Infinity Pool is a 2023 science fiction horror film written and directed by Brandon Cronenberg (Antiviral, Possessor). It stars Alexander Skarsgård, Mia Goth, and Cleopatra Coleman.
James W. Foster (Skarsgard) is a struggling author who wrote one novel six years ago and has been stuck with writer's block ever since. Hoping for inspiration, he and his wife Em (Cleopatra Coleman) take a vacation to a fancy resort in the country of Li Tolqa and run into a woman named Gabi (Mia Goth), a beautiful fan of his book. Gabi convinces the pair to make a short excursion outside of the resort in spite of the country's dangerous reputation. When tragedy strikes their escapade, Foster finds himself drawn into an unexpected world of hedonism, violence and horror.
This film contains examples of:
- All Crimes Are Equal: Just about every crime in Li Tolqa is punishable by execution, to the point that Gabi's group quip that they're surprised anyone is left in the country.
- Ambiguous Clone Ending: Happens throughout the film. Is it really the clones who die or the originals? The doubling process causes a loss of consciousness and duplicates the original's memories, up to and including memories of the doubling process itself, perfectly. While the police probably keep records, subjects of the process have no way to know. Gabi and her clique have decided that they don't care. One particularly horrifying scene even has the group waiting in a room for the process to start, only to find out that they are the clones and are being led to their execution, much to their terror. However, Alban was shot in the leg during their crime, but the version of him who walks to the execution room is uninjured, suggesting that he's the clone. When we see the version of him who survived, he's walking with a cane.
- Age-Gap Romance: Gabi is clearly much younger than her husband. There is a seventeen-year gap between the actors' ages.
- Ax-Crazy: Gabi's whole group of tourists turn out to be psychotic murderers, at least while on vacation.
- Be Careful What You Wish For: James lies to Em in order to stay in Li Tolqa with Gabi and her glamorous friends. He gets to stay and finds out the hard way that they care about him about as much as they care about their own clones.
- Being Evil Sucks: Despite all the debauchery they get up to and the fact they get away with it all, Gabi's clique and especially James don't actually seem to be having much fun. They treat each other horribly, they constantly goad each other into more dangerous extremes (after all, the doubling process does nothing for the bullet wound in Alban's leg), and the end of the movie makes it clear that they're cut off from the rest of humanity and totally alone. They do what they do because they're debauched sadists eagerly acting out every sick fantasy than they're simply bored and directionless and see being cruel and depraved without any fear of consequence as just another way to kill time.
- Brownface: Used in-universe by Li Tolqan performers doing a Bollywood dance.
- Central Theme:
- The consequences of tourism to local populations and culture.
- What would you do if you knew you'd never have to face consequences?
- The Corrupter: Gabi to James. James was already at least a bit corrupt, as demonstrated by his enjoyment of his clone's execution and hiding his own passport as an excuse to stay in Li Tolqa, but Gabi was the one who sensed this and took him to levels he never would have imagined otherwise.
- Cute and Psycho: James is intensely attracted to Gabi right from the start, though some of this might just be the fact that she says she's a fan of his book. She also turns out to be quite psychotic.
- Dating What Daddy Hates: Em's father warned her not to marry a writer, but Em didn't listen. As it turns out, he might have had a point.
- Depraved Bisexual: James and the murder tourists engage in drug-fueled orgies that have both male and female members engaging in sexual intercourse with each other. When they're not having orgies, they're murdering locals and committing other horrible acts.
- Double-Meaning Title: Infinity Pool is a type of luxury hotel swimming pool that gives off the illusion of merging with the ocean and also a reference to the "doubling" process that requires individuals to stand in a large pool of colorful fluids in order to create the doppelgänger. Furthermore, as long as one has the money, you have an otherwise infinite pool of clones at your disposal.
- Downer Ending: No one gets what they want. Em most likely never sees James again after seeing him for the monster he is. Gabi and her friends manage to corrupt James, but he just breaks instead of becoming one of them. And James stays behind in Li Tolqa, completely destroyed by what he’s seen and done, unable to return to anything resembling a normal life.
- Establishing Character Moment: James and Em are established to not be on the same page in the first few scenes. When they wake up together, Em mishears him and thinks he said gibberish. Later, she decides to spend the day without him and leaves the table without even saying goodbye.
- Gabi's first evil act happens near the beginning of the movie, when she gives James a clearly unwanted handjob, showing just how powerful a figure she is.
- Expendable Clone: Li Tolqa allows the rich to get away with crimes by having one of these executed in their place. Gabi and her friends are so wealthy, they can even afford extra clones of James to mess with him. This is discussed and possibly subverted: after James's "first time", Gabi's clique involve him in a discussion about whether or not they're sure if it was the clone or the original who was executed (the "doubling" process causes a loss of consciousness and imprints the clone with all of the original's memories up to and including the doubling process, so it's impossible for the subject to be sure). Their conclusion: they don't care. They are the version who survived, so the other version, whether original or clone, was expendable.
- Fan Disservice: There's plenty of nudity in this movie, but it's always either shown in a hallucination, amidst horrible violence and/or dehumanizing situations, or all of the above.
- Femme Fatale: In spite of this not being a noir film, Gabi hits all the notes. She's a beautiful and deceitful seductress who wraps the main character around her finger to her own ends.
- Fictional Holiday: The film takes place during a local holiday season in the fictional culture of Li Tolqa.
- "Get Out of Jail Free" Card: James and his friends treat Li Tolqa's whole "have-a-clone-killed-in-your-place-in-exchange-for-money" system as this, on the assumption that it gives them license to do any depraved thing they want.
- Gold Digger: An unusual male example. James is an author who wrote one book (which was poorly received) and has done nothing since; fortunately for him, he married a rich publishing heiress who pays all the bills.
- Humans Are Bastards: James, Gabi and the rest of the group do multiple cruel criminal acts all the while knowing that their clones made from them will face punishment for what they do. Subverted a bit in that the film makes it clear that this sets them apart from most of humanity: Em, the primary representative of "normal" humanity in the cast, is disgusted by James's ability to just watch another die for his crime, and she didn't even see the worst of it. James perceives the crowded airport as empty because even in such a crowd, he is completely alone.
- I Choose to Stay: The bleakest possible version. James stays in Li Tolqa when he realizes that he can't return to a normal life after the horrible things he was involved in, but he's not happy about it at all.
- Karma Houdini: Basically everybody. James is allowed to return home to his wife, life, and wealth, and is invited by the others to come back and do it all again next year. He is utterly broken by his actions and chooses to stay at Li Tolqa, thinking he doesn’t deserve to go back to normal society.
- Kick the Dog: Near the conclusion, Gabi mockingly explains that all of her interactions with James have been to toy with him and laugh at him behind his back. In particular, near the end, Gabi reads off negative reviews of James's previous book to him as they force him to walk.
- Lack of Empathy:
- Even before the serious corruption sets in, James is actually somewhat entertained to watch a being that is essentially himself die a terrible death.
- The mass execution scene, taking place as it does from the clones' point of view, emphasizes how Gabi and her friends should be able to empathize with the clones' terror and pain, since the clones are effectively the same people they are. But they just applaud the show.
- Laughing Mad: Gabi while forcing James out of the bus at gunpoint, even taunting him by calling him "Jamesy" in a loud childish voice.
- Loony Fan: Gabi is such a big fan of James that she spends the entire trip seducing him, despite having her husband there on the trip with her. Until it turns out she'd never read it in the first place and only claimed so to mess with him.
- Meal Ticket: Em is a female example. She supports James while he tries to get over his interminable writer's block.
- Menacing Mask: The film takes place during a folk holiday in Li Tolqa that apparently involves wearing horrifying masks. James and Gabi's crew steal some masks before perpetrating some crimes.
- Meet Cute: Implied when Em references meeting James after he spilled coffee on her.
- Mondegreen: As they're waking up, Em hears James asking her if she wants to eat breakfast as "you can't feed yourself with white-sand brain death".
- Ms. Fanservice: Yes, Mia Goth does get naked several times. Though the context kills the appeal.
- Murder Is the Best Solution: The Li Tolqan authorities could simply fine rich tourists who break the law, but Li Tolqan honor apparently demands that someone die when one of their many laws that rate capital punishment is broken.
- My God, What Have I Done?: At the end, James is visibly traumatized by the weeks he spent brutalizing Li Tolqa with Gabi's clique. So much so that he decides he doesn't deserve to go home.
- Newhart Phone Call: James's conversation with Em when he's about to leave the hotel for the final time is only heard from his side. Based on his statements, we can infer that Em is eagerly awaiting his return in spite of how cold their parting was.
- Nightmare Fetishist: James is captivated by the execution of his double, to the point it inspires him to stay behind and let Em return home without him. Gabi and the other tourists even applaud at the sight of their doubles getting systematically executed.
- Only Sane Man: Em serves as the ineffectual voice of reason throughout the film. She discourages James from taking them out of the resort, calls him out on his strange reaction to the execution of his double, and is insistent on returning home as quickly as possible. She ends up leaving the resort out of disgust with James, not wanting to take any part of Gabi and her group’s activities.
- Original Position Fallacy: James happily takes advantage of Li Tolqa's customs so that he can get away with committing heinous crimes by simply paying to have a clone die for him. He forgets, however, that he won't always be the perpetrator of crimes — sometimes he'll be the victim. This comes back to bite him when he finally tries to leave, only for Gabi and her gang to violently attack the bus taking him to the airport, secure in the knowledge that they won't suffer any consequences beyond a fine for doing whatever they have to do in order to drag James off the bus and force him to remain in Li Tolqa.
- Pretty Fly for a White Guy: The resort entertains guests with restaurants and shows drawn from many cultures other than its own, all presented by Li Tolqan (i.e., obviously white) people in embarrassingly stereotypical costumes, including:
- Yang's, a "Chinese" restaurant where the server is a Li Tolqan man who's Not Even Bothering with the Accent, wearing a Mandarin robe and a wig with a long pigtail.
- A "Bollywood-inspired" music and dance performance with clearly white people in brownface and embarrassing "Indian" garb.
- Something that we're probably all glad we didn't see involving Jewish caricatures with gigantic square fur hats and equally gigantic (as in "Pinocchio just told a whopper") fake noses.
- Privilege Makes You Evil: The characters we follow throughout the film flaunt their ability to commit whatever crimes they want. After all, they can simply pay the cloning fee to avoid any sort of punishment. The film makes it quite apparent that those without exorbitant amounts of cash do not have this luxury, and that the tourists would not engage in this behaviour if they couldn't get away with it.
- Punch-Clock Villain: When away from the influence of Li Tolqa, the murder tourists are otherwise perfectly normal people with average lives, aside from being very wealthy. The final scene even has them on the bus ride to the airport happily discussing mundane things like their pets and Gabi's habit of rearranging and cleaning her house when bored.
- Running Over the Plot: James kills a farmer by hitting him while driving drunk in Li Tolqa, which is the reason behind the first execution and James's recruitment.
- Ruritania: Li Tolqa is a fictitious Eastern European country with quirky local customs, a gibberish written language, and a barbaric justice system.
- Sanity Slippage: James is so broken by beating one of his clones to death that he takes up Gabi's offer on letting her breastfeed him. Right after covering her nipple with his own blood.
- Schizo Tech: Li Tolqa is a poor backwater, yet they're the only country that is able to create clones. Even the tech that we see as part of the process looks extremely crude. Dr. Modan hypothesizes that it's the country's "poetic flair" and that other, more advanced countries are "too literal" to figure it out.
- Screw the Rules, I Have Money!: Li Tolqa's justice system allows the very rich to buy their way out of punishments for even the most serious of crimes. James, as well as Gabi's entire clique, take full advantage of this.
- Screw This, I'm Outta Here:
- Once James starts to get involved with Gabi and her friends and committing crimes, Em immediately leaves Li Tolqa.
- When Gabi tricks James into pummeling his double, James finally realizes that he needs to get the hell away from her and out of Li Tolqa.
- Screw Yourself: Gabi suggests having a threesome with James and his clone.
- Stockholm Syndrome: In the end, while in shock after beating his own double to death, James nuzzles against Gabi and sucks on her blood-soaked breast like a baby. The hangover of the effect seems to deeply confuse him.
- Stop Hitting Yourself: One of James's depravities is brutally beating someone whose face is concealed. Then it turns out his victim is actually one of his clones. Later he has to fight another clone who attacks him first.
- Thousand-Yard Stare: By the end of the movie, James is sporting this.
- Too Incompetent to Operate a Blanket: Discussed. Gabi is an actress who specializes in "failing naturally" in commercials. She demonstrates by ineffectually trying to cut a bun with a bread knife and then proclaiming that no one could possibly cut a bun without the help of some fictional product.
- "Ugly American" Stereotype: James shows up in Li Tolqa and proceeds to indulge in complete depravity. Gabi and Alban aren't American, but they too embrace a very similar "rich, decadent Westerner" stereotype.
- Unholy Matrimony: Gabi and Alban are sociopathic hedonists, but they are undoubtedly happily married.
- The Upper Crass: Gabi reveals that she's part of a group of rich people who fly to Li Tolqa every year, do horrible things, and then pay for clones to take their punishments so they can jet back to their regular lives. Her first major action in the film is sexually assaulting James.
- Vomit Indiscretion Shot: James does this after he accidentally hits a man while driving.
- What Happened to the Mouse?: What happened to the farm family who took James in?
- Wingdinglish: The language of Li Tolqa, which is never heard spoken, uses a fictional, non-Latin alphabet.
