Exit () is a 2018 South Korean television miniseries starring Choi Tae-joon, Woo Hyun and Bae Hae-sun. Spanning four episodes, the miniseries features a struggling man who is subjected to a simulated reality in order to gain happiness and evade all of his sufferings. It aired on SBS from April 30 to May 1, 2018, at the 22:00 (KST) time slot.
Plot
Episodes 1–2
Living a life of sadness and debts, 33-year-old Do Kang-soo (Choi Tae-joon) works as a loan shark in Shinseong Capital for his and his father's sustenance. His mother Lee In-sook (Nam Gi-ae) has long been away from home since when Kang-soo was still a baby due to her husband Do Jung-man's (Woo Hyun) cruelty and drunkenness. Jung-man, now guilty of ruining his family, works for a junk shop despite his old age and declining health. Kang-soo has been trying to look for her mother but was conned by people claiming they can help him in his search. He had also been thinking so much on how to make his and his father's lives better, even contemplating on stealing money from his boss Hwang Tae-bok (Park Ho-san).
Meanwhile, Kang-soo comes across a flyer by Bliss Laboratory with the words Do you ... want to be happy? (Hangul: 당신...행복해지고 싶나요?; RR: ). He visits the laboratory and meets neuroscientist and researcher Dr. Woo Jae-hee (Bae Hae-sun). Dr. Woo presents her team's invention: a glucose-coated amino acid medicinal capsule combined with a protein from the cerebral artery that is injected to the brain to “maximize the feeling of happiness” and make a human subject believe that all of his/her desires “have come true” within a “perfect world.” Dr. Woo takes a tomography of Kang-soo's brain and tells him that he is 96% suitable for the experiment, i.e. he can undergo the test without any problems. When Dr. Woo hands him the contract, Kang-soo decides to declines the offer for his father's sake.
One night at Shinseong Capital, Kang-soo caught his love interest, Tae-bok's 28-year-old girlfriend Ji Sun-young (Jeon Soo-jin), attempting to open Tae-bok's safe. Sun-young, who actually dreams to become a musical actress, does not enjoy her life with Tae-bok. Although he had also been thinking about it, Kang-soo believes stealing the money will not change anything and will even make Tae-bok very furious. Kang-soo drives away with a drunk Sun-young and crashes into an oncoming truck. Kang-soo's father learns of the accident and rushes to the hospital, mourning at the doors of the operating room.
Kang-soo wakes up in the hospital, and realizes that Sun-young has been discharged. Tae-bok gets suspicious of Kang-soo and asks him why Sun-young ended up with him on the night of the accident. Kang-soo decides to return to Bliss Laboratory, but Dr. Woo tells him that, not like before, he has to pay a ₩300,000,000 participation fee due to a rapid increase of participants. The next day, Kang-soo attempts to unlock Tae-bok's safe but he gets caught by Tae-bok. Kang-soo is about to get beaten up by Tae-bok's henchmen when the police arrive to raid the business. As Tae-bok and his men are arrested, Kang-soo sees his co-worker Hong Ki-chul (Kim Kyung-nam) come out of hiding. Suspecting the police stakeout was part of Ki-chul's plan to steal the money, Kang-soo takes all the money in the safe and escapes. He was about to pay his participation fee but upon arriving at Bliss Laboratory's address, the building is already gone. Later, Jung-man reveals to Kang-soo his regrets and that he already had the address where In-sook could recently be living. The father and son reconcile.
Kang-soo receives a call from Ki-chul, telling him that Tae-bok will soon be released due to lack of evidence and requests for them to meet. When he arrives at their supposed meeting place, Kang-soo realizes that Ki-chul had fooled him. He rushes back to his house but finds the money gone; Ki-chul was nowhere to be found. After days of looking for Ki-chul, he watches the news on TV and founds out that Tae-bok has escaped from prison. He is captured by Tae-bok and his henchmen, but as he was about to be buried alive he tells that Ki-chul had stolen the money, just as Ki-chul arrives. Ki-chul hands the bag of money to Tae-bok, but Kang-soo snatches it and runs away, chased by Tae-bok and his men. The police arrive and runs after Tae-bok, but as Kang-soo whispers his wish for Tae-bok to die, a vehicle suddenly drives into the street and runs into Tae-bok, instantly killing him.