The Mill challenges the majority’s ideas in modern society.
The Mill on Hulu takes the concept of meaningless corporate “quotas” to a new level. The film features Joe, an employee of Mallard, a massive global firm, who finds himself laboring within a concrete jail, moving an ineffectual mill. This is an engaging thriller with a perplexing finale.
Joe worked his way up the corporate ladder for a decade and would do everything to go home to his expecting wife. His new task is straightforward: he must operate the Mill for 16 hours and complete the daily minimum rotations.
There is, of course, a catch. The employee with the least rotations is terminated, and terminations are permanent in Joe’s new nightmare.
The Mill: Who is Alex?
The neighbor discloses his name is Alex during their last talk. Joe recognizes the name as that of the escaping Alex. But, as Alex said, his effort at running, like Joe’s, was a failure. Joe must watch as his sole companion in the concrete jail dies.
The disembodied voice offers Joe photographs of his wife and children the next day as “motivation.” Joe has had enough and begins smashing his cell in a fury.
Though it’s unclear if Alex is an honest coworker or a part of the “training simulation,” he’s more likely to exist solely in Joe’s imagination – a warning voice he made within the simulation to assist him in escaping the same fate as Alex.
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Was Joe Able To Leave Prison?
Several HR workers enter the cell, as does the security man who will give the deadly injection to Joe. But when the security officer makes too many vulgar remarks about Joe’s wife, our hero leaps on him and beats the man in the face blindly.
Joe then awakens. Everything was a simulation. In reality, our main character is perfectly fine at work, still dressed immaculately.
According to the HR representative, Joe only spent around an hour during his lunch break inside the virtual reality simulation.
His wife is still pregnant, and his activities within the virtual jail indicate that he passed the exam and demonstrated to the AI that he possesses leadership abilities. He even gets promoted.
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What Will Joe Do With His Company?
Joe was informed that he had been promoted and did admirably in the simulation. On the other hand, Joe realized what he had been sacrificing in the name of productivity.
When you prioritize your job over your loved ones, the people who are an aspect of it feel undervalued.
Alex informed Joe in prison that they had not produced anything substantial despite being recognized for their efforts.
Joe witnessed how commercialization had not spared human feelings, and there were commercials for different things that supported even the death of someone throughout the simulation.
It worried us because everything was about money, and the real essence of joy and success was buried in darkness. It was a society where “enough” was never enough, and people were forced to participate in a rat race where they didn’t receive anything except insecurity and anxiety-related disease.
Toward the end of The Mill, Joe decides to take out Mallard, the AI, and escape from this messed-up system.
Speaking on the phone, Joe informs his wife that he will be coming home late from work but that this time, “it’s different.” The film finishes with Joe threatening to burn it all down.
The film needs to clarify how the protagonist intends to bring down a megacorporation like Mallard. Will he set fire to the structure, or is he plotting corporate sabotage to bring it down from within?
