Spoiler Alert: The Absence of Everything in the End of 'Infinity Pool'

Infinity Pool (2023)

Directed by Brandon Cronenberg

Written by Brandon Cronenberg

Starring Mia Goth, Alexander Skarsgard, Cleopatra Coleman

Release Date January 27th, 2023

Published February 3, 2023

This article contains spoilers for the ending of the new movie Infinity Pool. I highly recommend you see the film before you read this article. Infinity Pool is a mindbending, genre-defying, exploration of unchecked privilege. Writer-Director Brandon Cronenberg takes influence from his father, David Cronenberg, in crafting eye-catching body horror while using his film to explore themes he finds interesting such as the notion of identity and the unchecked privilege of the uber-rich. The title alone, Infinity Pool, suggests an unending lavish and luxurious privilege reserved only to those who could afford it.

SPOILERS AHEAD JUMP NOW AND SEE INFINITY POOL...

The plot of Infinity Pool comes into focus when Alexander Skarsgard's James Foster is arrested for vehicular homicide. The previous night, he'd gone out with his wife, Em, played by Cleopatra Coleman, and a couple they'd just met, Gabi and Alban Bauer, played by Mia Goth and Jalil Lespert. They foursome got drunk and while driving back to their resort, with James behind the wheel, they struck a man crossing the street, killing him instantly. Gabi then convinces them to leave the scene without reporting the incident, compounding their legal problems the following day.

James is arrested while his wife and the Bauer's are detained. The investigating detective, played by Thomas Kretschmann, tells James that the punishment for his crime is death. The family of the man he killed is allowed to exact their revenge by executing him themselves. But, there is a way out. For a hefty fee, the cops will make a complete clone of James, one with all of his features and memories, and that clone will stand-in when James is put to death. The only catch is that James will have to watch his own execution. James agrees and is forever changed by seeing himself be gutted by the oldest son of the man he killed.

This death sentence is James' initiation into an exclusive club. The Bauer's inform James that they've also been through their own execution after an infinity pool that Alban installed at another resort, went to pieces and killed two workers. Since seeing their own execution, the Bauers have built a hedonistic group of fellow Americans who've committed death sentence offenses while staying at this resort. Having seen their own deaths, the group finds that there are really no consequences for their actions and thus they seek to engage in even greater debauchery to achieve an ever more elusive high.

Em leaves immediately, not remotely interested in James' new friends. Thus, James is left free to indulge in drugs, group sex, and murder, all with no consequences. If the group is caught murdering a local official who ticked them off, they won't die. They can simply pay a fee for another clone and enjoy the incredibly morbid show of watching themselves die again. As you can imagine, this kind of unchecked privilege leads James to his darkest depths. Reaching a nadir, he will try to save himself, but what is he saving himself from?

The final act of Infinity Pool is basically James becoming a plaything, a toy for Mia Goth's Gabi to play with as she pleases. The game she chooses has James killing one his own clones in a fight to the death. It's a horrific death and since James can never be sure whether he is himself or a clone of his original self, there is an extra kick of desperation, confusion and anger that underscores the fury he lets loose on this other version of himself.

By the end of the movie this group of debauched travelers have committed heinous acts. They've abused all kinds of substances, they've engaged in endless orgies of various kinky varieties, and they've straight up committed murders. And, though James wears these facts on his face, his conscience becoming an unimaginable anchor on his very soul, the rest of these over-privileged people are just fine. They're somehow unchanged by what they've done. They've reached a place of such evil and depravity that the heinous acts they've committed are merely the pleasure of a good vacation.

The final minutes of Infinity Pool play out as James joins the group on a shuttle to the airport to head back to America. While James sits haunted and defeated in the back of the bus, the rest of the group chats pleasantly about their children, their homes, and the day to day chores they will have to complete back home. If they have felt any remorse over their actions, even a shadow of guilt, you can't see it. Each of these fellow travelers, these potential clones of real human beings, is completely oblivious to the abuses they've committed.

James, taking the role of Jesus, then must carry their sins. James must suffer for what this microcosm of humanity has done. Instead of boarding the plane to go home to his loving and shockingly forgiving wife, James returns to the now empty resort where he sits amid a violent monsoon. With no supplies, shelter, or means of survival, James sits patiently awaiting death as if he were waiting for a waiter to bring him his bill. It's a dynamic closing visual and pitch perfect ending for a movie in which Sodom & Gomorrah have been enacted among a small group of unforgivable, debauched heathens.

That's one way to read the film, however, in my non-spoiler review of Infinity Pool, I posited that Infinity Pool is about the absence of religion, the absence of the redeeming power of Jesus, and, indeed, the absence of God. It's my opinion that James chooses his fate after seeing that there were no consequences, no wrathful figure to come from the heavens to deliver justice through a swift death and trip to the fiery pits of Hell. What James is feeling is the absence of God, the actions he witnessed and participated in, acting as proof that nothing matters and that God either does not exist or does not care what happens to his creation.

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