CIRCLE (2015) Explained

yeah what's up everybody welcome to found flicks on this explained video we're looking at the winner of our last viewers Choice poll Circle where 50 strangers find themselves trapped in a mysterious environment and forced to play a twisted game where they will have to decide which among them will die and ultimately elect the last person to live but you know we got to do first vote for our next viewers choice inning explained your first choice is the hole in the ground where a young boy disappears into the woods behind his family's rural home when he returns his behavior grows increasingly disturbing as his mother begins to believe the boy who returned may not be her son at all and your second choice is the girl on the third floor following a man trying to renovate a dilapidated house for his growing family only to learn that the house has other plans along with a sinister past that begins to slowly expose itself let me know which one you'd like to see me cover down in the comments below or by voting in the polls now circle is technically a science fiction horror film considering the kind of alien invasion thing at the core and everything going on but really utilizes this setup to eliminate and draw attention to many of the troublesome aspects of modern society and how people are treated which considering the current climate is even more relevant than ever this is the most successful side of the film and it is a great job at exposing people's underlying prejudices and judgmental nature that comes out when the gloves are off and your life is on the line it also makes it so you can't help but consider how you the viewer would active forced into a similar scenario I'd be like this guy sucks shut up already by that one intelligent way that they explore this is by not giving too many characters names so you're forced to automatically go um he's the one-armed guy the black doctor lady sweater vest dick or whatever every time I admittedly felt uncomfortable already assigning names based on appearance alone but this is certainly on purpose and for the most part the actual credits for the characters are the same little girl pregnant girl or whatever there are actually less characters and more archetypes stand-ins for the particular piece of society as a whole that they represent and we see repeatedly how the characters instantly box in other people in particular way based judge solely on the surface level along with their own personal beliefs this is what good sci-fi does holds up a mirror to our broken society and exposes these falls through in this case an interstellar lens black mirror certainly does this and The Twilight Zone as well there's always a grander thematic concept the creators are trying to get across so in this regard Circle excels but when it comes to the story and how things play out it is a bit bare-bones and straightforward but still at the end leaves us going huh what was that all supposed to mean well that's what we're here for today folks so let's check out circle breaking down the story and it's bigger thoughts on society as well as the reason and meaning behind who ends up surviving along with explaining the ending and what the heck these aliens were up to anyway within a vast dark room 50 people are all gathered and in a lengthy shot passing by them appearing asleep or drugged come to realize that this is a quite diverse group of people all ages and ethnicities and certainly walks of life a younger woman is the first to wake clearly having no idea where she is spotting an ornate circular radius with dots under each person and triangles leading to an ominous object in the middle she tries to step off her circle causing an alarm to activate blaring until she says back in place attempting to touch the dude next to her she gets another alarm as someone else pipes up telling her not to move and that they can see us her still not understanding what's going on a black machine rising from the middle of the room and the game has officially begun another woman comes to yelling for John and steps off her dot immediately getting zapped to death by the machine in the middle dang don't get off those dots people a chime rings out followed by a much louder one and overhead lights come on another black dude learns the hard way to follow the perimeters stepping off the dot and instantly is killed and a glowing circle appears on his hand and he's dragged out of the room by an invisible force more chimes beep some guy yelling to not lift their feet off the ground another yelling out to not touch anyone a loud pulsing is heard the Machine beginning to glow red inside and another guy gets zapped everyone freaking out and talking at once someone trying to get them to calm down an Asian kid starts to try to figure out what's going on moving his hand and playing with the pulses seeing the triangles on the ground go around the group when closing his hand the triangle pointed at some lady and she gets zapped they're killing us someone explains but the kid realizes that they're actually voting pointing out the light on the floor and how it moves when you move your hand however everyone can only see their individual vote triangle making their choice unknown to everyone else and concluding it's us choosing who dies another turn starts building up with the telltale chimes and another person is apt everyone is like what happened someone must have voted for him and convinces everyone to not vote but the next term comes regardless seeing one dude is moving his hand resulting in a lady getting killed already not following the rules people is not gonna go well a shorter red haired girl understands that they're voting whoever gets the most votes is taken by the Machine so they quickly try to figure out a plan voting again for the woman that just died another thinking that it won't work but they all follow suit and voting for her yet someone else gets zapped anyway well so much for that one dude admits that he accidentally chose the wrong person resulting in whoever got the second most votes being killed they attempt again to not vote everyone keeping their hands flat and not closing them which locks in their vote unsurprisingly it's futile all of the triangles lighting up and a random lady gets done so if they don't choose the machine chooses on its own a younger dude in hoodie speaks up trying to formulate some kind of order and quiets everyone watching to go about this in a certain way he approximates each round is about a minute or two offering that they spend less time worrying about who's going to die instead of working on figuring out how to stop this someone else asking what is he suggest he singles out a few elderly people in the group in their 70s and 80s offering them up to go first to buy them some time people are still a bit hesitant but hey they would be the next people to die in real life so what's the difference and they're like okay sounds fair six in total buying them about 10 minutes again someone calls out their plan feeling that there has to be a better way but when asking for suggestions everyone is suspiciously quiet and it's time to toast some elderlies the first man pleading he has as much a right to live as any of them the round counting down and he gets zapped well too bad mom mentality seeing here clear for the first time there is a young girl amongst the group oh geez the Asian kid is like day one got any ideas positing that the soldier guy must know something thinking it's an alien vision or something along those lines but the soldier swears he doesn't know anything more than anyone else here asking the others about the last thing that they remember if you share their last memories most being stuck in traffic trying to get out of the gridlock town even getting out of their car and starting to run then suddenly things went dark the next round starting up they continue trying to remember considering that they were pulled into the ship by a tractor beam someone else wondering if there are others in the same scenario as them another remembers being in a Red Room with tons of bodies piled on top of each other he assumed that they were dead but might have been unconscious like they were concluding that they must have been drugged and woke up here and another oldie is taken out someone else pipes up saying that he remembers the Red Room and saw the kid there describing the aliens as big and black dark green and wet and even heard them speaking what he describes as almost sounding Chinese everyone immediately calling him on his [ __ ] having foolishly drawn attention to himself he realizes he's next to go and desperately begs the other guy to admit that he saw them in the red room too but he refuses to him getting more frantic as the round counts down and guess what you done they already quickly roasted their way through their first choices so now they have to determine once again who's next pointing out a lady in a hat finding out that she's 52 others are all hey we said 70 or 80 that's a pretty big difference they asked why her hair is white the woman admitting that she had cancer immediately pouncing on this also you're gonna die anyway her clarifying she's in remission and better now considering that it could come back a woman who is actually a doctor saying that that is not how it works oh well so much for her who's next instead it cop speaks up pissed about the age thing and just as before drawing attention to yourself proves disastrous on the next vote he's chosen they again led by the soldier try to work together to figure out what's going on here the cancer survivor thinking that they were chosen for a reason believing that if they try to learn more about each other all of this will make more sense and Lady Beth volunteers revealing her Monday in history which provides no substantial answers and the vote comes her chosen next once again better to just keep your trap shut in this scenario it seems Julie bins here just called the wife is all oh well at least she didn't have kids so it's not so bad I was disagreeing how she's still a person and decide maybe it's best to not use names as the personal side makes a decision to kill even more difficult asking a black dude to go next he's smart enough to not volunteer after what just happened and another guy elects the speak up instead introducing himself as Craig whoops Craig known as remember dad you're done for and says the reason he's speaking up is his wife is standing right next to him and thinking it can't be a coincidence asking if anyone else here knows each other the doctor lady knows another man stammering that they were coworkers which hints at an affair or something that they don't care to divulge Craig again please to spare his wife and his sad vote for him everyone taking this into consideration the next to come under investigation is a Hispanic middle-aged dude someone asking if he speaks English when getting no answer everyone's like well he's a gonner but the lady behind him speak Spanish called the translator and talks to him divulging that he has three kids others are already writing them off if you can't contribute to the conversation they're wasting their time right some jerk ass in a sweater vest and glasses gets her to ask if he's here illegally turns out he's not sweater man being all yeah right he's probably hanging out in front of Home Depot trying to get work I would have already picked this dick after this little outburst but the vote goes off and a random woman suffers the machines wrath instead the cop thinks that he recognizes someone else the tattooed man as he's called remembering arresting him on charges of beating his girlfriend defending himself that he was only 16 he does admit to beating his girl saying the [ __ ] got what she deserved the cop feels his point is proven they never learned and this dude is obviously next to go criminals sorry you beat your wife you're not good enough for society by another woman called the pretty woman thinks that maybe the idea is that they're supposed to figure out who is good and bad amongst the group after the criminal thing but there's too much gray area the others say and a strung out looking guy retorts that they're already deciding as a group who goes next thinking they just want to see them kill each other a long-haired guy clarifying what she means is to determine deserves to live rather than die based on what the soldier asks you know morals values what have you what you have or haven't done in life as the Machine revs up feeling they must be here to do something yeah die as another lady goes down the black guy considers oh sure you're gonna kill all the black people right the rich lawyer dick complaining about him playing the race card that it's all chance and every man for himself he suggests the strung out guy yells nothing fair is going on here looking to the other black guy blaming him for taking things down into a racial direction and that there are plenty of races that were already killed they weren't even basing it on that I understand the doctor agreeing that once again by saying anything at all is putting a big old target on his back trying to get him to shut up the Asian kid agreeing no one is counting Asians the rich dudes saying no one cares he's black and then this is all his personal feelings being put on display the cop throws his personal feelings in the mix facetiously telling everyone to feel bad for the black guy for struggling more than he did and goes on a pretty racist tirade declaring its social [ __ ] yeah I'm a cop zamp well these people's true feelings about each other are really starting to bubble to the surface here the soldier attempting to keep social prejudice out of this process as it doesn't matter anymore anyway another saying of course it does and they're like okay all races please step forward not that simple the soldiers still trying to keep everyone working together as a team to play their game they decide on a new tactic forcing a tide at first trying to vote for themselves but the system won't allow it then everyone tries to vote for the person to the right if done correctly everyone should wind up with one vote apiece the round counts down and another person is taken out immediately realizing they screwed it up somehow and try again more carefully this time one bearded man defies the orders seen forcing a tie both him and the girl in a glowing tunnel of light everyone votes again and he's apt already their plan totally upended well this is not going well Society you're blowing it the other kid in a sweater Luke apparently admits that he changed his votes in the tiebreaker to the bearded guy since he saw him vote for the pregnant girl they then tried to consider what happens when they get to the last person left if you can't vote for yourself beardy thinking one musket to live and understands that it will most likely come down to a pregnant woman and little girl and he wants to get rid of them now to give the others a better chance at surviving to the end and hey one would have to die anyway at some point right the vote comes to another time between the little girl and another lady the rich guy says to do nothing but they know they have to decide strung out dude says it's too dangerous for both of them now as they've been exposed and the one-armed guy is annoyed lamenting oh she deserves to live because she hasn't heard of birth control regardless so soldier feels they should be protected the sweater dick questioning how do we even know she's a good kid and discover she doesn't get good grades in school oh then yeah kill the little girl be plusses you're useless kid bringing them back to choosing between the two another guy yelling to kill them both and guess what makes himself an easy target to go next the husband suggests to try something else asking for people to volunteer to get voted on which everyone thinks is nuts and shockingly no one offers themselves up to die at least at first until a younger kid called Sean makes the choice to volunteer they want to know why and the rich guy argues he's old enough to make his own decisions but another sharply dressed gentleman steps in to go next stepping off his platform and is killed well they didn't buy them two minutes but who's next now going back to Sean the rich dick calling him a hero and offering that he'll named his kid after him if he makes it out of here as he steps off calling him by the wrong name Scott what an absolute pair of [ __ ] the one-armed guy calling them out as they did know his name then everyone starts looking in the soldiers direction and he's pissed by the assumption as he was fighting in Afghanistan for two years risking his life to keep them safe and literally just got back two days ago wanting to see his family and a 17 month old child that he hasn't even met yet the cancer lady and others declaring that they won't vote for him time running out and needing a volunteer a woman raises her hand divulging that her son died last year some guys saying you'll see him again and she buys right into his platitude telling everyone she goes in peace and steps off her circle the strung out guy mocks them for letting her die but a minister agrees with what they said that God is watching over us just gotta have faith in his plan him rebuttal to have faith in the machine as it's their God now he doesn't have too many supporters in his beliefs the husband's saying 95% of people believe in God him responding that they're all idiots as the vote starts coming in he yells if there is a God how would he let this be happening resulting in another tie between him and some random woman she cries she didn't do anything wrong and gets blasted the one-armed guy telling me a theist looks like God just cut you a break yeah for two minutes maybe obviously desperate he attempts to turn the attention away from him focusing in on the pretty lady pretending that he recognizes her as a porn star calling himself a huge fan she's pissed adamant that he's wrong but he doesn't give up asking if her breasts are real and have paid for them her employer it turns out and she admits her boss did obviously having an affair with him leaving her crying after this is brought to light and the next round starts someone considers they should at least take into account of people I have a family or a wife the sweater dude claiming that he has seven children others mocking him with more outrageous numbers someone bringing up the reality that they all obviously have families currently asking the others about them having kids the sweater guy moaning if they don't have kids and they should volunteer the girl from the beginning randomly getting zapped hmm okay I figured she'd I have more to do since she was the first one introduced guess that doesn't matter in the circle without missing a beat they continue their interviews turning to a short-haired woman who based on her charity work and other history like raising her siblings with drug parents is like a perfect person they push her further her finally revealing that she has a wife well I have a feeling some of these ding-dongs will see that as an issue the rich dudes stepping right into this asking if people want a kid raised by two women admitting it's at least not as bad as two men but not much better either deeming her a sinner and maybe the actual point of the game he says is to pick the one person who is supposed to die and within this nightmare she's perturbed as everyone literally is a sinner in some way and like really the aliens want her to die because she's gay everyone votes in fortunately it's finally the rich dicks turn to die after pretty much hang himself out to dry there with his outdated ideals the husband thinks maybe he did have a point as far as the one they want dying ending this the blond guy think back to the concept of one making it out since you can't vote for yourself what about when there's two left that means you can only vote for the other person which would be a time they then consider perhaps it would mean a sacrifice is required meaning one doesn't vote and sacrifices himself to save the other the cancer lady wanted to pick someone they could trust to make this difficult decision to save one of them the boats coming to a tie between the doctor and her former lover he dryly remarks she should never have married that [ __ ] both agreeing to go together and step out there circles at the same time this proves has no unbowed addenda tiebreaker that their sacrifice idea doesn't work the sweater guy declaring both the kid and pregnant lady can't live so one has to go things starting to get heated as he's accused of just trying to save his own ass back to trying to decide the sweater guy asked the pregnant lady what she does for a living another saying he's trying to start some class [ __ ] but he defends himself that contribution to society is an important thing to consider and berate her about her baby daddy and not being married where is he in prison jeez man I would have smoked this dude a couple rounds back at least what if the Asian kid who unceremoniously dies next I don't even what was that about he turned the questioning on sweater guy learning he works for a bank lending money for people to start their own business and contributes to charity a lady writing this off as easy to do when you make six figures then turning to her we learned she's a psychology student the one-armed guy asking us so what do you do collect welfare checks someone interrupting that they need some kind of overall metric to determine someone's worth here yeah good luck with that gang I'm sure you can figure that out on two minutes and the psych student goes down why we don't actually know who everyone is voting for an obvious splinter is beginning to occur into two factions amongst the group Luke on one side protecting the girls while the blonde guy thinks is is it going to work and tries to get others on his side he moves to cancer lady and the one-armed guy getting them on board with his cause and tries to plead with the couple asking for their help but how they ask they know the other side will consistently vote for the girls every time so by blocking their vote and getting the majority they can stop them the vote becoming another tiebreaker between the Hispanic guy and the girl him choosing to sacrifice himself for her the soldier calls sweater boy pathetic I'm a bad guy for not wanting to die the size only getting further dug in electing to keep targeting the girls to help them possibly get out alive the blonde surfer dude agrees they only need six boats on their side now trying to get the others back on their side the couple being their attention telling the husband if he stays on the other side he's basically sentencing his wife to death finally relenting to do it they want the black guy agrees stating that they're all equal the soldier telling their side to vote for the sweater dick while a surfer calls for three more telling them to go for the kid it's a tie for him and the girl everyone confused as it means someone changed their vote his wife sticking with helping the girls she admits she just did it both the second time and everyone tries to sway her again as one is going to have to die eventually the one guy is confident nobody is going to win and they're all going to die might as well go out with some dignity and maybe save two people instead the surfer insists they just need to rip the band-aid off now asking the pretty girl if she wants to live she of course says yes but doesn't want to kill the kid either he's like fine vote for the one-armed guy than to buy them more time any up he's apt evening out the votes amongst the splintered groups the black guy tries to turn the tables electing to start with the soldier as if they lose their leader the rest will cave cancer lady asks what they can do responding there's nothing you can do as they have the majority now the soldier offering to vote for the wife try to get the husband to switch sides sure that he won't vote for her the time counting down asking if he loves his wife or not and everyone goes for the black guy just in the nick of time well should a predicted the girls I guess the surfer yells he just killed his wife and at least he offered him a chance considering the possibility that they're not even married feeling it's just too random that they made it up to just get sympathy they asked them some basic questions like when they were married but when simply being asked his name which he did say earlier Greg but white freezes up him yelling of course she knows my name but doesn't want to play their games beard he's suggesting they put them up for a tie he cries they did make it up but blames her for the idea her intern blaming him the vote goes down and Craig is dunzo she breaks down into a mess beardy goading her for crying asking why her saying she has a husband and daughter just not him Prague's are further everyone else here has a family he said and you had no problem killing them all clearly trying to lure her back to his side they still have a chance that they can get her vote offering to join their side and promises to keep her alive the soldier argues he's just trying to use her asking if she wants to see your family her shakily nodding in agreement and there's one more dude we've literally not even seen until now asking whose side he's on and doesn't answer him assuming he must be on his side he turns to the lesbian sorry that's literally what she's credited as and her family but she stays on the bearded dude side wanting to go for the army guide others suggesting the cancer lady resulting in a five-way tie the pretty girl lesbian cancer lady beardy and the soldier all getting roasted but beardy oh [ __ ] that was pretty hardcore beard Oh checks in on the remaining survivors and another decides to step off writing it off like okay so now it's three to three no way to protect the girls now Luke and beardy decide to do a deal asking for one of them and offers the wife and trade going for the deal and vote in order to trust him the wife is freaking but beardy is confident asking to just trust him one by one putting out their hands and the wife is offed well so much for beardies promise by by Julie Benz after seeing him not vote which upended their plan Luke realizes the man must not have been voting this entire time and has been hiding in the shadows warning there is nowhere left to hide the only reason he survived so far is because he's been unwilling to participate he offers they vote for him and beardy agrees maybe if they vote for him this will all stop he considers the machine revs up and beardy realizes too late whoops shouldn't have trusted Lou and it's his turn to get zapped of course with dwindling numbers remaining it's finally time for the other man to participate well sort of buy it finally being his time and is taken out in the next vote leaving only Luke in the two girls remaining she wonders why they are doing this I'm assuming it must be some kind of experiment to learn about us and see what we would do along with who has chosen and why to understand what we value and what we don't by making us kill each other she asks but it's rather by killing them by judging others were saying something is wrong with them wondering what to do now he admits he doesn't know how to choose but once he's gone someone is going to have to take a step forward saying he can't decide for them however their time starting to run out little girl cries that she'll go Luke calls her brave it offers to go together but he does a tricky Winky here as the little girl steps off the circle he votes for the pregnant woman taking them both out sighing and relief at being the last survivor but the chimes kick back on yelling isn't this what they wanted making the choice to kill each other congratulations were all [ __ ] yeah it's pretty much the takeaway here times up the white tunnel surrounding him along with another on the pregnant lady apparently her unborn child is still alive well that was unexpected any votes the machine whirring to life one last time cutting to black and with that final selfish and heartless vote Luke is officially the winner of the game coming to you outside and what looks like the LA River spotting several large spaceships hovering in the sky well definitely aliens then ain't starting to walk he overhears previous comments that he made throughout the game about the last person standing getting to walk out alive and joins other people staring slack-jawed at a ship and hearing him saying about the girls having to decide for themselves and then he can't do it for them concluding with it has to end this way right so what were these aliens trying to do with this whole thing anyway it certainly appears to be an invasion scenario as a little that they do remember before being in the circle they were marked being trapped in throngs of traffic probably trying to flee the invasion and were randomly then scooped up and taken aboard and there are many other ships so obviously there's more games going on than the one that we saw the intent does seem to be an experiment into human nature itself and through this deadly exercise learn about the many facets of humans and what makes them who they are which as we know ain't always a good thing especially if it comes down to he or me humans are selfish by nature as we saw time and time again in the circle and ultimately the victor lied repeatedly to garner favor to save his own ass turning with the tide as he saw fit to benefit himself this being the reason that he won he was willing to play along with the majority or what people thought was right siding with the young and pregnant girls but in fact he didn't give a rat's ass about anybody else anything was willing to kill her unborn baby at the end there so if it was about morals and blah blah and who deserves to live you'd think the baby would be you know they haven't even done anything wrong in the world but he doesn't care he kills it anyway the point being that the one who is the most conniving wire amongst the group willing to do anything at others expense is in a sense the winner or a most successful in our society so yep by doing a good job pretending and being charismatic when necessary this is the so-called best or winning human certainly sounding similar to how things are nowadays the biggest cheats and weasels rise to the top and it's because they truly only care about their own success and have literally no interest in helping others as Luke repeatedly pretended to do for his own means it also seems as far as the aliens are concerned that they're possibly using this as a form of population control on earth and weeding out the weakest of the species leaving only the winners of each circle behind morals ethics all that stuff forget about it it's all about being number one at all costs way to go humans you would again with that we have reached the conclusion of this explained video on circle well I could have used more on these science fiction aspects of the whole concept overall it does admirably at what it is really setting out to do making you think about how people truly behave in society even when I was watching this again for the video I was like dang this is some exceptionally relevant stuff right now and this is from 2015 I'm like outside of the aliens this is basically like peering into a window of today right now not some future dystopian thing you know the reality being our society has been [ __ ] for quite some time just perhaps even more so than ever nowadays so you know don't be a dick to others it's really not that hard I promise and stay safe out there people I mean honestly would anyone even be surprised if it was an alien invasion at this point Oh aliens yeah sure why not jeez what a year golly I'll tell you what what did you guys think of circle in ascending how would you have played the game let me know your thoughts in the comments below make sure to LIKE subscribe and follow thanks for watching conflicts see you next time

Channel: FoundFlix

Views: 2,357,828

Rating: 4.9109211 out of 5

Keywords: circle movie, circle netflix, circle 2015, circle ending explained, the circle, ending explained, ending, explained, explanation, circle meaning, trailer, clip, scene, final scene, end scene, meaning, scifi, netflix, foundflix ending explained, foundflix

Id: vHFU4qBunHk

Length: 28min 36sec (1716 seconds)

Published: Sun Jun 07 2020