Is Infinity Pool Scary? The Verdict and the Whole Plot
Yes, 6 out of 10. It's cruel and hallucinatory, with graphic violence and a lot of sexual content.
🐱THE SCARE SIGNAL
SCARE SCORE
6 /10
🐱🐱🐱🐱🐱🐱🐱🐱🐱🐱
DREAD LEVEL
High
Expect a couple of days of feeling vaguely unclean.
DOG
Dog: fine
fine, no dog dies.
Ruling: Skip it if graphic violence or sex scenes bother you, and don't book a resort the same week.
Infinity Pool runs one hour and fifty-eight minutes and takes place at a resort in the fictional country of Li Tolqa, where tourists are told to stay on the grounds. The couple in it leave the grounds anyway, which is the worst decision available.
The premise, briefly
A novelist hits a local man with his car on a resort island where tourists can pay to have a copy of themselves executed instead.
How much do you want to know?
🐱
The verdict above is spoiler-free. Everything below, including the ending, stays hidden until you pick a depth.
🐱CUT TO THE CHASE
How it ends
Gabi's group turns James into a murdering tourist, and he beats a copy of himself to death. At the airport he deliberately misses his flight and goes back to the closed resort, where he sits alone in the monsoon rain.
The scene you're dreading
The first execution, early on: James's copy is tied to a stake, begs Em to save him, and is stabbed with a large dagger by the victim's teenage son. James finds it fascinating, and Em wants to leave.
The dog
No dog dies in Infinity Pool. The group calls a leashed copy of a man "the dog," and James kills it.
Infinity Pool is queasy and mean, and knowing the plot does not make the violence any easier to watch.
THE SHORT VERSION IS HIDDEN
How it ends, the scene you're dreading, what happens to the dog, and the bottom line. About twenty seconds to read.
What actually happens
Told to stay on the grounds, left the grounds
Novelist James Foster and his wife Em are staying at a resort in Li Tolqa during a local festival. Their marriage is already shaky when Gabi, a fan of the one novel James has published, asks them to hang out with her and her husband Alban. They have dinner, then spend the next day driving around the countryside, even though the resort has warned tourists to stay on the grounds. At a beach, Gabi grabs James from behind while he is relieving himself behind a tree. After a day of sunbathing and cooking, the four drive back to the hotel drunk. The car lights flicker, and James hits a local man and kills him. Gabi insists they can't call the police, because the country is corrupt.
The next day James is arrested. The punishment for his crime is death at the hands of the victim's oldest son, but foreigners get a special system: for a large fee, a guilty person is copied and the copy is executed instead, with all the original's memories of the crime. James pays. This is the scene people dread most, and it comes early. James's copy is tied to a stake and begs Em for help while the victim's teenage son stabs him with a large dagger. Em is horrified and wants to go home right away. James is fascinated, and he claims the passport he hid has vanished and urges Em to fly home without him.
A vacation club for criminals
James decides to stay a week longer and bumps into Gabi and Alban again. They bring him together with a group of Western tourists who have all committed serious crimes and paid to watch their copies die. One of them asks James how he can be sure he is the original, since he was unconscious during the process and only woke up later in bed. The group breaks into the resort owner's house, and the robbery ends in a shootout, and the next day they all watch their copies executed together. Em leaves the country in disgust. Over the following days the group pushes James toward a life of crime: killing locals, taking part in drunken orgies (he is on a local hallucinogen with Gabi, so it's unclear how much of that is real), and abusing other guests.
Passport recovered, dignity not
One night James is tricked into beating up a copy of himself that he believes is the detective who first arrested him, though the group paid the real detective to supply it. Panicked, James finds his passport and tries to flee. The group pulls him off the bus to the airport, and Gabi tells him she finds him pathetic, never read his book, and that the group chose him as a target. The accident only made it easier. James runs into the wilderness, and Gabi shoots him in the leg. He wanders for hours, collapses at a farm, and is nursed by a local family while he hallucinates being strangled by the dead man's son. When he has recovered, the group orders him to kill a leashed copy of himself they call the dog. He refuses, but the copy attacks him, and James beats it to death. Gabi comforts him with a bare breast covered in the copy's blood.
The ending, explained
The next day the tourists chat about their jobs and homes as they head back to the United States, while James sits silent and visibly shaken. He seems to have made up with Em by phone before leaving the hotel. The group invites him to join them next year, since they come back every year to commit crimes and then pay to watch their copies die. At the airport gate, James deliberately misses his flight. He returns to the shut-down resort, now in its rainy season, and sits by himself in the monsoon.
The post-credits ruling
There is no post-credits scene. You can leave when the credits start.
✓ Spoiled safelyDog status: fine, no dog dies.
Questions people ask at 1am
Is Infinity Pool scary?
Yes. Infinity Pool is a 6 out of 10 with a high dread level. It is cruel and hallucinatory, with graphic violence, and a lot of sexual content.
How does Infinity Pool end?
James beats a copy of himself to death, then misses his flight home with the group. He goes back to the closed resort and sits alone in the monsoon rain.
Does the dog die in Infinity Pool?
No dog dies in Infinity Pool. "The dog" is the group's name for a leashed copy of a man, and James beats it to death.
Is there a post-credits scene in Infinity Pool?
No. Infinity Pool has no post-credits scene, so you can leave when the credits start.
Are the copies in Infinity Pool real people?
In the movie, a guilty tourist who pays gets an exact copy, with the memories of the crime, who is executed in their place. James was unconscious during the process, so another tourist asks how he can know he is the original.
BLURRED FOR YOUR PROTECTION
The whole plot of Infinity Pool is hidden, ending included. It stays that way until you ask.
You don't need to spend one hour and fifty-eight minutes at that resort to find out how Infinity Pool ends. Install Scaredy Cat and horror gets blurred before you see it.
