After focusing on a wild stay at a decadent retreat, Brandon Cronenberg's surreal and horrifying Infinity Pool ends with the implication that the James Foster (Alexander Skarsgård) who returns to the airport isn't the same one who left – literally. What was supposed to be a vacation with his wife Em (Cleopatra Coleman) descends into decadent hedonism after Gabi (Mia Goth) cajoles them into seeking diversions beyond the resort grounds. The fun and games, where the darkest fantasies can be enacted seemingly without punishment, become serious when a horrible crime forces James into a predicament that leaves him irrevocably changed and scarred for life.
Emulating the filmography of his father, David Cronenberg's movies, classism and hedonism collide in Infinity Pool, especially on an island where orgies, illegal substances, and violence are encouraged by the wealthiest clientele. James doesn't quite fit in with their jet-setting cohort, but as a writer, he can't help but be fascinated as he observes everyone become comfortable unleashing their debauch side. After James accidentally kills a local man, however, he faces a choice; be executed or, with enough money to have himself cloned, watch the clone die instead. Ultimately, his decision makes it possible for him to be in two places at once by the time he leaves the resort.
Infinity Pool Theory: James On The Bus Is A Clone
There's a lot of evidence to that the James that gets on the bus to go home at the end of Infinity Pool is a clone. In a twist that makes Infinity Pool an early contender as one of the best sci-fi movies of 2023, James has himself cloned multiple times throughout the movie, beginning with the clone who must atone for running over the man, something which influences his wife's decision to return home. She doesn't witness the experience's impact on him, and he s a group of Western tourists who meet annually to commit atrocious crimes, clone themselves, and watch their clones pay for them.
At one point, James participates in beating who he thinks is the detective who initially investigated the car accident, only to discover that it's one of his clones. Horrified, he tries to board a bus returning to the airport, but Gabi and her friends drag him off. After escaping a second time and getting shot in the leg, he runs into the wilderness. However, when they catch up to him, in a Resident Evil-style twist, he must either kill or be killed by his clone if he wants to leave. The James who finally arrives at the airport has the same facial scars as the second James he beat.
The Significance Of 3 And 5 Throughout The Movie
Throughout Infinity Pool, there are specific references to the numbers three and five, correlating to the number of Jameses seen in the film. James packs three urns before leaving the resort for the final time, and each of these curious souvenirs represents a James that has died, though some of them (like the one James beat) don't have onscreen deaths. He also stands under signs for Terminal 3 and Terminal 5 at the airport, and his room number is 305 at the resort, suggesting the twist is revealed earlier and implying that though three Jameses died, five are created in total.
There are two Jameses left in Infinity Pool, the real James and the clone he has to fight to leave the resort, but it's also possible that they switched places at some point earlier in the movie since not every clone's death is seen. The James with a gunshot wound to the leg that runs into the woods might not be the real James, but another clone provided by Gabi. The James who goes to the airport has the same physical appearance (and no limp) as the second clone James encountered, but the James alone at the resort during the offseason in the last shot does not.
Infinity Pool's James Could Never Go Back To Regular Society
One James is seen going to the airport in Infinity Pool, but another is seen later at the resort because the real James cannot return to regular society. When James is surrounded by tourists and ideas straight out of The White Lotus (whom he'd just seen do despicable things), chatting about mundane things in their lives, it's clear the novelist can't reconcile one version of reality with another. Fortunately, he doesn't have to re society when he has a clone to do it for him, leaving him literally and figuratively cleansed of his sins in a monsoon.
Infinity Pool examines what would happen if all moral governors were removed for the upper classes. It also explores the ramifications of this on the psyche of someone unaccustomed to wealth. James knows that to return to the real world after his experiences would be to return to life as someone without conviction. Tasting the sort of freedom he experiences at the resort not only makes everything else seem ordinary by comparison. It also makes the real world back home seem like a carefully created facade, perfect for a clone.
