Brandon Cronenberg has been pushing the boundaries of filmmaking for many years, following in his father’s footsteps. His latest, Infinity Pool, highlights his twisted and wild mind in tackling the rich. While he continues to provide plenty of flash and substance, Cronenberg gives us a daring end to the film. Below we explain the ending of Infinity Pool.
While Infinity Pool won’t be for everyone because the movie isn’t the most accessible to watch (50% rating with the Audience on Rotten Tomatoes), I enjoyed most of what Cronenberg presented. Cronenberg often has a huge mind, and sometimes the overall picture can be lost throughout his films. However, one thing I love that he does is bring together the pieces to end his movies.
Infinity Pool follows James and Em, who are on vacation to a country where they are advised not to leave the resort. We quickly learn that James is struggling to find inspiration for his next book, which he hopes to find while on the trip. They meet Gabi and Alban shortly after arriving, who convince them to leave the resort. On their way back from the excursion, we see James swerve and hit a man with the car. Gabi and Alban convince James to get back in the car and head to the resort, leaving the man behind. Instead of being executed for his crimes, Em is able to use her money to get an identical clone of James made, and that’s what got executed in his place.
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Upon returning to the resort, James realizes he isn’t the only clone. Another thing he discovers is that Gabi and Alban could care less about him. This leads to James heading to the airport to get out of dodge. Sadly, James only makes it so far as Gabi and her crew quickly stop him. One thing leads to another, and Gabi forces James to walk down the street as she reads every bad review of his book out loud to him.
Infinity Pool Ending Explained
Infinity Pool ends where we see Gabi and her crew at the airport flying back home like nothing ever happened. However, like any good Cronenberg film ending, we get a massive twist that leaves you guessing what happened. We find out James hasn’t left the resort but sticks around sneaking back into the place, and the film comes to a close with us seeing James sitting down and getting drenched by rain.
What is James’s final test?
James must complete his transformation by beating a double of himself to death. We see James struggle with it, but he quickly understands he has no other choice. After completing the task, we see James relegated to crying in a fetal position on the floor. It was almost as if this moment was the birth of James joining Gabi’s little cult, or so we think.
Why does James Stay at the Resort?
The biggest theory is that he has stayed at the resort because the entire vacation has caused too much damage to him to go home. However, another one is that we see James’s clone at the end of the film and not James himself.
Basically, this is saying that James died in the execution earlier in the movie, and the person we see for the remainder of the film is his clone. It would explain his somewhat awkwardness and reluctance to leave the resort. I love a good theory, so if you have any ideas about what the ending meant, hit us in the comments below.
What did you think of the ending of the 2023 horror film Infinity Pool? Comment below.
So you actually had nothing to report? So dumb
James was so messed up and lost after what they did to him, that he stayed because he’s waiting for them to return the next summer. Maybe James is going to build a clone army and seek revenge when they come back? Like the girl said see you next summer. He’ll be there waiting and then some.
Was indeed a strange yet edge of the seat film. My belief is that James (clone) killed real James. He needs to see them next summer for answers. So he sits and waits