A Cure for Wellness

**A Cure for Wellness** is a 2017 film starring Dane DeHaan, Jason Isaacs and Mia Goth, directed by Gore Verbinski, written by Justin Haythe and produced by David Crockett, Arnon Milchan and Verbinski.

The film was a financial failure as it generated a loss of $66 million.

## Plot

At a large financial services firm in New York City, an ambitious young executive named Lockhart is sent by the company board of directors to retrieve Roland Pembroke, the company's CEO who had abruptly decided to stay at a "wellness center" in the Swiss Alps. The board needs Pembroke to sign off on an upcoming merger. The company is being investigated for criminal misconduct, and several self-serving partners hope to place all of the blame squarely upon Pembroke. Lockhart arrives at the spa, but he is met with resistance by the staff and Dr. Heinreich Volmer in attempting to speak with Pembroke.

Lockhart leaves but is involved in a car accident and supposedly awakens three days later at the center with his leg in a plaster cast. Curiously, in spite of the truly horrendous nature of the accident, both he and the driver suffer from no other injuries but a minor scratch or two. During his time at the spa, Lockhart meets a mysterious young girl named Hannah, who, among others, doses herself with a mysterious fluid kept in a small, cobalt-colored bottle.

A patient named Victoria Watkins, as well as residents of the nearby town, regale a fascinated Lockhart with the history of the spa. It was built on the ruins of a castle once owned by a baron roughly 200 years ago. The baron desired an heir of pure blood and married his sister. When the baron learned she was infertile, he began performing hellish experiments on the peasants in order to find a way to cure her infertility. He succeeded, but after finding the carelessly buried bodies of his victims, the peasants stormed the castle and set it on fire.

The baron's pregnant sister was captured by the peasants and the baby was cut from her womb before she was burned. Although the peasants tossed the baby into the local aquifer, it somehow survived. Lockhart attempts to escape the center but finds that no one is allowed to leave. After gifting Hannah a ballerina figurine, Lockhart bikes into town with her help. Lockhart leaves Hannah in a bar and seeks out a translator for Pembroke's German-language medical dossier.

He finds out that the people of the spa suffer from dehydration despite the quantities of water they imbibe from the aquifer. Meanwhile, Hannah, who has been kept at the spa her entire life, explores the bar and attracts the attention of the locals. Lockhart returns and gets into a fight with a man who was dancing with Hannah. He is rescued by Dr. Volmer, who has discovered that Lockhart had left the spa with Hannah. Everyone in the place is curiously cowed by Dr. Volmer.

Lockhart investigates his suspicions and discovers the transfusion wing of the spa is a front for macabre medical experiments. The water from the local aquifer possesses unique properties. It is very toxic to humans but has life restoring properties for the eels living in the water. The baron had devised a process to filter the water through the bodies of humans and distill it into a life giving essence. Volmer uses the patients as filters for this process.

This "cure" is ingested by Hannah, Volmer, and his staff in order to gain vastly lengthened lifespans. Lockhart also realizes that his leg isn't broken and that he is being forcefully kept prisoner there. Volmer then subjects Lockhart to nightmarish treatments that warp his mind until he believes he is insane. Hannah perceives this change and gives Lockhart back the ballerina that was given to Lockhart by his mother. This act helps to break him out of his delirium.

Around this time, Hannah has her first menstruation, and Volmer marries her. During the reception, he leads Hannah to a secret room built in the ruins of the castle and attempts to rape her. When Lockhart confronts Volmer he realizes that Volmer is the baron and Hannah is his daughter, the baby who was thrown into the well. They both had been aging very slowly due to the "cure". In the ensuing fight, Volmer's face is revealed to be a mask that hides his hideous burns. Lockhart sets Volmer and the castle on fire but is overpowered by Volmer all the same.

Hannah saves Lockhart by killing her father. He falls backwards into the aquifer and is eaten by the furiously voracious eels. Lockhart and Hannah escape from the premises on her bicycle as fire engulfs the structure. Not far down the road, Lockhart crashes into a car carrying his employers. They have arrived from New York to retrieve him and Pembroke. Lockhart is ordered into the car by the employers. Lockhart instead chooses to ride away with Hannah while sporting a grin on his face.