Joe got out of the mill simulation at the end of The Mill. But did he really get out of the simulation, or did he enter a new simulation, which is more of a cleaner version of the mill simulation?
In Mill, we have our main guy, Joe, who has been thrown into a closed compound with a mill in the center. The whole thing is controlled by an AI who tells Joe to rotate the mill and complete his daily rotations. There are more closed compounds like this and more people like Joe in it. These people will be racing against one another, and the person with the least no of rotation will be killed.
This movie will give what Black Mirror Season 6 didn’t give, and that is a futuristic f’ed up Black Mirror story with a Black Mirror vibe. Basically, The Mill is a mixture of Black Mirror and Squid Games. So we will be doing The Mill Ending Explained, talking about all of the small details and breaking everything you need to understand The Mill.
The Mill Movie Explained
The Mill begins with Joe, a corporate ordinary Joe schlub, waking up in a dystopian cell that is like a Squid Games level, with nothing else in the room but an old spinning mill in the middle.
When the rules are rapidly established by Mallard, the organization’s Siri-like AI duck, Joe discovers there are other employees in the same situation and that the workday is 16 hours long, from 6 am to 10 pm. Although there is a work quota, the employees are free to use this time in any way they like. This equals one point for every time the mill rotates. Punishments are imposed if your daily quota is not met.
But there’s a catch… In order to add an extra element to the individual quotas each employee is assigned, the person with the lowest number at the last moment of the workday is fired and is basically killed.
Joe, who has a wife and a baby on the way, is clearly motivated to exceed his quota since he has something to live for. He doubled it to 100 on his first day, 150 on the next, and so on his third day. He turned into a corporate hawk and overachiever, finishing with 370 rotations.
Joe receives a gift of a business pen that is personalized with his name as a reward for his dedication. Given his current circumstances, Joe clearly expresses his dislike for the gift, but the disrespect for Mallard results in a punishment. Now, in order to even out 1 point, he needs to complete two mill revolutions. Therefore, to fulfill his quota, he actually needs to complete 740 mill revolutions instead of 370.
Trying To Do A Shawshank Redemption Escape
Having pushed himself to the limit, barely making 370 the day prior, 740 is near impossible, only getting 267, missing his quota. Mallard, the nefarious company they are, threatens Joe by saying they may hire his wife and throw her into the same pit he’s currently found himself in.
Joe pleads and pleads, saying he’ll do anything to hit his goals, almost having a psychological break, talking to himself, but is able to barely hit his goal, avoiding termination along with getting rid of his penalty.
As a reward for his hard work, he is granted a video of his wife and child in the hospital. Joe is a new father who desperately wants to see his newborn baby boy JJ, but it is now unclear how long he’s actually been in this place.
Seeking any out, he asks his buddy in the cell who Alex is after finding his name carved into the bottom of his mill. The guy claims Alex is the only one to actually escape this place, telling him to look behind a pillar that’s a blind spot from Mallard’s AI vision.
Joe sees what he’s talking about, basically Shawshanking his way out of there, only to be caught and thrown right back in. This escape attempt was not so “team friendly,” punishing all of the workers with a quota of 1000 revolutions and breaking Joe’s cell neighbor’s leg as further punishment.
Joe’s neighbor finally comes clean, saying HE is Alex, and, unfortunately, the same thing happened to him as it did to Joe, but he wanted there still to be hope in the other cells that someone could truly escape.
Learning Alex worked in IT, helped build Mallard, which essentially was an algorithm that created another algorithm, and so forth. So, how do you trick a computer? By not playing by the rules.
The Mill Movie Ending
Joe instructs everyone not to push their mill at all, a facility-wide mutiny, confusing the system because there will be no bottom employee, and everyone has a final quota of zero. However, this perfect plan goes awry, as in the last minutes, others push their mill in the most anti-union scab move, resulting in Alex having the lowest completed quota that day.
Joe, visually upset, curses Mallard’s company culture, which essentially terminates him from the company, as a dozen Human Resource employees come into the room to watch and validate his termination from the company.
But as the guard or, I guess, executioner attempts to stab Joe with an unknown substance, Joe snaps, attacking the guard, which in turn allows Joe to be promoted to level 9 management, IF, and that is if he, in turn, terminates the guard.
Joe knows this is his one escape, but he’s no monster, instead exclaiming that he quits. These must have been the magic words, as Joe wakes up in a meeting room with several other employees, all with these weird nods on their heads. All of this had been a computer simulation, the “advanced career training simulation” mentioned in the opening of the movie.
You Were In A Simulation Mate
An HR rep, the same guard Joe had beaten in the simulation, congratulated Joe on completing the simulation, learning he had only been in there for 60 minutes. And in doing so, Joe found a new appreciation for Mallard and received his much sought-after promotion.
Led up to the upper levels of Mallard and given his new office, he signs the pile of paperwork, given his new work and quota duties, and that is it.
Joe freakin’ did it, got what he had been working for, so he calls his wife to let her know. However, we quickly learn this is something he had never done before: call his wife during work hours. He tells her about the great news, but he’ll have to work late, even though this time “it’s different.”
Joe hangs up the phone, looks directly into the camera, and says, “I’m going to burn this motherf***** down.” The movie ends with a quick flash of his terrifying time in the mill cell.
The Mill Ending Explained
So, The Mill ends on an ambiguous note. Did his mentality change, Joe’s free of Mallard, or is this all just another algorithm-based “training simulation”? Personally, I think Joe is still trapped in the Mallard matrix.
Previously in the film, Alex claims that he built the algorithm, which then built another algorithm, and they don’t even know how it all works. Sure, Joe moved up in the company, but it’s just a different, more clean and shiny version of what he was in before.
The HR guy even says he doesn’t know how many levels there are in Mallard, again hinting at the algorithm in an algorithm, and his new office looks like the same cell he was in, only fancier.
Mallard claims to employ people for life, so Joe is no doubt stuck here. Heck, even the Yankee Doodle whistle tune the HR guy whistles gives a hint to Joe still being trapped in Mallard and what’s to come.
History lesson time, so the familiar Yankee Doodle song was said to have been changed in the 1750s to mock American settlers, calling them dandies and portraying them as rude, crude, and cowardly. At this time, the Brits had control over America, much like Mallard had control over Joe. But this led to conflict between King George III and the Americans, therefore, the Revolutionary War.
So, I look at Joe’s newfound distaste for Mallard in the same light as the Americans vs Great Britain at this time. Joe is going to start a revolution, much like the mill mutiny, and finally break from the struggles of Mallard, as hinted by the Uprising song during the credits, and burn that mother down. But yeah, unfortunately, Joe is still plugged in right now. So bring on The Mill 2: Keep On Millin’.
