Ultrasound 2022 Movie Recommendation and Explanation. I had a feeling this one was going to be trippy. When a movie is compared to Nolan’s movies, Primer, Memento, & Fight Club? I mean. How can THiNC. not take that bait. Ultrasound is a multilayered, multifaceted, low budget gem. I had a lot of fun with this one. But before you dive in and watch – if you haven’t already – please know, this is a movie you need to pay attention to. Turn the volume up, the subtitles on, and shelve everything in your life for 100 minutes. Alright?
Alright? Ready to dive in? We are going to unpack this one in a bit of detail, because I have a feeling we are going to need it for the ending explanation. Alright? But remember – don’t you dare keep reading until you’ve already watched this one. Fair enough? Great.
First, A Comment On the Comic Book
I was about 90% through this write up when I finally discovered that the movie, Ultrasound, was actually based on a comic book entitled Generous Bosom – I think it is a 4 part series? Conor Stechschulte is the author of both the comic book and also the screenplay for Ultrasound. And he wasn’t even 100% certain where his comic book was going to end until he finished writing the screenplay for the movie. How did I figure all this out? Well, I had the idea I’d see if I could call him and chat with him about the movie, that’s how! hahah. Huh, okay, he’s a comic book arttiiiissst? WAHT?
Ultrasound 2022 Movie Walkthrough
The movie opens with a joke. Right? The setup is a guy, Glen (played by Vincent Kartheiser), has a blown tire, it’s raining… and in the only house around for miles is a hick (Art, played by Bob Stephenson) and his wife (Cyndi, played by Chelsea Lopez – who was the lead in another awesome mindjob movie that we loved here at THiNC. entitled Phoenix Forgotten – if you liked this one, you got to check that one out too). And this guy convinces Glen to sleep with his wife. I mean? It really felt like the cheesiest of all possible openings. And when I originally watched the trailer I was 3 seconds away from turning it off and walking away, until I saw the comparisons to other mental mindjob movies. And that is the interesting thing… because this isn’t what is happening here. I’m not sure if we’ll ever get to the bottom of what is really happening here. But maybe, if we dig…
Cut to a woman exercising… swimming laps in a pool. Another swimmer compliments her on her keeping at it. Why? Huh. Weird. But soon we start flipping in and out of various realities where we notice that she is pregnant? But she doesn’t realize it? What is happening here? She thinks her clothes shrunk in the dryer, but she is definitely, without a doubt, pregnant. And, as this story line progress, we come to find out that this woman, this possibly pregnant woman, Katie (played by Rainey Qualley), is having an affair with Alex Harris (played by Chris Gartin). And who is Harris? He’s an incumbent senator who is running for reelection. But? She seems to be sort of trapped in her apartment, and Alex rarely comes to visit. And whenever he does, he disengages in order to get drinks pretty regularly. What’s going on here? And the pregnancy? Exactly. No idea.
Cut back to Shannon and the lab where Glen is getting interrogated for everything he can remember and everything he thinks is happening. All while they are manipulating frequencies of some sort. Did you notice that Shannon was wearing some sort of earpiece for some reason? Then, while being asked questions, he sees a vision of Cyndi, and she’s pregnant… And the frequency that they have it set at is E0164. Got that? E-zero-one-six-four? Good. (No idea what that means… but when you repeat it, number by number, it seems really important.) And after Cyndi is shown an image of her eleventh grade teacher, Mr. Munberg, and she asks if she recognizes him, she obviously doesn’t. Which, is weird, because she’s been married to Mr. Munberg for a while now. And when she shows her a photo of Arthur Thomas, and is told that he is something of a carni-hypnotist, she wigs out a little bit. Why? Well, because Art Thomas “began a sustained suggestion, that continued until just now.” Wait, what? Cyndi’s definition of reality has been wrong for quite a while now apparently… and the break with ‘her supposed reality’ causes her to puke.
Soon after, we learn that Dr. Conners had been working with a co-researcher and they were both intent on the same scientific goal. Until, that is, Arthur Thomas had a mental breakdown and disappeared. So it is left to Conners to try and reverse engineer his partner’s research. Then – cut to a lab – a lab where Shannon Darowicz (Breeda Wool) is being shown around the observation and study facility by Dr. Conners (played by Tunde Adebimpe) that is only now utilizing a single portion of the facility, but will be soon expanding the the next few basement floors. Whatever it is that Dr. Conners is doing… he’s planning on expanding it dramatically. And they are going through some sort of weird recitation and memorization back and forth. Why? What are they doing? Well, Dr. Conners has gotten “access” to a few of Arthur Thomas’ informal test subjects, and they are attempting to reverse engineer what it is that he has accomplished on his own without them.
Shannon and Dr. Conners pitch their research to military benefactors, and they show them that they have found a way to create a sustained state of suggestion. That they have planted these ideas in these people’s minds, and have been able to sustain them for weeks and months at a time. But when Dr. Conners asks Shannon to ask Glen to walk… it blows her mind. Why? Because, for the last few weeks that she has been working there, she has always known Glen to be paralyzed. But now she is learning that it has been simply a suggestion all along. Then, after the demonstration, Conners is asking that the subject be wiped, that the suggestions be terminated. “Wait, how many times have you wiped him?” Shannon had been under the misimpression that this work was for the assistance of PTSD, not for military purposes. Here’s the key though – notice how Conners says that he would have never shown his work to the military if he hadn’t found the “reversal frequency.” Shannon retorts though, “You never showed them the reversal frequency!”
At this point, Shannon is done with everything that is happening here at this black ops research facility. She is clear that their work will be sold to the military, and that the research work was being funded on behalf of the military as well. She’s decided that she has to break Cyndi and Glen out of the research facility and send them on their way. It’s the only correct moral response to the chaos she is realizing she has been complicit in. So, after getting messages to both Cyndi and Glen, she gives them her key-card to break free, and to escape in the night, until they arrive back at the motel where they originally first met. Wait. WHAT? Glen remembers having his tires popped, and then being coerced into sleeping with Cyndi by Cyndi’s husband.
Cyndi’s first memory of their meeting is entirely different. In her memory, she is working with Art and his campy-carnival-hypnotist show. And Glen is one of the three workers helping Art alongside Cyndi. Wait, what? Yeah, all three of the “volunteers” were just there to play along with the act and camp up their reactions. We know this because all three were going back to the hotel together and we hear them talking about the show, etc. But Glen and Cyndi are actually being hypnotized, and are actually under Art’s long term suggestion that they are in a relationship together that started with Glen in the rain. But that never happened… any of it. The sex, the rain, the strip of nails that popped Glen’s tires? All of it a suggestion.
Thankfully, Shannon was able to send Glen and Cyndi on their way… and they are in that hotel room that was so vaguely familiar. Why? Because the deep suggestion caused Glen and Cyndi to travel through the rain and the storm to arrive at a hotel that was actually just another observation room. They never left. And the reason Cyndi knows this is because, prior, Shannon had told her to memorize her Reversal Frequency – and that whenever things don’t feel right, for any reason, she could just remember this tone.
When she wakes, she finds herself in a lower level, less finished, observation room. A more secret area of the facility than she was in previously. (Thus the wires and the lighting, and the lack of painted walls, etc.) Shannon, realizing that she lost the duo somewhere along the way, heads back to the research facility and steals the guard’s security card, and heads down to confront Conners. And sure enough, she finds Cyndi, who was just then waking herself up from the suggestion.
As the trio escape from the lab, there is a radio announcement saying that the winning number for the powerball lottery had been purchased. Glen pulls the winning lottery ticket out of his sock, and puts it back with a smirk. Cut to Katie, the “pregnant” fling of the senator, as she is tells her mother that she is pregnant. Cut to Alex, as he’s introduced to his constituents by his wife, after having won reelection. And there is Art, with an earpiece in his ear… smirking as he watches. The end.
Ultrasound Movie 2022 Movie Explained
You sort of need to work backwards to make heads or tails out of the ending. There are two threads of research happening here in Ultrasound. The first is actually Art, and his work, though we don’t see him as much. Art comes off as a Carni, and not a real scientist, but he actually is the one with all the original research. Art and Conners had been working together until his psychotic break (which may or may not have been a psychotic break. He probably just realized the power of his research.) and then he went off on his own. He began working with Cyndi, Glen, Alex, and Katie – putting them under his research, and long-term suggestions to test his control of his techniques and his frequencies.
And you also have Dr. Conners who is attempting to try and figure out Art’s research. Reverse engineer it. Specifically, what he really needs to discover is what both the Long-Term Suggestion Frequency is, and also the Reversal Frequency is as well. But the only way he can do that is by utilizing Art’s test subjects. So Conners has tracked down, and kidnapped Glen and Cyndi. WAHT? Yeah, and he has also given Glen another suggestion, that he is paralyzed. This is a suggestion on top of a suggestion. The first being that he made Cyndi pregnant. Actually, that’s not true. The first is the suggestion during the show – that he has a winning lottery ticket in his sock. The SECOND is that he made Cyndi pregnant. The THIRD is that he is paralyzed.
Does that make sense? Throughout the course of the movie, there are a few times where Glen and Cyndi bounce up a layer, then down again, then down further. That is the explanation of his being paralyzed, then remembering that Cyndi was pregnant, then paralyzed, then not. We never really see Glen or Cyndi in a true sense… they are always someone they are actually not throughout the course of the movie. Some may argue that Cyndi was successfully removed from the suggestions, but I would say that what Dr. Conners figured out was a reversal frequency for a single layer. Why? Because we can see at the end that Glen still thinks he has the original lottery ticket from the show.
Ultrasound 2022 Movie Unanswered Questions
1. Who was the couple that Art was working with to adopt a child??
If you didn’t connect the pieces, it might not be clear who this other couple might be. But the adoptive couple was the couple that Art needed to take Katie’s child off her hands, to make the Senator’s affair, and the ripples of that affair go away.
2. What was Katie’s part in all of this imbroglio?
Great question. Katie was the pregnant woman that was basically locked up and constantly waiting for Alex to come and visit her. Alex, a sitting Senator, had an affair with Katie, and Art is basically sedating Katie as a way to control Alex. Katie, and her coming child, are a threat to Alex’s position. She is constantly calling, and causing Alex problems and so Art is neutralizing Katie by making her think that she isn’t pregnant.
3. Are Glen and Cyndi out from under the suggestions?
100% no. Glen definitely, and maybe not even Cyndi. Why? Well, it would make sense that the reversal frequency only worked per layer. So it could be that the reversals are only working one layer down, which would explain why Glen still thinks he has a lottery ticket in his sock.
4. What is the point of the movie Ultrasounds 2022?
Alex is the point of it all. He is a powerful senator that Art is manipulating. He has made a woman pregnant – and Art is keeping her in check by making her think that she isn’t pregnant at all. Alex may, or may not, be under Art’s powers of suggestion, but he’s in Art’s debt because he is neutralizing Katie. He has convinced Katie that she isn’t pregnant… but how is he going to get rid of the baby?
Now you are asking all the right questions. Cyndi and Glen were manipulated into thinking they had an affair, and Cyndi became pregnant. And the result of this affair was going to be that Art was going to give them Katie’s baby. They wouldn’t realize it was all false, they’d continue thinking they’d had an actual affair that ended with this very real child. But before the baby is born, Dr. Conners kidnaps Cyndi and Glen… you see? And that leaves Art with a very real problem of how to get rid of Katie’s baby. Which is why the new couple was being vetted for adopting this child. But even that falls apart because Art loses his grip on Katie, and Katie realizes that she is pregnant, and tells her mother so.
But all of it was about power. And it ultimately came back to Art controlling a Senator, and keeping him in his debt. Does that make sense?
THiNC. Thoughts on Ultrasound
I absolutely adore ambitious little movies like this one. I doubt that this movie even cost a million. Several hundred grand sounds more on target. And yet, the ideas here were really fantastic. Could it have been better? Yes, of course. But I love it when Indie movie makers go big with their ideas even in spite of a lack of cash on hand. So, yeah, I give lots and lots of grace to ambitious movie makers who swing really big. I also love films that don’t do a horrific, “Let’s recap what just happened” sort of ending. You know, like how Shutter Island ended? I think it did anyway… let’s redo the movie, but with the details you just learned, filled in. So I give Ultrasound really high marks on not speaking down to the audience. But I’m also sure that many of you that watched it might have been a little adrift. “What’s the deal with this guy, and pregnancy, and adoption, and phantom babies??” But hopefully this post explained Art’s fascination! hahaha.
Edited by: CY
