History Film / ThePlatform

* MessianicArchetype: Goreng comes to see himself like this. [[spoiler: In the end though, he's come to view the child as this instead.]]

* TheRevolutionWillNotBeCivilized: Goreng and Baharat are ready to enforce their protest and rationing by force right away. Brambang reworks their approach so that they try words first and [[GunboatDiplomacy brandishing their weapons only when necessary]].

** First, after Imoguiri (who worked directly for the Administration), claims that there are 200 levels, the next month, Goreng wakes up and sees that his new level's number is ''202'' and there are ''still'' more levels down.

* EldritchLocation: Although not built by aliens (maybe, we never find out anything about the mysterious administration), "The Hole" defies all logic; the prison has 333 floors (with [[NumberOfTheBeast 666]] inmates) but has no foundations underneath it all (leading to an endless black void). The platform itself has no mechanism to move it, instead simply floating down seemingly by magic, and speeds up at the end of the day before cancelling all momentum when it reaches the top. Additionally, there aren't any other doors or access on the floors but every month the prisoners get re-shuffled from their levels off-screen after being put to sleep, and the building itself has no cameras but is able to detect when any prisoners horde any food and each floor is capable of either cooking or freezing the inmates in that floor without any of the heat or frost escaping into either the floor below or above.

* ForTheEvulz: Prisoners from above tend to insult and mock those below simply because they can. That is if they will bother even listening to them.

* JerkassHasAPoint: People who are sent to the higher levels are usually people who have spent time in the lower levels, since which level you're in is random (or at least 50/50 on if you're sent to a good level each month). Meaning if you don't fatten yourself up one month you could easily starve to death the next month; even with the forced rationing, they have clearly run out of food when they hit the bottom levels (and that's with several empty levels).

** Rameses the Second is named after the Pharaoh believed to be the one from [[Literature/TheBible the Book of Exodus]] who was the recipient of God's message from Moses to release his captive slaves.

* DownerEnding: [[spoiler:Possibly. If everything was just a hallucination, [[KillEmAll the entire main cast is dead]], [[AllForNothing the message was not received]], and Miharu never found her child. [[DyingDream Neither did Goreng.]]]]

* KillEmAll: [[spoiler: The entire main cast dies]], except [[spoiler: Goreng, who doesn't die on screen but is very likely to die that low in the prison]], and [[spoiler: Mali, assuming she's even real]].

->''"Hunger unleashes the madman in us"''
-->--'''Trimagasi'''

* NeverMyFault: Trimagasi:
** After causing the death of an illegal immigrant in the past he refuses to take responsibility for it by saying that he (the immigrant) shouldn't even have been there in the first place.
** Later he blames the circumstances that put them in a lower floor for forcing him to restrain Goreng in order to periodically harvest his flesh for food. Goreng outright calls him out for it and in no uncertain terms puts all the blame on him.

* PoliticallyIncorrectHero: Imoguiri gets a bit personal about Miharu's ethnicity after the latter [[spoiler: kills the former's dog, Rameses]], mocking her "slit eyes" and how she wanted to be "the Asian Marilyn Monroe".

* ImAHumanitarian: What those at the lower levels must do if they wish to survive, as the platform runs out of food quickly. [[spoiler: Trimagasi is revealed to have partaken in the consumption of human flesh, and was fully prepared to do it again when he and Goreng find themselves on Level 171. Goreng himself winds up eating at least a bit of both Trimagasi and Imoguiri, after Imoguiri hangs herself on a lower level.]]

* ConditionedToAcceptHorror: Spending enough time in the Hole will let the prisoners [[spoiler: treat restoring to cannibalism and people falling from the upper levels to commit suicide with nonchalance.]]

* DrivenToSuicide: [[spoiler: Imougiri, after she ends up on a level lower than she was told, was possible, with levels further levels down still visible.]] And plenty of unfortunate people who find themselves on the wrong level.
* DyingDream: [[spoiler: Considering Goreng's gradual SanitySlippage, it's possible that Mali is a hallucination, as the FlashForward earlier had no mention nor appearance from her despite the panna cotta being in the chef's hands (and it's also fully intact despite her eating it}, and earlier, Miharu's child was mentioned as being male.]]

** On the other hand, Trimagasi's item of choice is a knife is capable of cutting through reinforced concrete with little to no effort (and indefinitely sharpens itself); since such a miracle device is not only available on the open market but also treated as only somewhat handy by people who know about it; the technology level in this world is clearly far more advanced than our own; building a place like "The Hole" might be extremely easy for builders in this universe to create.

* NaiveNewcomer: Both Goreng and Imoguiri serve this role in the movie, with Goreng entering in the Platform to attain a title, and Imoguiri entering to try and make the prison a better place. Both of them lose that innocence brutally quickly.

* PoliticallyIncorrectHero: Imoguiri gets a bit personal about Miharu's ethnicity after she [[spoiler: kills her dog, Rameses]], mocking her "slit eyes" and how she wanted to be "the Asian Marilyn Monroe".

*** [[spoiler: Goreng's hallucination of Trimagasi later refers to the recently-deceased Baharat as "the black guy", which could be a stretch but considering what we know about Trimagasi, it could be Goreng interpreting him as a racist.]]

** Imoguiri theorizes that this has happened to Miharu. [[spoiler: She interviewed her and noted that she brought a ukulele, has no family members including children, and she went in with the intention of becoming famous as an actress. Her descending down the Hole seeking a child might have resulted from her spending 10 months in the system.]]

* UngratefulBastard: While Miharu saved Goreng's life once because he tried to help her; when he and Imoguiri nurse her back to health later; she kills their dog. Leaning on the idea she didn't kill Trimagasi because Goreng tried to help her earlier but because [[ForTheEvulz she just wanted to]].
** Another prisoner in the lower levels gleefully tells Baharat that despite the fact he has been given something to eat he intends to butcher his cellmate in his sleep and [[ImAHumanitarian cannibalise him]] [[AllForNothing anyway]].

* VillainousGlutton: All of the prisoners, even at the higher levels. When Goreng ends up at level 6, those below on level 7 waste no time climbing on top of the platform to gorge themselves, stomping of much of the food all the way.

** First, after Imoguiri (who worked directly for the Administration), claims that there are 200 levels, the next month, Goreng wakes ups and sees that his new level's number is ''202'' and there are ''still'' more levels down.

* KnifeNut: Trimagasi was driven into a rage when he purchased an expensive knife sharpener only to soon afterwards see the exact same company and pitchman advertise a self-sharpening knife, the Samurai-Plus. His own outside object is a Samurai-Plus, which he always keeps on hand and brandishes frequently.

* DownerEnding: [[spoiler:Possibly. If everything was just a hallucination, [[KillEmAll the entire main cast is dead]], [[AllForNothing the message was not received]], and [[AdultFear Miharu never found her child]]. [[DyingDream Neither did Goreng.]]]]

* AdultFear: Miharu kills her cellmates and scales the prison in hopes of reuniting with her child. [[spoiler:[[AmbiguousSituation Maybe.]]]]

''The Platform'' is a 2019 Spanish science fiction film directed by Galder Gaztelu-Urrutia.

* {{Foreshadowing}}: Imoguiri despite her claims of having worked for the Administration, being proven wrong on the number of levels the Hole has, foreshadows also ([[AmbigiousSituation apparently]]) being wrong on her claim that [[spoiler: no one under 16 is ever admitted to the Hole]].

* RealityEnsues: While Miharu is a [[KnifeNut blade-wielding psychopath]] who is more than capable of killing people when threatened; she is routinely beaten and raped by those who are able to overpower her until she eventually comes across a couple of guys willing to murder and eat her.

* HellholePrison: In "The Hole", a platform of food is lowered down level-by-level, with each level granted one minute to eat. If you occupy the topmost floors, you're looking to eat fine dining, but around the fiftieth, the food is reduced to scraps, and eventually nothing at all. Keeping food past the one minute will get you frozen or burned alive. So you have a very good chance of going a whole month (or even longer) starving to death. On top of the food situation, there is no regulation for the prisoner's behavior: they can murder, rape, and cannibalize each other all they want.

* NumberOfTheBeast: [[spoiler: There are, in total, 333 floors. With 2 prisoners for each, that means that the total population is at 666 along with their favorite foods.]]

* DownerEnding: [[spoiler:[[KillEmAll The entire main cast is dead]], [[AllForNothing the message was not received]], and [[AdultFear Miharu never found her child]]. [[DyingDream Neither did Goreng.]]]]

* AffectionateNickname: Trimagasi starts addressing Goreng as “little snail”, after comparing [[spoiler:his preparation and consumption of Goreng’s flesh]] to Goreng’s favorite dish, ''Escargots à la Bourguignonne''.
* AllForNothing: [[spoiler:An earlier scene of a head chef barking at his employees for getting hair in a serving of panna cotta heavily implies that the message Goreng and Baharat literally fought to send was not received.]]

** The final scene of the film is [[spoiler:Goreng choosing to stay in the void beneath the 333th floor while the child goes to Floor 0 to be a message to the Administration. What happens to Goreng and the child, and whether anything changes for the better, is left unknown]].
** One interpretation of the ending is that the final scenes [[spoiler:are in reality a hallucination of Goreng, which is hinted by a scene which shows the head chef berating the other cooks while holding the panna cotta in which he found a hair on it; the chef then attempts to find the culprit by comparing the hairs but finds no match. This hints that Goreng and Baharat succeeded in sending the dessert back to the top (and got a hair on it) but the message they interpreted was that the dish was rejected because of the contamination]].

* AnimalMotifs: Goreng’s favorite dish is ''Escargots à la Bourguignonne'', a dish comprised of snails. His slow change and journey in the system and careful approach reflect the traits of a humble snail. Trimagasi mentions this dish without knowing the former’s fondness for it, comparing it to [[spoiler:how he plans to prepare and eventually eat Goreng]]. He even creepily starts referring to Goreng as “[his] little snail”.
* AnyoneCanDie: This is the type of story to easily make way for this trope. The major losses include [[spoiler:Trimagasi, Imoguiri, her dog Rameses, Miharu, Baharat]], and very likely [[spoiler:Goreng]].

* ArtisticLicenseBiology: The chances of Goreng surviving as long as he did is near impossible. The average body can last around 30-40 days without food and not [[spoiler: tied to a bed for 8 days. Not moving for 8 days with such a severe calorie deficiency would, at least, turn his muscles into jello. There is also the circulation issue: bodies that have little movement are prone to blood clots, hence why comatose or non-ambulating patients are moved constantly. A very likely outcome would have been Goreng having a heart attack or stroke via the now dislodged bloodclot.]] As soon as he[[spoiler: got up]], he would have likely been a goner.
** The chances of anyone surviving is a [[ArtisticLicenseStatistics statistical nightmare]]. While doing the math, the average human body needs, at minimum, 2000 calories for the average man not to lose around a pound a day. If someone lasted a full month without food (while losing around 30 pounds), they would need to be on floor, ideally, 50 and above so they can binge at least 1000 extra calories to gain weight to not potentially starve to death the next month.[[spoiler: For someone to get spot 100 out of 666 once is 15%. For someone to get 100 out of 666 twice in a row is 8%.]]

* BaitAndSwitch: When Baharat wrestles with the katana-wielding prisoner [[spoiler:after getting his abdomen sliced open]], we get a close-up of the two, with a loud stabbing sound and a shocked expression from the former. [[spoiler:Baharat actually successfully impaled the attacker.]]
* BaitTheDog: Baharat pleads with the couple above him to help him climb and escape. They humor his religious ramblings and offer to hoist the rope up. When he climbs up, [[spoiler:the woman shits in his face and nearly causes him to fall down the hole.]]
* BecauseYouWereNiceToMe: Goreng's genuine concern for Miharu, and debating coming to her aide fighting two lower prisoners, leads her to save him from [[spoiler:Trimagasi]] later.
** Trimagasi was also hesitant to [[spoiler:eat or at least harm]] Goreng specifically because of how much he genuinely cared for him.

* BloodSplatteredInnocents: Goreng early on gets some blood from [[spoiler:[[DrivenToSuicide a prisoner above him]] splashed on his face early on]], and later, he is absolutely ''caked'' in it [[spoiler:after the brawl with the prisoners who killed Miharu, along with Baharat]].
* BorrowedCatchphrase: Goreng uses Trimagasi's "obviously" after some time living with him. Trimagasi doesn't like it one bit, as he considers that word to be "his". Goreng starts using it more frequently after [[spoiler:Trimagasi dies]].
* BystanderSyndrome: Prisoners on each level are left concerned with themselves and whatever happens upon ''their'' floor. Trimagasi has fully adopted this as being part of the system, not wanting anything to do with what goes on above and [[spoiler:trying to make Goreng not care about Miharu fighting the prisoners below them]].

* ConditionedToAcceptHorror: Spending enough time in the Hole will let the prisoners [[spoiler:treat restoring to cannibalism and people falling from the upper levels to commit suicide with nonchalance.]]

** Imoguiri crosses this when [[spoiler:Miharu kills her dog for food]]. She spends quite some time curled up on her bed, crying her eyes out, [[spoiler:still skipping meals on the days she usually set aside for him as if [[SanitySlippage believing that he's still alive]]]].
** Goreng crosses it after [[spoiler:Miharu dies]]. [[spoiler:This is likely what causes him to start hallucinating.]]

* DrivenToSuicide: [[spoiler: Imoguiri after she ends up on a level lower than she was told was possible, with levels further levels down still visible.]] And plenty of unfortunate people who find themselves on the wrong level.
* DyingDream: [[spoiler:Considering Goreng's gradual SanitySlippage, it's possible that Mali is a hallucination, as the FlashForward earlier had no mention nor appearance from her despite the panna cotta being in the chef's hands (and it's also fully intact despite her eating it}, and earlier, Miharu's child was mentioned as being male.]]

** On the other hand Trimagasi's item of choice is a knife is capable of cutting through reinforced concrete with little to no effort (and indefinitely sharpens itself); since such a miracle device is not only available on the open market but also treated as only somewhat handy by people who know about it; the technology level in this world is clearly far more advanced than our own; building a place like "The Hole" might be extremely easy for builders in this universe to create.

* ForegoneConclusion: [[AmbiguousSituation Possibly]]. [[spoiler:Earlier in the film, the head chef of the Administration can be seen berating a chef for allegedly getting some hair in a serving of panna cotta. The only other time we see panna cotta is in the final stretch of the film, where Goreng and Baharat protect a small dish of panna cotta that looks a lot like the one we see in that scene in order to send a message to the Administration. However, Mali, Miharu's lost child, eats it, with Goreng deciding to send her up instead as a stronger message. Considering that the chef never considers the possibility of it being Mali's hair, and the fact that the panna cotta is still fully intact, it's possible that Mali never even existed, as Imoguiri claimed, and [[DownerEnding sadly]], [[AllForNothing the message was not received either way]], as the chef, who has zero knowledge of the true nature of what the prison even is, interprets the stray hair on the untouched panna cotta as terrible food service]].
* {{Foreshadowing}}: Imoguiri despite her claims of having worked for the Administration, being proven wrong on the number of levels the Hole has, foreshadows also ([[AmbigiousSituation apparently]]) being wrong on her claim that [[spoiler:no one under 16 is ever admitted to the Hole]].
* ForTheEvulz: Prisoners from above tend to insult and mock those below simply because they can. That is, if they will bother even listening to them.

* HellholePrison: In "the Hole", a platform of food is lowered down level-by-level, with each level granted one minute to eat. If you occupy the topmost floors, you're looking to eat fine dining, but around the fiftieth the food is reduced to scraps, and eventually nothing at all. Keeping food past the one minute will get you frozen or burned alive. So you have a very good chance of going a whole month (or even longer) starving to death. On top of the food situation, there is no regulation for the prisoner's behavior: they can murder, rape, and cannibalize each other all they want.
* HumansAreBastards: A recurring theme with its allegory for society. The upper levels help themselves to fine dining while the lower levels only get scraps, or even lower, nothing at all. The only reason why the lower levels even get food is because the upper prisoners' stomachs can only hold so much, and the system forces people to never save food for later. Along the way, prisoners may put human waste onto the platform simply because they could. The hunger brought on by the refusal to ration resources and the cruelty of the lower levels drives people to [[spoiler:cannibalize, fight and more, but as Trimagasi reasons, he wouldn't do these things to be outright evil but because he is scared and pushed into a corner.]]
* ImAHumanitarian: What those at the lower levels must do if they wish to survive, as the platform runs out of food quickly. [[spoiler:Trimagasi is revealed to have partaken in the consumption of human flesh, and was fully prepared to do it again when he and Goreng find themselves on Level 171. Goreng himself winds up eating at least a bit of both Trimagasi and Imoguiri, after Imoguiri hangs herself on a lower level.]]

* JerkassHasAPoint: People who are sent to the higher levels are usually people who have spent time in the lower levels, since which level you're in is random (or at least 50/50 on if you're sent to a good level each month). Meaning if you don't fatten yourself up one month you could easily starve to death the next month; even with the forced rationing they have clearly run out of food when they hit the bottom levels (and that's with several empty levels).
* JumpScare: [[spoiler:Someone above Floor 47 jumps and lands directly in front of Goreng as he's chatting with Trimagasi.]]
* KatanasAreJustBetter: The line of knife products that Trimagasi bought have "Samurai" in the name. The advertisements touted the amazing sharpness the products provide, referencing the legends of katana. Also, one of the convicts' item of choice was a katana.
* KillEmAll: [[spoiler:The entire main cast dies]], except [[spoiler:Goreng, who doesn't die on screen but is very likely to die that low in the prison]], and [[spoiler:Mali, assuming she's even real]].
* KnifeNut: Trimagasi was driven into a rage when he purchased an expensive knife sharpener only to soon afterward see the exact same company and pitchman advertise a self-sharpening knife, the Samurai-Plus. His own outside object is a Samurai-Plus, which he always keeps on hand and brandishes frequently.

** Goreng is named after goreng, a fried dish.
** Trimagasi's name references "terima kasih," which means "thank you" in Indonesian.
** Imoguiri is named after an Indonesian graveyard.

** Sr. Brambang is named after the culinary vegetable.

* MessianicArchetype: Goreng comes to see himself as this. [[spoiler:In the end though, he's come to view the child as this instead.]]

* NumberOfTheBeast: [[spoiler:There are, in total, 333 floors. With 2 prisoners for each, that means that the total population is at 666 along with their favorite foods.]]

* PoliticallyIncorrectHero: Imoguiri gets a bit personal about Miharu's ethnicity after she [[spoiler:kills her dog, Rameses]], mocking her "slit eyes" and how she wanted to be "the Asian Marilyn Monroe".

*** [[spoiler:Goreng's hallucination of Trimagasi later refers to the recently-deceased Baharat as "the black guy", which could be a stretch but considering what we know about Trimagasi, it could be Goreng interpreting him as a racist.]]
* RealityEnsues: While Miharu is a [[KnifeNut blade wielding psychopath]] who is more than capable of killing people when threatened; she is routinely beaten and raped by those who are able to overpower her, until she eventually comes across a couple of guys willing to murder and eat her.

** Goreng starts to lose his grip on reality after everything the Hole puts him through, and starts to hallucinate Imoguiri and Trimagasi talking to him.
** Imoguiri continues skipping the days she put aside for her dog to eat [[spoiler:even after Miharu kills him]].
** Imoguiri theorizes that this has happened to Miharu. [[spoiler:She interviewed her and noted that she brought a ukulele, has no family members including children, and she went in with the intention of becoming famous as an actress. Her descending down the Hole seeking a child might have resulted from her spending 10 months in the system.]]
* ShootTheTelevision: Trimagasi tells Goreng that the reason he's in the Hole is because upon purchasing the Samurai Max he saw another commercial announcing the Samurai Plus, and in a fit of rage he took his TV and threw it off the window and fell on top of an illegal immigrant, killing him.

* SpiritAdvisor: [[spoiler:Every one of Goreng's deceased acquaintances show up in his hallucinations to guide him on his journey.]]

* TookALevelInJerkass: Imoguiri's demeanor changes from sternly sweet to coldly bitter after [[spoiler:her dog is killed]].

** Trimigasi gives Goreng his initial information on how day-to-day life in the Hole works and even some of his backstory, but some of what he says is questionable. Goreng for example doesn't seem to buy fully into Trimigasi's denial that he killed and ate his last cellmate to survive and instead survived off someone DrivenToSuicide from an upper floor that fell into his level, but whether it's true or not is never made clear. [[spoiler:There's also Trimigasi's account of about Miharu's motivations, which are directly challenged by Imoguiri once she arrives and recognizes her.]]
** Imoguiri, despite directly working for the Administration. She claims that there's 200 floors, and that Miharu's child can't possibly be in the prison, as they don't take kids under 16. [[spoiler:Both of these claims are wrong.]] [[spoiler:At least the first, as Imoguiri directly states after recognizing Miharu that she doesn't have a child.]]
* UnwittingTestSubject: Imoguiri theorizes that the system of the Hole was organized to study human behavior and discover a way to make the prisoners to work together to share their resources, in order for the Administration to apply a similar system on the rest of the outside world. Goreng continues this by saying that, if the experimentation is true, then it is not to cause people to rally together to unite, but is rather providing the Administration a new approach to control the world based on the Hole's population.

* WouldNotHurtAChild: Imoguiri, who used to work for the Administration behind the Hole, states that those under 16 are not allowed into the system. [[spoiler:Given Miharu's mission, this may not be true, but this is all muddled by ambiguity of Miharu's mission and mental state ([[UnreliableExpositor Trimigasi]] is the one to explain it, after all, and Miharu never does) and the question of whether or not Goreng completely hallucinated Mali in the final act.]]

** On the other hand Trimagasi's item of choice is a knife is capable of cutting through reinforced concrete with little to no effort (and indefinitely sharpens itself); since such a miracle device is not only available on the open market (and treated as mundane by people who know about it) the level of technological advancement in this world has clearly surpassed our own, so the prison might actually be made of common place tech that humanity has created by then.

* EldritchLocation: Although not built by aliens (maybe, we never find out anything about the mysterious administration), "The Hole" defies all logic; the prison has 333 floors (with [[NumberOfTheBeast 666]] inmates) but has no foundations underneath it all (leading to an endless black void). The platform itself has no mechanism to move it, instead simply floating down, defying physics all the way, and speeds up at the end of the day before cancelling all momentum when it reaches the top. Additionally, there aren't any other doors or access on the floors but every month the prisoners get re-shuffled from their levels off-screen after being put to sleep, and the building itself has no cameras but is able to detect when any prisoners horde any food and each floor is capable of either cooking or freezing the inmates in that floor without any of the heat or frost escaping into either the floor below or above.

* ArtisticLicenseBiology: The chances of Goreng surviving as long as he did is near impossible. The average body can last around 30-40 days without food if the person is in peak physical form... and not [[spoiler: tied to a bed for 8 days. Not moving for 8 days with such a severe calorie deficiency would, at least, turn his muscles into jello. There is also the circulation issue: bodies that have little movement are prone to blood clots, hence why comatose or non-ambulating patients are moved constantly. A very likely outcome would have been Goreng having a heart attack or stroke via the now dislodged bloodclot.]] As soon as he[[spoiler: got up]], he would have likely been a goner.

* AmbiguousSituation: Much of the plot and characters' backstories are left up to interpretation.

* AnimalMotifs: Goreng’s favorite dish is ''Escargots à la Bourguignonne'', a dish comprised of snails. Trimagasi mentions this dish without knowing the former’s fondness for it, comparing it to [[spoiler:how he plans to prepare and eventually eat Goreng]]. He even creepily starts referring to Goreng as “[his] little snail”.

* ArtisticLicenseBiology - The chances of Goreng surviving as long as he did is near impossible. The average body can last around 30-40 days without food if the person is in peak physical form... and not [[spoiler: tied to a bed for 8 days. Not moving for 8 days with such a severe calorie deficiency would, at least, turn his muscles into jello. There is also the circulation issue: bodies that have little movement are prone to blood clots, hence why comatose or non-ambulating patients are moved constantly. A very likely outcome would have been Goreng having a heart attack or stroke via the now dislodged bloodclot.]] As soon as he[[spoiler: got up]], he would have likely been a goner.

* BlackComedy: A blink and you will miss it variant; [[spoiler: Miharu is saved by Goreng after presumably being beaten / raped by prisoners above them; they nurse her back to health and [[UngratefulBastard she repays them by killing and gutting Imoguiri's dog]], the reason she does this is so she can make a bag out of its skin to carry food with her. Making a literal doggy bag]].

* ImAHumanitarian: [[spoiler:Trimagasi is revealed to have partaken in the consumption of human flesh, and was fully prepared to do it again when he and Goreng find themselves on Level 171. Goreng himself winds up eating at least a bit of both Trimagasi and Imoguiri, after Imoguiri hangs herself on a lower level.]]

** Imoguiri gets a bit personal about Miharu's ethnicity after she [[spoiler:kills her dog, Rameses]], mocking her "slit eyes" and how she wanted to be "the Asian Marilyn Monroe".

* UnwittingTestSubject: Imoguiri theorizes that the system of the Hole was organized to study human behavior and discover a way to make the prisoners to work together to share their resources, in order for the Administration to apply a similar system on the rest of the outside world. Goreng continues this by saying that, if the experimentation is true, then it is not to cause people to rally together to unite, but is rather providing the Administration a new approach to control the world based on the Hole's population.

** The titular platform is loaded with all of the favorite foods of the inmates, which means cakes, alcohol and other fine-dining level foods. While extravagant and highly-caloric for many possible foods, this means that it does not hold meals that can possibly support people with nutritional value or (in the case of the alcohol) possibly worsens their hunger.

* ConditionedToAcceptHorror: Spending enough time in the Hole will let the prisoners [[spoiler:treat resotring to cannibalism and people falling from the upper levels to commit suicide with nonchalance.]]

** The titular platform is loaded with all of the favorite foods of the inmates, which means cakes and alcohol. While extravagant, this means that it does not hold meals that can possibly support people with nutritional value or possibly worsens their hunger.

* {{Foreshadowing}}: Imoguiri despite her claims of having worked for the Administration, being proven wrong on the number of levels the Hole has, foreshadows also being wrong on her claim that [[spoiler:no one under 16 is ever admitted to the Hole]].

* UnreliableExpositor: Imoguiri, despite directly working for the Administration. She claims that there's 200 floors, and that Miharu's child can't possibly be in the prison, as they don't take kids under 16. [[spoiler:Both of these claims are wrong.]] [[spoiler:At least the first.]]

* WouldNotHurtAChild: Imoguiri, who used to work for the Administration behind the Hole, states that those under 16 are not allowed into the system. [[spoiler:Given Miharu's mission, this may not be true.]]