So Infinity Pool is a movie that I can't stop thinking about. Whether it's the ambiguous
ending, the horrifying turns that the characters take or the fact it makes the mundane insane,
something about it just won't leave my head. From the first second I put this on it just
hypnotised me and throughout it's runtime I didn't check my phone or glance away from
the screen. It's something I haven't felt since watching Stanley Kubrick movies and
this is easily my favourite film of the year so far.
Looking back at it there's so much to unpack and throughout this breakdown I'm gonna be
going through the movies true meaning and also discussing what I took from the ending.
Weirdly I actually found myself relating to James a lot and I actually think there's some
key character traits in him that are universal on a human level.
Now I will be talking about some of the plot points in the movie as they happen but I'm
gonna take it that you've seen the film and that you're up to speed with it's story. I
don't wanna just recap the plot as there's so much to talk about and I think the best
place to start is actually the ending.
In it we watch as James ends up returning back to the resort that acted as a place in
which he was reborn after going through a nightmareish week there.
At this point James has now decided not to return back to his wife and instead he feels
fully independent and able to embrace his true self.
This is hinted at by a line from Gabi in which she says.
Em will never let you be how you are
The group stage everything so that in the end he has to destroy the personification
of himself and the week should be seen as an initiation trial. As soon as he does this
he is freed and we even see a switch in Gabi in which she goes from a complete psychopath
to a nuturing figure.
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She accused Em of doing a number on him and is now having to go to the opposite extreme
in order to reverse this. Not saying she's a good person or anything either and at this
moment I think the movie is telling us that James has just gone from one woman who tells
him how to act into the arms of another. Might sound like I'm making Em sound bad too but
unlike the group she genuinely cares for him. However James clearly feels like she holds
him down as we get a moment late on where he hallucinates a scene where everyone is
standing around in their masks and shes sat on him with her hands around his throat.
The entire movie is about how stepping out from under the control of others in order
to become his own person. In the airport we get him staring at his name on his ticket
and passport which is his identity. However he uses neither and goes back to sit in the
rain by himself.
Now in order to talk about this transformation we have to go back to the beginning of the
movie when we first meet him. The film opens with James and Em out on a trip which he's
hoping will inspire him to break free of the writers block he's suffered for the past six
years. James wrote a debut novel that wasn't very well received and it failed both critically
and commercially completely killing his self esteem. Even his wife Em doesn't really regard
him as being anything special and you get the idea that the pair are only together because
she was reebelling against her dad who didn't want her marrying a writer.
James feels like a failure and he's desperately hoping that this trip will spark up some inspiration
within him that will allow him to somewhat prove his doubters wrong. Now I've spoken
about this with a lot of different people who've built themselves up from nothing and
we all agree that there's one key trait needed in order to become a self made success.
At some point in your life you have to have had someone who has doubted you and it's built
a mentality into you that says "i'll show them."
This motivates you to work longer hours, push harder and prove them wrong which can take
you from being apathetic to inspired.
Now I feel like this is something that exists not only within James but also within the
movies creator. Though you might not be able to pick Brandon Croeneberg out of a lineup
I think that everyone will have at least have heard his surname. Whenever I've seen his
name mentioned in an article it's often followed by a short paragraph of text talking about
his world famous father.
Looking at this film you could even see James as a metaphor for Brandon and he's very much
trying to prove himself with this movie just like how James is. I don't think it's a coincidence
that James' book is said to have only been published because of Em's dad and this may
be Brandon fighting back against of some of the criticism that he faces.
Nepotism is a big buzzword at the moment but I think this film proves that he's easily
able to step out of his father's shadow.
Em can very much be seen as being one of the people that doubts and makes fun of him and
at one point she even jokes that he's finally met someone from his fan club when they come
across Gabi. At the dinner table she says that she feels like she's like a charitable
organisation at this point which clear sits as a sore note for him.
James leaving her at the end is very much him breaking free and going out to be his
own man because he realises the person he is doesn't really have a future with Em. If
we look at the bus scene when everyone is leaving we can catch the rest of the characters
altogether in their couples.
They're acting like they're returning to normality and the fact that their partners don't freak
out like Em did is because they accept both the good and bad sides of their partners.
They embrace the chaos and support each other throughout the debauchery but they're also
able to tone it down and return back to a normal life.
James isn't able to do this because he hasn't really found someone who accepts him and this
is why he doesn't go back to Em. He's someone he has to hide his passport from and this
also represents the side of him he feels like he can't show her. She sees what they all
get up to as being disgusting whereas the rest of the group are far more accepting of
who he truly is.
The use of the ugly masks also symbolises who they truly are and the darkness hidden
within them that is now fully out on the surface.
The movie deals with duplicates throughout and I think that this speaks to the double
sided personality that we all have. Humans have two sides to them and we also show one
side publicly whilst having our own private side that only we know about.
Often referred to as the shadow self this is a darker side that I think these characters
end up showing as they realise they can get away with more and more.
Sigmund Frieud also came up with the idea of the Ego and the ID. The Ego is the more
rational part of us whereas the ID is the primitive side.
Ego plays a big part of the film and Gabi even gets James on side with her by massaging
him over his crap book. It was crap
to be fair.
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Now James ends up coming face to face with his own ID at the end of the film and this
primative version of him is referred to as the dog. Gabi says that he has to sacrifice
the dog and this ties back to the idea of the new james having to being born through
blood.
He kills and conquers this and once more goes back to being the rational ego that he was
at the start of the movie. However you could also see him returning to the resort as being
something that showcases he accepts who he is and that the person he became here is the
man that he's become.
Either way I think both could be taken as valid interpretations with him being reborn
come the death of the dog.
This is shown literally in the film with him sucking on Gabi's...well you know which is
symbolic of breastfeeding.
I think the bus journey is highly symbolic of this because he's sat on his own whilst
the others arent.
They're in their along with their quote unquote double who is just the same as them.
Now doubles of course also play a major role in the movie as well.
In the movie we watch as James and his wife Em meet a couple whilst theyre on holiday
in the fictional country of La Tolqa. James accidentally kills a local farmer through
drunk driving and he discovers that the La Tolqa'ns have certain rules and traditions.
If someone kills someone then their son has the right to execute the person who did it
and James is sentenced to death.
However there's another aspect that enters into the equation for the rich and wealthy.
Those that can afford it can pay to have a clone created that possesses all their memories
and that person is then killed whilst the other version watches on.
Now what it boils down to is basically the idea that the elite can do what they want
and get away with it because they have the money to pay for it.
When the movie ended my wife turned to me asked what the film was about and I replied
by saying and I quote:
It's a metaphor for a lads holiday I had in Magaluf when I was 17.
Now what I mean by that is that I went abroad to the booze capital, spent the week basically
doing what I wanted, was a bit of a disgrace and then came home like nothing had happened.
You'll often see reports of people going out to places like this and it's clear that the
tourists just show up, treat the place like a playground and then leave.
Goes without saying that the locals get pretty fed up with it but they rely on the tourism
so they have to allow it to happen so that they can afford to live. Early on in the movie
we even see one of the locals driving a quad bike around dangerously and this is part of
a protest to stop the tourists from acting like this.
However the entire eco system there relies on it so they simply allow it to happen.
Detective Thresh is a great example of this as well and we discover that he's pretty much
made a business out of selling dopplegangers to the tourists. He doesnt really do much
detecting and instead just wheels them in, gets the money, kills the doppelganger and
then lets them free without and reprecussions.
They then continue to do what they want, he makes a buck, rinse and repeat.
It of course also shows how the Elite are so powerful that they can buy their way out
of anything and it speaks to the corruption that has to exist for these things to continue
happening.
Everything is given a green light if you're powerful enough and we've even seen this happen
in real life. If you live in England you'l probably know about the case of Harry Dunne
and Anne Saccoolas. She was over here from the US and after driving on the wrong side
of the road she hit and killed Harry.
Now this would normally be a straightforward matter but Anne's husband was a CIA operative
stationed in the area and thus she got diplomatic immunity. Anne then fled the country and returned
to the US which refused to extradite her. It was a long and agonising time for the family
to try and get justice and in the end Anne didn't face any jail time even though she
was found guilty.
Now there's obviously a lot of political things involved with that that I wont wade too far
into and I'm sure that there'll be people saying "well that's just how diplomatic immunity
works mate."
Ask yourself though, if one of your family member was killed in a hit and run and the
person who did it just left the country, would you feel the same about it?
Probably not but we see that the rich in the film can basically do what they want because
of their position.
Now that question of empathy takes me into my next point which we see demonstrated beautifully
within the film.
The fact is that the central characters we follow simply don't possess this and that's
because in this world they don't need to in order to fit in. They have complete freedom
from consequences and therefore don't have to view anything as being something that they
should care about.
This is shown by Gabi berating James as the car follows him. Her just sitting sipping
wine screaming Jamesy is the thing that stands out to me the most in this movie and it shows
just how heartless she is. Here is a guy that she got to leave his wife and pretended to
be a fan of his in order to seduce him.
Here though she reveals she didn't even read his book and then busts out a review that
looks like the youtube comments section when I make a video like this.
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Gabi is such a detestable villain because she thinks she's something special because
of what she can do with her money. She's just someone who works in commercials and in the
grand scheme of things probably isn't that important. However, because she's rich and
beautiful and been enabled to act like how she wants she treats everyone horrendously.
The character can't imagine what it's like to be the peopel she looks down on and she
possesses absolutely no empathy.
Now though we're meant to feel bad for James he's also done the same thing too.
The guy has shown no empathy throughout the majority of movie and this is showcased in
his actions against Em and his doppelganger.
There's a brilliant scene in the film where we watch as the people in the group think
that they're going to get executed without the ability to buy their way out and they're
absolutely terrified. We see them lined up and killed and then get the brilliant twist
that the quote unquote originals are fine and just watching this play out.
Those getting executed can't take it and it cements how they'd truly be if it was them
on the other side.
It is possible that facing their own death is what broke them and it's difficult to imagine
how you'd act upon seeing yourself die. Either way though this empowers them and they're
entertained by watching their own ends.
Now why this is important is because we learn the doppelgangers are exact copies of the
originals. They have their memories and personalities and are 1 for 1 copies. The terror in this
moment that we see the doppelgangers facing is the same terror that they would feel if
they were in this situation but they sit their laughing.
They can't even empathize with someone who is for all intents and purposes them and instead
they sit their laughing away as they watch their own deaths.
I know one of the major questions around the movie is whether James is actually James at
the end or if he's a clone that just doesn't realise it. One of the group even brings this
up and I've seen a couple of comments saying that the cuts on his face could show that
he's been switched out.
I don't think they line up with the dogs though and all in all I actually don't think that
the answer matters. The fact is that they are perfect copies so it shouldn't really
make a difference who is who and what is what. These people are still willing to torture
versions of themselves and therefore they're not people we should like or side with.
Now I do think that when it's revealed James has been beating on himself that he comes
to this realisation. He locks himself in his room and decides to return home which is when
Gabi and the group start to physically and mentally torture him.
They are there to take what they want and this hedonistic group do whatever they can
to put James through his paces.
I did notice that there's probably some parallels between Gabi getting James DNA after he's
just finished urinating and the authorities taking DNA but meh that might not be the case.
She does this without consent and James doesnt fully realise what he's getting into but it
goes too far and in the end he gets pulled in deeper.
He also urinates on the dogs face before the reveal so it's like....both these moments
of peeing see turns in the character.
Now the trip as a whole to me could be seen as a trial that they put people through in
order to try and convert them to their hedonistic ways.
We never get this confirmed in the film but Gabi says that they put people through this
kind of stuff every year and this time around James is their victim. Come their final Goodbye
Gabi says she hopes to see James next year and this implies that this is something they
do annually. Therefore you can draw the conclusions that the rest of the group were couples like
James and Em who were tortured like this before they were converted.
James is ordered to shoot the dog at the end and she refers to this as creating a transformation.
The others likely went through this and they were then reborn just like how James was.
Now in the end he's killed his ID and been reborn as the man he truly is. Em seeing his
reaction to his doubles death showed her what he was really like but with her out the picture
he no longer needs to supress his darker impulses.
He's broken free of the group because he doesnt really see himself as being part of them and
returned as his own man to the place he can be himself.
Everyone on the bus is happy to put a lid on this and shut it off but James is unable
to leave this all behind.
Looking at the bus trip there's somewhat a layer of sadness to it as we have Gabis husband
Alban saying he has to return to work immediately upon them touching back down.
Gabi says.
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And there's this kind of idea that she's off to face months and months of bitter loneliness
before she returns to this place where she can actually be herself. It explains why she
gets an obsession over James as he does seem to at least be interested in her outside of
all the partying.
Now there's actually a nature vs nuture motif to this entire thing as well as you can question
whether James was always like this or if he was moulded to be as wild as he was by Gabis
actions. Personally I lean more in with the idea that he was always this f**ked up, he
just found a way to do it without reprecussions.
Him watching his own execution is him seeing himself getting away with murder and he goes
back to the resort because to him that's returning home.
It's the perfect way to close out the film and it shows the journey he's gone on.
Now what's brilliant about the movie is that you can completely toss this interpretation
to the side and see it as being something completely different.
This movie has a lot of things you can talk about in it iand it's one of those films I
just had to discuss. I looked at a lot of other videos on it and saw the viewcount wasn't
that high which in most cases would stop me from spending time and money on writing it
and paying editors.
However like I said this film completely blew me away and I hope this video has been as
enjoyable for you as it was for me.
Drop your comments below and if you enjoyed it please hit the thumbs up button.
If you want something else to watch then we've got a video on screen right now and with that
out the way, I've been Paul, you've been the best and I'll see you next time. Take care,
peace.