Recently, a sci-fi drama movie titled "The Great Flood" dropped on Netflix, and it has been trending quite a bit. Naturally, I decided to give it a watch, and honestly, it was pretty good. However, the plot can get a little confusing, and I know it flew right over many people's heads.
That is exactly why I decided to write this post. In this breakdown, I am going to explain the entire plot and the ending of "The Great Flood" so you can finally understand what actually happened. So, let’s dive right into it and break it all down.
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The Beginning of the End
The story kicks off with a girl named Anna, a scientist working at Isabella Labs. She is trying to save humans from extinction during an apocalyptic event. In her research, the lab synthesizes two children named Ja-in and Yujin. Anna plays the role of Ja-in's mother, while another scientist, Yun-mo, takes care of Yujin.
One morning, Anna wakes up to a nightmare scenario. An asteroid has hit Antarctica, causing a massive flood that threatens to wipe out the entire world. Water levels are rising rapidly across the globe. She immediately wakes Ja-in up, and they start running for survival.
The Escape and Betrayal
A man named Hee-jo is sent from the lab to help Anna and Ja-in reach a safe location. Unfortunately, we learn that Anna and Yun-mo were the only two scientists capable of developing an "Emotion Engine" for AI humans. Since Yun-mo and her child are out of reach, the future of humanity now rests entirely in Anna's hands.
With Hee-jo's help, they start climbing to the roof of their flooding apartment complex. During this whole time, Anna trusts Hee-jo completely, unaware that he is hiding something. It is later revealed that Yun-mo didn't die from the flood; she refused to abandon her child and ran away because she knew the lab would eventually take her child.
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By the time Anna realizes the truth, it is too late. The floodwaters have already covered the lower floors, and the only way out is to follow Hee-jo. We also see a flashback revealing that Anna’s husband died in a car accident involving water. This past trauma initially made her consider sacrificing Ja-in.
The Rooftop Trap
However, over time, Anna grew attached to Ja-in and raised him like her own son. Hee-jo judges her, assuming she will abandon Ja-in just like her own mother left her. That is why he delays telling her about the plan to separate them. When they finally reach the last floor, Anna becomes emotional about leaving Ja-in.
Hee-jo insists it is the only way to save humanity. Upon reaching the roof, a lab team is waiting. Hee-jo hands them over, and the team immediately starts harvesting Ja-in's data. Anna tries to fight back, but guards restrain her. After collecting the data, they allow her to say goodbye.
In her goodbye message, she tells Ja-in to hide in a closet behind him and promises to return. Before the helicopter leaves, the guards kill Hee-jo and drag Anna inside. As the world ends, the lab sends Anna and a team to a space lab to continue their experiments.
The Simulation Begins
During the trip, Anna reveals she will create a mother character based on her life experiences. She prepares a test simulation where the subject faces various obstacles to find her child and succeed. She willingly becomes the test subject for this "Emotion Engine." Anna recreates the massive apocalyptic flood in her simulation.
She makes countless attempts to find Ja-in. Unfortunately, at the start of the tests, she doesn't remember what she last said to him. Every time she fails, she dies and wakes up on that same flooded morning. In most simulations, they lose Ja-in just as they are about to reach the roof.
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However, with each simulation, her memories start returning. She even tries to remind Hee-jo (who is part of the simulation) of his role. They start looking for Ja-in together, but Anna still fails because the simulation has no set limits, trapping her in an endless loop.
Breaking the Loop
As time passes, she remembers why she is in the simulation and what she must do to end it. In her final attempt, Anna remembers that Ja-in always hides in closets. She and Hee-jo split up to search every floor. During this process, guards shoot Hee-jo, but Anna makes it to the roof.
There, she finds Ja-in in the very closet she told him to hide in. Ja-in reminds Anna of her promise to return. It is an emotional reunion, but once again, guards try to take Ja-in. This time, Anna fights back fiercely, giving Ja-in a chance to jump into the rising water and escape.
Anna frees herself, swims toward Ja-in, and finally finds her son, completing her quest. By doing so, she completes the Emotion Engine test. Using this data, they create a Human AI Mother. This allows her to finally escape the time loop.
The Ending Explained
The movie ends with Anna and Ja-in sitting in a spaceship returning to Earth. The story is complex because it is divided into two parts: the first half shows the human Anna trying to survive the real flood, and the second half shows her AI version completing the simulation after the apocalypse.
Ja-in is still "alive" because he was an AI child, and the team collected his data before leaving. They can create as many versions of him as needed. Now, they also have the data for an AI Mother through Anna. In the end, we see the artificial bodies of Anna and Ja-in sent to a new planet.
This means Anna successfully saved humanity from extinction. It took thousands of attempts to complete the simulation, you can actually see the number on her t-shirt increasing throughout the movie. The real human Anna died in space when asteroid fragments hit her ship.
But before dying, she asked to transmit her past memories into a synthetic body to create robots with genuine human emotions. She succeeded. That was my take on the ending! If you found this explanation helpful, I'm glad I could clear up the confusion around this mind-bending sci-fi drama.
Frequently Asked Questions
Did the real Anna survive in the end?
No, the human Anna actually died. As I mentioned in the breakdown, the real Anna was on a spaceship that got hit by asteroid fragments. She did not survive that impact. However, before she passed away, she made a crucial decision that changed everything for the future.
She requested that her past memories be transmitted into a synthetic body. The Anna we see succeeding in the end is an AI version possessing her genuine human emotions. This allowed her legacy and her "motherly love" to survive even though her physical human body perished in space.
What do the numbers on Anna's t-shirt mean?
If you looked closely during the movie, you might have noticed the numbers on her shirt kept changing. These numbers represent the specific iteration of the simulation she was currently in. She was stuck in a time loop, trying to save Ja-in over and over again.
It literally took her thousands of attempts to finally break the loop and succeed. The changing numbers were a subtle visual cue from the directors to show us just how long she had been trapped in that virtual reality, striving to complete the Emotion Engine test.
Is Ja-in a real human boy?
No, Ja-in is not a biologically born human. In the beginning of the story, it is established that he was synthesized in the lab alongside Yujin. He is effectively an AI child. This is a very important detail because it explains the lab's actions.
This is why the lab team was obsessed with "harvesting his data" on the roof rather than saving him physically. Because he is artificial, his consciousness could be saved and replicated. Even though he isn't human by blood, the movie emphasizes that the bond between him and Anna is real.
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