Netflix’s Slightly More Interesting Take On A Bizarre Premise

It’s difficult to ascertain where the quote came from, but someone wiser than myself once said that civilization is only nine meals away from anarchy. That is: if the citizens are starved, en masse, for three full days, governmental systems will collapse. One may be a moral, upstanding citizen, but if starved for three days, food theft becomes an attractive, natural option. Another old saying: If you see someone stealing food at the grocery store, no you didn’t.

Galder Gaztelu-Urrutia’s “The Platform 2,” arriving on Netflix without fanfare on October 4, details the above adage in knuckle crunching detail. This new sequel has the same premise and setting as the first “The Platform,” which was consumed voraciously by Netflix subscribers in 2020 right at the start of Covid-related lockdowns. Who would have guessed a bleak, sci-fi story about being trapped inside with limited food would resonate at such a time? “The Platform 2” doesn’t shake up the formula much, other than to dramatize a rise in violent tribalism between those who wish to perpetuate a carefully maintained system of resource allocation, and those who believe that it’s every man for himself. It seems that “The Platform 2” may be just as timely. 

The premise of the “Platform” movies plays better as a metaphor than as an actual story. In a futuristic dystopia, prisoners are held in a massive concrete tower with a cell on each story. Penetrating through each floor is a massive square hole through which prisoners can yell epithets at each other. Once a day, a floating platform covered with food is lowered through the hole, floor by floor, allowing prisoners to have their fill. Those on the top floors get to feast, but there is less and less food on the platform as it descends. By the time it gets down to the lower floors, there is no food left, and the prisoners are starving and resorting to cannibalism. 

Get it? Get it? Of course you do. “The Platform 2” doesn’t expand on the first’s themes of class and ill-begotten resource allocation, but it does, at the very least, tell the story in a slightly more personal way.

The class metaphors in “The Platform 2” function better as a spark for academic discussions than as a premise for a sci-fi movie, and a lot of time is spent explaining how things work in this universe. In addition to the unusual food platform, the towered prison also allows inmates to take one personal item with them, from a beloved painting to knives or lighters. There are no guards or wardens, but there are cameras watching the prisoners. The prisoners are only allowed to eat when the platform stops on their floor, and they’re not allowed to keep any food with them. If they do, their floor can instantly become an oven or a freezer, killing them. Also, once a month, the prisoners are all gassed unconscious and moved to new floors. 

This is a long way to go to tell a story about how people go feral when they starve. The main character of “The Platform 2” is Perempuan (Milena Smit from “Parallel Mothers”) a well-to-do artist who has been imprisoned for a crime she wishes to keep secret. Her cellmate is the outsized, hard-fisted Zamiatin (Hovik Keuchkerian) who doesn’t seem to care about anything more than getting his daily dose of pizza; he burned down his parents’ home when they wouldn’t serve him his favorite food. It’s worth noting that “perempuan” is the Indonesian word for “woman,” making our protagonist a cipher by design. Zamiatin was likely named after Yevgeny Zamyatin, the author of the seminal sci-fi novel “We.”

The two learn the prison’s rules from the prisoners above and below them. Take only the food you ordered, and leave the rest for those below. These rules are to be strictly enforced if everyone is to be fed. This new benevolent philosophy was instigated in the climax of the last “Platform” movie by that film’s protagonist. Luckily, one needn’t be deeply familiar with the previous film’s lore to understand this one.  

At first, Perempuan strictly follows the plan to keep everyone fed, but soon learns that it only takes a few selfish bad actors to completely louse up the system. One’s benevolence to a caring system can only stretch so far when rioters and a-holes can upend everything almost instantly. Factions have formed, with the peaceful sect overseen by a threatening blind Messiah (Óscar Jaenada) who entreats people to share their food … or else. “The Platform 2” is a wonderful portrait of how peaceful religious orders can quickly evolve into “my way or the highway” sectarianism. 

As prisoners ride the platform to violent conflagrations, however, no new solutions or themes emerge, and viewers might begins to realize that the story isn’t really going anywhere. There is some tantalizing talk about escape, but such a prison break never occurs. This is a film that cares more about simile than plot. “The Platform 2” is better at personalizing its bizarre setting than the first, but it doesn’t climax in any interesting way. One might merely be hanging on to witness the increasing inter-prisoner violence. By then, however, we got the message. Yes, society is built on unfair systems that favor and enrich the haves over the have-nots. “The Platform 2” may only be profound to adolescents. 

Also, when the “big reveal” happens late in the film, and audiences are told the crime Perempuan is guilty of, it is underwhelming. The revelation doesn’t add anything to her character, or reveal something vital about the plot. Details are merely withheld for the sake of it.

“The Platform 2” is better than the first, but only in terms of filmmaking acumen. It is superior in acting, lighting, pacing, and clarity. It’s also raw and confrontational in a satisfying way. But it’s also a glorified remake more than it is a sequel. “Platform 2” is not an expansion, but a retread, nihilistically sifting through violence and cannibalism to get to a point it repeated over and over. Second verse, same as the first. 

/Film rating 6 out of 10

“The Platform 2” is streaming on Netflix October 4, 2024.