The Platform

Introduction

Today, I’m breaking down The Platform a brutal, layered film that explores hierarchy, human nature, faith, and the failure of imposed solidarity. It’s a social and philosophical dissection that uses a dystopian nightmare to challenge our deepest assumptions about survival and morality.

The Three Kinds of People: The Ones Above, The Ones Below, and The Ones Who Fall

  • The movie’s most striking line: “There are three kinds of people: the ones above, the ones below, and the ones who fall.”
  • This sets the framework for the entire narrative a hierarchy that feels absolute and unforgiving.
  • It mirrors existentialist ideas about how people define their value based on where they stand in a system.
  • The ones who fall are the casualties of a broken system, where failure isn’t just inevitable it’s built into the structure.
  • This ties to Camus’ absurdism: life’s inherent meaninglessness and the struggle to find meaning in a system designed to break you.

Adversity and Goreng’s Journey

  • Goreng enters the pit with two goals: to overcome addiction and read Don Quixotea book about idealism and madness.
  • His journey is one of disillusionment and survival, where he’s constantly forced to reassess his morals and ideals.
  • By the end, Goreng understands that true wealth or privilege isn’t about possession, but about purpose knowing how to use what you have.
  • This realization comes through suffering and madness, paralleling Kierkegaard’s idea of the leap of faith.
  • Even in his insanity, Goreng finds purpose in delivering the message. It’s his own desperate attempt to force meaning into a system designed to crush it.

Faith and Hypocrisy

  • “God, how we want to believe in him when we see fit.”
  • This line speaks to the hypocrisy of faith and how we selectively invoke belief when convenient.
  • It’s a critique of how people construct meaning to justify suffering but twist it to serve their desires.
  • Nietzsche’s critique of religion fits perfectly here how belief is often a crutch for those unwilling to confront the reality of their situation.
  • Goreng’s journey is both a crisis of faith and an attempt to rebuild that faith on his own terms.

Spontaneous Solidarity and Failed Communism

  • Goreng attempts to enforce a communal distribution of resources rationing food so everyone below can survive.
  • It’s a noble attempt to impose socialism on a brutally capitalist structure.
  • But the experiment fails because it’s imposed, not embraced—showing how ideals of equality often collapse under human greed and self-interest.
  • Goreng’s experiment reflects historical failures of communism, where top-down attempts to enforce solidarity only create resentment and chaos.
  • This struggle reveals how idealism is often at odds with human nature.

The Cliffhanger Ending

  • The movie ends on a cliffhanger whether the message reaches the top is left ambiguous.
  • This unresolved ending feels nihilistic but also leaves room for hope.
  • The point might not be to fix the system but to expose its horror and force us to confront our role within it.
  • It’s a question that echoes long after the credits roll.

Conclusion

  • The Platform is a film that thrives on ambiguity and brutal honesty.
  • It forces us to confront the systems we live under, the hypocrisies we perpetuate, and the lengths we’ll go to find meaning in madness.
  • Whether Goreng’s message is received or lost forever, the struggle itself is what truly matters.