The movie opens up with a couple, college
students, James and Petra enjoying quality
time together. Due to oversleeping, the next day,
James arrives late at his philosophy class, just
when his teacher, Zimit, is about to close the
door. However, being the last day of their class,
Zimit allows him in and starts discussing the
thought exercises he taught them to survive in
the modern world.
One by one, the studentsÂ
recall the challenging exercises which they
learnt throughout the year. One of the exercises
includes the theory that if a monkey is given a
typewriter and enough time to type a book, one
day he will definitely type the whole book.
Following this, Zimit informs them that before
they depart, they will indulge themselves in
one last thought exercise. In this exercise, the
students have to organize their thought process
when the whole world is suffering from an atomic
cataclysm. In a flash, the scene changes to
their experimental place where atomic bombs
are being exploded in a distance. Soon,
Zimit takes them to a bunker and informs them that
it can only accommodate 10 people for a year.
James suggests they all stay in the bunker but
Zimit tells them that the radiation outside
will take at least one year to return to
normal limits and the oxygen inside the
bunker cannot hold more than 10 people.
Back in the class, Petra thinks that it is
cruel to select 10 out of 21 candidates and
leave the others to die in radiation. Hence,
she decides to opt out of the experiment
and prepares to leave. Surprisingly,
Zimit stops her and threatens to lower James’
academic grades if she leaves. Hearing this, Petra
is compelled to stay for the thought exercise.
After this, Zimit asks the students to choose from
a list of cards in which their probable profession
is written, based on which the students will
select the worthy candidates to enter the bunker.
For some reason, Zimit coughs badly when Petra and
James select their cards from the box. As soon
as the distribution of the cards is completed,
Zimit inquires with the students about
their profession. James is a farmer while
Petra is an engineer for the experiment.
The scene again shifts back to their experimental
site, where Zimit shoots one of the students
when he discloses his profession as a poet.
Taken aback, Petra questions him for doing so, but
Zimit defends himself by saying that a poet is of
no use inside the bunker and that he also saved
him from being scorched by the nuclear radiation.
Zimit is also part of the experiment but his
ability is hidden from the group and it is up to
them to decide if they want to let him enter the
bunker. One by one, the students start mentioning
their worth for being in the bunker and how they
can help others in need, followed by the voting
to decide their fate. While selecting the last
individual for the bunker, the group has to select
between an opera singer and Zimit. Realizing
that Zimit has some unrevealed ability, the
group decides to choose him over the singer.
After the selection of the worthy candidates,
the selected group takes 5 minutes to greet
their other classmates. Moments later,
when the selected candidates are sitting
around and talking, they hear gunshots.
They run to the spot and are shocked to see that
Zimit has killed all of the abandoned students. In
particular, Petra is devastated, and she tells
James that she does not want Zimit inside the
bunker. Following this, James devises a plan and
informs everyone to gather inside the bunker,
except Zimit. When everyone
starts running towards the bunker,
Zimit also tries to follow them. However, before
he can enter, the group closes the door.
Inside the bunker, everyone starts exploring the
facilities, trying to find something interesting.
Later at night, when Petra goes to take a look
at Zimit, she finds him in a very miserable
condition because of the atomic radiation present
outside. Before he collapses outside the door,
Zimit shows a paper to Petra, mentioning that
only he knows the exit code of the bunker.
Soon, the entire group arrives there, but they
assume that Zimit was only trying to make them
feel bad for leaving him outside. However,
as they cannot open the door in the present,
the group decides to spend the year and
face whatever will happen later.
With this, the students start passing their days,
using the help of just about anything that they
can get their hands on. Meanwhile, Petra regularly
visits Zimit’s corpse outside the bunker and feels
sad for whatever they did to him. The time inside
the bunker is not easy and fun for the group,
rather it is agonizing and frustrating as they
are not allowed to go outside and play.
In the next scene, a year has passed inside
the bunker, and the students prepare to leave.
Unfortunately, they find that they need to enter
a passcode to exit the bunker and that Zimit was
actually telling the truth. The group tries their
best to break the glass of the bunker but fails
in every attempt. Eventually, all of them die
as the oxygen inside the bunker runs out.
The scene then shifts back to the classroom,
where Zimit tells the students that they
should have thought logically before locking
him outside the bunker. He also reveals that
his real profession was the bunker builder
and because of this, he was the only one
who knew the code to open the bunker.
Following this, he again makes the group take
part in the next thought exercise. The students
are hesitant but for the sake of their grades,
they reluctantly agree. Next, the group
is taken to a location where volcanoes
are erupting everywhere. Zimit asks the
students to look at their cards for information.
After reading, the students find their profession.
James is still an organic farmer but is now gay,
while Petra is an electrical engineer. Both of
them are selected as worthy candidates to be in
the bunker and a few of the previous
candidates are exchanged. This time,
Zimit gets one spot because only he knows the
code to open the bunker door. After a while,
the selected ones rush towards the bunker, while
the abandoned ones rush to get a car and leave
the place. Unfortunately, when they try to drive
away, a huge volcanic avalanche engulfs them.
Later at night, when Petra goes to meet
James, she is shocked to see him getting
intimate with one of the boys. Devastated,
she walks out of the room and sits on a couch.
After some time, everyone is discussing how they
can procreate and increase the human population.
Each of them starts to choose their partner and
goes to their room. Sadly, James cannot accompany
Petra as he is gay. Because of this, Petra decides
to select Zimit as her partner. She grabs his
hand and takes him to the other room.
Ten weeks pass by but still, there are no
signs of pregnancy inside the bunker. Zimit then
suggests that they should change their partners
and try again. However, one of the students,
Bonnie, refuses his suggestion and states
that he is always wrong. Hearing this, Zimit
gets angry and leaves the room. After a while,
he returns with a gun, and points it at Bonnie.
He then orders everyone to go out of the room,
except Bonnie. Despite Zimit’s orders,
Jack, who likes Bonnie, hides behind
the door and when Zimit is about to shoot Bonnie,
attacks him from the back. The two fight and Jack
somehow manages to stab Zimit with a pencil.
Because of the injury, Zimit becomes desperate
for revenge. He immediately heads out and
opens the entrance door of the bunker.
Sadly, the volcanic fire enters the place
and kills everyone within seconds.
Back in the classroom, James asks Zimit why
he coughed earlier when he was distributing
cards to him and Petra. Zimit replies that he
has a cold, but James is suspicious about it.
Mentioning that he does not care about his
grades, James pretends to leave the classroom,
but just then, he grabs Zimit’s box and rushes
outside. On opening the box, James learns that
Zimit has been tricking him and Petra by tampering
with their cards every single time. He returns to
the classroom and confronts Zimit for his act and
calls it cheating. However, Zimit defends himself
by saying that he was trying to prepare James for
the real-world scenario, bringing him out of his
privileged life. James still does not believe his
teacher, so he suggests they go through the third
round of the thought exercise. The whole class
also agrees, and Zimit is forced to comply.
In the following scene, the group again
arrives on an imaginary island that is
going to be attacked with nuclear bombs. As soon
as they reach there, Zimit goes to the bunker
to do a quick inspection of the place. Inside,
he grabs a gun for himself and hides the rest.
He hears a voice inside the bunker but does not
pay much attention to it. Once outside, Petra
goes to Zimit and gives him a warm hug, mentioning
that all of them have been hard on him. Petra then
approaches the group and asks them to trust her as
she is going to select the candidates this time.
Everyone agrees, and the selection begins.
Surprisingly, Petra goes against Zimit’s
suggestions and starts choosing individuals who
might pose a risk or lack technical expertise,
such as an opera singer and a poet. Petra excludes
herself and selects James to fill the last spot
for the bunker. Zimit mentions that they will
not remain alive as the group she selected
has no expertise to prepare anything. However,
Petra defends herself by telling that the group
can at least enjoy their time while inside.
Enraged with her choice and for not including him,
Zimit reaches his bag for his gun but is surprised
to not find it there. Petra then comes forwards
and tells Zimit that she took out his gun while
they were talking to each other sometime before.
Zimit takes the gun from her and points it at
James to shoot him, but James is already holding
a rifle which Zimit hid while he was inspecting
the place. The sound that Zimit heard while he
was hiding the gun was of James, who was keeping
an eye on him. Zimit then reminds them that they
will require the code to exit the bunker and he
is the only one who knows it. To his surprise,
Bonnie, who also has an excellent IQ, recites the
code for him. It turns out that she had seen Zimit
using the code during their second experiment.
Having no other choice, Zimit walks
away from there. A while later, when Petra and
other unselected classmates also prepare to leave,
she realizes that they do not have
the key to the boat. Just then, Chip,
one of the bunker candidates, tells Petra that
he has the keys. When she goes to retrieve them,
Chip cleverly pulls Petra inside the bunker,
steps out, and closes the door. After this,
he runs towards the boat with his other friends
and tries to reach the nearby island before the
nuclear bombs are dropped on the place.
Inside the bunker, the group enjoys their time
by painting, singing, and doing all the things
they like. James expresses his love for Petra
but for some reason, she is not able to give
him back the same response. After spending a
year of fun and creativity, the group steps
out of the bunker and is shocked to find the
island still in its original state, without any
nuclear attack. Despite Zimit’s narration that
they would all perish since none of them have the
technological abilities to survive, they have come
this far. However, since all their supplies have
run out, they don’t have much time to live.
Moments later, a nuclear warhead lands on the
beach. As the group has already enjoyed a full
year, they are ready to embrace death. James makes
his way to detonate the warhead but just then,
a barbaric-looking Zimit arrives there
with his gun, and tells James to step away.
It turns out that he lived in a nearby cave
for the entire year. He threatens to shoot
James and kill him but surprisingly, the
other survivors stand in front of James.
After this, the group detonates the warhead
together and everyone is killed.
The scene shifts to the class, where Zimit
mentions that the most recent exercise was
unpleasant. Everyone departs when the lesson
is over, but Petra stays and accuses Zimit of
trying to punish her and James with the exercise.
James, in Zimit’s opinion, does not deserve Petra.
Here, it is revealed that Zimit has been having an
affair with Petra and during the whole exercise,
he was trying to punish James. Petra tells
Zimit that intelligence isn’t the only
factor to consider when it comes to survival and
satisfaction. She then tells him that she loves
James and leaves the classroom. The movie ends
with Zimit, sitting by himself in the classroom,
contemplating different thought
exercises like before. Eventually,
he reaches into his drawer for a revolver and
a gunshot can be heard.
