Netflix thriller Below Zero is full of surprises and twists, but one that may not be immediately obvious on first viewing is that the protagonist Martin is wrong about likable convict Rei’s plan to escape. Released on Netflix in late January 2021, the Spanish thriller Below Zero soon leaped out of obscurity to become the streaming platform's most-watched movie of the week. It's easy to see why, as the movie's fast-paced plot combines tense action and a clever mystery with some compelling character drama.
Not content to focus only on likable prison guard Martin, the movie's ostensible hero, Below Zero also features a cast of prison escapees who are interesting and complex characters in their own right, and despite the odds, even the placid killer stalking them ends up being a fascinating, well-rounded character. The movie combines tense action set-pieces with brutal flashes of violence and eventually culminates in a crazy, bound-to-be-controversial ending.
With so many twists and turns, not all of Below Zero's complex plot points are immediately obvious on first viewing. For example, many viewers may have missed out on the fact that Martin's well-meaning claim that Rei's escape plan wouldn't work is actually dead wrong. Martin claims that Rei’s plan of clambering into the van’s hold and unscrewing the safety lock was impossible, claiming if “it were that easy, we’d be dead by now.” But the thing is, he’s actually wrong: Yes, Rei does die soon after this scene due to sheer coincidental circumstance when Miguel crashes the truck midway through his unscrewing efforts, thus skewering poor Rei’s skull on the screw. It seems as if Martin was proven right by the sudden, shockingly gruesome death as Rei joins the short-lived Rumano in the movies’ rapidly-escalating body count. But if it weren’t for the unfortunate timing of Miguel’s reckless driving, the prisoner's escape plan—the idea itself, which Martin said couldn’t work—would have been a success, and there’s no way Martin could have predicted exactly when Miguel would need to tactically crash the truck.
The improvised prison escape in Below Zero requires Rei’s athletic ability, Ramis’ quick thinking, and Gollum’s support, but Martin warns the trio that they won’t be able to get out that way. He may be bluffing and just hoping to keep them from escaping as he still wants to transfer them to a new prison, but by this stage in the action, Martin seems to have mostly abandoned that initial intention and is just doing all he can to escape with his life. With that in mind, it's strange that he doesn't co-sign Rei's plan since, were it not for some rotten luck timing-wise, the escape would have done off without a hitch.
Of course, Clockwork Orange-style teen psycho Nano is notably quiet throughout the entire exchange, but he is presumably just hoping to evade the limelight now that he has swallowed the key that could have let everyone out. The Below Zero villain may end up getting his just desserts in the brutal ending, but if Martin had gone along with Rei's plan there's no knowing whether all the later bloodshed would even have been necessary.
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February 08, 2021 at 05:00AM
