Plot Summary
Cold Copy stars Bel Powley as Mia Scott, a journalism student tasked with finding a story worth airing on TV by her professor, Diane Heger (Tracee Ellis Ross).
Mia finds her story and impresses Diane. But then something happens that causes Mia to seek vengeance on Diane at the film’s conclusion.
In this ending explained article for Cold Copy, we recap the movie’s story and ask the question: Why does Diane smile at Mia at the end of the film?
Who is Diane Heger?
Diane Heger is a big-time news journalist who works on a TV show called The Night Report (TNR). She is also a journalism teacher at a college attended by Mia Scott, a young woman who is desperate to impress her.
There are only a limited number of places in Diane’s class so only the very best students are offered a place. One student hoping to get a place is a girl named Alex, who is too hungover to attend her interview with Diane. She asks Mia to give Diane her portfolio. But Mia, who doesn’t want anybody getting in the way of her chances at being picked for the class, throws Alex’s portfolio into the garbage.
Does Mia secure a place in Diane’s class?
Mia has her interview with Diane but it doesn’t go well. Instead of showing her teacher who she really is, she tries to impress Diane with words that she thinks she wants to hear. Diane is wise to this and is dismissive of Mia.
But when Mia gets angry with Diane and confronts her about her attitude, Diane sees passion in the young student. As a consequence, she decides to give Mia a chance by giving her a place in her class.
How does Mia find her news story?
Diane tasks the class with finding a story that is good enough to be shown on TNR. Only one student will be successful, so there is a lot of pressure on each of them.
Mia finds her story when her housemate Kim sets her up on a date. The guy in question turns out to be a creep. When he begins to act aggressively towards Mia while they’re out walking, a teenager named Igor (Jacob Tremblay) notices the guy’s behaviour and steps in to protect her. Igor comes off worse in the ensuing scuffle but he does cause the guy to leave.
Igor invites Mia back to his house, where she gets to know him better. She thinks Igor could be the subject of her story, because of his flair for art and the brave way in which he helped her. However, Diane isn’t supportive of this idea when Mia speaks to her about it.
While Mia is struggling to find a story good enough for Diane, her housemate is having more success after finding a source with juicy information to share about the senator. This annoys Mia, as she had previously tried to find a source related to the senator’s office but failed.
It seems likely that Kim’s story will be chosen by Diane. However, Mia’s luck changes when she discovers the identity of Igor’s mother. His mom was a famous children’s author named Charlotte Nowak and she died of an apparent overdose.
Mia talks to Igor about his mom and insists that she is more interested in writing a story about him than his famous mother. However, this isn’t quite the case. While she intends Igor to be part of her story, she becomes more interested in Charlotte after discovering a suicide letter she wrote to her son.
This revelation about Charlotte’s suicide is new information so is worthy of a good story. It’s Mia’s goal to create a piece that paints Igor as the troubled son of an author who killed herself. To this end, she edits the footage she has filmed of Igor to portray him in this way. However, this is clever editing on Mia’s part, as Igor isn’t the angry young man that she makes him out to be in her film.
Does Diane accept Mia’s story?
Mia’s biggest threat is Kim and her story about the senator. To sabotage Kim’s chances of being chosen for TNR, she sends an email to the senator’s office and gives away Kim’s source.
As a consequence of this, Kim is thrown off the course. This is bad news for Kim but good news for Mia as her story about Igor is chosen by Diane. Understandably, this comes at the cost of her friendship with Kim, who knows it was Mia who leaked her source.
Thankfully, Kim gets a job at a famous magazine so she still has a shot at fame. For Mia, however, things are about to take a very different turn.
What happens to Mia’s story?
Mia’s story is aired on TNR but it’s not her voice that is heard narrating over the footage. Instead, it is Diane’s voice Mia hears when she watches the story being broadcast.
Mia thinks Diane has stolen her story and confronts her about it. Diane tells Mia that without her taking ownership of Mia’s film, there would be no story, as viewers want to hear a familiar, professional voice, and not an unknown like Mia.
Life gets worse for Mia when she is confronted by Alex who has discovered what she did to her portfolio. A short while later, Mia spots Igor and sees in his face that he is disappointed in her.
How does Mia get revenge on Diane?
When Mia goes to the sauna, she sees Diane. The two of them have a conversation and Diane reveals the things she has had to do to climb the career ladder. She also reveals the way in which she coerced Mia into manipulating Igor for the sake of a good story.
It turns out that Mia was secretly recording the conversation between them. She goes home and edits the recording to make it clear to anybody listening that Diane stole her story.
Mia takes the edited recording to Kim who passes it on to one of her contacts. The recording is then used to create a story about Diane and how she had stolen Mia’s news story.
At the end of the film, Diane leaves her office building and is confronted by journalists demanding to know if she has stolen more stories. Diane is startled by what is happening but when she sees Mia watching from a distance, she gives her former student a nod and a smile.
Why does Diane smile at Mia?
Diane smiles at Mia because she is proud of what she has done. Sure, her student has screwed her over with the edited recording. But as Diane recognizes the need to do what is necessary to rise to the top of the career ladder, even if that means stepping on others, she is proud that Mia has learned from her example.
Read More: Cold Copy – Movie Review