The Platform is a 2019 Spanish social science fiction-horror film directed by Galder Gaztelu-Urrutia. The film is set in a large, tower-style "Vertical Self-Management Center". Its residents, who are switched every 30 days between its many floors, are fed via a platform which, initially filled with food at the top floor, gradually descends through the tower's levels, stopping for a fixed amount of time on each. The system inevitably leads to conflict, as the residents at the top levels get to eat as much as they can, with each level getting only the leftovers from the previous ones. The film premiered at the 2019 Toronto International Film Festival, where it won the People's Choice Award for Midnight Madness. At TIFF, the film also secured a worldwide streaming deal with Netflix. It was released on the streaming service on 20 March 2020.

 

Goreng wakes in a concrete cell marked with the number 48. His cellmate, Trimagasi, explains that they are in a "Vertical Self-Management Center" aka "The Pit", a tower-style facility in which food is delivered via a platform that travels from the top down, stopping for a fixed period on each floor. Those on lower levels can eat only what those above leave, and the cell is heated or cooled to fatal temperatures if anyone tries to keep any of the food. People are randomly reassigned to a new level each month. Each resident is allowed to bring one item in with them, Goreng choosing a copy of Don Quixote, and Trimagasi a self-sharpening knife. Trimagasi reveals that when assigned to level 132, he and his former cellmate cannibalized a resident who had fallen down the shaft. One day, a bloodied woman named Miharu rides down on the platform. Trimagasi explains that she descends the pit every month in search of her child. 


It is revealed that Goreng volunteered to spend six months in the facility in exchange for a diploma, and Trimagasi is serving a year-long sentence for manslaughter. Over the first month, they become friends, but on the day of the room shuffle, Goreng wakes up tied to his bed. They have been reassigned to level 171, where the platform is expected to be empty of food when it arrives. Trimagasi explains that he plans to cut strips of Goreng's flesh to sustain them both, he may survive. On the eighth day, Trimagasi grows weaker and starts cutting into Goreng's leg but is attacked by Miharu as she comes down the platform. She frees Goreng and he kills Trimagasi. Miharu cuts out some of Trimagasi's flesh, feeding Goreng and eating some herself. She nurses Goreng, but leaves on the platform when he asks her about her child. On the night before the shuffle, Goreng is haunted by Trimagasi, who explains that they are now both one and the same and that Trimagasi will never leave him.

 In the third month, Goreng awakes on level 33 with a woman, Imoguiri, and her dog, Rameses the 2nd. Goreng recognizes her as the Administration official who interviewed him before sending him to the cells. She says that she was unaware of the horrible conditions and volunteered to try to fix things when she was diagnosed with terminal cancer. Imoguiri rations her food and attempts to convince the men on level 34 to do so as well, but they ignore her. Two weeks pass and Goreng threatens to defecate on the food if they do not, and it works. The two begin to argue over their methods of persuasion. One day, Miharu arrives injured, so Goreng and Imoguiri nurse her back to health. Goreng mentions Miharu's search for her child to Imoguiri, but Imoguiri says that children under 16 are not allowed into the facility and Miharu entered alone. She also claims to know that there are 200 levels in total. Goreng awakens the following month on level 202 and finds that Imoguiri has hanged herself.

Plagued with visions of Trimagasi and Imoguiri, Goreng eats her flesh to survive, experiencing hallucinations of Trimagasi instructing him to do so. At the start of the fifth month, Goreng is assigned to level 6. His new cellmate, Baharat, attempts unsuccessfully to climb to the upper level to try to escape.  Estimating that there are 250 levels, Goreng convinces Baharat to ride the platform down with him, rationing the food so all get a share. They decide to protect the food until they get below level 50, from there, they'll start to pass out the food. One of the prisoners, the wise Sr. Brambang, convinces them to send a symbolic message to the administration in the form of leaving a single dish untouched (a panna cotta). As they descend further, they hand out portions to the prisoners, attacking those who refuse to cooperate. On the way, they encounter Miharu fighting two other inmates and try to save her, but she is killed and they are severely injured.

Goreng and Baharat continue to descend, eventually reaching level 333 where the platform stops. Goreng notices a child - Miharu's daughter - hiding under the bed. He gets off the platform, followed hesitantly by Baharat, only to have the platform continue downward, leaving them behind. Despite Baharat's reluctance, they feed the girl the untouched panna cotta they had saved as a "message" for the Administrators at the top. Goreng passes out and dreams of Baharat telling him that "the girl is the message." The next day, Goreng finds Baharat dead, having bled out from his injuries. Goreng takes the child with him when the platform arrives. They descend to the bottom of the pit, where he once again hallucinates Trimagasi, who tells him that "the message requires no bearer." Goreng gets off the platform and walks away with Trimagasi, both turning to watch as the girl ascends on top of the platform.