Ultrasound Movie: Explained (Plot And Ending)

Ultrasound is a 2022 science-fiction psychological-thriller directed by Rob Schroeder and written by Conor Stechschulte, who also wrote the graphic novel Generous Bosom which this film is based on. The movie starts with a man stranded in heavy rain seeking shelter at a house. The residents are friendly and suggest that he spends the night at their place, and the film becomes all kinds of crazy from there. No, it’s not a slasher; you’ll have to see it to believe it. So without further ado, here’s the plot and ending of the movie Ultrasound explained; spoilers ahead.

Contents

Here are links to the key aspects of the movie:

• – Explained In Short
• – Explained In Detail
• – Who is Art? What does he want?
• – Who is Katie? What does Senator Harris want?
• – Who is Cyndi?
• – Who is Glen?
• – What has Art done to Glen and Cyndi?
• – What is Dr Conners up to?
• – Who is Shannon, and what does she want?
• – Ending Explained

Ultrasound Movie: Plot Explained In Short

A quick explanation of the movie Ultrasound is that Art hypnotized Glen and Cyndi into believing they were expecting a baby. At the same time, he hypnotized Katie into thinking she was not pregnant to aid Senator Harris. Art was planning to switch the baby over from Katie to Glen and Cyndi, saving Harris the public embarrassment. From there, one can only assume Art intended to gain mind control over more influential people at the office until the one right on top.

While this was Art’s plan, it did go off track, although he achieved his end goal. So let’s break down this movie linearly.

Ultrasound Movie: Plot Explained In Detail

Who is Art? What does he want?

Art is the original scientist working on discovering ultrasound frequencies and soluble concoctions to put people in an extended state of suggestion (hypnotization). He also did side gigs as an entertainer, The Amazing Arthur, to practice his mind control technics on people and identify highly susceptible victims that he got to his labs as [forced] volunteers to run tests on.

While not shown in the movie, we can assume that he realized the true potential of his mind control technics. What would make one more powerful than having the country’s most influential people under your spell?

Art fakes a mental breakdown, tears down his experiment, and abandons it so that only he can benefit from the technique. It’s not shown in the movie, but at some point in time, he runs into Harris, who’s looking to get re-elected.

Who is Katie? What does Senator Harris want from Art?

Senator Harris’s public image involves his loving wife and kids. But in secret, he has a girlfriend, Katie. Katie gets pregnant with Harris’ child, and news like this in the media can destroy his reputation. Harris wants the child gone, and in his desperation, he meets Art and agrees with a plan to hypnotize Katie.

Art hypnotizes Katie into believing that she is not pregnant. He also gets her to stay alone and indoors most of the time and lose the urge to keep calling Harris. Most of the scenes we see in the film of Harris and Katie together is, in reality, Art impersonating him. This is why Harris quickly gets Katie a drink which helps with the extended state of hypnosis. 

Art’s plan is to keep Katie this way until she delivers and then give up her baby to another couple. The goal is to make Katie entirely ignorant about her pregnancy and delivery. This brings us to Glen and Cyndi.

Who is Cyndi?

Cyndi is a victim of Art’s, and he’s picked her because her mind is highly susceptive to hypnotic suggestions. We see her as The Amazing Arthur’s assistant, but she’s likely been under Art’s control for a long time before this. He is prepping her to be smitten by Glen, who will soon walk into her life. On the night of a wedding, Art instructs Cyndi to pass on a note saying 909 to Glen and then proceed to one of the rooms in the hotel. It’s important to note that this is not a hotel; it’s a research facility. Because of her hypnotic state, Cyndi believes she is in a hotel room.

Who is Glen?

He is another victim of Art. Glen has been picked because his mind, too, is highly susceptive to hypnotic suggestions. Art hypnotizes three men at the wedding party as part of his act. While he releases the others, Art continues to keep Glen in a state of suggestion, who follows the note to get to room 909. Art makes Glen believe that his tyre had a puncture, and he desperately seeks asylum in a stranger’s house (no. 909). In reality, they are in the research facility where Art tells Glen to go over to the next room and sleep with his wife. That’s why Glen sees the food tray on the ground because it’s actually in the lab, but his mind [and the audience] ignores it. This is the opening scene of the movie.

Ultrasound Movie: What has Art done to Glen and Cyndi, and why?

Glen and Cyndi are made to believe that they have found true love in each other, and the next thing Art does is make them both believe that Cyndi is carrying Glen’s child. As asked in the film, “what would happen when it is time for Cyndi to give birth?” There would be no baby. And that’s where Katie’s baby comes into the picture; Glen and Cyndi would be made to believe that Katie’s baby is the one Cyndi gave birth to.

Of course, because Art is working with Harris, we’re going to have to assume that Katie can give birth in some shady secret hospital which would be happy to legally make the child Glen and Cyndi’s.

Why does Art have a mental breakdown and abandon his experiment?

Art fakes his mental breakdown so that he alone would have knowledge of the level of hypnotism he can achieve. So he exits Glen and Cyndi from the lab and keeps them elsewhere. He believes Katie will soon deliver, and Glen and Cyndi will be given that baby. After that, Art would get into the good books of Senator Harris, and from there, he will have access to bigger fish. Think about it, if you could hypnotize people into doing what you want, you’d pick people in positions of power.

Ultrasound Movie: What is Dr Conners up to?

Dr Conners was the partner in Art’s experiments. His research comes to a stall when Art dismantles it. Dr Conners needs access to Art’s victims, Glen and Cyndi. He approaches the military for funds and promises them a mind-control weapon, and they kidnap Glen and Cyndi for him. Dr Conners uses Shannon to reverse engineer Arthur’s methods of suggestion and the ultrasound frequencies. This is what we see in the film, where Shannon works with Glen and Cyndi. Shannon believes that her research is for therapeutic purposes. 

Dr Connors has managed to put Glen in a state of suggestion where he believes that he suffers from paralysis due to an unknown but physiological cause; Shannon doesn’t know this. Connors also gets independent doctors to study Glen and they all produce reports stating that Glen has paralysis. Glen believes he’s in a medical facility working with role-playing to get him to stand again. But the role-play is part of the reverse engineering.

Dr Connors proves to the military department that he has been able to keep Glen in an extended state of hypnotic suggestion where Glen believes his legs are paralyzed. The doctor also demonstrates that he can use ultrasound frequencies to take Glen off the hypnotic state on demand. Dr Connors presents the military with the weapon of their dreams.

Who are the adoptive parents Art talks to?

Because Dr Conners has kidnapped Glen and Cyndi, Art is left with nobody to hand Katie’s baby to. So he finds two parents looking to adopt a child, and are okay that the paperwork is made to look like the child is theirs and the actual mother, Katie, doesn’t appear anywhere in the paper trail.

Who is Shannon, and what does she want?

Shannon is the assistant doctor working with Dr Connors to reverse engineer Art’s work. She has no clue that Glen is in a state of suggestion; Shannon truly believes Glen is paralyzed. She also believes that her work is purely for therapeutic purposes. Shannon is appalled by Dr Connor’s lies and how Glen and Cyndi are being used as lab rats to build this mind-control weapon for the military.

Early on, Shannon is able to snap Cyndi out of Art’s hypnosis by getting her to realize that she has not been living with her high school teacher. Shannon decides she is going to free Glen and Cyndi. Shannon asks Cyndi to meet her at the bathroom, plays her the sound of flowing water, and tells her, “No one can make you forget it. And, if you ever feel like things aren’t right. If you ever feel like things don’t make sense around you, or you get a bad or suspicious feeling, you’ll remember this tone“. After that, she gives Cyndi her access card and instructs her to take Glen and escape the facility in a rented car.

Cyndi’s and Glen’s false escape

Dr Connors anticipates that Shannon will try and free Glen and allows Cyndi to wheel out Glen. Unfortunately for the two, Dr Connors has hypnotically instructed them to get into the car, believe they are driving and exit the vehicle to get back into the lab. The two have been hypnotically instructed to think that the lab is a small hotel arranged by Shannon.

Glen and Cyndi are in the lower levels of the lab, believing it to be a hotel, and Dr Connors is conducting further experiments. But what the doctor doesn’t anticipate is the exit mechanism Shannon has given Cyndi. When Glen and Cyndi share inconsistent versions of how they first met (home vs hotel), Cyndi feels things aren’t right, so she hears flowing water. Once she opens the tap, the sound of water snaps her out of her hypnotic state, and she realizes that she never escaped with Glen.

By then, Shannon sees the rented car still outside the facility, and she pushes her way down to the lower levels and confronts Dr Connors. Shannon shatters the glass and escapes with Glen and Cyndi. While Cyndi is free of hypnotism, Glen’s mind is perplexed – he sees Art and the hotel lobby as they exit. In the car, Glen even finds the lottery ticket Art once made him believe is in his sock.

Ultrasound Movie: Ending Explained

The ending of the movie Ultrasound shows us that Glen is still in a state of hypnosis, Cyndi and Katie are seemingly out of it, and now Senator Harris is under Art’s mind control. Art has won!

Did Shannon, Glen and Cyndi manage to escape?

It appears that Shannon has managed to break Glen and Cyndi out. Just like she’s helped Cyndi break free of all hypnotic holds, she could do the same for Glen, too… unless… Shannon herself has been placed in a state of hypnotic suggestion by Dr Connors. If he could anticipate Shannon planning Glen and Cyndi’s escape, he could very well expect her to find the basement lab. 

Also, observe the rain on the windows of the car. When Cyndi and Glen believe they are driving away, the raindrops on the window are vertical. The drops would flow at an angle if they were in a moving car. We see something similar when Shannon seemingly drives away with Glen and Cyndi. So it could be that all three of them are in a hypnotic state and doomed to be lab rats.

Ultrasound Movie: What was Art doing on stage with Senator Harris?

The film’s final scene shows us that Art has managed to use his ultrasound technique to put Senator Harris in a suggestive state. Earlier in the movie, we see Harris beating up Art because the Senator thinks Art really slept with his girlfriend, Katie, even though Art tries to explain it was only hypnosis. Harris warns Art to leave town, but Art is on stage fiddling with his ear (sound device) at the felicitation. This shows us that Art has managed to gain mind control over the Senator, who would have otherwise have had Art removed from stage.

What happened to Katie in Ultrasound?

Katie is off her state of hypnotic suggestion and is aware that she’s pregnant. She calls her mother calmly to tell her this. We can see the ultrasound device is unplugged. It doesn’t look like Katie could have done this on her own. So Senator Harris has probably disconnected the device and given her some reason why she’s suddenly pregnant; this explains her calmness as she’s on the call. Alternately, Art has done something to get Katie to rationalize her pregnancy in a way unconnected to Harris. Why would Art care? Well, Art needs Harris to remain the Senator if he’s going to use him to climb up the power ladder.

And that’s that. What were your thoughts on the plot and ending of the movie Ultrasound? Please leave your comments below.