In Upgraded (2024), Ana Santos gets bumped on a flight leading to a chance encounter that complicates her personal and professional lives. The film is streaming on Prime Video.
Warning: This article contains heavy spoilers
Plot summary:
Ana Santos is a struggling art major crashing at her sister’s place in New York. She’s got an internship at the auction house Erwin’s under the director, Claire Dupont.
Ana hopes to impress at this internship and finally get out of this deplorable existence she is currently in.
Claire is a sociopathic perfectionist with incredibly high standards and Ana needs to be impeccable to make a good impression.
When Ana spots a typo in their auction catalog and points it out just in time, Claire notices her.
She is invited to London as Claire’s third assistant to help sort out a crisis at the UK branch.
Claire’s first two assistants, Suzette and Renee, are territorial about their positions so they treat Ana harshly.
They get a cheap seat on a later flight to make things more difficult, but the attendant sees Ana’s plight and has her seat upgraded to first class.
Ana spends time in the airport lounge beforehand and ends up bumping into someone and dropping her drink all over him.
She then finds herself sitting on the seat next to him, although he doesn’t recognize her because she had a face mask on during the incident.
He introduces himself as William, an ad executive who was in New York for an interview and is now headed back home to celebrate his mother’s birthday with her.
Due to a miscommunication, he assumes that she is a director at an auction house, and she chooses not to correct him.
Ana and William spend the flight getting to know each other and when they arrive, she meets Catherine, William’s mother.
Catherine is also charmed by Ana, although she too believes that the young woman is a successful art director.
Ana rushes to work where Suzette and Renee continue to look down upon her. They learn that they are there to facilitate the auction of the Brovil collection.
It is a collection of paintings that have been off the market for years, but now the owner’s widow plans to sell it off.
Ana realizes that she left her laptop in Catherine’s car, and Catherine sends her an invite to a party at their house where she can collect it.
Ana meets William again and is also introduced to Julian Marx, an eccentric painter who faked his death to raise the value of his work.
She is invited into Catherine’s library where she lays eyes on a magnificent collection of paintings.
She talks about the significance of love hidden within the paintings and gets Catherine sentimental about them.
That is when it is revealed that she is the client selling the Brovil collection through Erwin’s. Ana asks Catherine to keep their connection a secret because she wouldn’t want to step on Claire’s toes.
She continues to spend time with William, and his connections help her get in good standing with Claire, pushing Suzette and Renee down the ladder.
Everything appears to go swimmingly until Catherine decides to pull the collection from the market, and everyone at Erwin’s wonders who might be responsible.
Ending explained:
Letting out her frustrations
Ana realizes that her words got through to Catherine and now Erwin’s has lost her as a client which causes her to worry.
William arrives at her office to share some news with her but she pulls him aside to talk about his mother’s decision.
He says that he got the job in New York but she’s more worried about her job and chides him for his privileged lifestyle.
He hits back at her, pointing out that she used him for his connections and is just like everyone else in his life.
He then storms off, leaving Ana to head back inside where she faces the next big problem.
Secret exposed
When she walks back in, everyone stares at her like she’s in trouble. She gets a message from Suzette, with a picture from a local tabloid of her and Catherine together.
The picture has her wearing Claire’s dress, and it credits her as the New York director of Erwin’s.
Everyone piles on Ana and blames her for losing Catherine’s collection as she is immediately fired and unceremoniously escorted out by security.
Ana calls her sister to express her disappointment at how everything around her has fallen apart, and they add to the situation by telling her that she’ll have to find another place to live when she gets back.
Embracing her truth
Ana goes to Catherine’s house and explains the true reality to Catherine and Julian. Catherine isn’t mad at her and reveals that she used Ana too.
She backed out as a negotiation tactic and suggested that they go back together to get a better deal and get Ana’s job back.
Ana walks into Erwin’s triumphant, as Catherine agrees to sell her collection through them with Ana managing it on her behalf.
Ana gets back in Claire’s good graces and impresses her with her potential.
A clean slate
The auction is a big success as Catherine’s collection draws in a huge amount. However, William doesn’t show up and Ana wishes to talk to him.
She goes to the park where coaches a children’s football team, and she apologizes for lying to him.
She asks if they can begin again but he says that he turned down the job in New York so starting a relationship with her would be difficult.
Ana heads back tom New York having progressed in her professional career, but lacking something in her personal life.
6 months later, she is managing her own gallery and organizing her first showing. Claire shows up to support her, but Ana hopes that William will show up too.
When she’s closing up and saying goodbye to the final guest, she i surprised by William, who says that he wanted to see her and pursue the special connection they had.
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