Exam

White: "It's not about the answer - it's about the question."
Brunette: "What is the question?"

Exam is a 2008 Psychological Thriller about eight job applicants vying for an amazing (but vague) position in a mysterious but powerful company. They are put into a room, and a speech is recited to them:

"There is no law in this room but our law, and the only rules in here are our rules. There is one question before you, and one answer is required. If you try to communicate with myself or the guard, you will be disqualified. If you spoil your paper, intentionally or accidentally, you will be disqualified. If you choose to leave this room for any reason, you will be disqualified. Any questions?"

The eight of them are left in the room with a security guard, while a clock runs down for eighty minutes. It gets worse.

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Tropes used in Exam include:

• After the End: A minor example, but the film takes place after the worst part of a pandemic.
• Alternate Universe: The movie takes place Twenty Minutes Into the Future, in the aftermath of a pandemic. The story is mostly grounded, with a bit of science fiction thrown in.
• Anti-Hero: Most of the cast.
• Apocalypse How: The Virus either caused Type 0 or Type 1.
• Applied Phlebotinum: the pills taken to suppress the virus.
• Arc Words: "What is the question?"
• Asian and Nerdy: Chinese Girl, presumably
• Badass in a Nice Suit: The Invigilator.
• Bald of Awesome: The Invigilator
• Beauty Is Never Tarnished: Averted; all injuries sustained have an effect, and the time spent in the room has an appropriate effect on all of the women.
• Belligerent Sexual Tension: White and Blonde, although it's pretty one-sided.
• Black and Nerdy: Black is a mild example; how does he know so much about lights?!
• Black Comedy
• Black and Gray Morality: Among the applicants, there is at least one Complete Monster willing to do anything - no matter how terrible - to get the job. The other applicants are at different points heroic and (depending on what is being threatened and who is on the receiving end) willing to just stand by and watch.
• Black Dude Dies First: Seemingly averted, then subverted
• Blondes Are Evil: Averted
• Body Double: The CEO has one for public appearances.
• Bottle Episode: aside from a few seconds at the beginning focused on each character, the entire film takes place in a single room (and attached hallway).
• Bound and Gagged: White
• Brainy Brunette: Brunette, obviously. Dark qualifies as well.
• Butt Monkey: White. Not like he doesn't deserve it.
• The Cake Is a Lie: Discussed and averted.
• Cannot Spit It Out: poor Deaf has a terrible stutter, and he only speaks French.
• Cassandra Truth: The Invigilator, technically. He only said that he was going to ask them one question; no one believed him.
• Casanova Wannabe: White.
• Chekhov's Gun: Deaf's glasses, the voice-activated lights, the gun, the pencils, Blonde's hair pin, White's pills, Brown's coin, the test papers themselves; it'd be easier to list things that DIDN'T qualify.
• Chekhov's Gunman: Deaf and The Guard.
• Chronic Backstabbing Disorder
• Corrupt Corporate Executive: Discussed and subverted
• Crapsack World: The film is set in an alternate-history United Kingdom where a disease known only as "The Virus" forces most of the population to take pills every few hours or die.
• Crazy Enough to Work: Most of the attempts to figure out the question.
• Crucified Hero Shot: Inverted with Black's "death." Lampshaded by Deaf
• Dark Horse Victory: Thought that White or even Black would win, didn't you? Nope, Blonde wins.
• Deadpan Snarker: Most of the cast, but White and Brown stand out particularly.
• Decoy Protagonist: The first-billed characters, Deaf and Chinese Girl, have the least amount of lines out of all the contestants; Deaf IS revealed later to be a Chekhov's Gunman, however.
• Deliberate Injury Gambit: Subverted
• Depleted Phlebotinum Shells: the gun's bullets are filled with Applied Phlebotinum that heals the bullet wound.
• Despair Event Horizon: White being disqualified
• Determinator: Essentially the whole cast.
• Disney Death: Black.
• Don't Celebrate Just Yet: This is White's undoing.
• Double Standard: Defied by Brown.
• Driven to Suicide: White after being disqualified. It doesn't work.
• Driving Question: "WHAT IS THE QUESTION?!"
  • And to a lesser extent: "What is the job?"
• Does This Remind You of Anything??: Black clutching his cross after he rises from the dead. Blatantly spelled out by Deaf
• Dumb Blonde: Averted.
• Earn Your Happy Ending
• Establishing Character Moment: Every character gets one in the opening credits.
• Everyone Calls Him "Barkeep": The Invigilator, the security guard and the CEO
• Exact Words: A major plot point.
• Extremely Short Timespan: Aside from the opening scene, the movie takes place over the course of under two hours.
• Eye Scream: "Or the threat of it."
• The Faceless: Subverted with the CEO.
• Faux Affably Evil: White
• Fake Nationality: Possibly; Gemma Chan was born in London, and it's hinted that Chinese Girl is, well, Chinese
• Foil: Fittingly, White is a foil to Black.
• Fridge Brilliance: White and Brown were the only two of the group who were specifically asked to apply. White and Brown are also the main instigators of conflict, meaning they were chosen and invited specifically to cause tension which would give the applicants a chance to prove themselves.
  • The question asked was "Any questions?" The correct answer: No. When the characters first start talking, one of the first questions one asks is "Anyone figure out the answer yet?" The first response given? "No."
• Good Scars, Evil Scars: Averted; there's nothing really attractive about Dark's scars.
• Gray Rain of Depression: Not so much rain, but a sprinkler system. Still...
• Halfway Plot Switch: A mild example, but the main focus of the first half of the film focuses on the candidates trying to unveil hidden writing on their paper. Then White makes Brunette burn her own paper, and the rest of the film documents the candidates slowly going insane and turning on each other.
• Healing Shiv: the guard's gun, with its special bullets, not only heals its own entrance wound, but restores the "victim" to perfect health, curing any diseases that they had beforehand.
• Hey, It's That Guy!: White is Prince Ate My Triscuits And Didn't Replace Them.
  • Why is Benny taking the exam?
• Heroic Sacrifice
• He's Dead, Jim: Subverted. Blonde assumes Black is dead after being shot in the heart, but he is very much alive.
• Hint Dropping: most of what Deaf manages to say.
• Hoist by His Own Petard: White loses the competition due to his own hubris.
• I Lied: White says this when everyone calls him out on his back-stabbing.
• In-Universe Camera: The security camera is used at certain points in the story.
• Ironic Echo: "Any Questions?"
• Improvised Weapon: White stabs Black with a pencil, while Brown tortures Dark with a piece of paper.
• Instant Death Bullet: Inverted
• Ironic Nickname: White calls Brown Gandhi near the opening of the film. This is ironic, as Brown has military experience, and is the second-most violent member of the group.
• Jack Bauer Interrogation Technique: Brown tortures Dark with a piece of paper.
• Jerkass: White, before he delves into Complete Monster territory.
• Karma Houdini: Possible; despite their actions, it's not whether or not White or Brown will receive any punishment.
• Karmic Fate: White shoots with Black with the Healing Shiv, curing Black of the virus. White, on the other hand, will have to continue taking his medication.
• Kick the Dog: White's process of nicknaming people; he calls the Indian man Brown, the Nigerian man Black, etc.
• Laughably Evil: White
• Literal Genie: the guard, who only removes applicants once they break the Exact Words of the rules.
• Living MacGuffin: The security guard.
• The Load: How White sees everyone else.
• Loophole Abuse: more like an open invitation for creativity, though.
• Loveable Rogue: Brown
• MacGuffin: The test papers.
• Manipulative Bastard: White. Brown, too, to a lesser extent. Of course, it's revealed that Deaf was manipulating everyone in the room the entire time, albeit in a heroic inversion of this trope.
• Manly Tears: White after being unwittingly disqualified.
• Meaningful Echo: Anytime someone is disqualified, they replay the Invigilator stating the rule that was just broken; the only exception is Brown's disqualification
• Minimalism
• Minimalist Cast: see those guys in the very first scene? They will be the only characters in the entire movie. Many of them won't even be there, in the end.
• Mistaken for Spies: Both Dark and White are accused of being plants.
• The Mole: Deaf, who was actually the CEO of the company.
  • Red Herring Mole: Dark, who actually did work for the company, but was legitimately applying for the position, and was not planted there intentionally.
• My God, What Have I Done??: White after being disqualified.
• Nameless Narrative / Only Known by Their Nickname: the job applicants insist on not giving each other their actual names. "White" gives them all nicknames instead: "Black", "Brown", "Blonde", "Brunette", "Dark", and "Deaf". The representative of the company only calls himself "the Invigilator".
  • The guard and the first applicant to be disqualified are never named: they are credited as "The Guard" and "Chinese Girl" respectively.
• Eucatastrophe
• Never Trust a Trailer: The trailer made the movie seem far more action-packed than the final product.
• No Good Deed Goes Unpunished: Dark gets disqualified when she appeals for an intervention because one of the applicants is dying.
• Noodle Incident: The steps required to get to the exam process.
• No Name Given: The whole cast.
• The Not Love Interest: Blonde to Black.
• Omega Cast
• One-Scene Wonder: Colin Salmon as the Invigilator.
• The Plague: the characters talk about a global pandemic of some sort; people who are infected must take some (very expensive) medication every hour, on the hour, or they will fall unconscious, go into convulsions, fall into a coma, and die. Properly medicated, however, they function normally, and don't seem to be highly contagious.
• Plot-Driving Secret: "What is the question?"
• Politically-Incorrect Villain: White
• Punch Clock Villain: Not actually a villain, but the Security Guard is a Punch Clock Antagonist of Punch Clock Neutral.
• Psychopathic Manchild: White
• Real Time
• Red Herring: Practically everything: the pencils, the lights, the lighter, the sprinkler system, and the gun are all distractions. The test is solved by handing in the unmarred paper and voicing the answer aloud.
• The Reveal: Several:
  • Dark works for the company, but is not a mole.
  • Deaf is the CEO of the company.
  • "The question" is the only question that they were asked: "Any questions?"
    • The proper response is: "No."
  • The gun is acutally a Healing Shiv.
• Rich Idiot With No Day Job: Discussed by Brown, defied by Dark.
• Rules Lawyer: all the applicants once they catch on to the fact that the guard is a Literal Genie, but especially White.
• Rule of Symbolism: Black clutching his cross when he rises from the dead. Deaf even points out the inherent symbolism at work.
• Save the Villain
• Scary Black Man: the Invigilator.
• Secret Test of Character: the criteria of the testing, with the dream job as the reward.
• Shoot the Shaggy Dog: All of White's planning and scheming is rendered pointless after he speaks with thirty seconds remaining.
• Thou Shalt Not Kill: ALMOST everyone to an extent, although Dark seems to have the biggest difficulties with letting White die.
• Token Romance: Averted
• Torture Always Works
• Trailers Always Spoil: The trailer spoils Brunette's ruined paper, as well as footage from the final scene.
• Twenty Minutes Into the Future: Subtly done, but some of the technology is obviously very sci-fi.
• Utopia Justifies the Means: Two cases:
  • You want an amazing, high-paying dream job? Just what are you willing to do to get it? Lie? Cheat? Steal? Kill? For most of them: yes.
  • So, your company has created a drug that can heal/cure anything and make people practically immortal, making the world an infinitely better place and saving literally billions of lives and you need to find someone who is right for the responsibility of distributing it, since you can never hope to make enough? That's fine - just put confused, desperate people into an isolated room, give them weapons, and watch them tear each other to shreds!
• Vasquez Always Dies: Well, no one dies, but Blonde is considerably more feminine than the other girls.
• Viewers are Morons: See Meaningful Echo
• Villain Ball: Most of White's plans fall apart when he descends into this; similarly, people stop listening to Brown after the torture scene.
• Villainous Breakdown
• The Voiceless: the guard, who never speaks, and only interacts with the applicants to escort them out of the room.
• You Are Number Six: The exams only have their numbers, not their names.
• You Wouldn't Shoot Me: White to Black