THE PLATFORM (2020) Explained

hey what's up everybody welcome to found flicks on this India's plan we'll be looking at the recent Netflix hit the platform following a new resident of a vertical prison with one cell per level and two inmates per cell we're the only means of eating as va a platform of food that comes out once a day which leads to madness and murder in order to survive the platform is a very compelling horror movie with an obviously tight budget unfolding mostly in simple concrete cells and with few characters but impressively manages to craft a very detailed and unique world with as limited means showing us that you don't always need a lot of money to craft a great film extremely well acted full of tense exciting encounters and some absolutely brutal gore and violence as well it actually has a lot more on its mind than it might appear on the surface acting is a kind of social self-criticism of our modern times and this is the real meaning behind the story which does have quite an abrupt ending making things appear to be inconclusive but actually does conclude the grander story at play and so we'll be looking at what the filmmaker was actually going for in detail and the film's true message and meaning as well as explaining the ending and how it ties everything together with no context of anything going on in the outside world we are initially dropped into the very tippy top level of our facility delightfully referred to as the pit which is quite full of pomp and luxury all warm colors and violins setting the scene with some nice classical tunes we follow a guy that seems in charge of all the food preparation going on going through different areas and doing everything to put out absolutely perfect dishes also seeing just how much food they have up here from rooms full of meat and an almost whimsical machine pushing oranges through a conveyor belt it all ends with an assembly line of chefs putting the final touches on their dishes and it does look pretty damn good to be fair but this is of course the top and naturally things aren't that great as the levels descend further down as is stated in the beginning there are three kinds of people in the world those at the top those at the bottom and those who fall meaning there is no middle only the two extremes and nothing in between which will see a heck of a lot of in our story as we one of the many people housed in the facility or audience proxy Goering who comes to unaware of what's going on in a concrete room that resembles a prison cell also including a rectangular hole in the middle that allows you to see the other levels above and below he questions his roommate true magazi who was initially standoffish telling him to stay on his side of the hole and is consistently cagey about what he reveals a gang only piecemealing out information about the ins and outs of life in the facility they are currently on level 48 which he says really isn't so bad and Goering wonders what they're going to eat well the leftovers of the people on the levels above obviously he tells him and peers down the side of the hole seeing countless levels below Goering attempts to communicate with someone down there but true magazi tells him to stop for no other reason than simply them being on a lower level than they are and by the same token the people above won't listen either clearly illustrating the social structure at play here he tells greying he's been here many months and that each month they're taken to a different seemingly random new floor a red light on the wall changes to green meaning that it's feeding time a platform lowering through the hole and coming to a stop covered in scraps of food and not exactly looking appetizing Goering is disgusted considering how many people have already eaten off of the food but Tim Agassi is too busy hungrily chomping down on whatever he can knowing that this is his only chance to eat and after being in here for a while isn't as willing to be grossed out gotta eat or die suddenly their feast is taken away what's left being taken down to the next floor down Greg tries to snatch an apple for later and quickly learns that attempting to keep food is against the rules the rooms temperature begins to increase exponentially to rigazzi saying it will continue until they freeze or burn to death forcing him to toss the Apple down below we briefly flashback to Greg's initial interview and learn that everyone gets to take one item in with them in his case the book Don Quixote which has deep symbolic meaning to Greg's journey in the facility and oddly he actually chose to enter this place on his own accord it was offered a diploma for completing a certain amount of time here an entire year I don't know how people can last a month here year his will hasn't quite been broken yet still refusing to eat the scraps which is actually irritating new term Agassi telling him he's unworthy of being on this level yet at this point Greg doesn't quite get the whole picture of how bad things truly are around here just wait till you get to experience some of those lower levels buddy on my graying and assumedly most of the people here trim Agassi committed a crime and that's why he was taken here and a story is actually kind of hilarious one day while watching TV a commercial for a product called the samurai max blade sharpener came on and based on what the host was presenting seemed like an excellent product this led him to question his own life feeling his life is crap for not taking care of the little things like sharpening his knives feeling the samurai max would change everything but a month later proved this wrong the same host had a new product a hawk a knife that sharpens itself the samurai Plus feeling betrayed he threw his TV out the window and it happened to land on someone outside killing them he was given a choice of going to a psych hospital or this facility and somehow opted for this which makes it seem like the outside world doesn't quite know what's really going on inside these walls because I don't know who in their right mind would pick this and from the outside it seems to be treated as almost like an opportunity to get in here which is in stark contrast to the reality of being in here and of course what is his one item but the samurai plus 9 which could come in handy he's been here long enough to know that there are at least 132 floors as he's been there himself but also notice that there were still levels below this grain considers how much food there is that far down and understandably it's not enough to survive if anything at that point he tries to think of the big picture wanting to send a message down below to spread out the rations of food so that everyone gets their fair share but trim Agassi knows that they won't listen to that kind of communism around here he attempts to speak to the man below and he just gets angry not even attempting to listen to his pleas antrum Agassi makes his own feelings known taking a piss through the hole down on to him all entirely because of their arbitrary higher level another food drought comes and this time Kerrang is being forced to get over his initial hesitation on eating leftovers soon after the platform leaves a blur comes crashing down from above yep a body trim Agassi casually noting that yes people kill themselves all the time here and he tells Greg that he looks like the kind to off himself as well giving him the nickname of little sail too weak to deal with these kinds of living conditions geez thanks for the vote of confidence friend although this is based on his own personal experiences here and rattles off a long list of the many floors he's already been on and that he just came back from the dreaded 132 after all that to grin he looks too healthy and well fed in accuses him of a killing his cellmate and eating him he doesn't even really tried to deny it either as a platform returns this time carrying a stowaway Miharu who rises the platform all the way down once a month in search of her missing child Greg horrified to think that they would let a child in here he attempts to reach out of hands and help but according to trim Agassi she's not used to someone being kind without there being to farías intentions and he knows that she is in fact a cold-blooded killer and considers that that body that fell down earlier could have actually been her cellmate that she killed the two had actually been former cellmates and he mentions that it didn't take long for them to turn cannibal and start eating human flesh which you know once you pass that barrier all bets are kind of off when it comes to survival which we see for ourselves when the platform goes down to the next level and the guys aren't nearly as civilized as greying immediately grabbing her and dragging her out of sight he's mortified trip Agassi encouraging him to jump down yet there's no need Miharu emerging victorious from her attackers and jumping back on the platform as it continues through the lower level do not mess with this lady their time there slowly passes becoming engaged in a bizarre daily routine we're all trapped here until the month passes and they are gassed everyone then switched to different levels as they passed out trim Agassi tells gang he's fond of him despite still not being sure of his survival chances seeming that they have become friends after spending all this time together yet when he awakes on level 147 is obvious how much friendship really means around here finding himself completely bound to the bed and unable to move all his former friends doing he lays it out pretty plainly things are really bad down here and he has no choice but it's a carve gang up and eat him do stay alive but at least is going to be disciplined about it only taking me pieces of flesh he needs bit by bit rather than just mercilessly killing him and even offers to allow Greg to have his share of the meat as well Wow yeah thanks for the compassion old friend appreciate you sharing my own flesh with me okay we get a solid indicator of the hopelessness this far down the floors hearing a chorus of screaming from up above as people awake and realize where they've been taken and immediately more people jump down the hole to their deaths and see why this is when the platform comes down and there's literally only stim we're left no food of any kind left behind oh well at least he has graying to feed on any attempts to reason with him but trim Agassi places the blame on the floors above their actions basically forcing him into this position he does at least wait a while before beginning to take his flesh deciding to read Don Quixote for himself and dancing on the platform like a lunatic inevitably the time comes calling him his little snail term Agassi admits to getting weak and if he gets any weaker wouldn't be able to precisely cut gangs flesh off and promises to stay away from his genitals Wow thanks again buddy he gets to slicing with his samurai plus taking off a pretty big chunk of meat and it's not looking like Greg is gonna last too long with this going on luckily for him Miharu is taking another one of her trips on the platform and wanting to help Greg after he tried to help her she dispatches trim Agassi with the knife and cuts his restraints understandably pissed Greg brutally stabs his old friend repeatedly and kills him without mercy which is at least slightly worse than the somewhat humane way trim Agassi was treating him the difference is pretty negligible though to be fair coming to later Miharu is already feeding off of his body and offers him a piece with his wound not looking so good he has no choice but to choke down his flesh to stay alive she kindly tends to his wounds before departing with the next platform down and she's gone just like that now that we're really getting to see the context of the brutal reality of the lower floors her give it another glimpse of the view from up top the same older gentleman presiding over the preparations and when given a panic it has a single hair on it taking the chef's to task for their obvious mistake this whole thing almost a satire of the view from the top concerned with tiny insignificant details while down below everyone else is eating off scraps and inevitably eating each other to stay alive to further contrast this difference gang is feasting on maggots from his friends corpse for nourishment it's like yeah things are pretty bleak in a much more real way down here than some puddin consistency after tasting his first piece of human flesh the ghost of true magazi appears saying that since he consumed him he is now a part of him Goering smells gas realizing he's hallucinating this ghost of his friend and that there's about to be another fateful floor change at least things are looking up waking up much higher than before a level 33 with a new female roommate Molly who's one allowed item was her dog I mean are you kidding me dude that thing is gonna get eaten in like a week and then I got a feel all bad about it because it's cute I mean it's a wiener dog for God's sake as Greg points out once he comes out of the fog of the gas after getting his bearings he recognizes her as the woman who interviewed him to get into the facility and it does seem especially odd that she wound up here although she does eventually admit that she didn't really know what things were like in here and it's presented with a much more hardcore reality than she was prepared for I mean she brought her dog for God's sakes this is my idea although she thinks his choice of a book is weird as literally no one else has ever chosen to bring a book in rattling off obvious choices like weapons and crossbows and [ __ ] and he remembers back to his interview getting a little clue to the reason behind their specific menu her asking what his favorite food is offering that it will be included on the menu escargot he finally decides is his ultimate choice when prodded which of course his buddy trim Agassi always called him as little snail based on his demeanor being a part of the behind-the-scenes working in the facility she has some more insight into his grander purpose it being a social experiment of sorts calling it a vertical Management Center the idea of being of everybody only ate what they needed then everybody on all the lower floors would have food as well spreading the wealth amongst the masses but of course in practice we see that that is not the case even though the experiment is not working without intervention she still attempts to maintain their cause creating portions of food for the people below and trying to appeal to them on the lower level but the man she's talking to just came back from level 88 and is just happy to be alive unable to even consider anyone else's plight outside of his own Granma moans her useless attempts if it was so easy to achieve this kind of societal solidarity wouldn't they be doing it on the outside but she still refuses to give up every time doing her portions and trying to plead with her lower neighbors to see the reasoning of rationing for all to share apiece to the point of Annoying greying into threatening them if they don't do what the lady asks he'll take a big old dump on the food before it gets down to him but this has limited potential because he can't sway the people above as he can't [ __ ] up words like he says although that would be very impressive outside of a joke it shows how limited the spread of their message will ever be never being able to appeal to be much more pivotal upper floors due to their arbitrary lower level which is a sly look at the deeper meaning of the film sure this social solidarity is ideal in theory but in practice is an entire other matter they're given further problems when Miharu returns on our monthly trip and is not looking so good courtesy of having to defend herself from above they pull her off to the bed and the room begins to turn cold another piece of food has been kept out to the platform left thanks to Molly's dog getting a piece of lunchmeat grain retrieving it and tossing it below which returns the room to normal further proving what a foolhardy choice it was bringing a dog in here really is as soon as she's feeling better be Haru goes for Molly feeling her responsible for her missing child and killed her precious dog as well yeah I was like it's just a matter of time Pucci poop and as usual she takes the next platform down but Molly has some surprising information about the woman's true identity and then she's actually an actress hoping to become the next Marilyn Monroe her one item a ukulele and that she came on her own accord seemingly by being in the facility and surviving would add notoriety to her celebrity status and it also becomes clear that Molly isn't being 100% truthful or just simply doesn't have all the information and the reason that she chose to enter is due to a fatal case of cancer with no possibility of getting better she didn't care her fate but once again I feel like she would not have entered if she had any idea of what it was actually like and she pretty much just said with her added filling in on some blanks on our twisted experiment we once again returned to the top floor focusing in on the chef's impressively honing in on the intricacies of Greg's preferred escargot dish and placing it amongst the extremely luxurious feast up on level zero and as soon as it reaches level one they tear into it with great abandon and greed gorging themselves and not even considering the many people on the levels below them that are starving and resorting to cannibalism amazingly and ironically the escargot dish survives unscathed to their level to Greg's disbelief he offers some to Molly but is inconsolable over losing her dog he urges her to eat as her levels are about to change and she needs to eat while she has the chance but she chooses not to listen I guess it Altima T doesn't matter because when he wakes up on level 202 she has hanged herself and immediately old trim Agassi appears to push and prod him questioning if he was planning on eating her too and her ghost also joins gangs visions as a kind of Greek chorus regarding his actions and their moral implications seeing the ghosts of people have died around him illustrates the deranged state of mind that he is in after his time here so far and relates back to others like Miharu who have been entirely changed by their time here graying of stains from eating on Molly's flesh as long as he can tearing out pages from Don Quixote for substance until the ghost of true magazi offers his samurai plus to slice her up which he does with some hesitation but again knows he has no other option to stay alive when he wakes on a new level it's by far the highest up the ladder he's been all the way a level six baby things have got to be an improvement over before right his new roommate baharat who is one item is rope is excited to being so close to the top he's hoping to literally climb his way through the last few floors he attempts to speak to the couple on level 5 them asking if he believes in God but they're belligerent scoffing that he can't have the same religion as they again feeling superior entirely based on their arbitrary higher position they appear to have a change of heart asking him to throw the rope up but when he's right at the top asking for a hand they instead take a [ __ ] right in his face sending him tumbling down from his lofty ambitions as well as his robe being lost down into the hole this causes him to realize how screwed II is since no one will obviously ever be willing to help him on the upper levels and he breaks down especially since they are so close to getting out the food platform arrives and as expected it doesn't look quite as unappealing this far up to levels but even one level down they're already seen greedily tearing at everything they can get their hands on showing it doesn't take long for people to descend into selfishness and depravity kamikaze appears encouraging him that he's doing quite well and can be well fed and recover on this level tantalizing him that it's only one month left of his time here and achieving his diploma it's already been almost a year Wow time really flies in the pit but after everything he's been through he decides to not take the easy way out instead hatching a plan to ride the platform all the way down and force people to take their fair shares and asks for Baja rods help knowing it would be suicide alone he thinks gang is a lunatic for even considering leaving their high level and what happens if they run out of food before they reach the bottom well then they'll ride the platform all the way back up to see where it goes he says and based on his calculations of the sounds heard and stops at the platform he estimates there to be 250 floors a full 50 more than what the company lady told him he decided to join in and they put their plan into action which already starts off on a pretty difficult foot as the first 50 floors gets you eat everyday so they won't be handing out any food until reaching level 51 which right off the bat their lower neighbors have a problem with this are not willing to play along violence will certainly keep them in line which they are forced to use with increasing brutality as they ride the platform deeper down at one lower floor about to utilize violence again a man whom bahara knows describing him as wise tries them for their forceful way of getting their message across telling them that it is a good idea but importantly manners come first you must win them over with words before you beat them in his mission he has an idea of how to really get their message across if they are able to keep one of those luxurious dishes completely intact and bring it all the way back up to level zero that would make quite a statement electing that the panna cotta will be the bearer of that message so they try his way at first but the other people aren't very interested and so they have to bash them to stay in line but at least they tried using words first right they they continued downwards hitting out the appropriate rations to the levels and using violence as necessary and also since their portioning out the food the plates people are given are you know actual food on a plate instead of digging through remnants and scraps Wow what a concept huh those things become much less rosy the further down they go coming to levels where everyone is dead and they realize the platform doesn't even stop if no one is alive on the level going down even further they come across Miharu being attacked by two dudes one brutally stabbing her to death and the duo do their best to fight back though gran gets absolutely pulverized by the big guy and the other wielding a samurai sword gets a deep slice in on baharat but he is able to save his friend decapitating the big guy although they are definitely worse for wear after the encounter and unfortunately me Haru is definitely dead when he checks geez that sucks and it's really looking like their big plan is apt at this point but they continue on regardless at one floor bizarrely finding two dudes huddled in a blow-up pool wrestling for me when the guys toss it to them hmm inflatable pool is the one item that you bring in that's definitely an interesting choice so if I'm eating people at least I got a little bath time and even further down a lone man sits with a big old bag of money which is also pretty much useless around the facility him raining it down on them as they finally reach what appears to be the bottom level 3 3 3 with only their precious pannacotta left and there is no one there at first glimpse until they spot an opening and surprisingly inside is a young girl potentially the child of me Haru that she was looking for since we have no reason to believe the company woman's story about her being an actress as she was incorrect about many things including the number of floors here and further doubt is cast on the child's identity because obviously me Haru never actually speaks but true magazi specifically said her missing boy not girl the platform continues down and worried about keeping the desert think they need to throw it along with the platform but keep it anyway and fortunately the room stays the same temperature seeing the innocent little girl they decide that she should have the pannacotta after some deliberation as it was supposed to be the message but feel they couldn't be that cold to a chai even after everything they've experienced the platform goes whizzing back up and he begins to read Don Quixote to her clearly suffering from his injuries blood dripping down onto the pages leading to some more hallucinations of his dead roomies having another involving realizing the girl is actually the message not the panna cotta yeah when waking up he discovers his friend has bled out from his wound leaving his final task up to him even though he's probably passed sheet crazy and his entire plan came via dreams and hallucinations but I wish him the best the platform returns the to hop on and go even further down to Avast dark expanse a single shaft of life illuminating them as they reach the very bottom turn Amasya manifests again informing Gaurang that his journey is over he wants to go back up with a girl but he rebuttals that she is the message and the message requires no bearer he walks off the platform the two continuing their friendly bickering and smiling that she will succeed as a platformer whizzes back towards the top yet our story ends before we see any kind of outcome certainly making things feel a bit inconclusive and leaving many questions unanswered first of all there are a lot of specifics to the facility itself left vague but the grandeur point of the movie comes across loud and clear essentially what we were seeing via the facility is a look at prosperity in our society the food can be a stand-in for any number of things like money or success or even indeed food all proving the same point those are the very top greedily helped themselves to more than their fair share and dust leading less and less for those below as each floor takes whatever they want with no consideration for anyone below them status wise in society this is obviously represented by the 1% of society that has the lion's share of wealth in the world again with no attempt to help or spread out the wealth to those in need essentially doing them to toiling fruitlessly blow reduced to killing others and cannibalism just even to survive let alone actually be successful in any capacity the experiment was intended to try and prove that people can learn to share and work together a society but we see in practice that it simply doesn't work even if someone who was previously very low on the floors gets a reprieve much higher up the ladder there again grateful to even be alive and Josas quickly forget that even they were in much more dire circumstances instantly losing any care or consideration for those down below they turn their back on those less fortunate even though they themselves went through the exact same struggles it appears to be that human nature is typically selfish which we see time and time again in the facility it's always about one's own survival rather than everyone working together to help everyone survive the young girl who is the message represents those who experienced the fallout from those higher ups selfish nature an innocent bystander that didn't choose to be involved like graying or committed a crime like from Agassi and in that way this is what our purposes as the message to show the administration the greater impact their practices create the completely forgotten people on the very bottom that are just as screwed by this whole thing as everyone else the question is when confronted by this idea on level zero will they choose to admit their faults and elect to change their society or just allow things to continue the broken way that they are expressed in the facility ultimately we don't know but as the director said when asked saying we should ask society that it's all up to us depending on whether we want to remain the most miserable species that ever set foot on this planet or if we want to change our ways that's the big question the movie is positing and exposing how broken our society really is through this ridiculous vertical prison thing now that his journey is complete his overall character arc and how it relates to Don Quixote from his precious book comes into focus Greg is a stand-in for the noble knight Quixote was known for always trying to help in failing in some way yet never gave up on his lofty and madness fueled goal of reviving chivalry and serving his nation he refused to see the world for what it is preferring to imagine he is living out a Knightly story which certainly by the end of his time goring has also lost touch with reality entirely yet even more importantly was known for its central ethic that individuals can be right while society is wrong many consider it a tragedy as his noble ideals are viewed as insane and are defeated and rendered useless by the state of reality sound familiar it's almost a one to one of gang's time here attempting to you completely up in the broken society by forcing change single-handedly even though the entirety of society around him thinks it's impossible in the end he was perhaps able to facilitate this change or perhaps it was all in his head just like Don Quixote with that we've reached the end of this in-depth explanation video on the platform it does present a story and true eating in an intriguing way and yet just as in the film there are no easy answers to the questions that it's asking which is exactly why it leaves things on a very ambiguous note and I appreciate that they didn't tell you it should be one way or another it's just kind of exposing the whole thing this was an excellent debut film from the writer/director whose name I'm not even going to try to pronounce an especially high quality for a Netflix film hopefully we get some more intriguing and thought-provoking content like this on the streaming service which isn't exactly known for quality but at least amongst the algorithm fueled content there is the occasional gym and platform certainly fits the bill and don't forget before we go you can seem your request for any movies or TV shows you'd like to see me explain by stating them my way on any of my social media accounts at conflicts what did you guys think in a platformer and it's ending do you have any other lingering questions about anything I might have missed let me know your thoughts in the comments down below make sure to LIKE subscribe and follow thanks for watching conflicts see you next time

Channel: FoundFlix

Views: 4,969,452

Keywords: the platform, the platform ending explained, ending explained, ending, explained, platform movie, trailer, explanation, the platform quixote, don quixote, platform meaning, meaning, clip, end scene, netflix, netflix original, foundflix ending explained, foundflix

Id: _09y5oDoVeQ

Length: 27min 35sec (1655 seconds)

Published: Sat Apr 04 2020