The grotesque, thoughtful, and abstract sci-fi film The Platform raised a lot of discussion upon its timely 2020 release. With its sequel now streaming, it's hard not to notice new details in the original with fresh eyes.
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00:00The grotesque, thoughtful, and abstract sci-fi film The Platform raised a lot of discussion
00:05upon its timely 2020 release.
00:07With its sequel now streaming, it's hard not to notice new details in the original with
00:11fresh eyes.
00:13When The Platform hit Netflix worldwide in March 2020, the COVID-19 pandemic was in full
00:18swing and months of quarantining were still ahead.
00:21The film hit with a particular amount of force back then due to the way that it spoke to
00:24the general feeling of isolation that we were all having to deal with in those days.
00:28Seeing Goran get gradually used to the reality of a confinement he thought would be much
00:32easier to deal with, fret over provisions, and slowly lose his mind felt eerily familiar.
00:36In 2024, the experience of watching the movie has been transformed by circumstances.
00:41Now, although COVID-19 is still very much a pressing public health concern in many parts
00:45of the world, we've spent nearly three years getting used to going outside again, and the
00:49claustrophobia of The Platform has taken on a new connotation.
00:52Instead of reflecting the public's current circumstances, the movie takes us back to
00:56the state of mind we were once in.
00:58Given how challenging the return to normal life has been for many, it's now easy to recognize
01:02oneself in that final scene, with Goran wandering in the dark, unsure of where he's going or
01:07what he should do now that he's no longer trapped.
01:09It's no secret that inequality is still one of the world's great ills in 2024.
01:14The various crises of late-stage capitalism that humanity has faced in the past few decades
01:18are almost too complex and mind-boggling to fully grasp.
01:21But what remains unmistakable through and through is that the poor stay poor, and the
01:24rich keep getting richer.
01:26That was one of the reasons The Platform struck a nerve in 2020, and this also explains the
01:30success of other hit films from that era.
01:33Another example is Parasite, which rode a wave of enormous crossover popularity all
01:37the way to Best Picture Oscar win just a few weeks before the Netflix premiere of The Platform.
01:42To put it lightly, the intervening years have not made the class metaphor less potent.
01:46According to Oxfam, inequality around the world has increased since the pandemic.
01:50For a lot of the working class, life feels increasingly like a series of fights for scraps
01:54from the top, while the wealthy hoard power and resources and gorge shamelessly on more
01:58than they need.
01:59The ones responsible for your death will be the ones above us.
02:03Up above, there are 340 people you know.
02:06Even the ongoing shrinking of the middle class adds extra poignancy to the film's depiction
02:10of the people on levels 10 to 50, as self-important pigs in a pen, feeling superior to the people
02:15below even while scraping meat off chicken bones left over by those above.
02:19On those high levels, you can eat whatever you want, but you don't have anything to wait
02:25for."
02:27Back when The Platform came out, the concept of generative AI was still a long way away
02:31from its current boom.
02:32A lot of the discourse has been around AI replacing writers, filmmakers, and artists,
02:37but there's also the fact that its arrival has sent emissions at tech companies through
02:40the roof.
02:41Not only do AI data centers emit a lot of carbon, but they also consume a lot of water
02:45for cooling.
02:46Analysts have raised concerns about the world's ecosystems not being able to sustain the ongoing
02:51AI frenzy at its current pace, if computation stays at its current level of energy efficiency.
02:56Watching The Platform now, you can't help but notice that the critique of waste and
02:59individualism doesn't seem limited to class warfare in and of itself.
03:03There's now an unmistakable environmental slant to the film's insistence that selfishness
03:07in managing the world's resources will result in scarcity, chaos, and suffering.
03:11The consumer benefits offered by large language models have launched untold amounts of carbon
03:16into the atmosphere, contributing to the disturbance of our world's delicate climate
03:20balance.
03:21To its credit, The Platform acknowledges that individualist classism is intertwined with
03:25other forms of bigotry.
03:26Early on, while telling the story of how he wound up in the pit by throwing a TV out the
03:30window and accidentally dropping it on an undocumented immigrant, Dreamergarsi complains
03:34that his arrest was unfair because the person he killed was an immigrant.
03:38Now you tell me, am I responsible?
03:41He shouldn't even have been there."
03:43This revelation shows that his lack of solidarity and his hostility towards other humans were
03:47already in place well before his sentence.
03:50Later, the couple on Level 5 proves racist and xenophobic in their treatment of Borat,
03:54openly expressing suspicion due to him being black and demanding that he proves he's Christian
03:59in order to indulge his pleas for help.
04:01However, despite these nods, the movie doesn't really explore racism as deeply as it could.
04:05Dreamergarsi is still depicted as a bearer of some measure of wisdom and even morality
04:09through his imaginary mentor role in Gawain's Psyche.
04:12In a world that has only seen white nationalist politics and rhetoric grow louder and more
04:16aggressive since 2020, the film's subtle depiction doesn't feel incisive enough.
04:20Racial and ethnic politics aren't just a subtle detail in the grand scheme of class warfare
04:24— they're a central piece of the puzzle.
04:27Whatever your ultimate takeaway from it may be, it's hard to disagree that The Platform
04:30is a cynical film.
04:31From beginning to end, it could be argued that the movie operates under the general
04:35belief that humans are fundamentally selfish and incapable of solidarity or collaboration.
04:40Even when Gawain and Borat set out to disprove that idea and instill some sense of collectivism
04:44in people, it doesn't work.
04:46And what little they manage to preserve of the food as they descend to the lower levels
04:49is only salvaged through violence.
04:51The message that people suck spoke to a lot of us during the pandemic, which exposed a
04:55lot of selfish behavior at supermarkets and beyond.
04:58A lot of people fail to band together in solidarity and work toward the common good.
05:02"...hunger will drive you mad.
05:04And down here, it's better to eat than to be eaten."
05:07Now, a few years later, cynicism about fellow humans stuck in the same situation feels more
05:11unhelpful than anything.
05:13Yes, people can and often do suck, but we have to stick together and hang on to the
05:16specks of generosity and collectivism that humankind has displayed in the past as evidence
05:21that it is possible to do so.
05:23The Platform is not a subtle film.
05:25It practically explains itself to you when Trimogarsi lays out the rules of the pits
05:28with the patience of an IMDb plot summary, pausing at appropriate times to make sure
05:33both Goreng and the audience understand the sociological implications of the pit's mechanics.
05:37As metaphors go, it doesn't get more plain and self-explanatory than,
05:41"...the people above get all the food while the people below get fewer and fewer scraps."
05:45The point of the film is not nuance or delicacy.
05:47No pun intended.
05:48It's unapologetically blunt.
05:49"...in the pit, everyone is free to behave however they want."
05:52That's not, in itself, a bad thing.
05:54In fact, in 2024, it may be a very good thing.
05:57These days, popular films that tackle social issues are throwing subtlety to the wind and
06:01opting to wear their messages on their sleeve.
06:03Barbie sprang from a monologue on sexism that took two full days to shoot, Saltburn and
06:08The Menu exploded class warfare into garish extremes, and Glass Onion was even more direct
06:13and clear in its satire than Knives Out.
06:152024's The Substance blew social media open like a powder keg by eschewing any trace of
06:20subtlety in its send-up of the beauty industry.
06:22With the world getting more nightmarishly absurd by the day, subtlety in art just might
06:26be losing its luster as a way to reflect how we're all living and feeling.
06:31The mysterious woman who keeps descending the pit every month in search of her child
06:34plays a substantial role in the plot of the platform, despite the fact that she barely
06:38speaks throughout the duration of the film.
06:40Sadly, she belongs to the troubled tradition of silent or near-silent Asian characters
06:44in Western media.
06:45These characters, which can also sometimes be men but are often a female-specific trope,
06:49all share general archetypal characteristics.
06:51They're stern, stoic, charismatic, lethally efficient in combat, and emotionally opaque.
06:56Their lack of speech reflects longstanding Western stereotypes about East Asians, and
07:00especially East Asian women, being quiet and reserved.
07:03More often than not, it also reflects a lack of a fully developed personality, which in
07:07turn speaks to a writer's desire to incorporate a certain cool Asian assassin aesthetic without
07:12knowing how to imagine rich inner lives for Asian women.
07:15Mulan's Jimmy Wong brought the issue up on X not long after the platform came out, writing,
07:19"...least favorite thing I've noticed during pandemic binge-watching?
07:22Incredibly sexy and good-looking Asian actors playing characters with barely any dialogue
07:27because it's supposed to be...mysterious?"
07:29Looking back on the platform now, the unabashed stereotyping feels even more trite and dated
07:34than it already did in 2020.
07:36More than just a vehicle for blunt and effective messages about the insanity of wealth inequality,
07:41the platform is a searing audiovisual experience full of memorable touches of gruesomeness
07:45and horror.
07:46The imagery of enormous amounts of food being gorged on, for instance, is disgustingly transfixing.
07:51In 2020, part of that transfixing appeal was tied to mukbang videos, a cultural phenomenon
07:56that was then at its arguable peak.
07:58These videos, in which people consume enormous amounts of food on camera for viewers' entertainment,
08:02began an upswing of international popularity around the mid-2010s.
08:06By the time the platform was released, the iconography of mukbangers hunched over obscenely
08:10plentiful meal tables was already seared into the minds of millions around the globe.
08:152024, meanwhile, is a different time for mukbang videos.
08:18As the genre emerged into the mainstream, it also began to face increased scrutiny from
08:22politicians, the public, and the media.
08:25Some specialists have accused mukbangers of promoting unhealthy eating habits.
08:28In fact, China has banned them for contributing to food waste, and a prominent mukbang star
08:33named Nicocado Avocado broke the internet by revealing he'd spent two years posting
08:37pre-recorded videos while secretly losing weight.
08:40Now the film's mukbang-adjacent images feel strangely ahead of their time in their grotesque,
08:45foreboding gloom.
08:47Part of the reason the platform became a cultural phenomenon in 2020 was its simplicity.
08:51We never learn the exact details of who built the pit, why, where it's located, what function
08:56it fulfills, or what has become of society around it.
08:58Even the ending of the platform is quite open, with Goring merely sending the girl up and
09:02walking off into the dark without knowing where he is or where he's going.
09:06In a world where nearly all mainstream movies feel the need to over-explain themselves,
09:10the lack of clear answers or explanations added greatly to the mystique.
09:14It was a movie that left fans scratching their heads in the best way.
09:17"...she's the message."
09:19"...she is the message."
09:21While that opacity felt thrilling at the time, it seems inevitable now that it couldn't stand.
09:26A hit like The Platform couldn't remain cryptic and self-contained under the current streaming
09:30economy.
09:31It had to be solved, and that's where The Platform 2 comes in.
09:33The film goes back to the early days of the pit, and fills us in on some of the details
09:37that The Platform deliberately left out, including confirmation of the oft-floated fan theory
09:41that each inmate was only supposed to eat their favorite food.
09:44What it doesn't offer is an equally engaging movie, which was to be expected.
09:48Re-watching The Platform now, it's clear that a sequel was always going to be redundant,
09:52and that additional information would only shortchange the original's fable-like power.
09:57The distribution of wealth and resources is not the only thing that the titular platform
10:01and its daily banquets can stand for in The Platform.
10:03Sure, that's the most intuitive interpretation, but in 2024, there's another reading that's
10:08just as feasible.
10:09The powers in charge of the pit can be seen as a metaphor for how some streaming services
10:13treat subscribers.
10:14They send down whatever to the inmates in hopes that they will eat it without complaint,
10:18expecting them to munch on calories indiscriminately as long as it keeps them fed.
10:22The food is only ours while The Platform is on our level.
10:25The years since 2020 have taught us a lot about the underside of the streaming economy
10:29and its tendency to treat movies and TV shows like content, to be smashed indiscriminately
10:34into eyeballs.
10:35The bubble burst during the 2023 SAG-AFTRA strike, which revealed that the entire streaming
10:39model hinges on consumer inertia, passive viewing, and the offering of just enough entertainment
10:44to keep the subscription fees flowing.
10:46It's hilariously ironic that this huge streaming hit is about an organization presenting slop
10:50to people knowing that, even if they don't particularly enjoy it or consume it, all the
10:55same.