Circle was filmed in the US in 2015 directed by Aaron Hanna & Mario Miskione. They were inspired by the 1957 film 12 Angry Men, which tells the story of lawyers considering the murder of a boy’s own father. They consider his guilt obvious, and only one of them disagrees, deciding to get to the bottom of the truth, which eventually inclines all his colleagues to his side and bears proof of the young man’s innocence.
What is the movie Circle about?
Fifty people wake up in a dark room. They are of different nationalities, ages, orientations, they have different fates and stories, but each of them stands in a small red circle and does not remember how he got here. After waking up, people notice a small device in the center that fires a strong electric current that kills a person instantly. Every two minutes, the machine comes into action and randomly selects a victim.
After a few deaths, people realize that they can control the choice of car with their own hand movements. The principle of survival is like voting: the one with the most votes dies. There are also a few rules:
You can’t touch nearby people You can’t go outside your own circle, otherwise you will die You can’t vote for yourself People who come out of the vote with the same number of votes are highlighted in yellow and then die, unless someone changes their vote to change the number Voting anonymously
Thus, throughout the film, people randomly or not choose who will die, based on differences in cultural and life values, until there is only one survivor.
What is the meaning of the plot
The film “Circle” is deeply philosophical, so everyone will have to think. The work shows how basic human thinking selects those who die first.
To begin with, people pay attention to age and kill those who have already lived most of their lives. Conversely, a ten-year-old girl and a pregnant woman were immediately barred from voting. This is the most basic division of life and death between people, a special extreme. Children and pregnant women get privileges, and old people are quickly written off, despite the fact that they are the same people. Such thinking is primitive, but characteristic of the majority.
Families come next. The life of people who have a family is valued more than the life of single people, because after the death of their parents, children become orphans. After that, orientation and social position in society are considered. However, not all so simple. After some time, people begin to communicate, learning more and more details about each other’s lives.
At first, suicide bombers were selected according to the most obvious signs, but after that the decision to kill was given more and more difficult, since the resulting small society could not be divided into clear groups on any basis. People began to regard others as individuals. For example, the one who used to hurt others, the one who pressured and slandered the other to protect himself, the one who behaved aggressively died.
It is interesting to watch how people choose who deserves to live and who does not. There are a lot of examples when a different worldview formed the basis of wars and deaths. Recall at least the Holocaust or the banal bullying in schools.
When there are about seven survivors left, people decide to break into camps, inviting to themselves, as if into a religious sect, promising the most valuable thing at the moment – life as a reward. No one can promise life in this situation, but people seize on this miserable hope and go after those who clearly lie for their own benefit.
It is worth noting that not all people were able and willing to stoop to tricks and deceit. Some of them, called volunteers, voluntarily left the circle so as not to kill others. Each of the group had a choice: whether to fight for life, whether to rely on luck or their own ingenuity, or simply give up, get out of the game, but not get their hands dirty. It is hard to realize that only a few minutes are given to make such a difficult decision.
What is the meaning of the ending of the movie Circle
The film comes to an end when three people remain in the circle: a child, a pregnant woman and a young man. By deception, the latter kills the remaining players and leaves the room alive. On the street, he sees the same survivors, looking into the sky at alien spaceships, in which, apparently, the same games take place.
After such an open ending, there are many questions that the viewers themselves have to think up the answer to. The questions of life and death are eternal and do not have unambiguous answers, so everyone will appreciate the ending in their own way. We remain unknown to the purpose of this game, its entertainers and results. Not everyone is able to maintain dignity and nobility when his own life is at stake.
It can be said that the film has no beginning and no end. This is not a finished story, this is not a cautionary tale. This is just an abstract sketch that encourages viewers to put themselves in this very circle and reconsider their attitude towards others. Only one thing can be said for sure: no one has the right to decide who should take his life in the first place.
