‘The Platform’ on Netflix Ending Explained: What Did That Disturbing Ending Mean?

Warning: This article contains The Platform spoilers. I’m guessing you knew that already, but just to be safe.

If you want to watch a deeply, deeply disturbing movie about isolation, starvation, and the scarcity of food in the middle of a real-life pandemic that has people panic-shopping at the grocery store, then, by all means, check out The Platform, a new Spanish movie that released on Netflix today.

Called El Hoyo in Spanish, this science fiction thriller come from director Galder Gaztelu-Urrutia, and originally premiered at Toronto Film Festival in 2019 before being acquired by Netflix for worldwide distribution. Echoing Vincenzo Natali’s disturbing 1997 sci-film Cube, The Platform is not for the faint of heart. There is blood, there is gore, there is cannibalism, there is feces… Basically, anything you might think would be hard to view with your eyeballs is in this movie.

If you’re here because you had to turn the movie off for your sanity, but you still want to know what The Platform ending was, I am happy to help. If you’re here because you finished the movie and need somewhere to process what the $#@% you just watched, I am also here to help. Let’s get into The Platform ending, explained.

What is The Platform plot, explained?

Our protagonist is a young man named Goreng (Iván Massagué) who wakes up in a cement cell with a rectangular hole in the center.  His roommate, Trimagasi (Zorion Eguileor), explains that he is in a vertical prison and every day, “the platform” descends through the floors of the prison, carrying the leftovers from an extravagant meal from the rich on the outside. It pauses for just a few seconds, and the prisoners must eat as much as they possibly can while its there. Try to take any food to go, and you’ll be punished—the room will become either unbearably hot or unbearably cold.

By the time the platform reaches Goreng and Trimagasi level, 48, the food has already been picked over—everything has bites out of it, and only scraps remain. But Trimagsi promises Goreng it’s a good level. The floors beneath them (lower in space, and higher in number) get nothing. We learn that Goreng came to the hole voluntarily for six months, in exchange for an accredited diploma, but it’s clear he had no idea how horrific the prison was. Each prisoner gets to bring one object with them, and Goreng brought a book: Don Quixote by Miguel de Cervantes. Trimagasi brought a knife.

Every month, the prisoners are gassed and brought to a new level. The first time this happens, Goreng wakes up tied down on level 171. Trimagasi calmly explains to him that it is inevitable that they would turn on each other at this level, and while he doesn’t want to hurt Goreng, he will strip off pieces of his flesh to eat him to stay alive. Goreng, of course, is horrified, but he’s saved by  Miharu (Alexandra Masangkay), a woman who has lost her mind and rides the platform to lower levels, looking for her lost child that may or may not exist and murdering people. (Earlier, on level 48, Goreng stood up for Miharu when men were attacking her.)  Miharu cuts Goreng free, Goreng murders Trimagasi, and survives the month by eating his rotting flesh.

The next month, Goreng wakes up on level 33 with a new roommate named Imoguiri (Antonia San Juan), who has brought her dog as her one object. Imoguiri is an official of some sort, who initially screened Goreng to join the prison. She swears to Goreng she had no idea what the prison was really like, but that it is intended as an experiment in “spontaneous solidarity.” She claims that there are 200 levels, and if every person took their fair share of rationed food, everyone in the prison would be fed. Every day, she pleads with prisoners below on level 34 to only eat their allotted ration and to pass along the message to level 35. They refuse to listen—until Goreng threatens to shit in their food, and they obey. Imoguiri says the next thing to do is convince the people on the nicer levels to ration as well, but Goreng says it will never work because “I can’t shit upwards.”

The next month, Goreng wakes up on the worst level yet: 202. Imoguiri hangs herself, Goreng eats her body, and the month passes in a fever dream. A month later, Goreng wakes up on level 6 with a new roommate Baharat (Emilio Buale Coka). Baharat is gleeful to be on such a good level because he believes it means he’ll be able to escape with his object: a rope. But the prisoners on level 5 refuse to help and instead defecate on his face.

Goreng convinces Baharat to help him with a plan to ride down on the platform and distribute the food fairly by forcing the prisoners to ration. He and Baharat make makeshift weapons out of their bedframes and ride down on the platform. They decide not to give rations to the first 50 levels, who have already been eating well. The prisoners don’t like that.  “A messiah would hand out loaves of bread, not take from our mouths,” shouts one of them.

Goreng and Baharat violently threaten people away from the food, until Baharat runs into a wise old man who tells him he must first trying being polite before resorting to violence. He also tells them that they need a symbol for their movement—something to send a message. He tells them they need to send a luxury dish that gets back Level 0 untouched. That dish is the panna cotta, an Italian dessert, which they must preserve at all costs. They resolve to try and continue to descend.

Goreng initially estimated there were about 250 levels in the prison, a number he came to by counting the number of seconds it took for the platform to come back up while he was on level 202. However, they soon discover that if no one is alive on the level, then the platform doesn’t stop. That means there are more levels than Goreng anticipated.

How does The Platform end? What is The Platform ending, explained?

The platform finally stops for good at Level 333, the last level, where there is a child hiding under the bed. Goreng and Baharat get off the platform to help her, panna cotta in hand, and the platform leaves without them. Normally the fact that they have the panna cotta still means that the room would grow unbearably hot or cold, but it doesn’t. Stuck on Level 333, they give the child the panna cotta to eat. After a few moments, the platform shoots to the top of the prison without them on it.

Baharat decides that the child is the new message—or maybe Goreng dreamed that. They are weak and injured from fighting the prisoners. When Goreng wakes up, he finds Baharat passed out in a pool of blood, seemingly dead. The next day, when the platform comes, Goreng gets on it with the child. The platform descends into a void, and stops, where Goreng has an imaginary conversation with Trimagasi. Trimagasi tells Goreng 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 in death.

The child stays on the platform and shoots toward the top of the hole on the platform, and the movie ends.

What does The Platform ending mean? What is The Platform ending meaning?

While I don’t know director Galder Gaztelu-Urrutia and screenwriters David Desola and Pedro Rivero, it’s clear that the prison and the platform are a metaphor for capitalism. If only the prisoners would agree to work together and ration their resources—like, say, in a democratic socialist society—everyone would be fed. Instead, it’s a winner-takes-all capitalist society that leaves the people on the bottom dying and eating each other. And while Goreng does eventually succeed in convincing the people at the bottom that change is possible, it’s much harder to convince the people at the top to care. The ending leaves it open-ended as to whether the message will be enough to convince the people at the top to change their ways. Goreng did all he could. It’s all in their hands now.

Watch The Platform on Netflix