“Possessor” is a 2010 film directed by Brandon Cronenberg. The film stars Andrea Riseborough as Tasya Vos, Jennifer Jason Leigh as Girder, Hrant Alianak, Rossif Sutherland as Michael, Christopher Abbott as Colin, and Sean Bean as John. The movie follows the story of Tasya Vos, a middle-aged woman who works for a company that uses brain implants to inhabit other people’s bodies to carry out assassinations for their high-paying clients.
Possessor (2010) Plot Summary & Movie Synopsis:
Who is Tasya Vos & What Does She Do?
“Possessor” opens with a woman named Nolly, implanting a device into her brain. After activating it, her tearful expression abruptly changes to one of cold detachment, as if stripped of all human emotion. Later, we see Nolly entering a hotel, where she brutally kills a man with a piece of metal. After the murder, she takes her own life, but not before asking someone to “pull her out.”
It’s soon revealed that from the moment Nolly implanted the device, her body and actions were controlled by someone else—Tasya Vos. Tasya is an assassin who uses brain implants to hijack other people’s bodies and carry out high-stakes assassinations. This means Nolly had no control or awareness of her actions, and was just an unlucky and unwitting participant in today’s murder.
This constant transfer of consciousness takes a heavy toll on Tasya Vos too. After each mission, she struggles to reconnect with her true self, so she keeps a table full of personal belongings to remind her of her original life and identity. Vos was once married to a man named Michael. But their marriage hit a rough patch, leading to their separation. Recently, she’s started seeing Michael again and is considering taking a break from work to focus on rebuilding their relationship.
Vos also feels that time off might help her regain a sense of clarity, as she’s beginning to lose touch with her own true self. Vos’s boss, Girder, is a seasoned professional who oversees and assigns her contracts. A middle-aged woman, Girder feels it’s time to start stepping back from her role and pass the torch to Vos. However, she has her doubts. Lately, Vos seems more focused on reconnecting with her family than dedicating herself fully to the job. This makes Girder question if Vos is ready to take on the handler role.
What Problems Vos Faces After Inhabiting Colin?
Vos is soon assigned a high-paying contract to eliminate CEO John Parse and his daughter, Eva. To carry out this mission, Vos must take over the body of Colin Tate, Eva’s lover. The plan is to frame Colin as a man who, unable to endure the alleged abuse from John and Eva, snaps and kills them both. The hit is ordered by John’s stepson, Reid Parse, who wants to seize control of the company and run it on his own terms. To prepare, Vos begins surveilling Colin, studying his habits, speech patterns, and mannerisms to ensure she can inhabit his body without raising suspicion. After a few days of observation, Colin is abducted, and Vos’s consciousness is implanted into his body.
Vos has a tight deadline to complete the mission, i.e., three days, before risking severe damage to her brain. This timeline is critical because the implant dissolves within 3-4 days to leave no trace of evidence. From the start, something feels off. The synchronization between Colin’s body and Vos’s mind isn’t perfect, something Vos chooses to keep from Girder despite her asking.
This kind of misalignment has never occurred before and seems to be the result of Vos taking on too many consecutive missions. As Vos lives Colin’s life, his personality starts to show cracks. He seems emotionally distant, struggling to connect with the people in his life. He even forgets important details about them. At work, he becomes uneasy, struggling through a job he’s been doing for years.
What Happens to John and Ava?
During a house party, Colin (under Vos’s control) executes part of the mission by killing Ava. However, John survives the attack, unbeknownst to Vos. Believing the mission is complete, Vos attempts to finish things by having Colin turn the gun on himself. However, when the moment comes, Colin resists, and Vos is unable to pull the trigger. To escape Colin’s body before the implant dissolves or her own mind is permanently damaged, Vos grabs a shard of broken glass and attempts to stab herself in the head to sever the connection. This damages the brain implant, and the injury has immediate repercussions, showing physical distress on Vos’s real body back at the company headquarters.
Vos begins to bleed profusely and convulse, but the doctors on-site manage to stabilize her physical body. However, it becomes clear that Vos’s consciousness is still trapped within Colin’s body but no longer has control over it. In simpler terms, her mind is imprisoned in a body it cannot command. Meanwhile, Colin struggles to process everything around him. He has no memory or understanding of why he attacked John and Ava. Colin also begins to experience strange flashes of Vos’s memories—her face, her life, and her relationship with Michael.
In his search for clarity, Colin seeks Reeta’s help but Vos momentarily regains control of Colin’s body, forcing him to kill Reeta. Eddie arrives at Reeta’s home and knocks Colin unconscious, allowing Vos to attempt to regain control of Colin’s body. It becomes clear that Eddie has been working for Girder from the beginning. He adjusts the implant to fix the sync issue, but the attempt fails. And it is Eddie, who gets access to Vos’s mind and uncovers everything about her—her identity, her work, and her personal life, including Michael and her son. Colin also unknowingly kills Eddie.
Possessor (2010) Movie Ending Explained:
How Does Girder Win at the End?
Colin, now aware of Vos’s true identity, goes to her house and holds her family at gunpoint, demanding answers. He asks Michael where Vos is and what she has done to him. Colin also rants about parasites, entities that invade people’s minds, forcing them to do things they wouldn’t normally do and hurt those they care about. The situation spirals out of control, and Colin ends up killing Michael. Moments later, he is killed by Ira, Vos’s son.
Before dying, Colin shoots Ira, and it’s revealed that Ira’s mind is actually being controlled by Girder, making him a host. After Colin’s death, Vos wakes up in her own body and goes through her usual routine with the table of personal items meant to ground her. However, this time, she shows no remorse for an old memory of killing a butterfly as a child, meaning that she is now entirely devoid of human emotions, exactly as Girder had intended.
