Paradise Movie Ending Explained: Does Elena Recover the Years that Were Taken From Her? Who Kept Elena’s Years?
Paradise, a German Netflix movie Directed by Boris Kunz from a script by Simon Amberger, Peter Kocyla, and Kunz, takes place in a future where a biotech company called Aeon has developed a way for people to donate the years of their lives to people with DNA compatible to money exchange. Of course, those who benefit are the richest, since they are the only ones who can pay for more years of life, while the poor must give up their youth to pay off debts, pay for their studies and have a better life. In the midst of all this, a rebel group emerges that seeks to punish the beneficiaries and those responsible. Giving up one’s existence for cash: In the not-too-distant future, a method of transferring years of life from one person to another changed the world forever, transforming biotech startup Aeon into a multibillion-dollar pharmaceutical company.
This is how Paradise presents itself on Netflix, a dystopian thriller film that imagines a world where we can become young again at the cost of someone else growing old in our place, a fascinating but at the same time shocking film that can undoubtedly be considered one of the most original Netflix titles of this year. But how does the story of Paradise end? What is the fate of Elena and Max? Let’s find out together and if you haven’t seen the film yet, beware of spoilers. Paradise centers on the story of Max and Elena Toma, a couple who have an almost perfect life, until everything changes in an instant when they are faced with unexpected insurance, claims that they cannot pay. To pay off her debts, Elena must give up almost 40 years of her life to her.
Paradise Movie (2023): Summary Recap
Max (Kostja Ullman) is a skilled salesman of AEON, the pharmaceutical company that has patented the technology of “transferring” time from one person to another. The man specializes in convincing the humblest people, immigrants and refugees living in endless slums, to sell their time, and he’s so good at his job that he’s even named employee of the year. His life seems to be booming on all fronts, he’s married to the gorgeous Elena (Marlene Tanczik and Corinna Kirchhoff) and the two plan to have their first child. All this until a mysterious fire destroys their expensive apartment (which the two haven’t finished paying for yet): the insurance company doesn’t want to help them, and Elena is forced to commit her time to repay the debt.
Time swapping is not a simple technology, a thorough study of the donor’s DNA is required, which will determine if there is an affinity with a specific recipient. Max can’t give her hers (her recipient died in a sudden accident) and so Elena is forced to give away most of her life to someone. Not even appeals to Sophie Theissen (Iris Berben), the inventor of the exchange technology and Max’s boss, will help, and Elena as a young and beautiful woman finds herself old and debilitated. But when Max realizes that Sophie has suddenly rejuvenated and that it is she to whom his wife has donated her time, he concocts a desperate plan to reclaim the future that he and Elena have been denied.
Paradise Movie Ending Explained: Does Elena Recover the Years that Were Taken From Her?
At the end of Paradise, we see Elena aged 40 after being forced by the insurance company to give up almost half of her life to pay off the debts of a house that burned down. Max, her partner, has not resigned to the idea of a future together with his girlfriend and finds an alternative method to reverse the aging process with the person compatible with Elena who has acquired, unlike her, 40 years of youth. This is Sophie, the founder of Aeon, the company that transfers years from one person to another. Thus, Max decides to follow Sophie to kidnap her and recover his wife’s years but captures, by mistake, her daughter Maria, an innocent girl who, however, being Sophie’s daughter has a DNA compatible with Elena‘s and can become, Therefore, a giver of years and restore her youth.
This kidnapping ends badly because the group of rebels whose objective is to kill Sophie and destroy Aeon gets in the way, but the operation ends badly because despite shooting Sophie, she survives, and Maria, meanwhile, is taken by Elena to the field where the abusive exchanges of years are carried out and end up immediately aging 40 years while her mother remains young and Elena recovers her youth. The latter, however, has changed and has completely lost the light of reason after this episode, prompting Max to no longer recognize her.
At the end of the film, we see two chilling scenes. On the one hand, there is Sophie with her daughter in front of her now old and she refuses to give her a few years of youth, despite being her mother and therefore compatible, because he doesn’t want to give up his new life as a young man and then there’s Elena who is young again and is finally pregnant and lives by the sea. She has the life she dreamed of with Max too bad the two are no longer together. She had a child with another man, despite everything she went through to have a future together with Max and he resigned from Aeon and joined the group of rebels trying to fight the company and this absurd buying and selling years of one’s life.
Max, who has worked for the Aeon company for years and was even named employee of the year, thinks he can find a way out to help his wife, so he turns to CEO Sophie Theissen, who promises to review his case. However, his lawyer informs him that he has not received any response. After the strange fire in his apartment, Max intended to pay the mortgage debt with his life years, just as he had done in the past to pay for his studies, but he is informed that the only person he was compatible with died in an accident. motorcycle. The procedure is carried out, Elena is snatched 38 years of her life and there is nothing that the protagonist of Paradise can do to avoid it, all that remains is to accompany her in her recovery process and help her adapt to her new life. Although he makes an effort to accompany her partner, the doctor prefers to separate and resign herself to the fact that her life is ruined.
Who Kept Elena‘s Years?
Max refuses to let it go, especially when he finds out that Elena was pregnant and lost her child due to the age transfer process. Before leaving his wife at his parents’ house, he reveals that there is a way to reverse the situation, also, due to his work, he knows the recipient. This is Sophie Theissen. After finding an illegal way to recover the years of the woman he loves, Max takes advantage of the fact that Sophie is left alone in a cemetery to kidnap her. As Kaya, Theissen’s loyal bodyguard, and Aeon’s new head of operations in Berlin, Nowak, track him down, Toma meets with Elena and convinces her to follow him. The protagonist couple of Paradise heads to Lithuania with the hope of reclaiming the future that was taken from them. Although they make it through security with their hostage, they learn something that could change their plans. When the kidnapped young woman gets a chance to speak, she claims that she is not Sophie but her daughter Marie Theissen.
Who Did Max and Elena Kidnap?
Max is sure it’s Sophie’s lying to save herself, while Elena begins to question whether she’s capable of stealing years from an innocent person. After the young woman attempted to escape, the doctor notes that she does not have the scar from the procedure, but when she shares her doubts with her husband, he assures her that due to the years she recovered the scar she is different. The couple reconcile and celebrate that they are very close to getting their lives back, however, Adam’s group tracks them down, confirm that they have Marie Theissen, and forces them to follow her directions. The revolutionaries want to use the young woman to set a trap for Sophie so they can kill her. To convince Max to carry out their orders, they reveal that everything was orchestrated by Aeon since Elena is the only one compatible with Sophie. When the time comes, Max gets Theissen to agree to come with him, but Kaya realizes it’s a trap and opens fire.
Does Elena Recover the Years That Were Taken from Her?
As Adam’s group engages Aeon’s forces and loses, Max manages to reach Elena and Marie. He helps them out of it, but before they can get in the truck, Sophie’s daughter tries to use a gun on Elena, who doesn’t hesitate to beat her unconscious. On the way to the place where they will perform the intervention, Max tries to convince his wife to give up because it is someone innocent, but Elena refuses to give up so close, so she threatens him to get out of the vehicle and continue with the initial plan.
At the end of Paradise, it is revealed that Sophie did not die thanks to a bulletproof vest and Elena got her years back thanks to Marie. Even though Aegon’s headmistress is compatible with her daughter, she refuses to give him her years because she needs them to fight those who threaten her empire, but she promises to find him a donor. For his part, after seeing the refugee camp in Lithuania and seeing Elena with another man, Max decides to join the Adam group to end the donations of years. Does it mean there will be a sequel to the German Netflix movie?
