Infinity Pool | Title Explanation

In this section of our Colossus Movie Guide for Infinity Pool, we will discuss the meaning behind the movie’s title. 

Cast:

• James Foster – Alexander Skarsgård
• Em Foster – Cleopatra Coleman
• Gabi Bauer – Mia Goth
• Alban Bauer – Jalil Lespert
• Jennifer – Amanda Brugel
• Bex – Caroline Boulton
• Charles – Jeffrey Ricketts
• Dr. Bob Modan – John Ralston
• Detective Thresh – Thomas Kretschmann
• Written by – Brandon Cronenberg
• Directed by – Brandon Cronenberg

Why is the movie called Infinity Pool?

There’s a duality to the use of “infinity pool” in the title. On the one hand, James and Em Foster are in a high-end resort in the tropical Li Tolqa. It’s the kind of fancy place you would expect to have an infinity pool, that visual illusion of the pool connecting with the ocean or sky. On the other hand, you have the Li Tolqa government’s cloning procedure. It involves standing in a tiny room while the room fills with a crimson gunk that eventually submerges you. It’s in that small space that James has his first out of body, transcendent experience, a byproduct of the conscious  portion of the cloning process. 

There’s some poetic connection between these two things. The standard infinity pool represents this idea of the pool extending beyond its normal confines and joining with the immensity of this other body. Then James exceeds the bounds of his own body and having this duplicate that is and isn’t him and the whole existential awakening that comes with such an experience. 

Dreamy interpretations aside, the simplest answer is that the pool of gunk can make innumerable clones of someone. Something we see as James, Gabi, Alban and the other reborns end up in a cycle of being arrested, cloned, and executed, just for the fun of it. That cloning process is kind of quite literally an “infinity” pool. 

What are your thoughts?

Is there more information about the title that you think should be part of the Colossus Movie Guide for Infinity Pool? Leave a comment below and we’ll consider adding your thoughts to the guide.