The film is set in a dystopian future in which population control is enforced through a school aptitude test; those who fail it are executed.

Redding takes notice of this announcement, and test manager Mason King, also head of the Department of Population Control, is ordered to pass Blake regardless of his score.

Suspicious, a teacher named Ms. Birch secretly hands Laina a keycard so she can unlock the doors and escape.

"[1] On November 17, 2017, Logan Paul announced on his YouTube channel that a sequel, titled The Thinning: New World Order was starting production.

[citation needed] On January 10, 2018, YouTube announced that production of New World Order was put on hold, as part of repercussions instated upon Paul for posting a controversial video in which he visited Aokigahara, a Japanese forest known for being a common place for suicides to occur, and filmed a dead body.