The film is set in present-time United Kingdom in an alternate history.

Eight candidates dress for what appears to be an employment assessment exam. They enter a room and sit down at individual desks. Each desk contains a paper with the word "candidate", followed by a number, from one to eight. The Invigilator, a representative of the company named DATAPREV, explains that the exam takes 80 minutes and consists of one question only, and that there are three rules: do not talk to the Invigilator or the armed guard at the door, do not spoil the paper, and do not leave the room. Not obeying the rules will result in disqualification. After the clock starts, it turns out that the question papers are blank. One candidate is immediately removed from the room for spoiling her paper by writing on it. The seven remaining candidates realize they can talk to each other and work together. "White", who is arrogant and rude, suggests nicknames based on physical appearance: Black, White, Brown, Blonde, Brunette, and Dark, refer to their skin and hair colors, and Deaf is for one candidate who does not pay attention to the others. The candidates use the lights, bodily fluids, and fire sprinklers to try to reveal a hidden question on the paper, with no luck. White takes control of the group but really works against them, engineering the disqualifications of Brunette and Deaf. White then taunts the others, saying he knows the question but will not tell them.

It is revealed that the company in question is responsible for a miracle drug which a large part of the population are dependent upon after a viral pandemic. Black subdues White, ties him to a chair, and calls him a distraction to the group. White says he is infected with the virus and needs his medication, but the others do not believe him. Brown suggests Dark is actually a plant from the company, while demonstrating much knowledge about the internal workings of the company. This leads Brown to torturing her into revealing that she works for the company but is still applying for the job like everyone else. Just then, White goes into convulsions, which proves he has the disease. Dark asks the unseen Invigilator for help and is disqualified. Brown tries to destroy the medication that White brought for himself, but Blonde retrieves it and gives it to White. The others release White and demand to know the question, but he suggests the explanation is that there is no question the company is going to hire the last remaining candidate. This triggers a fight between White and Black for the guard's gun, which White wins. White forces Brown to leave the room at gunpoint. However, before Blonde leaves, she turns off the voiceactivated lights, which allows Black to attack White. When the lights are turned on, Black is dead from a gunshot, and Blonde is hiding in the hallway, with just one foot still inside the room. Before White can kill her, the clock runs to zero. When White addresses the Invigilator and proclaims himself the best candidate, he is disqualified; it is revealed that Deaf had earlier set the

countdown forward by a few minutes. With only Blonde left, she remembers that Deaf had been using his glasses and a piece of broken glass with an exam paper earlier but had been ignored. Taking the abandoned glasses, she finds the phrase "Question 1." on the exam paper in minuscule writing. Blonde realizes that Question 1 refers to the only question asked of them by the Invigilator: "Any questions?" She answers, "No." The Invigilator and Deaf enter; the Invigilator reveals Deaf is actually the CEO of the company and inventor of the cure for the virus, which can also heal any wound. The bullet that hit Black contained this cure, and he awakens, healed. With the drug about to be released to the public, the company needed to hire someone who was not only able to make tough choices but who is also compassionate, which Blonde had demonstrated throughout the exam. Blonde passes the exam and accepts her new job.

The final candidates for a highly desirable corporate job are locked together in an exam room and given a test so simple and confusing that tension begins to unravel.

Nobody likes job interviews, but if youre someone who particularly hates being put on the spot, or forced to answer ambiguous HR questions youll probably love Exam. Not because youll empathize with its characters mind you. You'll love the film because whatever your experience with the dreaded job interview has been up 'till now, these people get it way worse than you ever have. And, well, that's just fun to watch.

In Stuart Hazeldines gripping directorial debut, eight job candidates assemble in a cold, sterile room. They are given a desk, a chair, a pencil, a piece of paper and a set of seemingly simple instructions (which, of course, will NOT be repeated). All they have to do is answer one question and they could walk away with the job of their dreams. They have 80 minutes. But, when they turn their papers over they find they are empty. Eight candidates for a top job at a mysterious company are gathered in a windowless room with two rows of desks. They have passed previous requirements not mentioned in the film. They each choose a seat and upon each desk is a piece of paper which identifies them as, "Candidate 1", "Candidate 2", etc. The invigilator, (Colin Salmon), arrives and sets forth the rules for the test.

Inside the room there will be no laws other than what the company permits, as such. The candidates cannot try to communicate with the invigilator himself nor the guard. They cannot deface the paper and they cannot leave the room for any reason. If they break any of the rules, they will be disqualified. The test consists of answering one question. The invigilator asks the candidates whether they have any questions. He sets the clock at 80 minutes and leaves the room.

Once alone, the candidates turn their paper over and find nothing is written on the back. They look at each other in confusion, and the candidate "Oriental" (Gemma Chan) starts writing "I believe I should get..." The guard (Chris Carey) puts her out because she has written on her paper, defacing it.

A young white man, (Luke Mably) starts talking, stands up and convinces everyone to work together until they find what the question is. He also gives insulting names to the candidates according to their physical appearance, like Blonde, Deaf, White, Brown, Dark...

At first, they try to read a hidden message in the papers by placing them in front of tubes of ultraviolet lights that horizontally surround the room. They then break the tubes so that the emergency lights come on. When they break the emergency tubes they find infrared light. None of this helps them to see anything on the paper. They further discover that if a candidate spoils another candidate's paper, neither of the two will be disqualified.

They try spilling liquids over the paper. White urinates on his but finds nothing.

White takes charge of the group as a de-facto leader. Brunette (Pollyanna McIntosh) discovers they can touch the guard as long as they don't talk to him. She finds a lighter in one of his pockets. She wants to set off the fire alarms because it may produce something other than water which may reveal a photograph that shows the question. She jumps onto a table, but still cannot reach the sprinkler. White offers her a paper and after succeeding she discovers that White gave her her own paper, so she is disqualified.

White picks on Deaf (John Lloyd Fillingham) who speaks only French. Deaf displays symptoms of a mental or nervous disorder. He says in French that they only have to look at the papers while he tries to re-order some small pieces of glass on top of the paper. White bullies him into tearing the paper and eating it. The guard puts Deaf out.

They discover that Brown (Jimi Mistry) is a professional gambler, and he suggests that the board of directors is hidden on the other side of the wall betting on who'll win. Dark (Adar Beck) is a psychoanalyst who seems to be the only one who has some information about the company, the products it sells, its expansion etc., but none of the other candidates were able to find any information in spite of doing some research. They think she's a spy within the company and is actually working for them and they want to get the question out from her with torture. When Brown is going to torture her by cutting her with a piece of paper, they discover that she has self-hurt on one of her tights before. Brown makes a cut. Blonde offers her a piece of plastic plaster.

White deceived them by saying the group could collaborate until they guessed but after tricking Brunette into being disqualified each one begins to mistrust the others. As the tension builds to greater levels White ends up tied to a chair by Black (Chukwudi Iwuji) and Brown. White starts convulsing and is unable to find his medication, which is required every hour. While everyone else is trying to decide the best way to help, Dark turns toward the blank screen and pleads, and is thereby disqualified. Blonde (Nathalie Cox) discovers that Brown stole White's pill and stuck it under his desk with a piece of chewing-gum. Blonde forces the pill into White's mouth, they free him and he gets well almost immediately.

White believes only one can win. He and Black begin arguing and race to get the guard's gun. White is allegedly shot by Black, but they discover the gun didn't actually fire. White gains possession of it and tries to shoot Black, but once again, the gun doesn't shoot. White figures out that the gun may only be shot by the guard, so he puts the gun into the guard's hand and shoots. White threatens everybody that they must leave or be killed. Brown leaves. Blonde leaves and shouts "lights out" in order to give Black the opportunity to win. In the dark, White kills Black.

White shouts to the other side of the wall that he's won, however, he loses because Deaf has adjusted the clock so that the 80-minute time slot has not yet expired. The glass wall is turned on and White can see the silhouette of the invigilator. He looks at Black on the floor and realizes that it has all been in futility, so

he tries to commit suicide. He is unable to because, as recalled, the gun will only work with the guard's fingers. The guard disqualifies him by putting his arm on White's shoulder and leads him out.

Blonde enters the room again and picks up her paper. She fumbles with the pieces of Deaf's broken glasses and reads "Question 1" written on the watermark of the paper in very small print. She offers it to the invigilator and says "no", answering the question put forth "Are there any questions?". She is offered the job. Deaf is the CEO of the company. A troubled but genius scientist, who has discovered a pill to heal wounds really fast.

Blonde says that she may not accept the job. When the invigilator points to why she went through all that trouble if she didn't want the position, she points to Black lying on the floor and says that it's unacceptable. The invigilator asks, "Who told you that he's dead?". She approaches Black and sees that the bullet wound is almost healed. The invigilator says that they put the fast-healing pill inside the bullet.

They own the formula for the medicine which also healed White's illness, but it can only be manufactured in very small quantities. The new director needed to have sympathy alongside ambition, intelligence, drive and hard work.

Blonde accepts the job right away. Its a movie so mysterious I can barely tell you anything about it at all.

Heres the basic premise of Exam: eight strangers are competing for a coveted spot in a powerful and extremely mysterious organization. They enter a room and are each given a piece of paper and a pencil. They are told these rules:

You will be asked one question. One answer will be required. You will have eighty minutes.

If you try to communicate with the Invigilator or the guard, you will be disqualified.

If you spoil your paper, either intentionally or accidentally, you will be disqualified.

If you choose to leave the room for any reason, you will be disqualified.

The only laws in this room are the Rules above.

And . . . go!

Unfortunately for the candidates, there is no question on the paper for them to answer, so theyre a little bit on the lost side. And when one candidate gets ejected from the competition literally less than a minute after its begun, the remaining candidates are forced to work together, not to figure out what the answer is but to figure out what question theyre supposed to answer.

I enjoyed Exam quite a bit. Mekaela and I had a lot of fun pausing the movie at any given moment to discuss what would happen next, who would get ejected, who was tricking who, etc. etc. I felt very involved with the story, very invested in the outcome . . . not emotionally but mentally . . . I liked watching events unfold and trying to guess what would happen next. You wouldnt think this would be a very unusual reaction to a thriller, but lately I havent been particularly invested in many of the suspense films that Ive watched, possibly because so many of them try so hard to be epic, you know. They want to rock your mind with this huge, global conspiracy, and each twist has to be a bigger twist than the twist you got five minutes ago . . . Exam does have twists, of course, but they seem smaller in comparison, more simplistic, and for some reason I liked this a lot more. I like playing with basic concepts and seeing how much you can get out of them; I tend to find that more exciting to watch. And, really, what could be simpler than sticking eight strangers in an enclosed space and seeing what theyre willing to do to one another in order to win . . . or to survive?

Unfortunately, despite enjoying this movie a great deal, theres not a lot else I can tell you about Exam because I wouldnt want to give anything away. Here, however, is what I can say:

1.) I had to look up the definition of the word invigilator after the film was over because I laughed out loud when I first heard it. I mean, maybe its a totally common British word, but as an American . . . it does sound a little silly, doesnt it? Like, someone whos trying too hard to have an impressive sounding title? Anyway, invigilator is a real wordno surprise there; this is a British film, after alland it literally means a person who watches over test-takers to ensure that there is no cheating.

I maintain that it is still a stupid sounding word and takes something away from the awesome presence that is Colin Salmon (best known, by me anyway, from Resident Evil).

2.) The characters in this movie are all given nicknames, not for any real reason, just because everyone likes a movie where strangers who are forced to work together use nicknames instead of their actual names. Unfortunately, since Asshole (also known as White . . . we give our own nicknames in the St. George household) is a shit-starting and possibly racist bastard, the names are designated primarily by skin or hair color. One character is given the nickname Deaf. I, of course, misheard it as Death, which, frankly, was a much cooler nickname. Well stick with calling him Crazy Guy in this review, though. Its more fitting.

3.) I promised Mek that I would spend at least a little time discussing her least favorite character in this movie, Dark. Dark is the psychologist type character of the group. Cleverly, we will be referring to her as Shrink in this review, and Mek really, really hated her. In fairness to Mek, Shrink really is quite the stereotype: almost everything she says sounds like something that a screenwriter would think that a psychologist would say. I found her vaguely annoying . . . but not, like, life-insurance commercial annoying. (You know those commercials. Hi, Susan. How are you? Well, thank you for asking. Yes, Ive made my peace with Mom passing, but all her post -life expenses are so costly. Thankfully, Ive discovered THIS COMPANY thats helped me out so much. Say, Susan . . . you know, youre old. You should really think about getting life insurance yourself, so that when you kick the bucket, your children can be totally at peace with your death, too. Isnt life wonderful? Ha ha ha. UGH.)

Ahem. Anyway. If Exam were ever to be remade (which would be kind of silly, although Im now trying to dreamcast it with some of my favorite actors . . . there is no movie that cant be improved by the addition of Cillian Murphy, hmmm . . . ) the best

change that they could make would be to either strengthen Shrinks dialogue or j ust give the character to a superior actress. I dont think Adar Beck was as bad as Mek thought she was, but I do agree that she is kind of the weakest link here, acting-wise. Still, Shrink didnt detract too much from the movie for me.

4) While were on acting . . . overall, its pretty fair. Nothing thats going to wow your pants off . . . Id imagine youd need very special talent for that . . . but, mostly, its pretty decent. Luke Mably (Asshole) carries a good brunt of the dialogue, and he does, I think, the best work in the film.

5.) There are a lot of movies that try to shoot the whole enchilada in one enclosed space, but usually someone finds the need to show a flashback or a dream or something that takes us into a new location. Exam never does that. The closest it gets to leaving the room is seeing the hallway outside of the room, and thats about it. I admired that.

6.) While the characters are trying to decide if theres a hidden question on the paper, they do an awful lot of stuff that I wouldnt try if one of my primary rules was Do not spoil your paper. Also: I wouldnt leave that paper anywhere. Id be carrying that with me the whole time, and I wouldnt give it up to anyone. Hell, if I ever got out of there, Id probably fucking laminate that paper.

7.) Finally, when in doubt, dont overcomplicate. The answer is usually simpler than you think.

If you havent seen the film, I urge you to skip the Spoiler Section of this review and go and rent it instead. I really do think Exam is worth a watch, and it wouldnt be nearly as fun for you if you read about the end beforehand. If you have seen the film and want to hear what I thought about, well, pretty much everything, continue onwards.