False Positive plot synopsis
In the 2021 horror-thriller False Positive, Manhattan couple Lucy (Ilana Glazer) and Adrian (Justin Theroux) are desperate to have a baby. After their efforts prove unsuccessful, they turn to fertility specialist Dr. Hindle (Pierce Brosnan), who is also a former friend and mentor of Adrian’s. Hindle is optimistic about their chances and offers them a special kind of treatment – the Hindle fertilization – which is a mix of IUI (Intrauterine insemination) and IVF (In vitro fertilization).
Does Lucy get pregnant?
Yes, which is obviously good news for Lucy and Adrian but they are confronted with a dilemma. Lucy becomes pregnant with not one but three embryos, one girl and a set of twin boys. As Lucy has had past complications with pregnancies, Hindle suggests ‘selective reduction,’ which is the process of removing one of the embryos to improve the chances of survival for the others. As the twins are in the same sack, Lucy has to choose between saving the boys or the girl. As Lucy wants a daughter, she decides to save the girl, although Adrian doesn’t seem particularly happy about this decision. Lucy undergoes treatment but she begins to suspect Hindle is doing unnatural things to her body. This causes her to have hallucinations and crazy dreams and she eventually becomes extremely paranoid. Hindle insists that her delusions are due to “mommy brain,” a common condition for pregnant mothers but Lucy is adamant that her beliefs about the doctor are real.
Does the pregnancy go well?
Not quite. Lucy gives birth to two healthy boys but the girl is stillborn. It is clear that Hindle went against her wishes and terminated her daughter instead of the twins but the reason why isn’t immediately clear. Adrian had a part to play in this too as he conspired with Hindle to keep the boys. He assumed Lucy’s maternal instincts would kick in and that she would forgive him but his beliefs prove wrong. She is extremely upset about the situation and refuses to mother the twins.
Why did Dr. Hindle interfere with the pregnancy?
Hindle isn’t the kindly fertility doctor that others believe. We learn that he had been running an illegal enterprise at his clinic and fertilizing patients with his own sperm. He has some kind of Messiah complex, as can be evidenced in the line “God doesn’t make babies, I do,” and has a deluded belief that his genes are superior to everybody else’s. He kept the boys so they could spread his seed and in the process, create other human beings that are as ‘remarkable’ as himself. The doctor is clearly mad of course – a classic case of “medical brain” (okay, I just made that up) – so despite his insistence that Lucy was delusional, it turns out that he was the one who was more than a little crazed. Still, Lucy’s experiences at the hand of the mad doctor prove to be too much for her and her already fragile mental state starts to unravel further.
Does Lucy lose her mind?
Unfortunately, the answer is yes! After finding out about Hindle’s dodgy medical practices, she goes on a violent rampage. She attacks both him and his head nurse and leaves them incapacitated. After finding her daughter’s foetus, she returns home and fantasises about killing the twins. Thankfully, this fantasy doesn’t become a reality as she hands the boys over to Adrian and orders him to leave with them. However, as the movie draws to a close, it is clear that Lucy is not in control of her faculties. The final scene is of Lucy breastfeeding the foetus and disturbingly, we see the undeveloped child come to life and start suckling on her nipple. Of course, the baby hasn’t come to life. But while this might just be another of Lucy’s temporary hallucinations, it might also be that she has finally lost her mind and entered a psychotic mental state that is more than just “mommy brain.” Read More: False Positive Movie Review Thanks for reading our Ending Explained article! What did you think of the ending? Have we missed anything? Let us know your thoughts in the comments below!
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