The Assignment 2017

Two timelines, one twisted vision: Dr. Rachel Jane is a rogue plastic surgeon who, after losing her medical license, begins an illegal practice that targets impoverished homeless people. The story unfolds in a restrained, patient way across a present-day frame—where Jane is institutionalized and evaluated by Dr. Ralph Galen—and a flashback that dives into events from two years earlier. The film uses this dual structure to gradually reveal how far Jane was willing to go in pursuit of a distorted idea of a better world.

In the past, Jane’s crime begins with a personal ripple: her brother Sebastian is murdered by a professional killer, Frank Kitchen. Once Jane identifies Frank, she enlists Honest John Baconian to double-cross him. Her plan isn’t merely revenge; it’s also a test of identity and power. She carries out a gender reassignment surgery on Frank, transforming him into a physically female person, a choice that shocks Frank and triggers a severe mental breakdown. In the room where this transformation happens, a box filled with hormones and a tape recorder holds clues to Jane’s mindset, and a recorded message from Jane encourages Frank to begin anew.

After the operation, Frank leaves a hotel and reaches out to a woman he had a connection with, Johnnie, asking to stay with her while he recovers. Meanwhile, law enforcement remains skeptical of Frank’s existence, a disbelief that complicates Jane’s plans. Dr. Galen challenges Jane’s narrative, and when she lashes out and injures him, she is briefly restrained. Yet she seeks a legal deposition to confess, and in her testimony she recounts the operation, the deaths at her clinic, and the chain of events that led to her incarceration, all while expressing no remorse for her actions.

The path of revenge drives Frank to hunt down those involved in his operation, including the men on Honest John’s payroll. He learns that the surgery cannot be reversed, which intensifies the stakes. He interrogates Honest John, who hints that Johnnie might know the doctor’s identity and is somehow connected to the plot. In a brutal turn, Frank kills Honest John and confronts Johnnie. She reveals she was hired to monitor Frank but doesn’t know the doctor’s name. Her confession grows more complicated as she admits she developed mixed feelings for Frank. Although Frank contemplates killing her, he ultimately spares Johnnie and sends her to Reno, Nevada, where she agrees to help lay a trap for the doctor. Yet the doctor’s bodyguards anticipated Frank’s moves, and they sedate him.

The confrontation comes to a head when Frank wakes in a straitjacket and faces Jane again. She intends to perform another surgery—this time to remove his right arm so he can never kill again. Frank overpower any remaining resistance, destroying the guards and Jane’s surgical assistant in the process. Jane reappears, brandishing a large knife and taunting him, admitting she is a coward in life-or-death situations and proposing that they part ways. Frank refuses, reloading his gun with a bullet he had taped to the sole of his boot, and shoots Jane—non-fatally. He then stages the scene to appear as though Jane’s assistant killed everyone, leaving him with Jane’s knife as he holds it over her unconscious body.

With his vengeance complete, Frank records a closing video that presents his side of the story to be released after his death. He reveals that Johnnie chose to stay in Reno, not to escape, but to stay connected to the larger web around the case. In his final meeting with Galen, Jane admits she hoped to win help to prove she was mentally fit for trial, but she realizes it is over when she attacked him. She accepts her fate and uses the deposition to tell her story for anyone interested. The film closes on a grim note as Jane surveys her mutilated hands—the result of Frank severing her fingers to ensure she would never practice medicine again.