The ending of cyber-thriller ‘CTRL’ explained

Here’s a breakdown of the ending of the cyber-thriller movie CTRL.

CTRL movie, co-written and directed by Vikramaditya Motwane, has an urgent critique of the dark side of our current, increasingly technological existence. The digital tools we appear to rely on can turn against us in unexpected and chilling ways. It treads deep into a disturbing reality; with every tide of artificial intelligence and digital convenience that we throw ourselves at, we are also in jeopardy of losing vital parts of our personal lives and autonomy. CTRL movie’s ending, which is explained in this article, serves as a wake-up call, reminding us how the more we lean into digital conveniences, the more we risk losing control over our lives and relationships. Also know about the official trailer, cast and release date of the CTRL movie on Netflix.

Ananya Panday, who has recently emerged as an impressive young actress and stepped out of the shadow of being labelled as “nepo baby”, plays the lead role of a young (early-20s) woman called Nella Awasthi. Vihaan Samat essays her beau Joe Mascarenhas. After Nella catches Joe kissing another girl, she decides to use an online artificial intelligence tool called CTRL (short for “control”), which is advertised to give consumers control of their digital lives, to erase all traces of Joe’s existence from her digital life — including in instant messages, photos and videos. However, things go very wrong when the tool, um, takes control itself.

Interestingly, CTRL is not the first time Ananya Panday and Vihaan have worked together. In fact, they appeared opposite each other only last month (September) in the Prime Video series Call Me Bae. And indeed, the chemistry is off the charts in CTRL.

CTRL movie ending explained: Ananya Panday-starrer thriller unmasks the dark side of technology

Through CTRL, Motwane and his fellow writers Avinash Sampath and Sumukhi Suresh (dialogue), taps into our public unease with a life future dominated by AI and tech monopolies. The film plays upon modern corporations that invisibly manage our digital lives through their sleek apps and algorithms while we give up our privacy for convenience. They harvest, analyse, and use our data to commodify us, the users, fostering the very dependence on technology.

The film, like other recent entries in the tech-dystopia genre — think The Social Dilemma (2020) and Black Mirror (2011–) — deals with the adverse impact of our digital existence. AI technology has evolved from simple, ease-oriented tools to playing a pivotal role in how we relate to one another and go about performing tasks. While these innovations are groundbreaking, they indeed come at a price in that they raise concerns about privacy, surveillance, and even personal autonomy. Most insidiously, CTRL explores how technology — let alone AI — is not a tool so much as a manipulative entity; it dictates outcomes and decisions and turns us into mere cogs in a greater corporate machine.

What happens in the CTRL movie’s plot?

In CTRL, Nella and Joe are influencers who have kept their lives on full display on social media. They are the perfect digital couple, posting every moment on social media using vlogs and posts to keep their audience entertained. But after Joe is caught cheating on Nella, her world comes crashing down and she descends into despair. Her entire online presence, after all, revolved around her relationship and that was her only source of income.

Exhausted, she turns to the titular CTRL, a software that provides an AI-driven companion to the users, and allows them to automate pretty much their entire digital lives, including answering emails, scheduling tasks, managing social media and even making decisions on their behalf. Of course, users have to accept terms of agreement which one never reads.

Nella names her AI companion Allen, anadrome of her name, and tasks it to erase every single trace of Joe from her digital life. As the companion begins its work, it suggests how she can rebuild her online presence sans Joe and once again become the darling of brands eager to partner with the influencer to promote their products. And as she allows Allen to do everything it suggests, she indeed becomes one of the country’s biggest influencers, earning enough dough to fulfil her dream of buying an apartment in Bandra. No longer does she get hurt by the thought of losing Joe.

One day, Joe arrives at her home unannounced. Shocked and angry, she asked him to go away. He has not come, he insists, to discuss their relationship but to discuss something else which is presumably important. But Nella calls security guards to escort him out of the building.

Later, she receives a text from him in which he urges her to be present at a ferry, which used to be their usual hanging-out spot. However, while Nella is away from her computer, an unseen presence types out an agreement on her behalf — that she will be there. Then the presence deletes both his and her message. Then Joe goes missing and is found murdered at the ferry.

Nella looks into Joe’s murder and finds out a horrible truth

It is from this point, that the movie’s screen-based storytelling begins. After much struggle, she finds out that Joe and a group of fellow techies (among whom were the girl Nella caught him kissing) were working to bring down a nefarious corporation called Mantra that has its grubby hands in everything: from consumer goods, technology (both hardware and software), e-commerce and so on.

Joe was one of the three people who had damning evidence against Mantra. Like Joe, one other man was also found dead in what was ruled a robbery. Nella manages to get in touch with the surviving member of the trinity and with his help finds evidence against Mantra in an encrypted server. Along with a bunch of documents is a video of Joe directly blaming Mantra for his friend’s death and also for his own impending demise now that he too is planning to go public. He also reveals that CTRL, too, is owned by Mantra and is not just a harmless AI companion but a tool for surveillance and control.

Here’s what happens in CTRL movie: Ending explained

After learning all this, Nella is suddenly grief-stricken and horrified. To make sure Joe’s death will not be in vain, she tries to upload the video on her channel. However, Allen intercepts the transfer and instead uploads a version of Joe’s video that is altered by Deepfake in which instead of Mantra, Joe puts the blame of his death on Nella, that he was murdered by her.

Nella is arrested and is visited by an attorney representing Mantra. Calm and smug, he asks her to withdraw all charges as she could not possibly dream of beating a billion-dollar behemoth like Mantra in a court of law. They have all the technology, know-how and manpower at their disposal to make her life a living hell. She will get out of jail, he admits since the evidence is merely circumstantial, but she will forever live under the taint of murder wherever she goes.

In the next scene, Nella is back at her parents’ bakery in Delhi. She has made peace with the fact that she is not an activist and cannot challenge a corporation on her own. She makes a few half-hearted attempts at being an influencer again, but her mind is not in it. Eventually, she again creates an account in CTRL. This time, Joe’s image and voice are one of the AI assistants she can choose from. She does choose Joe and appears happy even if she knows it is not really him. She, too, has succumbed to the very system that ruined her life.

What the ending of CTRL movie means

CTRL ends with the crushing inevitability of corporate power in a world enslaved by technology. Nella, an erstwhile victim of the system, is consumed by it. It is difficult, if not impossible, to escape the grasp of tech conglomerates that control every single aspect of our digital lives. Nella’s resignation symbolises to greater struggles people go through in a digital age where corporations like Mantra use AI and data manipulation to keep the masses subjugated, subverted and defeated.

The last scene of the film shows Nella choosing an AI version of Joe for companionship — a depressing message that technology not only infiltrates life but also manipulates emotions. In opting to live in the digital echo of her previous relationship, Nella herself showed how we, too, give up freedom and agency in exchange for a semblance of happiness given by the very systems that exploit us.

In the larger view, CTRL is a parable about the terrors of AI, corporate surveillance, and the increasing commodification of human relationships. It underlines feelings of helplessness when pitted against tech giants that can rewrite narratives with impunity, totally controlling data and manipulating life with frightening ease. Nella’s fate makes viscerally real the terror of living in a world where resistance is impossible and submission is the only option left in a world dominated by omnipotent corporations.

CTRL movie brief review

CTRL is Vikramaditya Motwane’s return to form after the cringe disappointment that was Anil Kapoor and Anurag Kashyap starrer AK vs AK (2020). — a film echoing the filmmaker’s earlier explorations of twisted human emotions. This techno-thriller goes on to portray the modern-day travails in digital life through the perspective of an influencer. Motwane manages to make the movie incredibly tense and suspenseful while also infusing social commentary into a believable, coherent story. Ananya Panday and Vihaan Samat pull this off with authenticity. CTRL is a strong reminder of how thin the dividing line is between convenience and control in digital existence.

CTRL movie on Netflix official trailer

Here is the official trailer of CTRL movie:

CTRL movie on Netflix release date

CTRL movie release date was 4 October on Netflix.

CTRL movie on Netflix full cast

Apart from Ananya Panday and Vihaan Samat, the movie also features Devika Vatsa, Kamakshi Bhat and Samit Gambhir.

Watch CTRL movie on Netflix here. 

(Hero and featured image: Courtesy of IMDb)