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Under the Skin poster

Under the Skin

2013 · 108 min · movie
⭐ 6.3 (171,591 votes)

In Glasgow, a motorcyclist retrieves an inert young woman from the roadside and places her in the back of a van, where a naked woman dons her clothes. After buying clothes and make-up at a shopping centre, the woman drives the van from town to town, picking up single men with few friends. She lures a man into a dilapidated house. As he undresses, following the woman into a void, he is submerged in a liquid abyss.

At a beach, the woman attempts to pick up a swimmer, but is interrupted by the cries of a drowning couple attempting to rescue their dog, as it is pulled out to sea. The swimmer rescues the husband, but the husband rushes back into the water to save his wife and both drown. As the swimmer lies exhausted on the beach, the woman strikes his head with a rock, drags him to the van, and drives away, ignoring the couple's distraught baby. The motorcyclist retrieves the swimmer's belongings, ignoring the baby crying on the beach.

The woman visits a nightclub and picks up another man. At the house, he follows her into the void and is submerged in the liquid. Suspended beneath the surface, he sees the swimmer floating naked beside him, alive but bloated and immobile. When he reaches to touch him, the swimmer's body collapses, leaving only his empty skin floating in the liquid as a red mass empties through a trough.

The next day, the woman receives a rose from a street vendor, purchased by another man in traffic. She listens to a radio report about the missing family from the beach. The woman enters a dark room and is examined by the motorcyclist. She seduces a lonely man with facial tumours but lets him leave after examining herself in a mirror. The motorcyclist intercepts the man and bundles him into a car, then sets out in pursuit of the woman.

In the Scottish Highlands, the woman abandons the van in the fog. She walks to a restaurant and attempts to eat cake, but retches and spits it out. On a bus, she meets a man who offers to help her. At his house, he prepares a meal for her and they watch television. Alone in her room, she examines her body in a mirror. They visit a ruined castle, where the man carries her over a puddle and helps her down some steps. At his house, they kiss and begin to have sex, but the woman stops and examines her genitals.

Wandering in a forest, the woman meets a commercial logger and shelters in a bothy. She wakes up to find the logger molesting her. She runs into the wilderness but he catches and attempts to rape her. He tears her skin, revealing a featureless body. As the woman extricates herself from her skin, the man douses her in fuel and burns her alive. The motorcyclist looks out across a snowy field.

Directed by

Jonathan Glazer

Starring

Scarlett Johansson
Jeremy McWilliams
Kryštof Hádek
Paul Brannigan
Adam Pearson

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