History Film / Spiderhead

* TheLastOfTheseIsNotLikeTheOthers: The announcer in the beginning of the movie tells the patrons no physical abuse, emotional abuse, nor verbal abuse, and to label everything in their refrigerators, establishing the prison as a nicer place to stay than most others.

''Spiderhead'' is a 2022 Creator/{{Netflix}} science fiction film starring Creator/ChrisHemsworth, Creator/MilesTeller, and Creator/JurneeSmollett and directed by Creator/JosephKosinski (''Film/TronLegacy'', ''Film/TopGunMaverick''). It is based on the short story ''Escape from Spiderhead''.

''Spiderhead'' is a 2022 Creator/{{Netflix}} science fiction film starring Creator/ChrisHemsworth, Creator/MilesTeller, and Creator/JurneeSmollett and directed by Joseph Kosinski (''Film/TronLegacy'', ''Film/TopGunMaverick''). It is based on the short story ''Escape from Spiderhead''.

** Tom Dolby, She Blinded Me With Science - played by Steve at least once before a test begins. [[spoiler: Played by mistake a second time as he is ordering the other inmates to attack Jeff and Lizzy to prevent their escape; the remote is broken at this point and randomly cycling through songs and drugs.]]

The movie follows two convicts living in the near future who try to volunteer as medical subjects experiments in exchange for a reduced sentence. One of them is given a drug which gives him the ability to love, and he begins questioning the reality of his emotions as he sets out to find the truth.

* BigBad: Steve Abnesti is the main antagonist in charge of the titular prison where he subjects his prisoners to his drugs.
* BlamingTheVictim: Multiple times, when one inmate is shown to be reluctant to administer a torture drug to another, Steve will bring up the would-be victim's crimes to convince the other inmate that [[PayEvilUntoEvil they deserve their punishment.]] He mentions this to Jeff twice, first with Heather, then later with [[spoiler: Lizzy.]]

* TheDragon: Mark serves as Steve's right-hand man [[spoiler:until he pulls a HeelFaceTurn]].

* FauxAffablyEvil: Steve acts polite to Jeff and Lizzy, but this is to conceal his true nature.

** At one point, Mark warns Jeff that jostling the device could cause it to flood their body with an uncontrolled dosage of all its contents. [[spoiler: This is what happens to Heather while on Darkenfloxx, and later to Steve himself.]]

* TheLastOfTheseIsNotLikeTheOthers: The announcer in the beginning of the movie tells the patrons no physical abuse, emotional abuse, nor verbal abuse, and to label everything in their refrigerators.

** Fully averted in the end. [[spoiler: Steve has been testing B-6, a drug meant to force users to obey commands absolutely, the entire time. The inmates were thus being forced to provide consent, making it meaningless.]]

** The initial setup is described as consensual in that the prisoners applied and consented to be in the study, and must say the specific word "Acknowledged" before being dosed with any sort of drugs.
** The tests with [[LovePotion Luvactin]] invoke this as it causes several characters to have enthusiastic sex with each other; however they show no interest in each other when the drug is out of their system, and later discuss feelings of shame concerning how they acted under the influence. This is brought up with other drugs (i.e. the Phobica test) in the film as well.

* TruthSerums: A truth serum type of drug is mentioned briefly, implying it had been tested previously.

* [[spoiler: {{Brainwashing}}]]: [[spoiler: Steve is using his other trials to test a drug that will make people do what they're told without exception, even against their strongest principles.]]

** [[spoiler: LoveMakesYouEvil]]: [[spoiler: Steve says in the end that he's discovered his obedience drug will not cause someone to hurt someone or something they truly love - in his case, he's in love with his work, reinforced by his own doses of Luvactin. This is what gives him the drive to keep going with horrible experiments and the strength to attack Jeff despite Jeff having dosed him with "enough B-6 to tame a lion."]]

* WardensAreEvil: Steve is not only the lead scientist at Spiderhead, he also runs the place.

* BlamingTheVictim: Multiple times, when one inmate is shown to be reluctant to administer a torture drug to another, Steve will bring up the would-be victim's crimes to convince the other inmate that they deserve their punishment. He mentions this to Jeff twice, first with Heather, then later with [[spoiler: Lizzy.]]

* MyGodWhatHaveIDone: [[spoiler: Mark gets hit with a bad case of this, especially after Heather's drug-induced suicide.]]

* ManipulativeBastard: Steve is good at manipulating both his prisoners and his right-hand man Mark. [[spoiler: Partially subverted on the part of the inmates; he was testing an obedience drug on them, so it difficult to determine how much of his success with them was manipulation and how much was the effects of the drug.]]

** At several points we hear Steve, the warden, giving orders to his inmates. During Heather's last trial, [[spoiler: while her system is flooded with Darkenflox, he orders her to sit down and not move. He then argues with Mark when she does not react at all and is still able to stab herself with a broken table. This foreshadows the big reveal that the red obedience drug is what he is actually testing; Jeff was able to see that she had the red drug in her pack as well. Steve is actually angry because whatever was happening with her allowed her to ignore a direct order.]]

* SadisticChoice: Steve gives Jeff a love drug that causes him to have sex with and very briefly fall in love with two different women, and has the two women do the same with a second man. Then he offers Jeff and both women the choice to give the people they've slept with a torture drug, and asks which one of the two they would rather dose. All of them deny feeling any residual love for each other but also refuse to give anyone else a dose of the drug.

* ThePowerOfLove: What Steve says he's testing with Luvactin - the ability of love to make people's lives better and the ability to give love to people who cannot love. [[spoiler: What he's actually testing - whether or not his obedience drug can overcome the power of love to make someone cause harm to someone else that they care about.]]
** [[spoiler: LoveMakesYouEvil]]: [[spoiler: Steve says in the end that he's discovered his obedience drug will not cause someone to hurt someone or something they truly love - in his case, he's in love with his work, reinforced by his own doses of Luvactin. This is what gives him the strength to attack Jeff despite Jeff having dosed him with "enough B-6 to tame a lion."]]

** While Steve appears to be friendly with his inmates and describes wanting a relationship of mutual respect. However he also holds power over them as their warden and the person controlling their drug dosages. [[spoiler: Made worse by being the person who is creating the tests as well, as the protocol council he refers to as guiding his actions is made up. Most of the inmates are unaware of this.]]

* LovePotion: One of the drugs that they're testing, N-40 (AKA Luvactin,) seems to be a combination of types 1 and 3 as it makes people fall in love with whatever or whoever they see, up to having sex with each other without regard to anyone observing. The point of testing it is to see if there are any residual effects on the users' emotions once the drug is flushed out of their systems. [[spoiler: There aren't.]]

* ThePowerOfLove: What Steve says he's testing with Luvactin - the ability of love to make people's lives better and the ability to give love to people who cannot love. [[What he's actually testing - whether or not his obedience drug can overcome the power of love to make someone cause harm to someone else that they care about.]]

* NebulousEvilOrganisation: Steve tells Jeff he's being pushed to perform his tests by a protocol committee and that he doesn't want to make the inmates fall in love and then asking them to torture each other. [[spoiler: Revealed to be a lie when Jeff finds his company's letterhead and realizes that Steve owns the company and isn't actually answering to anyone.]]

** At several points we hear Steve, the warden, giving orders to his inmates. During Heather's last trial, [[spoiler: he orders her to sit down and not move, and is angry with Mark when she does not react at all and is still able to stab herself with a broken table. This foreshadows the big reveal that the red obedience drug is what he is actually testing, which we can see from the color-coded lights on her Mobi-Pac that she was being dosed with. He is angry because whatever was happening with her allowed her to ignore a direct order.]]

* {{Foreshadowing}}: At one point, Mark warns Jeff that jostling the device could cause it to flood their body with an uncontrolled dosage of all its contents. [[spoiler: This is what happens to Heather while on Darkenfloxx, and later to Steve himself.]]