Python reading variable in another py file wrongly

[_vertig0]

I have 2 .py files below (Both shortened and include the problem sections):
engine.py

import events

running = False;

def start():
    boot() #Can be safely ignored all it does is call pygame.init()
    running = True;

    while running:
        events.update_events()
        if events.exit_request is not None:
            running = False

    #Logic here

    shutdown()

events.py

import pygame

exit_request = None

def update_events():
    for event in pygame.event.get():
        if(event.type == pygame.QUIT):
            exit_request = event

While I am using pygame, that isn't where the problem lies, I have tested it and the problem is that if I access the exit_request variable in the events file from engine.py, it will always show up as None even if there is an exit event, but if I print exit_request from inside events.py, it will show up appropriately as pygame_exit_blah blah blah if the user clicked the x button, but like I said will show up as "None" if printed from engine.py. Does anyone know why this is happening?