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The Substance
A fading celebrity decides to use a black market drug, a cell-replicating substance that temporarily creates a younger, better version of herself.
2024 · Directed by Coralie Fargeat · 141 min · Horror · Science Fiction · Screenplay in the scene database · 32 frames
Tagline
Have you ever dreamt of a better version of yourself?
Plot
On her 50th birthday, faded Hollywood film star Elisabeth Sparkle is dismissed from her long-running aerobics TV show by its producer, Harvey, due to her age. Elisabeth crashes her car while distracted by a billboard of herself being taken down. At the hospital, a young male nurse gives her a flash drive advertising "The Substance", a black market drug that promises a "younger, more beautiful, more perfect" version of oneself.
Elisabeth orders The Substance and injects the single-use serum. She convulses as a younger woman named Sue emerges from a slit in her back. The two bodies must switch consciousness once every week, with the inactive body remaining unconscious and fed intravenously. Daily injections of stabilizer fluid, extracted from the original body, are required to prevent Sue from deteriorating. Sue becomes an overnight sensation after auditioning as Elisabeth's replacement, and Harvey offers her the chance to host the New Year's Eve show. While Sue lives a confident and hedonistic life, Elisabeth becomes a self-hating recluse. Near the end of one weekly cycle, Sue brings a man home for casual sex; she delays the switch by extracting additional stabilizer fluid, causing Elisabeth's right index finger to rapidly age. Elisabeth contacts the supplier, who warns that delaying the switching schedule will lead to irreversible, rapid aging of the original body.
Elisabeth and Sue gradually become separate personalities and begin to hate each other. Elisabeth resents Sue's frequent disregard of the switching schedule, causing further aging, while Sue is appalled by Elisabeth's descent into unhealthy binge-eating. Following a particularly destructive episode, Sue stockpiles stabilizer fluid and refuses to switch back. Three months later, on the day before the New Year's Eve show, Sue runs out of stabilizer fluid and contacts the supplier, who informs her she must switch back to replenish the fluid. When they switch, Elisabeth finds herself transformed into a deformed, hag-like hunchback. To stop Sue aging her further, Elisabeth orders a serum designed to terminate her. However, Elisabeth, still craving Sue's celebrity status, stops before fully injecting the serum and resuscitates Sue, leaving both of them conscious. Realizing Elisabeth's initial intent, Sue beats Elisabeth to death before leaving to host the show.
Plot summary from Wikipedia, CC BY-SA.
Crew
- Written by: Coralie Fargeat
- Cinematography: Benjamin Kračun
- Edited by: Jérôme Eltabet, Coralie Fargeat, Valentin Féron
- Music: Raffertie
- Production design: Stanislas Reydellet
- Produced by: Coralie Fargeat, Tim Bevan, Eric Fellner
Cast
- Demi Moore as Elisabeth
- Margaret Qualley as Sue
- Dennis Quaid as Harvey
- Edward Hamilton-Clark as Fred
- Gore Abrams as Oliver
- Oscar Lesage as Troy
- Christian Erickson as Man at Diner
- Robin Greer as Male Nurse
- Tom Morton as Doctor
- Hugo Diego Garcia as Diego - Boyfriend
Production
- Country: France, United Kingdom, United States of America
- Language: English
- Studios: Working Title, Blacksmith, Working Title Films
- Budget: $17,500,000
- Box office: $77,316,812
- Themes: new year's eve, capitalism, birthday, black market, identity, dark comedy, beauty, satire, aging, celebrity
More by Coralie Fargeat
On this film
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