflicts between Aaryan and Mia. It feels like it is all part of the process initially, but it gets stranger. One time, she tries to kiss Mia and get her to leave home for a fake emergency.
When Mia goes away, Virginia manipulates Aaryan into giving in to his urges, making him think that sleeping with her will help the couple get a positive assessment. Throughout the assessment, Virginia switches from acting like a child to acting like an adult.
She makes Aaryan and Mia envious of each other as she switches her affection from one to the other.
Do Aaryan and Mia pass the assessment?
After a series of experiences that shakes the relationship between Mia and Aaryan, Virginia eventually says that the couple cannot have a child. Considering the turmoil they have been through all week, the couple gets angry.
Aaryan confesses that he slept with Virginia, saying that Virginia forced him in return for a positive assessment. Mia's and Aaryan's relationship seems irreparable at this point. The negative assessment ruins their relationship, making Mia re-evaluate her life goals.
Did Virginia have ulterior motives during the Assessment?
Mia felt the urge to understand why Virginia gave them a negative assessment. She managed to track down Virginia even though contacting the assessor after the evaluation was against the rules.
Mia learns that Virginia's real name is Grace. Her living conditions were not ideal, underscoring a stressful financial situation. Grace revealed that for the last six years, no couple had passed the assessment.
Mia realises that the assessment was just a scam to keep people hopeful, while the reality was that no one would become parents. It was fabricated as an illusion designed to automatically fail the participants.
Mia condemns Grace for agreeing to be part of such a scheme, knowing that it has an emotional impact on the couple. However, Grace had her reasons. She had lost a daughter and was promised a child by the state if she continued working diligently, without any complaints.
Grace was desperate, but she did not know that she, too, was a puppet for the state.
How does The Assessment end?
After the confrontation with Mia, Virginia realises that she might be just a puppet for the state. There is no way that the state will give her a child when the elites like Mia and Aaryan do not pass the tests. Virginia commits suicide by jumping out of the window during her next assessment.
Mia felt hopeless and trapped in the new world. She had recently learned that people were surviving outside in the old world, and they were giving birth without any restrictions.
In the new world, children were grown ex-utero, while women in the old world experienced the joy of pregnancy and childbirth. Mia decides to take a risk, giving up her life extension pills and ID to cross over to the old world.
Mia hoped to reconnect with her mother, who was sent to the old world for protesting against the state-controlled system.
Back at their home, Aaryan is seen playing with a young girl while Mia waves from a distance. Presumably, Mia and the girl are AI models Aaryan created to fulfil his desires.
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