Infinity Pool ending explained: What happens to James?

The film follows events after Gabi tempts James and his wife Em (Cleopatra Coleman) to make a forbidden trip outside the resort, and when they commit a terrible crime they come face to face with the strict and unorthodox criminal justice system in the country – with major consequences.

Read on for everything you need to know – and be warned: there are full spoilers for Infinity Pool below.

Infinity Pool ending explained

On their first trip outside the resort, a day of drinking leads to an accidental road accident where James runs over and kills a local man. Gabi and her husband Alban (Jalil Laspert) persuade James not to phone the police and they instead head back to the hotel, where James is awoken the next morning by the police.

After James is arrested, he is informed of the extremely unusual punishment for murder in Li Tolqa: death at the hand of the victim's firstborn son. The only way out of this is to pay a substantial sum of money to make a clone of yourself – which will then be killed in your place as you watch. James decides to take up this option.

Although Em is distressed by these events and wants to end the holiday, James appears to get some sort of enjoyment out of the whole ordeal and hides his passport so he can't leave with her. Instead, he is pulled further into Gabi's orbit and discovers that there is a group of Western tourists who meet every year to commit shocking crimes and watch their doubles get killed out of some sort of extreme hedonistic impulse.

James joins in with these activities until one day he is tricked into attacking one of his own clones, which freaks him out to such an extent that he retrieves his passport and decides to leave – only for his exit to be blocked by Gabi and her group. Gabi tells him he is pathetic and she has been using him for her own enjoyment, before shooting and wounding him as he escapes into the woods nearby

In the wilderness, James stumbles upon a farm where he is nursed back to health – experiencing some freaky hallucinations as part of his recovery process. Ultimately he heads back to the resort, where he reluctantly agrees to be accepted into Gabi's group by killing a clone of himself. (Bizarrely, Gabi breastfeeds James as a reward for successfully completing this act.)

The next day marks the day when the various tourists head back to their normal lives, but while they all seem unperturbed by the shocking events of their holiday, James is altogether more alarmed. Instead of boarding his flight, he opts to return to the now-closed resort, and the film ends with him sitting amid a torrential downpour.

It appears that James has been changed forever by the acts he has committed. But most crucially it was the act of killing his own clone which finally tipped him fully over the edge, hinting that his disintegration comes not from compassion but from vanity.

Speaking exclusively about the film to RadioTimes.com, Cronenberg explained that James getting caught up in this hedonism in the first place came partially out of a sense of "self-mockery" on his part.

He said: "I think the reaction of the characters in the film, the way they respond to it, is a little bit unreal. I mean, it's satire obviously, and so I wouldn't say the character psychology is necessarily fully realistic.

"James's response of being kind of thrilled watching his own self-destruction is part of that character's own sort of perverse psychology. To a certain degree, maybe it's a little bit of a joke about writers.

"I mean, James isn't a stand-in for me, really, but I wrote the film between my first film and Possessor, which was this eight-year gap where my career was completely stalling and I couldn't get anything made because of all the usual indie film financing problems.

"And as a writer, you are very familiar with the writer's self-loathing that kicks in, in those long dark hours alone in your room. So some of James was self-mockery, and maybe that's part of the psychology!"

Infinity Pool is now showing in UK cinemas. Check out more of our Film coverage or visit our TV Guide to see what's on tonight.

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