Like its predecessor, The Platform 2 is complex, layered, and not an easy movie to dissect. The ending brings forth a lot of questions, and the multiple ways this movie ties to the original only add to those questions. However, again, like the original, the story’s central motif revolves around one character, Milena Smit’s Perempuan in this case, and whether she dies or escapes from the Vertical Self-Management Center.
What happens at the end of The Platform 2?
Although the movie is titled The Platform 2, it doesn’t make it entirely clear whether it’s a sequel or a prequel. At the movie’s start, there is order within the tower-like, vertical holding facility. This order is often implemented with brutality. A viewer can easily conclude that Goreng’s (Iván Massagué) actions in the first movie have something to do with these changes. However, Perempuan encounters Trimagasi (Zorion Eguileor) from the first movie as her third cellmate on level 72. Those who have seen the first movie might remember Trimagasi telling Goreng that he began his stay in the prison on level 72. So, perhaps this is a prequel set before the original movie.
In The Platform 2, “the loyalists” implement the order, trying to ensure that everyone will get the food of their choice. This pits them against “the barbarians,” who want to eat whatever they want when the food platform comes to their level. Perempuan initially follows the rules. However, she comes to recognize how brutal the loyalists, led by Dagin Babi (Óscar Jaenada), are. Following a violent confrontation between the loyalists and the barbarians, Perempuan tries to escape while the prisoners are rendered unconscious and rearranged across the levels. Perempuan manages to keep herself awake by swallowing a torn piece of a painting. She then chokes on it. As a result, she doesn’t lose consciousness when the pit’s cleaners knock out the other prisoners using gas.
Being tied to a pile of dead bodies, Perempuan descends to level 333. This is supposed to be the last level of the tower, but it goes on. She finds a young boy there. Driven by the guilt of inadvertently causing her boyfriend’s son’s death, she decides to take the boy with her.
Does Perempuan die or escape from the Vertical Self-Management Center?
Although the movie doesn’t specify, Perempuan is likely dead, probably due to the injuries she suffered during the descent. Or, perhaps, she and the other inmates are already dead when they enter the tower, a representation of the afterlife. This, in turn, reflects life and the desperate desire to ascent. This might be what the scenes with the children are also supposed to denote: how the need to move up in life is instilled in us while we are still young.
When Perempuan reaches the bottom level, she encounters dead inmates. They inform her that the child can go up, but not her. In the mid-credits scene, Trimagasi reappears and speaks to Goreng. Perempuan arrives, and it is heavily implied that she and Goreng know each other. Perhaps he is the above-mentioned boyfriend from her past, and she reunites with him in death.
