The Platform 2

The Platform 2
Promotional release poster
Spanish	El hoyo 2
Directed by	Galder Gaztelu-Urrutia
Written by	David Desola Pedro Rivero Galder Gaztelu-Urrutia Egoitz Moreno
Produced by	Carlos Juárez Raquel Perea
Starring	Hovik Keuchkerian Milena Smit
Cinematography	Jon Sangroniz
Edited by	Haritz Zubillaga
Music by	Aitor Etxebarria
Production company	Basque Films
Distributed by	Netflix
Release dates	September 27, 2024 (2024-09-27) (Zinemaldia) October 4, 2024 (2024-10-04) (Spain)
Running time	101 minutes
Country	Spain
Language	Spanish

The Platform 2 (Spanish: El hoyo 2, lit. 'The Hole 2') is a 2024 Spanish science fiction horror film directed by Galder Gaztelu-Urrutia. A prequel to Gaztelu-Urrutia's The Platform (2019), it stars Milena Smit and Hovik Keuchkerian. It was released on October 4, 2024 to mixed reviews.

Plot

Perempuán is inside a dystopian, vertical prison with 333 floors, with one cell per floor, two people per cell, and a hole running down the center of the entire structure. Each day, a platform loaded with food descends through this hole, stopping at each level for only two minutes. Prisoners on higher floors have first access to the food, while those on lower levels risk starvation. At the end of each month, prisoners are randomly reassigned to new floors. Before entering, each inmate is interviewed and chooses one kind of food, which will be provided each day on a dish the platform. But there is also a dish with the choice of every other prisoner. Each prisoner is allowed to bring one personal item.

Perempuan and a large, imposing man named Zamiatin are placed together on level 24. Robespierre, a Loyalist from the level above, introduces them to the informal system currently operating in the prison. Two factions exist: Loyalists, who follow strict, self-imposed rules about eating only their chosen food (or trading voluntarily), and Barbarians, who eat whatever they can grab. He argues that the law of the Loyalists ensures fairer food distribution.

Tensions quickly escalate when prisoners from higher levels eat food meant for others. A violent conflict erupts, resulting in deaths and injuries. Perempuán and Robespierre fight to defend their level and maintain order. They learn about "The Messiah," a mythical figure who allegedly survived a month without food through meditation, then sacrificed his own leg to feed others on the lowest levels. His followers, known as the Anointed Ones, spread his message of the Loyalist laws.

As days pass, Zamiatin and Perempuán grow closer, sharing food and personal stories. Perempuan chose the prison out of grief after she inadvertently caused the death of her then-fiancé's son in an accident. Zamiatin is a disillusioned mathematician. But sometimes Zamiatin, in violation of the law, eats a little of the food of prisoners that have already died. Next month they awake on level 180, where all the food is already gone when the platform arrives. Zamiatin, already ill, sacrifices himself to protect Perempuán from punishment for harboring him, by jumping, aflame, into the pit.

Goya's painting The Dog is used as a plot device.

The next month, Perempuán is paired with Sahabat on level 51. Sahabat, missing an arm, shares her harrowing experiences with a particularly a brutal anointed one named Dagin Babi. The two bend strict law by choosing to go themselves down the platform to punish two barbarians who ate the food of others. But Dagin is systematically killing not only accused Barbarians throughout the prison but also loyalists who make minor infractions. Sahabat reveals a potential escape plan: fake death, hoping to be disposed of outside the facility. When Dagin and his followers arrive to punish them for disobeying a law, they kill Sahabat and cut off one of Perempuan’s arms.

In the following month, Perempuán awakes on level 72 with Trimagasi, whose personal item is a large knife. Disillusioned with the Loyalist ideals, Perempuán recruits a group of Barbarians, ostensibly to challenge the Loyalists but secretly to help her find the painting she needs for escape. A brutal and bloody battle ensues between the Loyalists, led by Dagin Babi, and Perempuán's group. Everyone dies but Perempuán and Trimagasi.

Perempuán eats a part of her oil painting and passes out. She awakes on level 333 bundled among corpses being disposed of. Gravity is suspended as workers in gas masks reset the prison. She discovers that the facility keeps children as tools to manipulate prisoners, using them as false symbols of hope or to prevent escape attempts. At the bottom level of the prison she tries to save a boy but fails. Instead she sends the boy back up and remains below to live with other survivors. Over time more prisoners arrive with children. Perempuán reunites with Goreng, who is actually her ex-fiancé.

Cast

Milena Smit

Hovik Keuchkerian

• Milena Smit as Perempuan
• Hovik Keuchkerian as Zamiatin
• Natalia Tena as Sahabat
• Óscar Jaenada as Dagin Babi
• Iván Massagué as Goreng
• Zorion Eguileor as Trimagasi
• Antonia San Juan as Imoguiri

Production

The original film was released on Netflix in March 2020. Subsequently, the film received a surge in popularity during the COVID-19 pandemic and the company revealed the film had been watched by 56 million households over its first four weeks of release, among the most-ever for one of their original films.

Discussions of a sequel emerged shortly after the film's success in 2020. In May 2023, Netflix reported the beginning of filming of the follow-up with Galder Gaztelu-Urrutia returning as director and starring Hovik Keuchkerian and Milena Smit.

Shooting locations included the BEC in Barakaldo.

Release

The film was selected for screening in the 'Culinary Zinema' section of the 72nd San Sebastián International Film Festival. It was released on Netflix on October 4, 2024.

Reception

Critical response

On the review aggregator website Rotten Tomatoes, 36% of 22 critics' reviews are positive, with an average rating of 5.6/10. Metacritic, which uses a weighted average, assigned the film a score of 46 out of 100, based on 6 critics, indicating "mixed or average" reviews.

In his review for The Guardian, Jesse Hassenger noted that while the film's "Grindhouse thought experiments" are engaging and suggest a stronger interest in speculative fiction than a singular thematic message, it ultimately falls short. He critiqued the film for moving too quickly and carelessly to develop its characters, stating that although Perempuán emerges as the lead and Smit performs well, the story lacks stability, constantly shifting beneath her. Hassenger gave the film two out of five stars.

Robert Daniels of RogerEbert.com delivered a scathing review of The Platform 2, criticizing the film for offering little beyond repeating the original. He argued that the movie quickly falls into rehashing the same "premonitions and metaphors" from its predecessor, even bringing back a character from the first film without adding anything new. Daniels went on to suggest that it might have been better if The Platform 2 had never been released, ultimately giving the film a rating of one and a half stars out of five.

David Ehrlich of IndieWire gave the film a 'C+' rating, writing that while there is enough "squelchy awfulness on display to keep horror fans engaged until the third act", the "film grows bored with the limits and implications of its own metaphor".

See also

• List of Spanish films of 2024

External links

• The Platform 2 at IMDb
• The Platform 2 Cast List at Screen Rant