‘The Mill’ Ending Explained: What Happens to Lil Rel Howery in the Hulu Horror Movie?

If you’re feeling burnt out at your job, then The Mill on Hulu is the perfect horror movie for you. This new low-budget thriller, which began streaming on Monday, stars Lil Rel Howery as a businessman who finds himself tortured by his company when his work performance slips. Capitalism is truly a nightmare we’ll never wake up from.

Directed by Sean King O’Grady, and written by Jeffrey David Thomas, The Mill is the second collaboration between O’Grady and Howery, who also worked together on the 2022 comedy I Love My Dad. But though Howery has already earned a place in horror canon as the comic relief in Jordan Peele’s Get Out, this time, Howery gets to be the hero. And it’s not very funny, in the end.

It’s also not very clear what, exactly, Howery’s character is planning to do at the end of The Mill. Don’t worry, because Decider is here to help. Read on for a breakdown of The Mill plot summary and The Mill ending explained. Spoilers ahead.

The Mill plot summary:

Joe (Lil Rel Howery) is a corporate middle manager who one day wakes up inside a prison cell. Who has imprisoned him? None other than the company he’s worked at for over a decade, a fictional take on Apple called Mallard. You see, Joe let his work performance slip. His wife is expecting their first child, so he took advantage of those so-called “unlimited” personal days that his company claims is a major perk. But Joe broke the unspoken rule of putting his own life before work. As Joe’s neighbor in the cell next to him explains—another Mallard prisoner that Joe can hear, but not see—this is what happens to the employees who “piss off the duck.”

A disembodied, Siri-esque computer voice informs Joe that he is now in “career training.” His new work day is 6 a.m. to 10 p.m. His new work? To push the giant mill in the middle of his cell. He must meet the quota for the minimum number of revolutions each day, or he will be “terminated.” (Read: killed.) But wait, there’s more—whichever employee in the prison has the lowest number of revolutions at the end of the day will also be terminated, whether or not they have met their quota. Joe’s quota is 50 revolutions. On his first day, he doubles his quota, and gets 100 revolutions. His neighbor is impressed, but warns Joe not to push himself too far, or Mallard will start expecting that amount every day.

But Joe doesn’t listen. He believes he can “hard work” his way out of this situation, and return home to his pregnant wife. In a fit of despair that he channels into work, he pushes himself to do 370 revolutions. His reward for all his hard work? An engraved pen. Joe loses it over the uselessness of the pen and shouts obscenities to his superiors. The next day, Joe wakes up and discovers his new quota is now 370. What was once considered exemplary work is now his new bare minimum. On top of that, as punishment for his backtalk, Joe is now in “penalty,” which means it now takes two rotations to count as one. Which means Joe’s actual new quota is 740.

For the first time, Joe fails to make his quota. For “motivation” the next day, the Mallard computer shows Joe footage of his child being born, implying Joe has been trapped in the prison far longer than he realized, and implying they are in danger. Somehow, Joe pushes himself to get to 740 revolutions. But after that, he decides he needs to escape. With a little guidance from his helpful neighbor, Joe finds a weak point in the wall and slowly chips away at it with his pen. Eventually, he opens a hole large enough to crawl through and escape.

Joe doesn’t make it far before he’s caught and brought back to his cell. As punishment for his behavior, the new quota for everyone is now 1000. Joe tries to convince his fellow workers in the prison to unionize by not doing any revolutions. If everyone’s number is zero at the end of the day, technically, they won’t have anyone with the lowest number to kill. The employees are on board at first, but then, out of fear for their lives, start pushing the mill anyhow. Joe does too, and ends the day with one revolution. His neighbor, whose legs were broken for helping Joe escape, ends the day with zero, and he is the one who is killed.

The Mill ending explained:

The next day, the Mallard computer shows Joe footage of his son, who now appears to be a toddler. Joe loses it. He screams obscenities and trashes his cell. The computer tells him he will be terminated. A Mallard employee from HR comes to Joe’s cell and prepares a lethal injection. Joe attacks the employee first and bashes his face in, not quite killing him. He screams to the sky that he quits.

Those appear to be the magic words. Suddenly, a different version of Joe wakes up, still wearing his suit, with brain activity monitors stuck to his head. Damn. The whole thing was just a virtual reality experience! The HR employee whose face Joe bashed in explains that everything’s fine, actually. Joe has only been in the VR experience for an hour. His son has not yet been born. The whole thing was just a training experience to help Joe appreciate his job at Mallard more. Also, Joe’s getting promoted! Yay!

Joe clearly doesn’t see it as “yay.” He wordlessly follows the HR guy to his new office. He signs the paperwork. Then, when he’s alone, he calls his wife—something he’s never done on company time before. He tells his wife that he’s going to be working late, but promises that this time, “it’s different.” Then he hangs up the phone, turns to the camera, and says, “I’m gonna burn this motherfucker down.” We see a flash of Joe back in the prison cell, and with that the movie ends.

Oh c’mon, did it have to leave it at that? How exactly is Joe going to burn it all down? Like, literally, with matches? Or slowly, from the inside? The movie doesn’t specify, and will no doubt leave some viewers unsatisfied. But at least we know that Joe will no longer be a good little worker bee who follows company rules, as is evidenced by the fact that he called his wife on company time. Joe might not be able to defeat Mallard, but at least he was able to free his mind from the prison of corporate mentality. Or something.