Isaac Ezban, who earlier gave us Parallel, wrote and directed the 2014 Mexican Spanish psychological thriller titled The Incident (El Incidente). In the story, many groups of individuals are imprisoned in unending locations such as a bottomless stairwell and an endless road. It all sort of fits together to give existence a metaphorical spin. Please watch it. Spoilers ahead for the 2014 Spanish film The Incident’s narrative and conclusion.
Director Isaac Ezban had the following to say about the piece after I published it. That day, I was over the moon!
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Character Map for The Incident (El Incidente)
What is the plot of the film The Incident (El Incidente)?
This movie can be either literally or symbolically, respectively. Let’s examine each one in turn.
A group of people are imprisoned in an infinite space for 35 years as a result of the incident.
The elements in the loop replicate every day.
At least three people—a young person, an elderly person, and someone who is sacrificed—are involved in the incident.
It is their second incident, which entails a second 35-year sentence, for senior people.
The older people realise why they are in the limitless space at the end of the second 35-year stay and beg the younger people not to make the same error they did.
The older people keep a diary that was given to them when they were younger and were imprisoned. They try to utilise the diary to show how the incident starts in order to warn the younger individual. But they pass away before they can properly explain.
The elder person is compelled by the journal to take a step that leads to the sacrifice of one of the incident’s imprisoned victims.
The powerful explosion marks the start of a 35-year cycle.
The younger party must break the chain in order to avoid being transferred to their second incident where they will spend an additional 35 years living as the elder party under a different name.
The Incident (El Incidente): A Literal Explanation
What does the journal cover?
The diary acts as a catalyst, setting off a series of incidents. The younger individual caught in an incident receives it from the elder person. The diary is what is used to plant the seed in the mind of its carrier, if we suppose that an evil or malicious entity oversees these Incidents. Even though the same journal is used for each incident, its contents differ.
What is The Incident’s purpose?
The Incident is a never-ending loop of individuals succumbing to temptation and becoming trapped in a different reality. Their real-world alter-egos receive energy based on how they behave physically and emotionally throughout their endless incarceration.
The movie demonstrates that despite being imprisoned, young people improve. They have resilient minds that can persevere in the face of challenges. However, older people become ensnared by their past and fall into a cycle of regret and nostalgia. The individuals caught up in the Incident generate energy that fuels their true selves. Their genuine identities flourish if they can maintain good bodily and mental health; otherwise, their outward personas deteriorate.
After 35 years, the younger one is eventually given the option to resist temptation and reject the bait. However, no one successfully breaks the chain in the movie. What would occur if someone broke the chain is unknown. There wouldn’t be a successor to the diary and no one to start the subsequent Incident. We don’t know how the initial journal was given to the first initiator, therefore perhaps another Incident chain would be re-started.
What is the cause of The Incident?
It might be the way of life, after all. That somewhere, a clone of each of us is caught in an incident. What our clone is feeling has an impact on our range of emotions. We have happier latter lives if our clones can stop the cycle; else, we deteriorate.
Alternately, this could be an evil force’s cunning plan to trap a small number of people and watch as they reach their highest points in life before spiralling downward and killing themselves.
El Incidente The Incident -A Metaphorical Explanation
The incident is only a reflection of life, a cyclical pattern of days, months, and years, according to the metaphorical perspective. It is up to us to decide how we spend our time and life. When we are younger, we are more resilient and battle through challenges with vigour. This is what the movie’s characters’ lives look like. Oliver and Daniel, for instance, had successful first halves to their lives. They persevere through adversity and create a decent life for themselves.
The past continues to haunt us as the years go by. Even though nostalgia can be a wonderful thing, some people may become hooked on “how wonderful their lives used to be” and fail to appreciate the now. Many people also experience the opposite, when they are so focused on the future that they entirely disregard the present. There is always a goal to achieve, such as gaining that promotion, buying that house, becoming financially independent, etc. However, once a milestone is reached, another one inevitably takes its place. Life is a long journey, and as it is said in The Incident, “we don’t get to go back, thus one needs to enjoy everything.”
Time is represented by the infinite voids. The acts show what various people do with the time that is allotted to them.
What stands for the diary? In this metaphor, the deeds leading to self-destruction are recorded in the journal. For the cop, for example, while the diary depicts him shooting someone in the leg, in reality he murders the guy his wife is seeing, ruining his life.
The Incident El Incidente| A Summary of the Story
Now that we know what happens in the movie, we can order the incidents based on when they occur.
The Constantly Moving Train
Although not the first incident in the series, this is the first one we learn about.
The Younger – Unknown, who in his second incident takes on the role of the Instructor.
The More Elder –
The Offering -?
Other than the man leaving the incident and entering the lake area as the Instructor, we don’t know anything else about this tale.
Infinite Lake
Ruben, The Younger
The Instructor is Older
Juan made the sacrifice.
With a diary that begs him to hurt Juan by falling into the river, the Instructor enters this loop. Juan bleeds to death.
A piece of bamboo from the raft is kept by Ruben.
After 35 years on the raft with the Instructor, the Instructor eventually remembers his prior incident and provides Ruben with instructions on how to escape before passing away.
Ruben takes the journal, looks for a red pickup, and gets inside. He adopts the name Roberto, forgets everything (including his ide
ntity), and associates with Sandra, Daniel, and Camila.
Real-Life
The real-life experiences of Ruben, Juan, or the Instructor are not well known to us.
The Endless Road
Daniel, the younger
The Senior, Roberto (real name Ruben)
The Offering: Camila
The bamboo fragment is discovered by Roberto, who discards it because he cannot recall its origin.
Given Camila a drink she can’t have because of the diary’s instructions, Roberto accidentally drops and smashes her inhaler. They hear an explosion on the highway.
Sandra, Camila’s mother, loses her mind after Camila passes away.
Over the course of 35 years, Daniel gets fit while Roberto deteriorates into an unhealthy drinker. The duplicated goods are methodically dumped out of Daniel’s backpack in heaps. Every day a new inhaler appears in a fresh bag, but Camila had passed away before the first copy could be sent.
Sandra perishes. Daniel is instructed to write down his name and not to go into the police car by Roberto, who is reminded of his earlier infinite trap. As he pulls out the journal to continue, he passes away.
Initially resisting the urge, Daniel eventually gathers his possessions—including a card from his deck—and unlocks the car door.
In order to arrest two brothers named Carlos and Oliver, Daniel forgets everything, gets in the car, assumes the identity Marco, and takes off.
Real-Life
The vehicle arrives safely. Daniel enjoys a good upbringing, plenty of friends, works as a detective, marries, and has three children. He pursues two brothers who have committed robbery in one of his cases.
Roberto (Ruben) divorces his extremely critical wife and relapses into alcoholism. He gets into a bar brawl, which leaves him unconscious. He eventually commits suicide as a result of his loneliness.
The Circular Stairwell
- Oliver, The Younger
The Senior: Marco (real name Daniel)
The Offering: Carlos
Marco locates the brothers and pursues them down a stairwell. The directive in the diary compels him to shoot Carlos in the leg. They then hear an explosion. The card is soon discovered by Marco in his wallet, but he destroys it because he can’t recall where he got it.
The novel Time Out of Joint is relevant because it has a similar subject to this movie in that it tells the tale of a character who is placed in a manufactured reality and the actual world benefits from what he produces.
After Carlos passes away, Oliver continues to be physically and mentally active for the next 35 years. He piles the replicating things apart in a methodical manner. Even using his brother’s skeleton as a shrine, he composes his own prayers.
Marco withers because he is attached to his past. He reminds Oliver to put his name down and to stay away from the elevator before he passes away. He pulls the diary out of his pocket but passes away before continuing.
When Oliver sees the elevator, he initially tries to avoid it, but eventually gives in to the temptation.
Once inside, Oliver loses all memory and adopts the name Karl. A newlywed couple enters the elevator as he reaches the floor where he will stop.
Real-Life
Oliver, Marcos, and Carlos leave the building. While being detained, Oliver is found not guilty, joins a self-help group, and regains control of his life. He meets a girl, falls in love, marries her, and they have children. Oliver is probably employed as a bellboy at a posh hotel. He once encounters a young couple on the elevator.
When Marco (Daniel) gets home and discovers his wife having an affair, he kills the person she is seeing. He gets detained and put in jail. After being freed, he kills himself because he no longer believes his existence has any meaning.
The Interminable Lobby
The Bride, the Younger
The Senior: Karl (real name Oliver)
The Bride’s Sacrifice
Karl exits the elevator with them and offers to carry the groom’s bag.
He must release a bee and drop the bag in order to follow the directions in the journal, which causes the drug to break. The groom is stung despite having a bee sting allergy. The explosion is audible.
We can presume that the groom will pass away as a result of the sting when he is trapped in the lobby.
While Karl withers, the bride handles the 35 years with greater resiliency.
Karl will eventually instruct the bride to put down her name and request that she avoid using the escalator before he passes away. He would pull out the journal before passing away without finishing.
When she enters the escalator and gives in to temptation, she will lose all sense of time and place.
Real-Life
Karl (Oliver) and the bride’s lives aren’t presented to us, thus we can’t say what actually occurs to them. It would be reasonable to assume that the bride has prosperity for 35 years, whilst Karl’s life falls apart and he passes away alone.
The Bottomless Staircase
Boy in the Younger
The Bride Who Is Older
The Offering -?
The bride succumbs to the temptation and, along with a few others, enters the escalator. She is compelled to act in a way that murders one of them by the instructions in the diary. For 35 years, she and the boy are confined to the escalator. She will give the boy advice before passing away, and it’s unclear when this purgatory will end.
The Incident’s (El Incidente) Conclusion is Described
The 2014 film The Incident’s climax reveals that two alternate lives’ purgatory lengths total 35 years. The younger person succumbs to the temptation despite their attempts to prevent it during their second stint, which results in the chain never being broken.
Unaccounted-for Portions
Who is the elderly woman in Daniel’s photo? Exists a link to the former bride?
Why doesn’t Daniel’s hamster age or reproduce?
Who placed the roadside bunny toy?
Why did the bride not change into new clothes and a new identity during her time on the escalator?
What significance does the boy’s removal of the mouse or hamster from the elderly bride’s hands on the escalator have?
All I have is that. What did you think of The Incident’s (El Incidente) storyline and resolution? We can debate your ideas if you leave them in the section below.
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