Abhiroop Das
‘Cleaner’ follows Joey on a nerve-wracking race for survival when she is on the job cleaning the windows of a high-rise building. Things take a turn when extremist climate activists take over, cutting everyone off from the outside world. They aim to confront the rich about their wrongdoings and release the truth to the public. However, there is more than meets the eye; when a familiar face takes over as the operations leader, the true motivations are revealed to be far more insidious. With her brother, Michael, still trapped inside, the protagonist must take matters into her own hands. When the events take a turn for the worse, Joey finds herself bearing an even greater responsibility. In a cruel twist of fate, the lives of the elites, who trample upon everyone and everything for their selfish gain, lie in the hands of a mere window cleaner. SPOILERS AHEAD.
Cleaner Plot Synopsis
The movie begins with the main character, Joey, climbing upon walls and cabinets to reach the window and sit by its edge as a way of distancing herself from the domestic violence in her house. Twenty years later, she works as a window cleaner for the Agnian Energy Skyscraper, quitting the army after an altercation with a misogynist squad-mate. She wakes up late for work and, on top of that, is called by her brother’s care home to take him back as he stands accused of whistleblowing. After going through a series of mishaps before making it to work, the protagonist is forced to leave her brother in the reception. While doing her job, she chats with her coworker, Noah. Meanwhile, her brother sneaks into the building, looking for his sister. Downstairs, a huge gala for Agnian’s annual shareholder meeting begins preparation.
The tides change quickly at night when the gala is interrupted by an environmental activist group that calls itself Earth Revolution. Spearheaded by extremist Marcus Blake, the group takes everyone hostage and declares that their goal is to expose the truth of the company’s harmful practices, which come at the cost of the environment. During the search for Gerald Milton, the company’s co-owner, Noah is revealed to one of the activists. This scene is witnessed by Joey, who is stuck on the building’s facade. At the same time, tensions among the activists continue to rise, ending with Noah killing Marcus due to a difference in their goals. As the new leader, he quickly changes the scope of this operation, threatening to take every life in the building and blowing up a SWAT team.
Joey thinks on her feet and lights up a large SOS sign, getting the attention of both the police and the terrorists, the latter of which quickly try to frame the protagonist for the events and, at the same time, begin recording all the Agnian shareholders confessing to their ecological crimes. Noah plans to release the video online and bring the company down. With the police unable to do anything, Joey takes matters into her own hands and climbs back into the building before neutralizing many of the activists and recovering the drive. She then directly confronts the antagonist, forcing him to come up and face her, using that as a distraction to let the police rescue the hostages.
Cleaner Ending: Does Joey Kill Noah? What Happens to the Drive?
The final fight between Joey and Noah is shaped by a number of factors, the most pressing of them being the dead man’s switch Noah wears on his wristband, connected directly to the hostages. Connected to his pulse, it is designed to trigger an explosion if he dies, ensuring the destruction of the building and the death of everyone inside. Thus, Joey must not only ensure that she doesn’t kill him but also that he doesn’t kill himself, making an already complicated scenario more so. In the end, Joey manages to gain the upper hand, leaving him hanging in a hole of his own making from the previous explosion. As he prepares to blow up the building, he is shocked to find the switch gone from his wrist and in Joey’s hand instead. With this, she kicks him to his death, saving everyone.
Noah’s death brings with it the end of the terrorist group. The SWAT team enters the building, intercepting the rest of the targets and rescuing the hostages. When the dust settles, Superintendent Claire Hume asks Joey for the drive with all the confessions stored in it. However, the protagonist chooses to lie, claiming that it was never in her possession and that she had merely bluffed to lure Noah. Upon reuniting with her brother, she is relieved to find the drive safe with him. In the days following this incident, the contents of the drive are anonymously leaked to the internet. Known as the Earth Revolution Leaks, they immediately bring light to the crimes of those associated with Agnian Energy. Though the leaker’s identity is never confirmed, it is strongly implied that Joey and Michael are the ones responsible.
The protagonist understands that giving the drive to the police would only result in the information getting hushed down, fueling the cycle. Instead, she chooses to release the truth to the wild, unraveling the systemic exploitation of the planet that megacorporations have been practicing under the guise of climate consciousness. In effect, Joey embodies her role as the cleaner, getting the world rid of both extremist fanatics like Noah and rapacious billionaires like the Miltons and providing a third solution instead. In the end, uncertainty lies in the wake of the confessions, whether they will ignite a revolution and mass climate consciousness or succumb to the facade of normalcy in the world of progress.
Why Does Noah Want to Kill Everyone?
Noah has the most enigmatic character arc throughout the movie, going from Joey’s friend and coworker to the fearsome leader of the Earth Revolutionists; the nature of his personas remains a mystery long after his defeat. His actions in the building, however, are united by a continued desire to kill everyone. In particular, everyone who threatens the planet’s environment and ecosystems. In an earlier conversation with Joey, he talks of the transience of humanity and how they are supposed to be one with nature. The present dissonance becomes the source of his rage. On a call with Superintendent Claire, he reveals that he is merely the culmination of a history of climate activism being ignored, rejected, and squashed down. The suppression of his voice by the elites forces him to take drastic measures.
According to Taz Skylar, the actor who plays Noah, the character has a secret motivation, one that is almost presented as an easter egg for the audience to figure out. In an interview with The Direct, he mentions the character of Elena, a member of the activist group who was caught during one of their previous operations and intended to use her trial to reveal Agnian’s dirty secrets. As a result, she was killed in her prison cell, presumably by the company itself, to shut down the truth. While she is not present in the movie, her name can be seen tattooed on Noah’s finger. This implies her substantial role in his life, which is confirmed by the actor saying, “It was the loss of Elena that kind of pushed him past the point of no return in order to take the action that he does with Marcus.”
It is also worth noting that Noah’s character draws biblical inspirations, standing as the inverse of Noah from the original flood myth, who created a giant ark to protect humanity along with all other species of animals, carrying a pair of each. However, the antagonist of this film chooses to sacrifice humankind as a whole in service of the rest of the earth, as he deems them sinful, describing them as a plague. In effect, the building becomes his ark, a fact he draws attention to when exclaiming pride over owning the building to a captive Gerald. His aim to blow everything up reflects a broader message: a declaration of war on humanity itself. Through his actions, he urges the rest of society to wake up and understand the necessity of his message. Ultimately, Joey thwarts his attempts, leaving him to die alone.
What Happens to Joey and Michael?
In the final scene of the movie, Joey and her brother leave the ordeal behind and decide to start anew. Sitting by the sea over a pleasant sunset, the two ponder the punishment those involved will receive. The siblings continue their banter, marking the first time they are together at peace. With Michael taken out of care homes, they can finally be together and develop a deeper connection. In their final conversation, Clair Hume tells the protagonist that she did a good job and that she shouldn’t stop. She seems to convey that Joey should continue to protect innocent lives with her skills rather than reducing herself to purposelessness. With Agnian Energy presumably gone, a whole host of new opportunities open up for the main characters.
The beginning of the movie shows Michael getting fired for hacking into the digital records of care homes and leaking the fact that they steal money from their clients. When his caretakers threaten him, Joey steps up and calls out their malpractices. Thus, even before the events of ‘Cleaner’ rollout, the duo displays strong moral fiber and the ability to bring change. A possible route for them is to go further on their journey of exposing the corruption rooted in various high-profile organizations and forcing them to reform. Another possibility is for the two of them to work with the police, possibly under Claire Hume, as they possess the necessary skill set to make a difference: Joey, with her military experience and quick thinking, and Michael, with his technical genius. Nonetheless, an adventurous life awaits the siblings.
Read More: Cleaner: Is Agnian Energy a Real Company? Is Earth Revolution a Real Activist Group?
