Horrorhas always been a medium of social change, with creators using the genre’s terrors to represent real issues surrounding them every day. Many films have attempted to do this by making their scares represent something more than just blood and gore, though few have done it as successfully asGalder Gaztelu-Urrutia’sThe Platform. ThisNetflixhorror astounded viewers when it first premiered with its story of a gargantuan tower and the titular platform of food its prisoners rely on to survive. It featured huge twists, entrancing performances, and a thrilling metaphorfor the way those with power subjugate those without in society today, making so many viewers excited when it was announced there’d be a sequel.
Taking audiences back to that same ominous tower,The Platform 2works hard to recreate the themes and scenes that made the first so great —perhaps a little too hard. Because, for all of its triumphs in telling the story of one woman’s journey through this jaw-dropping concept, trying to copy the first movie’s exceptional ending creates a scene that cheapens the entire narrative up until that point. It fails to expand on its core themes and, in trying to be more of the same, ends up hurting both films in the process.
‘The Platform 2’ Alters the First Movie’s Message
While it makes changes to the characters and storytelling,The Platform 2excels, just as its predecessor did, in showing what a horrific situation our main character has found herself in.The Platformfollowed Goreng (Iván Massagué), a man who’d willingly sentenced himself to the “Vertical Self-Management Center” that puts two prisoners on each level with their only food source being a descending platform filled with decadent meals — with nobody monitoring how much others are eating, meaning the lower a person’s level, the more likely they starve. It’s an unnerving representation of how those with power use forced scarcity to turn those without against one another. The first movie ends with Goreng finding a child who’d been sentenced to the tower and sacrificing his own life to save hers.It’s a darkly hopeful end that caps off a poignant narrative, one that its sequel tries to follow with Perempuán (Milena Smit). The woman goes through even more than Goreng during her time surviving the platform, facing cult-like dictators and violent slobs as she struggles to discover her way out of this damned situation. The ending sees her discover another child and, similar to Goreng, sacrifice herself to ensure his safety, a sweet moment that symbolizes the hope for future generations — that is, until a scene reveals that this has happened countless times before.
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“They’re eating her, and then they’re going to eat me…Oh my God!”
After her valiant sacrifice, audiences see a supercut of many other adults who found children in the tower and allowed themselves to suffer so that they could live. It’s a beautiful act of sacrifice when done once, but this moment not only strips away the uniqueness of the protagonists' arcs in each film, but revokes the bitter hope of their actions. Not only are Perempuan and Goreng just two of many who thought they were doing something important, but the fact there were so many shows how insignificant these sacrifices were. Goreng’s whole mission in the finale of the first film was to send the girl up to show those who control the tower the repercussions of their actions, wanting to inspire change in them —the very same goal that had been done before to absolutely no effect. It showed that these finales were futile on a macro level, this one scene not only failing to further the original film’s emotional climax but rendering both endings completely hopeless.
‘The Platform 2’ Is Starving For a Better Ending
Despite this ending,The Platform 2still thrives in its central mission of spotlighting the pitfalls of society. It shows how the ruling class — in this case, the tower’s overseers — turn the people they have control over against one another to ensure they never begin questioning just why they’re in such a dismal situation in the first place, a horrific tactic that is used in countless societies today. The film still has so many valuable lessons,but it’s undeniable how useless one of the last scenes make our main characters' actions feel.
Audiences follow the protagonists of both movies go on wildly unnerving arcs before deciding to sacrifice themselves for a larger cause — an act, which the ending scene makes clear, had absolutely no impact. There have been people who sacrifice themselves for children inThe Platformand there will surely be more, with none of them making any of the substantial changes they’d been hoping for.It’s a shocking, doomed end for the characters fans spent an entire film caring for, showing that in trying to replicate the glory of the original,The Platform 2ended up hurting so much of what makes both movies so great.
The Platform 2
In The Platform 2, a new group of prisoners faces the harrowing vertical prison’s structure, where a descending platform delivers dwindling food supplies. As they navigate shifting alliances and test the limits of human desperation, they seek unity and survival against mounting uncertainty, questioning the system’s irreversible impact on their humanity.
The Platform 2is available to stream on Netflix in the U.S.
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