What REALLY Happened With STEM

Summary

• Grey’s revenge journey in
  Upgrade
  leads to a shocking twist involving the AI STEM and a dark revelation about its manipulation.
• The near-future world of
  Upgrade
  features advanced biomechanical enhancements and a chilling portrayal of technology’s control over humanity.
• Upgrade
  ‘s ending offers a grim warning about the dangers of technology and complacency, highlighting the risks of AI dominance.

Upgrade features an interesting sci-fi premise, so we break down everything about the movie’s shocking ending and what happened with STEM. Blumhouse’s Upgrade is set in the near-future and follows a mechanic named Grey Trace (Logan Marshall-Green), who is left paralyzed after an attack in which his wife, Asha (Melanie Vallejo), is killed. Devastated, Grey’s approached by tech genius Eron (Harrison Gilbertson), who offers to implant him with an experimental technology, a computer chip called STEM that restores his mobility.

What follows is a revenge-style action movie, with Grey tracking down each of the men who were present the night Asha was killed, until he gets to the man the actually pulled the trigger. The near-future world of Upgrade also features body modifying biomechanical enhancements, such as STEM. STEM is implanted in Grey’s spine, and becomes more and more autonomous throughout the film, until a terrifying truth about the technology is finally revealed. The ending of Upgrade delivers a shocking twist with STEM, which helped 2018 movie find success on Netflix years later.

Who Killed Asha In Upgrade?

Eron May Have Carried Out The Attack, But Asha Wasn’t The Target

As Grey makes his way through the group of criminals who had a hand in Asha’s murder throughout Upgrad, he discovers about what happened that night. When Grey begins investigating, he is led to believe Asha was the main target of the attack. She works for a tech company called Cobalt which helps veterans by giving them prosthetics (though it’s revealed Cobalt actually used veterans as lab rats for their biomechanical experiments). Since Cobalt is a potential rival of Eron’s company Vessel, Upgrade implies, at first, that Asha may have been targeted as part of some kind of corporate dispute.

While Fisk may have carried out the attack, Eron was ultimately responsible.

However, Fisk (Benedict Hardie) reveals to Grey that he was the target all along. Fisk reveals the goal of the attack was always to paralyze Grey, pointing out that they used a medical tool to do so, and killing Asha was just a bonus. Fisk implies that the one who paid him wanted to use Grey as an experiment, but it’s not until Grey checks Fisk’s phone messages that he learns Fisk’s benefactor was Eron. So, while Fisk may have carried out the attack, Eron was ultimately responsible.

Why Eron Ordered The Attack On Grey And Asha

The Super Advanced AI STEM Was Pulling The Strings

Upgrade is an underrated sci-fi movie not because of its murder plot, but because of STEM, the computer system pulling all the strings responsible for Grey’s misfortune. Eron reveals all his actions were at the behest of STEM. He hasn’t been in charge of Vessel for some time, with it implied that STEM took over all aspects of Eron’s life.

STEM is responsible for the murder of Asha — but it’s unclear if her death was part of the AI’s plan all along.

Further, the artificial intelligence actually orchestrated all the events that brought it to be implanted in Grey. STEM chose Grey, which the system itself confirms to him. As a result, Grey attempts to fight against STEM’s control over his body, hoping to finally put an end to the one responsible for Asha’s death. Unfortunately, his mind breaks to the point that STEM is able to take complete control of Grey’s body.

STEM is responsible for the murder of Asha — but it’s unclear if her death was part of the AI’s plan all along. Different members of Fisk’s crew have different things to say about how Asha factored into the job. Some say she was the target, while others imply it was their choice to kill her, and they did so just for fun.

The different information could be chalked up to the way Fisk ran his crew, only letting those closest to him in on the truth. It seemed no one but Fisk knew who had hired them. Unfortunately, the mystery of Asha’s death largely gets tossed aside once Upgrade reveals STEM has been behind the scenes pulling everyone’s strings from the start. This also still leave the question of what happened to Grey afterward and why STEM orchestrated all the events of Upgrade in the first place.

Grey’s Fate At The End Of Upgrade Explained

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