If someone were to ask me to sum up Marcus Stokes’ 2024 psychological thriller “State of Consciousness” in a single sentence, I wouldn’t hesitate to describe it as a B-grade amalgamation of “Memento” and “Westworld” that fails to deliver any standout moments. Initially, Emile Hirsch’s subpar performance throughout the film puzzled me, only to realize later that some films are beyond redemption; even talented actors struggle to save them. The screenplay falters, at times distancing you from the plot so abruptly that you feel as though you’ve stumbled into an entirely different movie. However, despite its flaws, the film gains some momentum in the second half as the plot reveals itself with less complexity. As such, it’s worth a one-time watch for lovers of psychological thrillers.
Spoilers Ahead.
State of Consciousness (2024) Plot Summary and Movie Synopsis:
The film starts with Stephen and Alicia making out in the bedroom, and the following day, Stephen feels some kind of nausea in his head. He opens up his store when a patrolling police car parks in front of the store. Stephen asks whether they need petrol for their car. When he is about to charge them for the petrol, one of the police officers discovers a vintage car parked inside the garage. The officer asks if Stephen is the owner of the car, to which he answers no. He says someone drops the car here for repair and then goes to Mexico.
The officer asks for the car’s paperwork, which Stephen does not have with him. Later, the second officer finds a dead body at the back of the car and arrests Stephen immediately. Stephen sees Monique, the lawyer, and she tells him that all the evidence points to Stephen, and there is very little chance of escape from this. Monique finds out that Stephen has a history of mental illness when he served the country. She brings it up in the court, and the court grants Stephen special care, and as soon as the doctor declares him fit, he will be free.
What Happens After Stephen is Released from the Hospital?
Stephen is sent for treatment under Dr. Fielder, who introduces him to the rest of the patients and other doctors. Stephen feels very welcomed here until some nurses hold him tight and inject something into him. When Stephen wakes up from sleep, surprisingly, 18 months have passed, and he is ready to go home. He meets with Alicia, who is very happy to see him. Stephen opens up the store, and a biker gang rides past his store. Later, Lester comes to the store to fill the petrol tanks, and the biker gang comes again. Only this time, they stop and look intensely at Stephen. Lester asks Stephen whether he knows them or not, to which he answers no.
Soon after Lester is gone, the gang enters the store and starts punching Stephen, asking for a huge sum of money. Their leader, Lazlo, asks multiple times that Stephen has stolen his money and he needs to give that back. However, Stephen, on the other hand, does not have any clue about what money they are talking about. The gang members destroy the whole store, and later, Stephen finds himself lying inside the house. He takes the pill Dr. Fielder has given and takes Alicia to the store. Surprisingly, he finds out that the store is clean, and there is no sign of any struggle as everything is in its place.
Alicia tells him that this is happening to him because he is not taking his medicines seriously, but Stephen does not understand what is going on with him. As time progresses, he sees nightmares of some device being implanted inside his brain. He also sees that when he is reading, the lines of the book sometimes kind of glitch after some pages. He thinks that he is having some difficulties with his eyesight. A couple of days later, the gang again comes to the store. This time, they kill Lester. Right when they are about to shoot Stephen, he sees himself right outside the store alongside Alicia.
What does Stephen find out inside the Hospital?
When Stephen has already found himself dead a couple of times and Alicia once, Dr. Fielder pays him a visit. She says that if Stephen takes the pill, she will agree to his condition of taking him to the hospital. Stephen does not take the pill, he only acts by taking it in front of her. Later, he meets with Toby Sinclair, whom he does not remember, but Toby tells him that they have been best friends for a long time. Stephen reads the book that Toby is holding and sees the same glitch as before. Fielder understands that Stephen has not taken the pill, which helps him see the reality.
But it is already too late, and Stephen kills both Toby and Fielder. However, right after killing them, Stephen sees Alicia, and he shoots himself. But, just like before, Stephen is not dead. He is now sleeping on an operation table, and Fielder is trying to do something to him. Stephen somehow manages to escape the operation theater and ends up in a room that has all the recordings of his life. Stephen kidnaps Fielder from the hospital and learns that he has been part of a project where Fielder is trying to make criminals’ lives better by creating some kind of parallel words.
What does Stephen learn from Alicia?
When Stephen comes back to the house, he realizes that the owner of the house is originally Lester, who, in fact, says Lester is not his real name at all. Stephen knows that all roads lead to Alicia anyway, so he goes to the Church in Mexico, which Alicia used to visit when she was a little girl. There he learns that she is working for some cartel and Lazlo is a part of them. Stephen comes to know the original truth about his life as Alicia explains it to him.
There was a time when Toby and Stephen used to be best friends. They started dealing drugs with some cartels, and everything was fine until Stephen started taking drugs himself. Toby then decided to keep him aside and this did not sit well with Stephen. He had an affair with Alicia, who was then Toby’s girlfriend. Alicia, too, had a feeling for Stephen, and together, they decided to steal money from Toby. Toby caught them red-handed, but he allowed them to leave with the condition that they should never return. If Lazlo finds out about the money, Toby will not help Stephen.
Toby’s forgiving nature hurt Stephen’s ego, and so he stabbed him to death and ran away. Later, he and Alicia tortured the ‘Lester’ guy and started residing in his house while he was tied up in the basement. Back to the present scenario, Lazlo confronts Stephen to seek revenge for killing his brother, Toby. But Stephen kills him first, and he accidentally kills Alicia as well. Stephen does not know what is really going on, so he decides to leave the place as soon as possible. This time, the killings are real, as he is living in the present.
State of Consciousness (2024) Movie Ending Explained:
What Does Dr. Fielder Actually Do to Stephen?
At the end of the film, we see Stephen coming back to the hospital, and he is welcomed by Dr. Fielder. She has already told him that Stephen is part of a program, and she does not want to lose him at any cost. She has created these parallel worlds and characters that Stephen had known in his life just to give him an opportunity to be good in his life. Unfortunately, Dr. Fielder never knew that he would surrender to Lazlo’s trauma eventually. There are multiple possibilities that are not shown clearly in the film because of its disastrous execution.
It is possible that Stephen never leaves the hospital until the very end, when he kidnaps Dr. Fielder and runs away. The idea of him leaving the hospital is implanted from the beginning where he interacts with Alicia, Lester, Toby, Fielder, Lazlo, and everyone he has known throughout his life. He thinks that Lester’s house is his own, he owns the store, and he leads a normal life with his girlfriend, Alicia. But, the fact is, Alicia and the others are never there. It is all being played inside Stephen’s head, where he dies in every possibility.
Fielder is running the examinations on him, recording his memories, viewing them at times only to find out the exact possibility in which Stephen can live a normal life. The pill perhaps works as a booster where Stephen, in the imaginary world, continues believing that everything that is happening in front of him is real. This is the reason why he used to see the pages of the book glitch whenever he stopped taking the pills. Anyway, the execution could have been much smoother unless the director wanted it this way.
Does Stephen Kill Dr. Fielder?
Well, there is no straight answer to this. We don’t see Stephen emptying the barrel of his gun when he says that everything is coming back to him. The phrase means that he now remembers everything, and he knows what Dr. Fielder is trying to accomplish with him. But does he kill her? Or does he kill himself? Well, there are two possibilities. In both cases, Stephen comes out to be the good man that Dr. Fielder has always wanted.
If he kills himself, then it comes from repentance for all the wrongdoings he has done so far, and hearing about all of it from Alicia makes him feel sad. He wants to destroy his life, knowing that Alicia, too, is dead because he has killed her. But, if he kills Dr. Fielder, he will do something good for humanity. No matter how Dr. Fielder describes her work, experimenting on humans should never be allowed. Yes, she is trying to give them a better life, but she never took their consent in the first place.
But, there is a third possibility where Stephen surrenders himself to Dr. Fielder and helps her continue her work. Because, right now, he has nowhere to go. He has fought long enough to find answers, and when he found them, he did not like them at all. Also, his love, Alicia, is now dead, so there is no reason for him to go on any longer. He can rest and live in the world that Fielder has created for him, where he will be able to revisit the memories. At least there, he can take a chance to live peacefully forever.
