Free Fall 2014

Marc Borgmann is a young police officer-in-training enrolled in a specialized course for the riot control unit. He struggles to keep up with his peers at the academy, particularly in the physical drills, and he clashes with his roommate, Kay Engel, during a tense training exercise. Their initial hostility gives way to a fragile uneasy truce after Marc apologizes for his aggression, and the two gradually become friends. On one of their regular jogging sessions, Kay kisses Marc after they share a marijuana cigarette, and although Kay insists it was a joke, the moment marks the start of a complicated, intimate bond. During another run, the two share a kiss again, and Kay even gives Marc a handjob, intensifying the pull between them.

Kay is later assigned to Marc’s unit, entering Marc’s world more directly and complicating his personal life. The duo shows up at a bowling alley with a colleague, where Marc’s pregnant girlfriend Bettina is present with his family. Marc tries to be faithful and put Bettina first, but the lure of Kay proves persistent. He returns to the jogging route where Kay awaits him, and their secrecy grows as they begin a pattern of late-night encounters. A kiss turns into a rain-soaked kiss and a sexual moment, while Bettina’s intuition begins to nag at him. The pregnancy adds another layer of pressure, making Marc feel he cannot satisfy Bettina in the way she deserves.

Their dynamic also leads them to a gay bar, where Marc experiments with ecstasy. The next morning, Bettina confronts him with suspicions about another woman, and Marc denies it. Bettina later discovers a string of recent calls to Kay on his phone, a discovery that shatters his attempt to keep the affair hidden. Bettina ultimately gives birth to their son, and Marc resolves to distance himself from Kay, yet Kay keeps reaching out, testing the boundaries of Marc’s resolve. A confrontation soon follows, with Kay pressing him to acknowledge the truth of their feelings and Marc insisting on space and anonymity.

The tension reaches a turning point when Marc learns Kay was spotted at a gay bar that was raided by their unit. Kay asserts a vulnerable, conflicting position—he loves Marc and is not sleeping with anyone else—while Marc, overwhelmed, agrees to stay close but not openly involved. The relationship becomes more fraught as Kay lashes out at a fellow officer, Limpinski, after a homophobic incident, drawing Marc into a physical altercation as he tries to separate them. Kay visits Marc in the hospital, and a kiss is shared in front of Marc’s mother, an moment reopens old wounds and leads to a heated argument at home. Marc tells Kay to leave, and the two drift into a period of emotional distance.

A party invitation from Bettina brings Kay back into the orbit of Marc’s life, but Marc’s parents openly warn him to steer clear of Kay now that he has a family. He tells Kay to go, signaling a clear shift in priorities. When Marc returns to Kay’s apartment, he finds Kay’s face bruised after another fight with Limpinski. Marc suggests Kay transfer to a different unit, while Kay probes about what the future holds for them. Marc returns Kay’s apartment key and leaves, embarking on a tumultuous path that finally converges back on Bettina’s life.

Back at home, Bettina is packing to leave with their son, and she reveals that Marc has been lying about his night shifts. She asks him to move out by the time she returns, delivering a decisive blow to his dual life. Marc goes to Bettina’s sister Frank’s house and confesses the affair with Kay, an acknowledgment that seals the emotional rift between his two worlds. Bettina eventually comes back home with their son, yet a palpable distance remains between them, and Marc feels the weight of what he has chosen to become.

Marc’s search for answers leads him back to Kay’s apartment, only to find it empty and Kay having moved out without notice. Limpinski taunts Marc about the fragile state of his relationship, and Frank implies that Limpinski’s days with the unit may be numbered. The final chapters unfold with Marc returning to the gay bar alone, where an attempted sexual encounter with another man ultimately goes nowhere as he pulls back and walks away.

Eventually, the couple’s fragile arrangement dissolves. Marc and Bettina acknowledge that they cannot continue in their current arrangement, and the film closes with Marc back at the academy. He is once again running with his peers, but this time he pulls ahead, leaving the others behind and finishing the jog alone, signaling a solitary, contemplative path forward after a turbulent period of desire, deceit, and difficult choices.