Triangle of Sadness ending looks different after reading Abigail’s plot

Long before Ruben’s dark comedy stlund Triangle of sadness premiered at the 2022 Cannes Film Festival – where the film won the prestigious Palme d’Or – it is clear who will become the breakout character. Filipina star Dolly De Leon barely even appeared in the first two seasons of the film, each with its own title tag and distinct story. But De Leon’s Abigail completely dominates the third installment of the film, while remaining a mysterious figure until the final moments of the film.

Abigail is strongly reminiscent of Ana de Armas’s character Marta in Rian Johnson’s Pull out the knife, another soft-spoken immigrant working for the rich and powerful, who underestimate and despise her until events begin with them all. But while their triumphs and journeys are similar, Marta’s plot and motives are clearer and more focused in her film, while Abigail’s seems to have come from nowhere. It’s a very obvious intention – but De Leon tells Polygon that hasn’t stopped her from coming up with her own elaborate explanation of who Abigail is and where her powers come from.

“I definitely have to create a background story!” De Leon said. “If I embrace mystery every time I do a job, I will get lost on set, and it will show. So I kept a diary, talking about her history and what led her there, what made her who she is. That really helped shape her every move and explain why she says certain things in the movie, or why she behaves in certain ways. “

Abigail’s secret history may also help viewers decide how to interpret the end of Triangle of sadnesswriter and director stlund (Case of force majeure, Square) left as a provocation to the audience.

[Ed. note: Spoilers for Triangle of Sadness follow, including end spoilers after the final header.]

Who is Abigail and what does she do in Triangle of Sadness?

Photo: Fredrik Wenzel / Plattform Produktion

Östlund’s film tells three interconnected stories that each primarily focus on a different set of characters. In the first act, fashion models Carl (Harris Dickinson) and Yaya (Charlbi Dean) navigate their tumultuous and manipulative relationship. Act 2 switches to the action on a luxury yacht, where Carl and Yaya have been invited as full-price guests because of their influencer status. But they are side characters in the story, focusing more on the wealthy, powerful passengers on the yacht, the incompetent captain (Woody Harrelson) mishandling the boat while drunk, and the Disruption of order in a violent storm.

In the third stage, several additional members of the yacht, including Carl and Yaya, end up together on a remote island where they don’t know how to survive. Abigail, a cleaner and “toilet manager” from the yacht, emerges as key to their survival, as she knows how to catch and clean fish, light fires, and forage other food. She quickly utilizes her new powers ruthlessly, declaring herself the island’s captain and forcing the other passengers to obey her. In the process, Östlund clarifies that the social order that people often take for granted, with those in command largely due to their wealth (or beauty or fame, to Carl, for Carl) and Maya), is a well-maintained fictional story that quickly sheds light on a situation where skill, knowledge, and real-world experience matter.

That segment of the story specifically highlights the position of “OFWs,” or Filipino Workers Abroad, a group of migrant workers who live and work outside of their home countries and often take jobs normal of the working class regardless of their level of education or previous work. experience. De Leon said OFW was a particular focus of Östlund in shaping the film.

“I think he wanted to see OFWs life through the lens of someone who was a passenger, someone from a privileged place,” she said. “I think he wants to keep it that way, because the real focus is on shifting power. He wanted the OFWs in the first and second part of the movie to be fast-paced, almost invisible characters, with no real presence, no weight. And how do you feel? [Abigail] assume a position of power, coming from an invisible and unnecessary place. “

Where does Abigail come from?

Photo: NEON

Triangle of sadness didn’t say much about Abigail’s origins, but De Leon felt the need to give the character more depth to make her more real.

“I don’t know if all the actors do this, but I do,” she said. “I have always had a secret about my character that only I know. And then I only revealed it when the movie was shown. While we are working on the set, I will tell my co-stars [sing-songs] ‘I have a secret. I have a secret! I will never tell you! I’ll talk to you later. ‘ And they’re like, “Yeah, me too, I have a secret!”

Her head of Abigail was even a secret to Östlund. De Leon says he allowed her a lot of freedom with the character, including turning her into a childless single woman, but she kept a full diary of Abigail’s life. for self-development only.

De Leon said: “She definitely grew up by the lake or the ocean. “She lives somewhere in Cavite, a province on the edge of Luzon, where I come from. I grew up in the city, so the closest to nature are dragonflies and butterflies. She grew up where her mother would go to a river and wash their clothes there, by the running water, and Abigail would play with the other kids there, and catch fish and tadpoles. That’s why she is so good at fishing, because she started life early. “

De Leon said that it is clear that Abigail is not from a fishing family, because she does not use nets or boats to fish but only bare hands. “I feel that has to come from a deeper source, from way back when she was really young. When you’re a kid and you’re playing trust games, it’s really ingrained in your system, and you really believe in it and get really good. That’s what happened to her.”

De Leon specifically wanted Abigail to be untethered, with no one she needed to return home, but that part of the character also required careful navigation. “The part where she has no children, no family, I have to make sure that is clear, and what circumstances led to her becoming a single woman,” she said. “Because that hardly ever happened in the Philippines. We all have families, we are all married. If not, there must be a really good reason. “

Her solution was to fill Abigail’s early life with tragedy, and the reasons for her master’s distrust and desire for power over them.

“She worked for a very wealthy family – she started as a teenager, when she was 16 or 17, because sometimes that’s how we started working early,” says De. Leon said. “And the son had an affair with her, without his parents knowing. She got pregnant, and of course, she knew she couldn’t keep the baby. So she gave up her household registration.”

De Leon describes the relationship as “in a way, abusive type”, because her lover has power over her and is bigger, maybe 19 or so. “For her, it wasn’t abuse – she was actually in love,” she said. “But he doesn’t care about her. He was just taking advantage of her. And when she left the house, she miscarried, and that’s why she lost the baby. Then, as an adult, as an adult, she looks back on that experience and realizes that he took advantage of her, and that the man she loved betrayed her.

“So after that, she was very bitter about love, and she felt like a woman scorned. She never wanted to fall in love again. It was a conscious decision on her part. And that’s how strong she is, to make such a decision and to stick to it. That takes a lot of will and strength. So that’s why she doesn’t have a family.”

What does Abigail’s story mean for the end of Triangle of Sadness?

Photo: Fredrik Wenzel / Plattform Produktion

Triangle of sadness ends in a pregnant moment, with Yaya and Abigail alone together. They have just discovered that what they thought was a deserted, isolated island is actually a spa and resort. As soon as they come into contact with the others on the island, Abigail will revert to being a regular worker, and possibly in legal trouble over how she treated her former bosses on the island. So she picks up a rock and sneaks into Yaya, ostensibly planning to kill her and then go back to the others and lie about what they’ve found out.

It is unclear if Yaya was completely oblivious to the danger, but upon returning to Abigail, she asked the elderly woman to be her assistant when they returned to civilization. It was not the kind of power Abigail enjoyed, but neither was murder and lies. Abigail hesitates, and the movie ends.

Given De Leon’s complicated fantasies of Abigail’s past, will she fantasize about her future after the film’s end?

“That question has been asked over and over again,” says De Leon, “but I never get tired of answering it, because it is really fun to answer. It really depends on the day, on my state of mind, on my location. Of course when filming, I thought of my own ending. But once you bring a character to the screen, they are immortal and their story can change depending on your interpretation. So it depends on the viewer, and it also depends on me.”

She said that she has seen the film three times now and that she imagines a different ending each time. She also heard from fans of the film, who came up with even more convoluted endings. So while she says she has shared some of her theories in the past, she wants people to answer the question for themselves. Her behind-the-scenes story can help viewers explain what Abigail does next, where she comes from and how she feels about it. It can also make their decisions more difficult – Abigail clearly has a strong sense of moral justice and a burning desire for revenge. Which one prevails is up to you.

Either way, De Leon hopes Triangle of sadness inspires viewers to “change the way they perceive people they perceive as shorter or taller than them”.

“If someone on that yacht had shown Abigail some kind of kindness, or some personal connection, then I think her arc would have taken a completely different journey, a turning point. completely different up there,” she said. “So I hope viewers think about that, in terms of adding a little personal touch or some kindness to the people they encounter. It’s not even a worker, it’s just being kind in general, to anyone. Why do we only treat those in power? I think kindness should come to every human being, because it is by nature that we are good to each other, not evil or violent.”

Triangle of sadness premieres in US theaters on October 7 and is currently in cinemas worldwide.