80 Mins Exam, But The Test Paper Is Blank ?!

Hi, Mystery Recapped here. Today, I am going to explain a British psychological thriller film called EXAM. Spoilers ahead, watch out, and take care.

At the beginning of the movie, eight candidates are shown getting ready for a hiring examination for a profitable corporate job.

Some candidates motivate themselves with encouraging words, while some add a few touch-ups to their appearances before moving to the examination hall.

The place is dimly lit, with desks for every candidate kept uniformly throughout the room. It also has cameras to monitor their activities.

After the eight of them are seated, a guard with a gun enters the room, visibly making the candidates nervous.

He is followed by a man who doesn't tell them his name and simply introduces himself as the invigilator.

He then apologizes to them for the hardships they have faced through reach this room, revealing that the candidates have passed all the previous hiring processes and are the finalists. If they pass this last test, they will be getting the job of their dreams.

As the rule of this test, the invigilator claims that no federal law applies inside the examination hall, and the candidates are supposed to follow only the law of the exam.

They are not allowed to communicate with the guard or the invigilator. Similarly, if they ruin the paper intentionally or accidentally, and if they walk out of the room for any reason, they will be disqualified.

The candidate will have 80 minutes to complete the test. There is only one question on the paper before them that they need to answer.

The invigilator then asks them if they have any questions. When no one answers, he wishes them luck, starts the timer, and walks out.

The candidates turn their respective papers around and see that it is completely blank. All of them look at each other in confusion.

As time passes, they become more nervous. Hence, Candidate number two starts writing on her paper, why she thinks she is eligible for the job.

The camera in the room zooms into her paper, and the guard is told to throw her out because she ruined her paper.

Number two begs for a second chance as the guard locks the doors on her.

A while later, number five realizes that the rule says they cannot talk to the invigilator and the guard, which means they can talk to each other. He tells the others the same thing, making them believe that they will have to work together to find what the question is before they can answer it.

The group discusses several ways they can pass the test, but all of them are just as confused. This is just like real exams.

Throughout this, Candidate number one doesn't speak at all. One man tries to introduce himself, but number five suggests they give each other pet names, so they wouldn't have to reveal their true identity.

He goes on to name Candidate number one, Deaf, because he hasn't spoken yet. Then, the guys are named Brown, Black, and White, according to their race, and the girls are named Blonde, Brunette, and Dark, according to their hair color.

After that, White suggests they get up from their seats because there is no rule that says they cannot. He takes a chance and gets up. To everyone's delight, the guard stays put, meaning that they can move around freely.

Brunette believes that the questions are written down on paper with invisible ink or a watermark. They all agree to test the theory, but do not know how to.

Brunette gets up and uses the lights in the room to see if something is written on the paper. However, nothing is visible. She still insists everyone check their own because the question could be in just one of them.

Everyone does as she says, except for Deaf, who stays quietly in his seat.

White takes his paper and checks it in the light. When they do not get any results, Black suggests the writings might be visible in UV rays or X-rays.

The group then starts looking for a switchboard to see if there is any option to turn on other kinds of lights. When they do not find one, they start to look for the source of such light themselves. Deaf doesn't help them whatsoever and nervously stays in his seat.

Blonde finds strips of emergency lights in the room, but since there are no switches, the group has to break all the other light bulbs to create an emergency and trigger the lights.

Brown retaliates, saying that they cannot take such a risk. So, they vote on the matter and eventually decide to go forth with the plan.

After breaking all the light bulbs in the room, it suddenly glows blue because of the emergency black light. Everyone starts to look for the question in the paper, except for Deaf, but they are disappointed again because they cannot see the question.

Brunette asks everyone to remove the first layer of the strip light because they aren't lit. This might give rise to UV rays, which can help them. They use the woman's heels to break the strips and reveal another form of light.

However, they are again met with disappointment because these lights do not work either. Now, the group only has 60 minutes left.

A frustrated White asks everyone to think of alternatives. As they brainstorm ideas, White registers that they can do anything to number two's paper, since she is already disqualified.

So, they gather around her desk and try tracing the paper with a pencil. Still, no question comes forth. White then tears her paper into sections so that they can use them to experiment with different methods.

Next, he pees on one of the papers to see if it is liquid activated. However, that doesn't work either.

Black and White get into a heated argument while discussing what they should do next, but they stop after hearing Deaf cry. He sobs silently in his seat, while the others watch him in amusement. After that, the man starts to blabber in French.

He asks them if they can see something in the paper and claims that the paper reflects their image. They do not think much about his blabberings and get back into discussing ideas.

Everyone falls dead silent when Brown speaks. He proposes a theory of his own, claiming that they are not in an exam, but are in some kind of betting show. The board members of the company have placed bets on who will crack under pressure, and the sole purpose of them being there is for their entertainment.

Brown has been watching Squid Game. Brunette thinks that the board members probably have better things to do with their time, but according to Brown, money is the least of their concerns. With the amount of money they have in their life, the board members probably live for the risks.

Now, everyone comes forward with their own ideas. Some claim that the invigilator might be behind this, while others say it might be the CEO. They begin to crack under pressure and insult each other.

Dark confidently says that there are no people watching them because the CEO is hands-on in the company. He has all of the company's rights and power over everyone.

It is clear that she knows more about the company than anyone else. Brown asks her how she knows so much about the CEO.

It turns out that Dark is already working for the company in HR, but has never seen the CEO. She applied for a higher job, and now she is here.

White then reveals that he was headhunted and offered the job, but the others say that they applied for it. However, one thing they have in common is that they do not know anything about the company or what it does because they were told not to ask any questions.

Dark then explains that they are applying for a famous multi-million dollar pharmaceutical company called Birog. A few years ago, when a pandemic spread among young people of the world, they were the first ones to find the cure. Currently, their yearly turnover is $20 billion, all because of their CEO.

Suddenly, Black suggests that the company might have found a cure to the newest deadly disease that has been killing millions of people around the world. Brunette is suddenly intrigued and asks Dark more about it. This makes White suspicious, so he asks Brunette if she is also infected by the virus. Brunette says she isn't and dismisses the matter.

To take the attention off of herself, she approaches the guard and brings a lighter out of his pocket without talking to him. Then, she glances at the fire alarm. The group plans to use the lighter to trigger the sprinkler because water can potentially develop the writing on the paper.

For this, Brunette gets on top of a chair, but doesn't reach the fire alarm. White helps her by giving her a rolled-up piece of paper that she lights up and uses to trigger the alarm. Soon, water starts showering, but the papers stay the same. Suddenly, the guard makes his way to the group.

Right then, Brunette unfolds the paper in her hand and reveals it to be her own. White had betrayed her to loosen the competition. The guard drags Brunette away as she calls White a bastard.

Following that, an enraged Black says he will punch White's lights out. This makes the lights go out.

And the group figures they are voice activated. They ask each other to be careful with what they say when Deaf starts to cry again.

White slyly sits in front of him and bullies the poor guy into tearing his own paper and eating it. The guard approaches Deaf and sends him away as well.

Now only five of the candidates are left. Black belittles White for being an awful person, but White insists they should thank him for getting their competitors out. He also claims that he knows what the question is, but refuses to tell the others.

In a fit of rage, Black knocks him out with a single punch. The group then ties him to a seat and covers his mouth with a tie.

A while later, White gains consciousness. Dark removes his gag, and he asks for his medication, saying that he is also infected with the virus and has to take medicine every hour for him to live. Black searches for pills in his pocket, but doesn't find one. This makes the group believe that White is just making excuses so they will free him. However, White claims that one of them has taken the pill and promises to tell them what the question is if they give it back. Soon, he loses consciousness again and starts to tremble.

Some believe he is faking, but Black says he is having a seizure because of the virus. They start looking for the pill he was talking about, but cannot find it in the room. With only 15 minutes left on the timer, they check each other for the pill.

Dark suspects Brown for taking it and is proven right when she finds the pill stuck to some chewing gum under his table. She tries to feed it to White, but Brown throws it in a vent. As the others try to get it out, a stressed Dark goes in front of the camera and asks the invigilator to save the man.

But since she talked to the invigilator, she is immediately disqualified. After she is gone, Blonde brings the pill out with a bobby pin and saves White's life. She also unties him in the process.

After he recovers, everyone asks him for the answer he promised. White reveals that the answers are the candidates themselves. They have been searching for a question all this time, but White thinks that there is no answer, and the one who is left at the end is the answer.

The rest of them believe him, but before they can act, White runs to get the gun from the guard. Black pushes him aside and acquires the gun himself. He points it at White, who confidently claims that he won't shoot anyone. Simultaneously, he attacks Black and gets the gun.

However, when he is about to use it, he realizes the gun has fingerprint recognition. So, White uses the guard and points the gun at the others. He threatens everyone to get out of the room on their own, so he can win the position. Brown doesn't retaliate with the fear of being shot and deliberately walks out.

A scared Blonde slowly walks outside, but yells lights out at the end. The room goes pitch dark, making White shoot in random directions. When the lights come back, Black falls limp on the floor with a bullet hole in his chest.

White looks around and sees Blonde still has a foot inside the room. He is about to shoot her as well, but notices that the timer has stopped. Now, White walks to the camera and tells the invigilator that he is the winner of the competition.

The guard approaches him and shows him the time. White is in shock to see they still have 20 seconds left, meaning that he is disqualified for talking to the invigilator.

It is then revealed that Deaf had changed the time while they were busy discussing other things.

At last, the only one left is Blonde. She walks into the room and picks up Deaf's glasses that had fallen while he was being taken out. Using those, she looks at the paper and sees Question one written on it.

To her utmost surprise, Deaf enters the room, revealing that he is the CEO of the company and was in the test to keep an eye on everyone.

Blonde walks up to him and says no. The CEO and the invigilator smile, seeing that she has figured out the question and passed the test.

It turns out when the invigilator asked them if they had any questions at the beginning of the test, it was the only question they had to answer. The whole exam was set to test the candidate's intelligence and attentiveness.

They hire Blonde as the CEO's secretary, but she doesn't accept the job because she doesn't want to work with an organization that kills people.

The invigilator reveals that Black isn't really dead and that the bullet he got hit with is a capsule that heals the wound after penetrating the body. It is actually the magical medicine they have recently manufactured, which can cure any disease in the world.

At last, Blonde accepts the job, and the movie ends as she shakes hands with the CEO.