In The Conference, a group of municipal employees fights for their lives when a killer comes to hunt them down at a secluded holiday village. The movie is now streaming on Netflix.
Warning: This article contains heavy spoilers
Plot summary
A group of municipal employees led by Jonas and Ingela arrive at Kolarsjön Holiday Village for a professional team-building exercise. They will learn to work with each other better. All the employees are paired and given their cabin rooms according to their zodiac signs.
Jonas and Ingela’s team is here to discuss the construction of the Kolarängen Shopping Center and the formation of a community in Kolarängen. Many people are against it, but despite the commotion, Jonas is proceeding with it.
No matter how beautiful the holiday village is, there are some issues here. The internet connection is going to be a problem, as it keeps losing signal. To top that, Jonas’ group keeps arguing with each other over small issues.
Lina is one of the employees. She was overworking too much and has recently returned after a sick leave. Among this group, only Amir is a good friend of hers.
Lina takes a look at the contracts and realizes that the compensation agreement for the farmer, Pålsson, and his family is missing. They demolished Pålsson’s whole farm for this project, and he must get something in return.
Lina’s signatures are there in this contract, but she doesn’t remember signing it. She likes to think this is a different contract. Lina questioning Jonas in front of everyone hurts the latter.
Ingela doesn’t want them to bicker over petty things. The last time this happened, she was attacked by an employee named Frans. While the employees are discussing their business, the staff of the holiday village go missing one by one. They are attacked by somebody.
The employees go for a team-building exercise in the woods. They leave their cell phones behind. Lina keeps thinking about Pålsson not getting his compensation. She learns from Amir that Pålsson killed himself once they demolished the farm.
Lina backs out when it comes to trying the zipline. She comes back to the cabins instead and decides to access Jonas’ laptop. He values his laptop a lot, so there must be something on it.
The team returns to find the staff of Kolarsjön Holiday Village gone. Cleo, who took them for team-building exercises in the wild, is the next to get attacked by a man wearing the mask of Sotis, Kolarängen’s mascot.
Jonas’ team is still unaware of the whereabouts of the holiday village’s employees and the fact that a murderer is lurking around. They don’t know where their cell phones are kept either.
Amidst all of this, after collecting data from Jonas’ laptop, Lina, along with Nadja and Amir, confronts Jonas, who has been lying to his team.
First, he has forged Lina’s signature. Second, there are no contracts with store chains for the shopping center. Lastly, when this all becomes a mess, Jonas will be working for somebody else.
Lina asks Jonas to admit his mistake, or else she is going to call the cops on him tomorrow. Moments later, the killer shows up and kills Kajan and Ingela. The group sees the killer tie Ingela to a flagpost.
Everyone is separated. Amir, Nadja, Eva, and Torbjörn take shelter in a cabin together, while Jonas and Lina run towards the lake. They pass through a forest full of traps.
Jonas strikes a deal with Lina on their raft, but once he gets his hands on the drive that has information against him, he kicks Lina off the raft, which forces her to swim back. Even Jonas doesn’t stay on the raft longer, as it falls apart.
Amir musters up the courage to go out and bring Lina back. Nadja, on the other hand, retrieves the keys to a minivan, but the killer sets the minivan on fire, leaving the group with no means to escape.
The Conference ending explained in detail:
Who is the killer?
While Lina, Amir, Nadja, Eva, and Torbjörn have taken cover in a cabin, Jonas brings Anette to his side. Anette likes to think that the killer is none other than Frans, as she was in touch with him and had told him that they were coming here. Lina’s group also thinks likewise.
They are proven wrong when the killer comes face-to-face with Anette and doesn’t hesitate to stab her in the head. Jonas, on the other hand, gets his hands on a bike and runs away.
Lina realizes that they can use the zipline to reach the other side of the river. On their way out, Amir’s eyes fall upon a newspaper. He comes to the conclusion and tells everyone that the killer is probably Pålsson’s son, whose father killed himself when Jonas took over their land.
Does everyone make it to the zipline?
Lina’s group leaves for the zipline. However, they get separated by the killer present nearby. Eva heads back to the cabin, and Torbjörn follows her there. Nadja finds herself trapped in a beartrap.
Only Lina and Amir make it to the zipline. They hold onto each other as they cross the river. The moment Amir sees a trap on the other end of the zipline, he switches positions with Lina to save her.
Even though Amir dies, Lina finds a box nearby that has their cell phones. She immediately calls the emergency helpline.
Do the employees best the killer?
Eva and Torbjörn fight the killer all on their own. Only by killing the killer can they walk out of here alive. Nadja comes to their aid at the very last moment and cuts the killer’s head off with a shovel.
Meanwhile, Lina is attacked by Jonas, who hadn’t made it far on the bike and had fallen into the river. Lina rips Jonas’ hair out, and since he was injured right there, he dies. Out of everyone, only Lina, Eva, Nadja, and Torbjörn live to see another day.
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