No one asked for it, but it’s here all the same: The Platform 2 is now streaming on Netflix.
If you’ll recall, back in 2020 there was a Spanish sci-fi horror movie, The Platformthat blew up in popularity on Netflix during the early days of the pandemic. Perhaps it had something to do with the fact that The Platform was a deeply disturbing dystopian tale about isolation, starvation, and the scarcity of food, in the middle of an event that had people panic-shopping at the grocery store.
Now there’s a sequel, The Platform 2or Hole 2 in Spanish (which translates to “the hole”). It’s directed by the same guy who did the first movie, Galder Gaztelu-Urrutia, and written by the writers of the first movie, David Desola and Pedro Rivero, along with Gaztelu-Urrutia and Egoitz Moreno. The Platform 2 features a brand-new cast of prisoners who must fight to survive. Like the first film, The Platform 2 is desolate, gross, and, at times, extremely confusing.
If you found yourself perplexed by The Platform 2 ending, you are not alone. But Decider is here to help. Read on for The Platform 2 plot summary and The Platform 2 ending explained.
Warning: Major Platform 2 spoilers ahead. Do not read this article if you haven’t yet watched The Platform 2 on Netflix.
The Platform plot summary:
The movie opens on interviews with inmates who are about to be sent to The Platform prison, aka a vertical prison where inmates are fed daily by “the platform,” a floating square of food that descends through the floors of the prison. There are 333 floors, which means there is no food left on the platform for the inmates on the lower floors (lower in space, higher in number). Every month, the prisoners are gassed and brought to a new level.
In the pre-prison interviews, the inmates pick their favorite food, which will later appear on the platform for them. They also pick one object they will be allowed to take into the prison. We hear prisoners pick: a pen, an axe, a dildo, a razor, and a beautiful painting.
We spend the first half of the movie with two new prisoners: A woman named Perempuan (Milena Smit) and a man named Zamiatin (Hovik Keuchkerian). Perempuan and Zamiatin spend their first month on Level 24, which means they have lots of food available to them. However, they are sternly instructed by the inmates on Level 23 that they can only eat the food they asked for in their interview: Pizza for Zamiatin and croquettes for Perempuan. They explained that this is “The Law,” which was instituted by “the Revolution of Solidarity.” While there are still “Barbarians” who eat anything they want, the “Loyalists” punish—read: assault and sometimes kill—anyone who doesn’t follow the Law. They say this is the only way to ensure there is enough food for everyone, and claim the prison is becoming more fair every month.
Zamiatin is reluctant, but Perempuan convinces him to follow the law. The two form a tentative friendship. The month passes. Zamiatin and Perempuan follow the law, and help enforce the law by fighting Barbarians when needed. They also learn about “the Anointed Ones,” aka the prisoners who once met “The Master” in person. The Master is the person who created the law, and the Anointed Ones are sort of like police chiefs. A long time ago, the Master is said to have sent “a message of hope,” by feeding his Anointed Ones strips of his own flesh on one of the lowest levels, to keep them alive. In return, they enforce a message of solidarity and fair food distribution. Even though cannibalism is forbidden by the law, we see glimpses of cannibals at the bottom of the pit, who eat the dead bodies that fall down.
The next month, Zamiatin and Perempuan wake up on Level 180. When the platform arrives, it has no food. They spend weeks without food, but eventually learn through the chain of communication that there is an Anointed One killing the Barbarians who are eating more than their fair share. The Anointed One has asked the Loyalists to be on the lookout for a crippled man and a cross-eyed woman who “gorged themselves” on 176, a giant man who assaulted his cellmate on 98, and a fat man on 24 who ate the food of a dead—which is also not allowed by the law. Even Perempuan knows that “fat man” is Zamiatin, she lies to protect him.
But Zamiatin has fallen severely ill. Driven mad by hunger and plagued by his guilt, he lights himself on fire using his item, a lighter, and dies. Perempuan wakes up on Level 51 with a new cellmate, who ordered plums. (She’s not given a name, as far as I can tell, so let’s just call her Plum.) Perempuan and Plum hear there is a Barbarian on Level 54, and that one of the Anointed Ones—a man named Dagin Babi—is coming to punish him. Even though the law states that only the prisoners directly above the level with a Barbarian should go down to punish them, Plum impulsively jumps on the platform to join the punishers. Perempuan, who is angry about her old cellmate’s death, goes with her.
Perempuan and Plum help beat up the Barbarian, but he gets away. When it’s over, Plum confesses to Perempuan that she ran because the Anointed One, Dagin Babi, is a tyrant who kills or maims anyone who sets even the tiniest of toes outside the law. She and her former cellmate gave the food of a dead prisoner to a starving man, to save him. As a result, Dagin Babi killed her cellmate by strapping her to bottom of the platform, and letting the cannibals at the bottom of the pit eat her. Plum realized that she will not survive the pit. She tells Perempuan she has a plan to escape during the period where the prisoners are gassed. She believes she can fake her own death by eating an oil painting—which is one of the prisoner items—and then they will be taken out of the prison with the other corpses. (Most oil paint is not that toxic, actually, but… sure.) But she hasn’t yet found the painting.
Dagin Babi shows up to punish Perempuan and Plum for breaking the law, by going down to punish the Barbarians when it wasn’t their place to so. Perempuan says he is being unfairly strict. “You do not interpret the law, you obey it. The exception of the just is the excuse of the disloyal,” Dagin Babi replies. “Those who act as such will eventually interpret the law according to their instincts. Only fear will subdue the beasts. Terror is the message.” He cuts off Perempuan’s arm. Then he strips Plum naked and straps her to the platform, to send her down to the cannibals.
Next month, Perempuan wakes up with a new cellmate: Trimagasi (Zorion Eguileor), aka the cellmate of the protagonist from the first movie, The Platform. Wait, what? Didn’t that dude die in the first movie? More on that later. Perempuan is now done obeying the law. She and Trimagasi travel down the pit, and recruit fellow “Barbarians” who will resist the Loyalists and their campaign of terror. But in reality,Perempuan is looking for that painting. When she finds it, she tells the Barbarians that they have enough people, and can stay on that level.
Dagin Babi and his loyalists come down to attack the Barbarians. In the bloody battle that follows, all the starving prisoners begin brutally murdering each other, no matter which “side” they are on. Perempuan and Trimagasi manage to survive the battle. Just before the gas comes, Perempuan eats a piece of the oil painting, poisoning herself. Trimagasi stays behind, claiming this was the best month of his life.
The Platform 2 ending explained:
Perempuan successfully fakes her own death. When she comes to, she finds herself strapped to a floating mass of corpses, with people in gas masks moving the mass. (Why doesn’t the gas affect Perempuan after she wakes up? She’s not wearing a mask! I guess we’re not supposed to think about it too deeply.) Apparently, they have the technology to turn gravity on and off at will in this universe. Or maybe the prison is in space?
Perempuan realizes the corpses are not being taken out of the top of the prison, but instead being brought to the very bottom level, even below 333. She wriggles free and hides under the bed at Level 333. While hiding, she witnesses the masked men put a child in the bed. In an earlier scene, we saw this same child in a crowd of young children, being selected for something, presumably by the people who run the prison. It wasn’t clear what he was selected for, but based on the reaction of the other kids, it wasn’t good.
So… the prison runs a daycare of children, and once a month they select a child to sacrifice on Level 333? There was also a child on Level 333 in the first film, but that was the daughter of a prisoner. Or at least, that’s what we thought. Maybe the kid from the first movie was also a sacrifice from the daycare? But where did all these daycare kids come from? Surely if they were the children of prisoners, more people would be talking about their kids! So many questions, and so few answers.
Anywho. Perempuan’s tragic backstory involves her kinda, sorta, accidentally killing a different kid. Driven by her need to atone, she tries to take the Level 333 kid with her on her escape. But she hits her head on the way up, and passes out. When she wakes up, she rides down on the platform with the kid to the very bottom of the pit. The hungry cannibals who live down there approach her. They tell her that she needs to stay down there with them, but that the child will be allowed to go back up and escape. “Only they can go back,” the cannibals says.
Perempuan joins the cannibals. The platforms shoots back up with the child on it. The movie ends. Over the credits, we shots of many other prisoners going down on the platform with children. So maybe… every month a Level 333 child is sent down to the bottom of the pit, as some sort of test of humanity for the cannibals? Or… the children on Level 333 are meant to stop prisoners who try to use the platform to escape? I dunno, man, this movie does not make sense. I’m trying!
In an after credits scene, we see the ending of the first Platform movie, again. If you need a refresher: Goreng, the protagonist, descends on the platform with a child. He hallucinates Trimagasi (who is dead, by that point) telling him that his journey is over, because he is not the message, and the message requires no bearer. Goreng agrees, and gets off the platform to join Trimagasi. The child, who is the message, ascends on the platform.
But this time around, we get a bonus scene to this ending. Perempuan approaches Goreng, and seems to recognize him. They embrace. With that, the movie ends. Maybe Goreng is Perempuan’s ex-fiance, whose kid she kinda, sorta killed? Are both Perempuan and Goreng are dead? Again, it’s not clear.
Is The Platform 2 a prequel to The Platform?
Yes, The Platform 2 is a prequel to The Platform. That much we can know, given that Perempuan is already at the bottom of the pit for the end of the first Platform movie, and given that Trimagasi is still alive in The Platform 2.
Both movies act as metaphors for different economic systems. We now know that there was a system of somewhat fair food distribution before Goreng came to the prison—kind of like communism. But like a communist dictatorship, the enforcement was too strict. The messy revolution instigated by Perempuan led to the system completely eroding. By the time Goreng arrived, the system had devolved in an “everyone for themselves” version of capitalism.
But even with this deeper meaning, much of The Platform 2 simply doesn’t make sense. Sure, it’s more about the brutalist and bloody vibes. But a few less plot hoyos would be nice!
