The second most-watched movie on Netflix right now (and therefore, the second most-watched movie in the United States?) is a Spanish-language horror movie with no bankable stars. It’s not even part of a franchise. So, why is The Platform so popular? Peep the synopsis: “In the future, prisoners housed in vertical cells watch as inmates in the upper cells are fed while those below starve.” It’s beginning to make sense.
Directed by Galder Gaztelu-Urrutia, The Platform follows Goreng (played by Iván Massagué) as he awakens in a vertical prison. Two people are assigned on every level of “The Hole,” as the inmates have dubbed it, or the “Vertical Self-Management Center” by those in charge. Every 30 days, the prisoners are randomly assigned to a different level — Goreng begins at Level 48, which isn’t the worst, but it could be better. You see, the titular platform refers to the table of plentiful food and drink that begins at level 1 and slowly makes it down to the undetermined final level. The prisoners in the lower-number levels feast, while anyone below 75 or so starves for a month. Those on level 2 don’t have to gorge themselves, and could save plates for the poor souls stuck on level 150 (it could be them the next month, after all), but they don’t. Of course they don’t.
The Platform is not only a quarantine movie, in the way that every prison movie is a quarantine movie, it’s a scathing (if on-the-nose) critique of wealth inequality, where those at the top get the most, and those at the bottom get nothing. In the world of The Platform, that’s food. In our world, that’s food, and money, and coronavirus tests, and…
That either makes The Platform the best or worst movie to watch right now, as although most people recommend it, it might be a little too timely.
The Platform on Netflix is simultaneously the best and the worst movie to watch during these turbulent times.
— Daniel Chai (@IamDanielChai) March 23, 2020
THE PLATFORM is on Netflix and is perfect if you want a movie about people needing to work together in order to survive a perilous situation but are ultimately doomed because people keep thinking only of themselves. It's great and not at all a timely release. No, not at all. pic.twitter.com/EJjL1os9zR
— Christopher Cross (@HammerkopCross) March 21, 2020
If you want to see how ego will kill us all and how being considerate will save us all, see 'the platform' right now on netflix.
humanity will only prevail if we act like human, with faith & reasons.— Ika Natassa (@ikanatassa) March 22, 2020
https://twitter.com/b0nelessburrito/status/1241759238839361537
https://twitter.com/kathdeclaw/status/1241624195080941570
We're watching THE PLATFORM on Netflix and this is the most anxiety-inducing movie I've seen in a long time. Yikes. pic.twitter.com/nkJw3fUFRO
— Michelle Swope (@RedheadfromMars) March 21, 2020
https://twitter.com/CupOPuddin/status/1241868147474472966
The Platform on Netflix is perfect example of how trickle down, greed, & inequality work.
Instead of working as collective & recognizing how being at the bottom impacted them, once a person was at the top, they tried to take it all. #ThePlatformNetflix #QuarantineAndChill pic.twitter.com/jTRK1SRSQz
— Anthony V. Clark (@anthonyvclark20) March 22, 2020
Day 1 of Quarantine. We're watching The Platform on Netflix and debating what the most ethical form of cannibalism looks like. This bodes well.
— Fergus Halliday (@Cvamped) March 23, 2020
Saw a movie over weekend that is weirdly apt for the current social distancing, quarantine era. Touches on hoarding, isolation and many issues in our society on different levels, quite literally. Was hooked from the start.
The platform on @netflix
— Harini Janakiraman (@HariniLabs) March 24, 2020
After watching The Platform, why not check out Snowpiercer?
