The Platform Ending Explained: Angels, The Message, And Redemption Can Be Hell

The Platform is symbolically rich in biblical and social themes. Here are all your ending questions answered.

What better time to revisit Galder Gaztelu-Urrutia’s The Platform? Regardless of how bad you thought your Thanksgiving was it is still better than this visceral feast of consumption, greed, and disgusting eating habits. It demands something from you as you watch. You can’t sit and munch popcorn while taking in the wet slurp and crunch of near-empty bones and previously chewed chunks of food. It is designed to put the viewer in captivity with the prisoners for better or worse(mostly worse). The world of The Platform is a confusing, terrible place. Full of degradation, cruelty, death, and survival, there is nothing there for those who choose themselves over the community.

The post-COVID-19 reality we now all find ourselves in easily could have been forecast by the film. Supplant 333 floors of a stacked prison system with inflation so high it makes some people have to make very hard choices. Like Squid Games, this is what desperation and greed looks like. it isn’t gluttony. It is fear and savagery. Two of the more base human emotions bring out the worst in us. As easy as it is to compare The Platform to a simple social allegory like Snowpiercer which did a similar thing with a super long train, the mysteries of The Platform go much deeper.

The Platform is a fairly simple story at first glance. A man enters a prison system run by a totalitarian agency, and everyone in the prison eats only what is left from the floors above them as the platform lowers each day. If you survive, you get what you contracted with the agency for. It might be a college degree or a prison sentence expunged. Each floor has two people living on them, and it is survival of the fittest. A desperate woman searches for her child and our protagonist Goreng begins to understand there are some things more important than simple survival and success. Things are far more complex than they seem; however, in this thought experiment brought to life.

Nothing You See Is the Real World in The Platform

The biggest truth to wrap your brain around is no one is alive in the traditional sense. Whatever happened to these people to cause them to end up in the stacked jail, it happened in the real world. Goreng says he chose to be there for six months, allowing himself the opportunity to get a college degree debt-free. In a sense, he did choose, just not the way we think. If you view the prison as purgatory with Heaven and Hell as 0 and 334, his decision becomes more than a simple sacrifice but rather more akin to suicide.

Everything that happens in between is part of his redemption. It could also be the ultimate test of humanity’s power for good or evil. Everyone has a specific role to play. It is important to note that even Heaven has a hierarchy with strict rulers and weary laborers. Rather instead of 0 being Heaven, it is life as we know it, and each level down is closer to Hell or the literal black pit Goreng finds himself in at the end. Like Dante’s Inferno, it is a slow descent into Hell, with each level being worst than the next.

The Clues

Some of the more obvious clues are found in the early moments of the movie. The first is Goreng’s decision to go into the system. Goreng volunteers to go into the system willingly in exchange for a college degree or knowledge. Since greed and opportunity are so important, the parallel between knowledge and humanity’s fall from the Garden of Eden is apparent. Once Goreng valued knowledge over comfort or safety, he established the role he would play within the prison. He represents enlightenment. For better or for worse, he chooses to know rather than simply accept what he is told. That single decision seals his fate.

The second is Goreng’s first roommate Trimagasi. He is there because of covetous behavior and regret. Doling out personal information like an insurance company giving out meds, he explains how he found himself in the hole. He says he was put in the system for one year because he “accidentally” killed an illegal immigrant by throwing a television out of his window. He threw it out the window because he got suckered by a home-shopping host. The minute he bought a knife that was advertised, a commercial for an even better knife came on, which made him crazy with regret and want.

The lesson, of course, is to be grateful for what you have and stop being envious of others and their possessions. When he explains the mechanics of the platform to Goreng, he posits Goreng is lucky to get a middle floor. Too high up and you have nothing to look forward to, and too far down, you are forced to do terrible things. In his opinion, humans are hardwired to isolate and categorize themselves. It is us versus them. Our current polarized political system seems to prove this. We are also lazy creatures who become complacent, and when faced with less than we are used to, we become despondent. Those nearer the middle never have very much but always have enough to survive. Enough keeps them going spiritually and physically.

Trimagasi also represents hate and prejudice as he feels no actual remorse for hurting anyone because they shouldn’t have been there anyway. As the film progresses, he is killed by Miharu during a particularly grisly cannibalistic scene. During this scene, he also blames the floors above him for forcing him to mutilate Goreng instead of blaming himself, the knife-wielder. He continues to haunt Goreng throughout the movie, including the final scene when they walk off into the darkness together. He represents man’s cruelty. Trimagasi is temptation, and once Goreng turns his back on personal triumph and seeks to change his world through the message, he stops tormenting Goreng and helps him find redemption in the act of saving the child.

Obviously, Trimagasi is the tester. He is a fallen angel designed to elicit violence and evil. He calls Goreng a snail which is his favorite food. This is no coincidence. He is omniscient, not because the VSC told him but because he is a literal demon. 1 Timothy 5:24 talks of the obviousness of sin.

The biggest clue is the bizarre, fanatical, and reverential way the food is prepared and then transported to The Platform. Food represents life, and for those on the upper floors, it is a chance to be either greedy or kind. These are criminals or debtors, and their food is prepared so meticulously it is absurd. Especially given the way the food is distributed. Those preparing the food and in charge wear only white, and the prisoners only brown, further delineating the supposed good from the bad and the wicked from the righteous.

Goreng’s second roommate Imoguiri brought her dog Ramesses II. That is a very curious name for a pet. When the dog is killed and eaten by Miharu, Goreng finally begins to help Imoguiri with her plan to ration food for those below. Pharoah Ramsess II is widely thought of as a peacemaker and one of the greatest pharaohs of Egypt. Whether he was enamored with himself or was actually that spectacular is open for debate, but he is accredited with creating a huge city and brokering peace with the surrounding groups. The dog’s death certainly changed Goreng’s whole trajectory.

It’s All Biblical

Eden is level 0, and those who bite from the apple of knowledge are cast into the pit. More than once in the film, apples are used to show kindness and pain. In the beginning, Goreng tries to keep an apple for later breaking the rules. As punishment, their cell becomes unbearably hot. Later in the film, Goreng throws an apple at his final roommate, Baharat. The dark pit is a clear visual representation of Hell with 333 levels in between. 333 is half of the number of the beast 666.

Goreng eats human flesh in a form of bloody unholy communion and, later, the pages of his book. He is just a prophet, however, and not the Messiah, as many inmates question on his way down to the lowest level. Like Moses in the Old Testament, his job was to deliver the message. The child is the Messiah and represents hope as she is lifted on the platform to the 0 in a flood of white light. The platform is an altar, and the child is the offering.

It May Be All For Naught

Just as Trimagasi tells Goreng, once he eats human flesh, he becomes one with their spirit. When he eats the pages of his book Don Quixote he becomes the stubborn character destined to tilt at windmills forever. The child may not have the intended effect on the cooks of level 0, and nothing will change. After all, humans are a corruptible bunch. Whether you believe he is quixotic or successful depends on your perspective.

Did Miharu Have A Child?

If you buy into the theory that she is Mary, the child was born into an unbelieving and cruel world. She initially went into the system wanting fame but found her higher purpose in her child. We know she was raped more than once, so it would not be unreasonable to assume she became pregnant and had a child while in the prison. Time means nothing to those in charge, and who knows how long she agreed to be there. It is interesting to note she chose as her personal item a ukelele. An instrument that could be a symbol for a harp. It is also yet another art form to be revered, with the book being the second.

If The Platform shows us anything, it is that humanity sucks. We are grasping hands hoarding for fear or vengeance. Paralyzed by our own stupidity, we make choices that don’t better ourselves or others. It is what makes us do things like bring surfboards and money into prison. Innocent dogs get slaughtered because we are too selfish to leave them with someone to love them and keep them safe. Not since Gummo have I been so uncomfortable with food and water. The Platform is a deep movie with meanings obvious and obtuse. It is an uncomfortable truth that lurks in the back of our minds. It is also a timely warning to care for your fellow man. If you are bored with Netflix, find the best stuff on Tubi here.