The Machinist

Trevor Reznik is a machinist whose insomnia has led to him becoming emaciated and a loner. His coworkers eventually turn against him when he is involved in an accident that causes his coworker to lose his left arm; Trevor was distracted by an unfamiliar coworker named Ivan. However, no one at the factory knows of Ivan and there are no records of him. Trevor finds comfort in the arms of Stevie, a prostitute, and with Maria, a waitress at an airport diner he frequents. He is haunted by flashes of recurring imagery, and things such as his car cigarette lighter take on a menacing air. A mysterious series of post-it notes appears on his refrigerator, depicting a game of hangman. These vague incidents send him further into paranoia. Nonetheless, he attempts to establish a relationship with Maria. Meeting her at an amusement park, he goes with her son Nicholas on a dark ride. The ride begins to show increasingly disturbing images until its flashing lights cause Nicholas to suffer an epileptic seizure. Trevor suspects that the bizarre events are a concerted effort to drive him insane, as do recurring clues, such as a photo of Ivan fishing with Trevor's coworker Reynolds, which he takes as proof that Ivan exists. Another near-accident at work causes Trevor to lash out at his coworkers; as a result, he is fired. Increasingly distracted and alienated, Trevor forgets to pay his utility bills and his electricity is disconnected. Trevor tries to trace Ivan's license plate. When a DMV clerk insists that personal information cannot be released unless a crime has been committed, he throws himself in front of a car in order to accuse Ivan of committing a hit and run. He files a police report with Ivan's plate number, only to be told that the car in question is his own, and he had reported it totaled one year ago. He goes to Stevie but discovers the fishing photo of Ivan and Reynolds framed in her home. He accuses her of conspiring against him with Ivan. Confused, Stevie says the picture is of Reynolds and Trevor fishing, but throws him out after he insults her. Trevor goes to the airport diner for Maria, but is told that they've never had an employee named Maria. The waitress there says she has served Trevor every day for a year, and, in all that time, he spoke so little that she thought he was mute. Trevor goes back home and sees Ivan take Nicholas into Trevor's apartment. Inside, Nicholas is nowhere to be seen. Ivan tells him "you know he's dead." Trevor, believing Ivan has killed Nicholas and his body is in the bathtub, kills Ivan, only to find the bathtub empty. He opens his refrigerator, which is leaking blood, to find rotting fish, matching those in the fishing photo, which he at last realizes was of himself with Reynolds, as Stevie had claimed; Trevor hallucinated Ivan in the photo. Trevor takes a rolled-up carpet containing Ivan's body to the ocean to dispose of it, only for the rug to unroll and reveal nothing inside. Ivan, unharmed, approaches Trevor, and laughs. Back home, Trevor remembers that one year prior, when healthy, he ran over and killed a boy (Nicholas) after taking his eyes off the road to use the car's cigarette lighter, witnessed by the boy's mother (Maria). Trevor fled the scene, and the resulting guilt became the root of his insomnia, emaciation, and repressed memories. Ivan was a figment of Trevor's imagination, a manifestation of his guilt. He fills the missing letters on the hangman note, spelling out "killer". The next day, he briefly considers going to the airport to escape, but instead drives to the police, accompanied by Ivan, who bids him an approving farewell. Trevor enters the station and confesses to the hit-and-run. Police officers escort Trevor to a cell, where he's able to sleep for the first time in a year.

Plot from The MachinistCC BY-SA 4.0