Infinity Pool 2023

Novelist James Foster and his wife Em are enjoying a getaway at a resort in the picturesque, yet fictional, seaside country of Li Tolqa, where a vibrant local festival is taking place. The couple’s ongoing marital tensions escalate when they encounter Gabi Bauer, an enthusiastic admirer of James’s only published work, who invites them to join her and her husband Alban for an evening of dining. After a charming dinner, the four decide to explore the countryside together the next day, despite warnings that tourists must stay within the resort grounds.

Their adventure takes a bizarre turn when, during a beach outing, James finds himself unexpectedly thrust into a compromising situation with Gabi. As the sun sets on a long day filled with indulgence, their joyride back to the hotel ends tragically when James accidentally runs over a local man, resulting in a fatality. Gabi, sensing trouble, advises him against contacting the authorities, claiming that the local government is notoriously corrupt.

When James is arrested the following day, he learns that the punishment for his crime is death, to be enacted by the deceased man’s firstborn son. However, this country has an unconventional legal system that allows the guilty to pay for a clone of themselves to be killed instead. With a sense of desperation and his wealth as a safety net, James pays to witness the execution of his duplicate before him. Em, horrified by the grotesque proceedings, wants to leave immediately, but James is inexplicably fascinated and chooses to extend their stay, hiding his passport and encouraging Em to head back to the United States without him.

As his time at the resort continues, James reconnects with Gabi and Alban, who introduce him to a rogue circle of Western tourists—each with a history of severe crimes who pay to see their doubles face execution. They are a jaded lot, and they begin to encourage James to embrace a life of debauchery and crime, culminating in committing acts of violence against the locals and indulging in drunken escapades.

The darkness escalates one evening when James is unwittingly manipulated into savagely attacking a clone of himself, thinking it’s the arresting officer. In a moment of desperation, he retrieves his hidden passport in an attempt to flee, only to be apprehended by the tourists who have been reveling in his misfortune. Gabi cruelly exposes his weakness, revealing that the group wishes to mold him into a fellow “murder tourist” for their amusement.

Amidst the chaos, James manages to escape into the wilderness, injured and shaken. He is taken in by a local family where he recovers, but vivid hallucinations plague his mind. Once he regains his strength, the tormentors return, demanding he kills yet another duplicate of himself to seal his transformation. Initially resistant, James ultimately succumbs to the violence when his clone turns on him. In the wake of this brutal act, Gabi surprises him with a provocative invitation, deepening his moral quandary.

As their journey back to the United States begins, the other tourists chat nonchalantly about mundane tasks, contrasting sharply with James’s internal turmoil from the horrors he has endured. Once at the airport, he makes a fateful decision to remain, opting to return to the abandoned resort, where he finds himself alone, drenched in rain, reflecting on the unsettling experiences that have forever changed him.