Plot Summary
Milena Smit’s deeply moving portrayal of The Platform 2 focuses on Perempuán, a young woman struggling with personal grief and regret. To escape her life, she willingly chooses to enter The Pit 2.0 as it is perceived by society as an attempt to understand the ‘The Pit’ via a social experiment. Unlike in the original film, the vertical prison this time is still relatively new— not yet devolved into total anarchy but rigidly managed by an elite faction known as the Loyalists.
Perempuán the wakes up at stage 24, and is introduced to her partner Zamiatin (Hovik Keuchkerian). He is a disciplined, calm gentleman who follows the rules of the faction. He, like the rest of the Loyalists, believes that each inmate must only consume the food designated to them (the rationed portions given to them). Members of the Loyalists ensure that there is no way to equality within the system lest greed and chaos, which mark The Pit, take over flamboyantly sprout.
Perempuán is shown a new world of idealist enforcers and rule followers because of Zamiatin. They believe in the system not because of kindness, but rather as a result of fear and dogma. Dagin Babi (Óscar Jaenada), a brutal blind man who enforces discipline and sacrifices in the name of collective savior, is the primitive head of this system. Her interactions with Zamiatin and other Sahabat prisoners(Natalia Tena) stirs growing doubts, making her ponder whether order devoid of empathy is truly better than chaos.
She bears witness to the cracks in the system that are slowly formed as she moves down the hierarchy of power, becoming more physical and moral in nature. The inhumanity of the outcomes become inversely proportional to the rigidity of enforcement. She is faced with the choice of either choosing to uphold a broken ideology and accept the consequences or take drastic action to bring change and lose her life (and ultimately her soul) in the process.
Character and Performance
As the central figure: Perempuán (Milena Smit) is a haunting presence. The film is anchored emotionally by the arc of her transforming from guilt driven volunteer to a symbol of resistance. Perempuán becomes the audiences eye to the hostile environment, being framed through the lens of Smit, who silently delivers pain and an abundance of strength.
Zamiatin (Hovik Keuchkerian): Zamiatin serves as both protector and antagonist. His penchant for order makes him deeply interesting and at times infuriating, but his evolution as he begins to question the system transforms him in a captivating way.
Dagin Babi (Óscar Jaenada): Babi is a terrifying character who represents the danger of fanaticism. His highly violent sermons and speeches tend to be chilling, not due to his use of graphic violence, but due to the fact that he’s a deeply disturbing believer that suffering is a requirement for salvation.
Sahabat (Natalia Tena): As a rebellious and clever inmate, Sahabat adds humor as well as importance to the film. Her bluntness and brutal honesty renders her one of the most striking new characters to the franchise.
Themes and Symbolism
With The Platform 2, the franchise continues to grapple with ideas regarding metaphor, morality, and social commentary. While the first installment posed the issues of resource inequality, selfishness, and trickle-down economics in a humanitarian sense, this prequel focuses more on how ideologies are constructed, rationalized, and unquestioned devotion becomes a destructive force.
The film looks at the ‘discipline’ utopia promise. The Loyalists’ portioning of food is analogous to actual regimes where subjugation masquerades as equality. The system must be tuned as ruthlessly implacable in guard terms devoid of empathy, else suffers the quintessence torment cruelty circumvent strives to subdue.
Once again, Perempuán’s children serve as a symbolic representation. In one particularly gruesome sequence, she learns how children are periodically positioned on the lowest levels to ‘test’ the fairness of the system. This worrying act is deemed as ‘faith proof’ by the policymakers. It underscores the concept captivates ideological manipulation where less fortunate are pawns in the battle.
Visual and Technical Craft
The silent, clinical visual design remains hauntingly geometric. Imposing vertical thrust is even more ominous this time around, thanks to better lighting and closer camera work. The towering sense of isolation is achieved through long takes, close-up to silence observing, and intimate framing.
Unlike its predecessor’s grungier aesthetic, The Platform 2 offers a cleaner version of The Pit, reflecting an earlier and more “idealistic” phase. The lack of grime, however, enhances the horror: the stillness before the moral failure. The untouched, sterile environment is more unsettling than a reassuring refuge, serving as a backdrop for psychological downfall and zealotry.
Aitor Etxebarria’s score is still used sparingly, but its impact sharpens with each emotional turn. The music increments gradually as the emotional stakes rise and is heard right before the lower, more violent levels of the prison are reached.
Conclusion
The Platform 2 is one of the few prequels that dares to take the risk: it enhances the original by expanding its philosophical foundation alongside the narrative through fresh outlooks. It doesn’t just remake the first movie’s atrocities but seeks to understand the origins of those atrocities.
Although the film keeps the intense claustrophobia and minimalist horror from its predecessor, the focus shifts from survival to ideology. Now the interrogative lens scrutinizes not merely how people act when pressure is applied, but what they are prepared to believe, rationalize, and accept in the name of order and compassion.
For the audience that enjoyed the intellectual stimulation that Grilder’s The Platform presented, this one’s prequel serves the same purpose. This is not so much of a thriller, instead leaning more towards a morality play drenched in the harshness of a biting parable. It offers no real solutions, only disturbing questions regarding the identity we adopt in the absence of functioning systems and the perilous nature of imposed order devoid of empathy.
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