THEY WILL KILL YOU

The film starts with Asia Reaves (Zazie Beetz) and her younger sister Maria going on the run from their abusive father. They hide out in a store, but the man tracks them down and tries to chase them. One of his buddies tries to stop the girls from running, but Asia pulls out a gun and shoots her father in the chest. He survives, but Asia runs away, leaving Maria to go back to their father’s custody while Asia goes to jail.

Ten years later, Asia is out of prison and starts a new job at a hotel in Manhattan called The Virgil, under the fake name “Isabelle”. She meets the hotel’s superintendent, Lilith Woodhouse (Patricia Arquette), as well as her bitter husband Ray (Paterson Joseph), and other guests of the hotel, like a beauty care CEO named Sharon Vanderbilt (Heather Graham). The Virgil is said to have been established over 100 years ago.

At night, Asia hears strange noises and goes outside in the hall. All the lights suddenly turn off, so she locks herself in the room out of suspicion. Later, a man in a pig mask, Bob, sneaks into Asia’s room and attempts to rape her. She wakes up and fights Bob off, ending with him getting knocked out after smashing his head on the table. Asia hears more people coming in, including Sharon and another resident, Kevin Sullivan (Tom Felton), plus two other men that try to kill Asia. She plays unconscious and waits for Sharon to grab her legs, and she bites into a lamp wire to electrocute herself and Sharon. Asia then runs into the closet and grabs an arsenal of weapons, like a machete and a shotgun. She decapitates Kevin and battles the other assassins and kills all of them as well.

Asia steps out of the room and is confronted by Lilith, who knows that she is not “Isabelle” and demands to know the truth about her. Asia reveals that she was arrested after shooting her father and, upon her release, she hired a private investigator (Angus Sampson), who was able to track down Maria (now played by Myha’la) and found out she was working as a maid at The Virgil, so Asia intercepted the real Isabelle to take her job and find Maria.

To Asia’s surprise, Kevin, Sharon, and the other assassins emerge from her room, resurrected and healing their bodies. Lilith says that the people of The Virgil are immortal. They continue to pursue her, but she escapes through the vents. Sharon chases her through there, but Asia stabs her repeatedly until she finally blasts Sharon’s head clean off. Kevin finds Sharon’s sentient body, who determines that Asia is going to the “fuck floor” of The Virgil after her eyeball rolls itself to spy on her.

Asia is caught by Ray, who is tired of being immortal and the deeds committed by Lilith and the other residents. He explains to Asia that The Virgil is home to a satanic cult that was granted immortality in exchange for human sacrifices. Everyone whose name is on a special list is able to live forever, but if they fail Satan, their names are erased and they become mortal again. Ray says that the place is rigged to be a death trap and that the only way out is through a fire escape.

Ray leads Asia to the room where Maria is being kept locked inside. Although their reunion is emotional, Maria feels that Asia abandoned her and left her at the mercy of their horrible father. She already knows about all the cult stuff going on and hopes that she may earn her name on the list. After refusing to join Asia, she knocks Maria out with one punch and tries to smuggle her out via a dumbwaiter.

Ray gets captured by Lilith for his betrayal, while Asia and Maria make it to the kitchen. There, Maria tells Asia her own backstory, about how their dad eventually died of cancer and how she ended up in odd jobs until she got to The Virgil and was spared from being a sacrifice. Asia also explains that she learned how to fight in prison. She understands that her sister is upset with her but is determined to get her out.

Lilith orders the cultists on every floor to go after the sisters. Asia takes them on by setting an axe on fire and chopping them all down. They try to climb toward the fire escape via an elevator shaft but are ambushed by the cultists, including one maid who briefly dies after trying to pursue Asia and Maria. They are both eventually captured by Lilith.

Lilith takes the sisters to the top floor to join Ray. They summon Satan, who inhabits a severed pig head to speak to his subjects, and the head is also what contains the immortality list. He scrubs Ray’s name off the list for his betrayal, and Lilith slashes his throat, killing him. The cultists then want Maria to sacrifice Asia since Isabelle was originally set to be the victim, and that way, Maria can become immortal. However, Maria instead writes Asia’s name on the pig head and cuts her own throat. Asia engages in a final showdown against Kevin, Sharon, and the main cultists, incapacitating them before Lilith fuses with the pig head and battles Asia. They get into a huge fight that ends with Asia ripping the pig head off, while Lilith is impaled on a wooden beam. Asia then bleaches the pig head and lights it on fire, erasing the names of the cultists and making all their deaths permanent, but she cuts the part of the skin with her name on it. She then pushes the flaming pig head down the elevator shaft, where it kills the maid and explodes upon landing. Asia carries Maria’s body and orders the remaining residents to flee.

Outside, Asia reunites with the private investigator and brings Maria’s body into his car. She suddenly resurrects, as Asia wrote Maria’s name over her own so that she will be immortal. The PI takes the sisters far away from the city. As they drive away, the top floor of The Virgil blows up.