The Similars

The storm rages as Ulises waits at a Mexico City bus depot while his wife is giving birth nearby. Intermittent radio updates hint that the storm could be a worldwide phenomenon of unknown origin. He struggles to reach the hospital by phone, hoping for reassurance.

Ulises tries to contact the hospital using the depot payphone, but the line keeps disconnecting. He asks the elderly clerk Martin to lend him an outside line, only to learn there isn’t one. Frustration and fear mount as the delay threatens his wife’s condition.

Irene, a pregnant woman seeking shelter, is taken in by the depot crowd. Ulises offers to split a taxi fare to help her reach safety, but Rosa insists Irene stay in the restroom. Irene attempts to flee when tensions rise, but Rosa suffers a seizure, complicating everyone’s plans.

Three more people arrive—Alvaro, Humberto Busto, and Gertrudis with her son Ignacio—drawn by Irene’s cries and the depot crowd’s efforts. Martin emerges from his office with a rifle and blames everything on Ulises, presenting him as a threat. Ulises protests that he’s just a miner worried about his wife.

An older woman named Roberta suffers an epileptic seizure identical to Rosa’s. The group disarms and ties up Martin, shifting the balance of power at the depot as fear escalates. The strangers realize they may be trapped together by increasingly dangerous circumstances.

Alvaro grows cautious when he sees Gertrudis inject Ignacio with a hypodermic needle, recognizing Ignacio as a famous unsolved medical case. Martin then reveals that his face has morphed to resemble Ulises, signaling the first signs of transformation. The group begins to suspect something extraordinary is happening.

Roberta’s features begin to mirror Ulises, with facial hair appearing on her skin as the transformation spreads. Irene also undergoes a startling change. Alvaro tries to leave, only to find the doors locked and bulletproof, trapping everyone inside.

Alvaro and Irene inspect Martin’s office and discover photographs, statues, and posters now bearing Ulises’s face. Ignacio locks Gertrudis and Martin in a back room, where Rosa has transformed and killed herself. Ignacio shows Ulises a comic book about aliens who steal humanity’s individuality.

After all have transformed, humanity’s memory is wiped, and people once again perceive themselves as individuals—unaware they have collectively lost their identity. Gertrudis escapes and explains that Ignacio caused the comic book to come true. The sense of reality becomes fragile as the truth is buried.

Ignacio reveals he prevented their departure and wields reality-altering power to stop the others. Ulises dies, claiming he no longer recognizes the faces around him. A wallet photo of the original Ulises tips the group that Ulises was the first to transform.

Irene dies during childbirth, and her baby bears the cloned face. Ignacio collapses; Roberta suspects he contacted aliens and, doubting their reality, allowed them to control him. The grim outcome underscores the aliens’ influence over human identity.

Police arrive and arrest Alvaro, blaming him for the deaths. Gertrudis and Ignacio head toward Tlatelolco, Mexico City, as the final narration notes that Ignacio is the only one who remembers what happened, much like the comic book. The film ends with a chilling reminder that memory can be weaponized to rewrite reality.