Unexpectedly Intriguing

I opened up Netflix on a Friday evening not knowing what I wanted to watch. I knew I wanted to watch a movie, rather than start a new show. I knew I wanted to watch fiction. I wanted something with a hint of comedy, a sprinkle of drama, not too complex, but with a small twist to provoke a thought.

The Triangle of Sadness fit the bill, to the T.

Offbeat, Dark Comedy, Independent. A few high profile actors. A trailer with some hot people. Intriguing, right?

I had no clue what to expect, but every scene is so out of the ordinary, that you can’t help but wonder what the next one holds.

:warning: The next section contains spoilers. Don’t read on if you haven’t seen the movie and don’t want to have it spoiled.

Unexpectedly Thought Provoking

I had two favorite scenes:

  1. The debate after dinner
  2. The very end of the movie

First, for context, the movie is about a ton of rich people from different walks of life who go on a luxury cruise. Not so luxurious for the crew, though. At the end, there’s wreckage, and they struggle to survive on an island.

There was an interesting debate where the captain of a $250M boat, an American Marxist, gets into a philosophical debate with a Russian fertilizer oligarch about capitalism. I won’t say more - just watch it.

After the ship is wrecked, the woman who managed toilets on the boat, an old Asian immigrant single woman with no kids, becomes the leader of the pack thanks to her hard skills of fishing, cooking and surviving. She takes control of the group, delegating tasks, and takes advantage of the situation in different ways.

At the end, they discover that the island they’re on has a luxury hotel on the other side. All the rich individuals can go back to their lives in modern society, but the new leader is enjoying her new life, and the story ends on a dark note that leaves the viewer wondering what will happen.

What’s the takeaway?

Hard skills are needed for survival. Soft skills are needed for domination.

In the movie, society collapses and the hierarchy flips overnight — the toilet manager who can fish, cook and survive becomes the leader. But the moment the hotel reappears on the other side of the island, soft skills (status, persuasion, networks) reclaim the throne.

As AI takes both blue and white collar jobs, hard skills get cheaper by the day. The people who dominate won’t be the ones who can do the work — they’ll be the ones who can lead, persuade, and build trust.

Researchers, scientists, entrepreneurs, and leaders are the new elite, and the gap is widening.

If there’s ever a revolution and things break down, the hierarchy flips back. But will it happen? And if it does, will it be permanent or temporary?

I don’t know, but it’s been a couple of weeks since I watched the film and I still can’t stop thinking about it.