EXIT 8

*CUT TO THE CHASE*

NOTE: This spoiler was submitted by Spectre

We open on a subway car in the first person perspective. The Lost Man (Kuzunari Ninomiya) is on his phone listening to music. Turning to look to his left, he removes one of his airpods, realizing there is a screaming baby with its mother trying to calm it. A nearby businessman begins to scream and berate the mother for the crying child. Yet, no one stops the man. The Lost Man puts his music back on, not wanting to get involved.

Suddenly, the silence is broken. He gets a call. It is The Woman (Nana Komatsu), his ex-girlfriend. He declines the call and gets off the train. As he goes up the stairs, she calls again. The Lost Man answers. The Woman tells him she is at the hospital and has learned that she is pregnant. The Lost Man begins to breathe heavy at the news, unsure about the reality of being a father. The Lost Man begins to panic, having an asthma attack causing him to drop his phone, which causes him to miss half of the conversation. As he picks up his phone, climbing a set of stairs the signal begins to break up and he can no longer hear The Woman or what she has decided to do.

The perspective changes to third person, The Lost Man finds himself in a strange hallway. Walking down it, he sees a lone solitary man, The Walking Man (Yamato Kochi) with a briefcase that walks by him with no expression. The Lost Man continues to walk only to find himself back at the beginning. He walks another loop and sees the same man. Confusion begins to set in and he continues to walk in circles. Something is deeply wrong, but he doesn’t know what. On one loop The Lost Man hears the man stop walking. Turning around, The Lost Man sees The Walking Man eerily smiling at him, terrifying him. The Lost Man runs away. On another pass through he tries the doors in the hallway and even the emergency signal to no use. The Lost Man, understandably, begins to panic at his predicament.

Looking at the beginning of the path, The Lost Man finally notices some posted signs with rules for his situation. He must traverse the path in successive loops. If he finds anything strange, an abnormality, he must turn back immediately or risk starting over. If he finds nothing, he should proceed until he gets to Exit 8.

The Lost Man starts again. Seeing The Walking Man, he tries to talk to him but gets no response. The Lost Man fails to see that the fluorescent lights above him are in random spots on the ceiling and walks through, resetting the path to zero. Having an asthma attack, he uses his inhaler. On his next pass through, he tries to take pictures of everything noticeable on his phone so he can compare them next time. Getting to Exit 1, he is shocked to see that the photos on his phone are ruined and thus are useless to help him. If he wants to escape, he has to pay attention to everything. The Walking Man stops and looks at him. The Lost Man turns around, making it to Exit 2.

Going through the hallway again, he seemingly sees nothing only to hear a crying baby coming from a set of lockers. Going to investigate, he is startled when the screams multiply. Realizing this is another abnormality, he turns around, making it to Exit 3.

On this attempt, he almost walks through, when he realizes that the posters that have eyes are following him as he moves, making him start to turn back. He stops at the corner when his phone rings. It is The Woman. She tells him she is still at the hospital and cannot decide what to do. The Lost Man says he is in the tunnels and going in circles. The Woman says he was always bad with directions, and asks what they should do about her pregnancy.

The Lost Man relates to her the story about the lady on the train with the child and how she was screamed at. Yet, no one stood up to defend her, and admits his own cowardice of not doing anything. It has opened up his fears of being a father; how can he be one if he wouldn’t defend a woman being mistreated like that? Still, he tells The Woman he wants to be there. As he goes to move on, The Woman appears behind him unknowingly. The phone call was an abnormality and he unknowingly reset his progress back to zero.

Starting over, the man walks into a hallway that is all yellow, obviously an abnormality. Even in the face of an easy answer, The Lost Man throws his backpack to the ground in frustration and vomits. Leaving his stuff behind, he turns back, getting to Exit 1 again. Turning the next corner, he sees a small boy and thinking he is an abnormality, turns around, only to be back at zero. The Boy (Naru Asanuma) follows him and The Lost Man notices The Boy has a gash on his face.

We then change perspective to The Walking Man who had previously been trying to escape with The Boy. The two had gotten all the way to Exit 5. Going down the hallway, their constant solitary walking person is The High School Girl (Kotone Hanase). This time however, The High School Girl stops and talks to them and asks if they are lost and if she can walk with them, to which The Walking Man says yes. The High School Girl asks if he thinks the tunnel they are in is Hell or Purgatory and mentions seeing the same man over and over. The High School Girl asks The Walking Man if he actually wants to get out of the tunnels to only go back to doing the same thing over and over again every day. She repeats the statement several times, before her voice alters demonically to his own. The Walking Man realizes she is an abnormality and turns around with The Boy and gets to Exit 6. However, the encounter with The High School Girl has rattled him and in the next pass through he gets sloppy and impatient. The Boy notices something but because he is seemingly mute, The Walking Man doesn’t understand and pulls him forward; not realizing the boy saw a door with a handle in the center, an obvious abnormality. The Walking Man is stunned when he turns the corner, seeing the progress reset to zero.

Breaking down sobbing, The Walking Man throws his briefcase down and pulls the posters of the rules off the wall, no longer wanting to be tormented. “I would have met my son today!” The Walking Man screams. He goes to The Boy and apologizes for his outburst and steels himself to try again. When they turn the corner, The Walking Man cannot believe he sees stairs to the street. He races to the stairs with The Boy but The Boy is hesitant because he knows it is a false exit. The Walking Man is so desperate to leave that he tries to drag the child with him, causing him to fall and get the gash on his face. The Walking Man goes up the stairs but in consequence, has now become the lifeless automaton The Lost Man and The Boy see in their loops. The Boy turns back, getting to Exit 1 and meeting The Lost Man.

Starting over, The Lost Man initially thinks something is different with one of the posters, but The Boy tells him to proceed, getting to Exit 1. Finding another abnormality, they get to Exit 2. On the next loop, the lights go out and large rats with human ears and eyes growing out of them attack the two, but they manage to turn back and find Exit 3. Turning the corner they see The Woman, startling The Lost Man. The Boy screams that it is his mother and The Lost Man has to pull him back, saying that the woman is not his mother. The Boy passes out and The Lost Man turns them back, getting them to Exit 4.

The Lost Man and The Boy rest a bit at the entrance. The Lost Man asks if The Boy got lost. The Boy says he did it on purpose because he wanted his mother to find him. The Lost Man asks if she is scary, and The Boy says only when she is mad; The Lost Man says all mothers are like that. The Lost Man asks about his father. The Boy said he never met him. The Lost Man says his situation was the same, further illustrating his fears; how can he be a dad if he never had one?

They go down the hallway and almost walk through, when The Boy notices that 8 on the sign is upside down. Turning back, they make it to Exit 5. On this go through, they notice one of the doors open into a dark void. The Lost Man looks in and sees himself on the subway car, reliving his personal cowardice. An obvious abnormality, they shut the door and turn back, getting to Exit 6.

The Lost Man asks The Boy what he would like to do when he gets out of the loop. The Boy says eat pizza with extra cheese. The Lost Man says he doesn’t know anymore. The Boy hands him a seashell for “good luck.”

As they walk down the latest loop, they hear a shrilling alarm sound. They look around, not sure what will happen. Suddenly a wave of nasty brown water crashes down the hallway. The two go to run, but The Boy falls. The Lost Man looks back, indecisive. The water crashes into them.

The Lost Man has a vision of a beach, several years in the future. He is with The Woman and a small child is playing at the ocean. The Lost Man tells The Woman he doesn’t know what is right. The Woman says no one does but he will be okay. They look at the child, their son. The Woman says The Lost Man will protect his son and one day his son will do the same. The child comes closer and The Lost Man realizes The Boy is his son, several years in the future. The Boy gives The Lost Man a seashell for luck and The Lost Man pulls his son into a tight hug.

Back in the tunnel, The Lost Man is able to pull The Boy on top of the Exit 8 sign and comfort him before he is swept away. Some time passes, and The Boy wakes up on the floor of the hallway, surrounded by trash and other debris. He turns back and finds Exit 7. He goes through the final loop, finding nothing, and seemingly escapes to Exit 8.

A moment later, The Lost Man is shown to have survived, albeit having to start over. He looks over the hallway before turning the corner. To his surprise, he finds a sign with Exit 8 on it and stairs going down. Initially thinking it is a trick, he finds the seashell The Boy gave him and realizes it is real. As he goes down the stairs, he understands what he went through and why. The loop was him confronting his fears of fatherhood and what kind of man he had to be. By saving The Boy, his future son, he became worthy of a second chance and escape.

Going to a vending machine, he buys a bottle of water and quickly downs it. Calling back The Woman who is still at the hospital, he tells her he is on his way. It is clear he means to reconcile with her and start a family, no longer afraid. He gets back on the subway and finds himself in the scenario from the beginning, where he sees the man berate the woman with the crying baby. This time, The Lost Man does not stand idly by and goes to confront him over his behavior.

After getting a call from his ex-girlfriend that she is pregnant, The Lost Man (Kazunari Ninomiya) finds himself in an endless subway tunnel loop, forced to search for weird abnormalities in the hallway in order to successfully make eight consecutive loops to the exit.

In his travels, he meets The Boy (Naru Asanuma) who had been trying to escape with another man before in desperation, the other man went through a false exit only to become part of the loop itself. Working together, they make it to Exit 6 before a flash flood nearly kills them. The Lost Man has a vision where he reconciles with his ex-girlfriend and has a son, revealed to be The Boy. The Lost Man saves The Boy before being swept away in the water. The Boy is able to make it to Exit 8.

The Lost Man restarts the loop, only to find himself at Exit 8. He realizes that the loop was him confronting his fears of fatherhood and being a good man, and by willing to sacrifice himself to save The Boy, he had earned a second chance. He calls his ex-girlfriend and says he will meet her at the hospital, no longer afraid of a new future. The film ends with him back on the subway reliving a previous moment where a woman is being berated by a man due to her crying child. This time, The Lost Man confronts him, a changed man for the better.