Say this for The Platform 2: it gets right to it. Without so much of a recap of its predecessor – a sci-fi horror parable that became a Netflix hit a few years back – characters are debating philosophies of law and economics inside of 10 minutes. By the 40-minute mark, a major character has already committed self-immolation. It’s remarkably fast-paced for a movie set in a series of unadorned rooms that make up an enormous vertical prison.
The workings of this prison were detailed in the first film, and are easy enough to pick up this time around, even without much newbie-friendly exposition: prisoners, who can opt into the structure called the Pit for punishment or in some other kind of exchange, are randomly assigned a different level each month, usually shared with another prisoner. Once a day, a mobile platform descends from the top (level 0) to the bottom (somewhere in the 300s, it’s thought), packed with a succulent variety of foods, lingering for a few minutes on each floor. (Each prisoner gets to pick one favorite item to be included.) Prisoners at the top can, if they so choose, selfishly avail themselves of whatever they want within the time limit. If (when) they do, greed begets more greed, inevitably leaving little to nothing for the poor, desperate souls on the bottom. Of course, everyone’s fortunes can change on a monthly basis; someone on top could easily be shunted down to the bottom, and vice versa. These constant changes should inspire empathy; mostly, they inspire panic and more practically minded selfishness. In other words: eat up now, because who knows where you’ll be next month.
