The Platform 2 left Netflix viewers with a lot of questions when it was released in October 2024, especially with its ending that changes what you thought you were watching.
Like the first movie, the sequel is set in a strange prison known as the Pit where inmates are treated to “treated” to a platform of food that descends from the floor above. Those at the top get their pick of the spoils, those at the bottom starve.
We follow cellmates Perempuán and Zamiatin, who have just arrived at the Pit and soon find themselves in a battle between the inmates who follow the Law, set by the Master, and the ones who rebel against the system.
For the majority of The Platform 2, you’ll think you’re watching a natural sequel to The Platform. However, an ending twist reveals that not everything is as straightforward as it seems.
If you still have questions after watching the shocking ending of The Platform 2, we’re here to help to answer any questions you have.
The Platform 2 ending explained: What does The Platform 2 ending mean?
Before theorising about the many mysteries in The Platform 2, let’s delve into everything that happens at the end.
Perempuán’s journey changes after Zamiatin’s self-immolation and the brutal murder of her new cellmate at the hands of the most ruthless Anointed One, Dagin Babi.
She decides she needs to escape following her cellmate’s plan. “At the end of each month, to reset the Pit, the gas they use is a form of sevoflurane. That’s when we’ll do it,” she told her, revealing there is an item somewhere in the Pit that can help them stay awake during that reset, known as The Interval.
The item is a painting, Francisco Goya’s The Drowning Dog. By eating it, she has a chance to stay awake long enough to escape.
After inciting a mutiny among those who oppose the Law, Perempuán finds the painting on one of the lower levels and hides it as the group keeps descending in the platform. She is forced to eat other inmates to survive as the month passes and the prison resets.
Before the reset, a war breaks out between both sides, taking the lives of dozens of inmates. Perempuán survives and eats the painting.
Just as her cellmate told her, she remains awake when the lights turn green and the workers of the Pit come to collect the dead and replace them with new souls.
It’s her chance to escape, but, at the last level, something catches her eye. One guard has just left a kid in one of the beds on the 333rd floor.
Perempuán decides to help the child instead of saving herself. She climbs with him into the platform and descends to the bottom of the Pit, where a group of people receive them.
The platform will soon make its way to the top floor, but, as one woman tells her, only the children can ascend. “Your journey is over, but he will have another chance,” the stranger tells her, so she lets him go.
Credits start to roll, but don’t go yet!
Time passes as the platform makes its way to the bottom three times with an adult and a child. The fourth pair, though, might be familiar to viewers – it’s Goreng, who is dropping the little girl he saved during the ending of 2019’s The Platform.
Goreng, if you need reminding, was the main character of the first movie who may (or may not) have died during the events of that movie upon trying to save the girl who would become the “symbol” they need to send to the surface.
As the platform leaves, Perempuán shows up and recognises him. “You, what are you doing here?” she asks him. They embrace each other, and the movie ends.
So hang on, does this mean The Platform 2 is actually a prequel? Let’s explain.
Is The Platform 2 a prequel?
Let’s unpack all those connections between The Platform and The Platform 2. First and foremost, as it’s confirmed in its final scene, this second movie is not a sequel, but a prequel.
The secret of this placement in the story’s timeline has been kept under wraps during the promotion of the film, so it comes as a total surprise when we learn when The Platform 2 takes place.
Goreng descending to the bottom of the Pit was the ending of The Platform, and now we know a few seconds later he reunites with Perempuán.
Now, who are they to each other? It’s not confirmed in this movie, but we can speculate Goreng is Perempuán’s ex-boyfriend.
When Perempuán tells her story earlier in the movie, she recalls a career-changing exhibition that ended up in tragedy when her boyfriend’s son was killed by one of her artistic creations.
“One of my pieces was a ferocious dog. Vicious. Terrible. Its claws were sharp blades, turned towards the viewer. They told me it was dangerous. But for me, it was the risk, the audacity, that made it truly special,” she says during her interview to enter the Pit.
“I refused to have any safety barriers put up. The kid wouldn’t stop running around. Then he tripped. One of the claws, one of the blades, went into his eye. I’d like to think he didn’t suffer. And that he died instantly.”
There’s the possibility that Goreng is that boyfriend who lost his son. Talking about his reasons for voluntarily entering the Pit in the first movie, he says he “wanted to quit smoking and read Don Quixote” and that he accepted to do “six months in exchange for an accredited degree”.
He doesn’t reveal anything about a lost son, but it wouldn’t be weird to assume some kind of grieving prompted him to make the decision to put himself through this horrible experience.
Another character that connects The Platform and The Platform 2 is Trimagasi. He is introduced in the first movie as Goreng’s experienced cellmate, but in the second movie, he is a newly arrived inmate. He is paired with Perempuán, and since the beginning refuses to follow the Law and is open to cannibalism.
Another important character connecting both movies is Miharu, who might be much more mysterious than we anticipated.
We first meet Miharu in the first movie, when she’s on a killing spree while looking for her “daughter” in the Pit. She befriends Goreng before she is killed by another inmate. In this second movie, we find out Miharu might be part of the prison system, although it’s still unclear in what capacity.
The Platform 2 features a room full of children playing around and dressed in the Pit’s uniforms. Miharu and another man enter the room and pick a boy, the same one Perempuán will save later in the movie. She doesn’t even spare a glance at her supposed daughter, Mari, who is among the children.
Why are these kids here? Why are they being picked one by one and placed in the last level of the Pit? Is Miharu part of the Administration, and what is her purpose? How did she go from selecting the kids to becoming the ruthless, silent killer we met in The Platform?
Unfortunately, there are no answers to these questions so far.
The Platform 2 explained: Who is the Master?
Talking about unresolved mysteries in The Platform universe: who is the God-like figure known as Master?
In The Platform 2, we learn that the Master (also known as the Messiah or the Hidalgo) created the Law. “Nobody knows if he’s still alive,” reveals one of the Loyalist inmates. “Or if he even existed,” hits back Zamiatin, who is sceptical about this figure and the rules imposed in his name.
The inmate goes on to explain that, a long time ago, “the Master sent a message of hope”.
“They say he survived a whole month without food on one of the lowest levels. Meditating. The next month, he woke up on another level where again he got no food. He cut flesh from his own thigh and he fed the needy. His Anointed Ones,” he explains.
“Since then, month after month, they have been spreading his message of solidarity throughout the Pit. Advocating for the food to be distributed fairly.”
At the start of the movie, thinking this was a sequel, we might have thought the Master was Goreng, who in the first movie defied the rules of the Pit to send a message of solidarity.
However, since The Platform 2 is actually a prequel and everything that happens is before Goreng’s time, we don’t know who the Master really is. We might have already met him in either of the two movies, or he might be somebody we’ve never seen.
We’ll have to wait for a third movie in order to unveil all the mysteries still remaining in the story.
The Platform and The Platform 2 are available to watch on Netflix.
Deputy Movies Editor, Digital Spy
Mireia (she/her) has been working as a movie and TV journalist for over seven years, mostly for the Spanish magazine Fotogramas.
Her work has been published in other outlets such as Esquire and Elle in Spain, and WeLoveCinema in the UK.
She is also a published author, having written the essay Biblioteca Studio Ghibli: Nicky, la aprendiz de bruja about Hayao Miyazaki’s Kiki’s Delivery Service.
During her years as a freelance journalist and film critic, Mireia has covered festivals around the world, and has interviewed high-profile talents such as Kristen Stewart, Ryan Gosling, Jake Gyllenhaal and many more. She’s also taken part in juries such as the FIPRESCI jury at Venice Film Festival and the short film jury at Kingston International Film Festival in London.
Now based in the UK, Mireia joined Digital Spy in June 2023 as Deputy Movies Editor.