The Platform on Netflix: Breaking down that bizarre ending and the message

The Platform is Netflix’s latest bizarre addition to have everyone talking. What exactly happens at the end, and what was the message? Let’s break down the final scene!

Before you proceed, please note there are spoilers ahead if you have not watched Galder Gaztelu-Urrutia’s movie, The Platform, on Netflix! Watch it first before reading as we won’t dive into plot or character descriptions, assuming you’ve already seen the Spanish sci-hi horror.

In the final scenes of The Platform, we see our protagonist Goreng (Ivan Massague), who astonishingly came to the platform of cement cells voluntarily, and Baharat (Emilio Buale Coka) find a child hiding under the bed in Level 333. Goreng and Baharat are out of food long before getting there, with the exception of the panna cotta, which they believed would be their message to Level 0. They give the child the dessert and let the platform go back up without them.

The next day, Baharat is dead from his injuries. Goreng and the child climb the platform, but Goreng gets off, knowing his journey is over because the message is the child, not him. Goreng can’t go as he has already killed and been corrupted by the system. The entire movie was a metaphor for capitalism and its message couldn’t have hit us more than these days during a pandemic. If the prisoners (the people) would agree to work together, take only their fair share, and not be so greedy, there would be far less suffering.

Instead, those at the higher levels grab all they can, whether they need it or not, and are perfectly fine leaving scraps for those below. At one point in the movie, Goreng and Imoguiri (Antonia San Juan), one of his roomates, convince the level below them to only eat their portion. Convincing the poor and hungry to share is difficult, but not impossible. Convincing those on top, however? Well, you all saw how that turned out. The rich want to stay rich at all costs.

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The young girl represents hope, purity, and morality. She is a message to the people at Level 0 (who assume the worst about the prisoners) that not everyone has lost their humanity. There are still people who will do the right thing. At least, this is what Goreng hopes will happen. It’s the only way the set up at the prison has any chance of changing its ways.

As for why the girl is there in the first place when no one under 16-years-old is allowed there, we’re not sure. But her mother Miharu was never really looking for her daughter, she knew where the girl was the entire time. The reason Miharu climbed the platform was to descend to the lowest floor to feed her daughter, kill the inmate that was there with her daughter, and keep her safe.

What did you think about The Platform? The movie is streaming now on Netflix.