The latest Netflix German flick is no different than many of its other predecessors dealing with the monetisation of age as its primary theme. In this Paradise Ending Explained article we’ll be digging into the aftermath of the crossfires between the leading characters – Max (Kostja Ullmann), Elena (old: Corinna Kirchhoff, young: Marlene Tanczik), and Sophie (Iris Berben). Directed by Boris Kunz, and written by him along with Simon Amberger, Korbinian Dufter, Rafael Parente and Peter Kocyla, the sci-fi thriller film premiered on the OTT platform on July 27, 2023.
Led by Ullmann as Max, a biotech employee working at AEON, the Paradise Netflix movie essays the desperation felt by him and his wife Elena in their survivalist quest to reclaim the 40 years of her life stolen by the billion-dollars worth organisation’s CEO, Sophie Theissen.
Paradise Ending Explained
Was the fire in Max and Elena’s apartment an accident or a planned attack?
From the first looks of the situation, the whole thing seems to appear as an outcome of negligence on the part of the couple, who probably left a candle lit in the house, which ultimately led to the fateful disaster, costing them their whole life’s well-earned savings and everything. When they sit down with their lawyer to discuss the issue and see if insurance can help them put back their close to perfect lives again, she turns the idea down and reports the aforementioned clause to them.
Following the incident, they’re required to pay back the full sum of the mortgage amount they owe to the bank, which amounts close to 2.5 million, but with no money on their hands anymore, the bank was subjected to collect their collateral instead. Max wasn’t aware of what it was that had been put up for the same, until this day when it’s finally revealed that since things were tough for them back then, Elena put up 40 years of her lifetime on the line.
With her being a match especially, it was an easy deal for AEON to seal up. While she’d been promised that it was a risk-free exchange, things had completely fallen apart and not working in their favour anymore.
As the plot progresses, the whole picture starts to clear up and the mist around this accident is also lifted. It had actually always been proceeding according to Sophie’s plan. When Max and Elena had first met, the AEON CEO had known well enough that the latter was the only match she’d found for herself in all those years. She’d planned for Max to convince Elena in giving up her life, but he ultimately ended up marrying her instead. So in order to get access to Elena’s life after this development, she concocted a new scheme altogether.
As per this new plan, she had her team leader/ old bodyguard, Kaya, set their apartment on fire in such a way that insurance wouldn’t be able to help them out. But even prior to that the bank only willingly gave the couple a loan for their expensive house on the condition that Elena would put up her lifetime for donation. Therefore, regardless of which way the pair went, Sophie Theissen always had them in the palm of her hands, and when she had the perfect chance, she gave the green light and basically stole away Elena’s 40 years of life for her own convenience.
Whom did Max and Elena Kidnap and Why?
Elena gives up hope completely after the misfortune enacted by AEON. The signs of ageing start showing in a single day of the procedure done at the biotech corp, and despite trying hard to put on a happy face, she gets tired of it all. Distancing herself from Max, she continues working at the hospital, but he tirelessly attempts to find a cure.
Finding the contact of a doctor in the black market who could help Elena in reverse ageing, he pulls her back into the mission, which also requires him to abduct Sophie Theissen who’d conveniently aged back and started looking young using the years of life extracted from Elena.
However, it’s only days after the kidnapping that the couple on the run realise that they’ve brought in the wrong person – Marie Theissen , the “only Theissen with a conscience”, who opposed her mother’s ways and ideas. Due to their young resemblances, Max abducted the wrong Theissen woman, but they ultimately chose to improvise as they went and target the girl.
Despite their inner conflicts, in the end, Elena completely changes as a person and decides to go ahead with the plan while Max advises her against it since he thought her mother had died in the final shooting and Marie wouldn’t be able to gain back her years after the procedure. Getting in contact with the said doctor at a secret location, she pushes for Marie’s life years to be transferred to her since her DNA structure matched with Sophie.
Also read: The Murderer Ending Explained: So Who is the Serial Killer? Is Nawat Able to Nab Them?
Did Sophie Die?
So, it turns out that Judas was always an Adam Group supporter working against AEON. As an insider, he’d planned to eliminate any opposing factors and so during the ultimate crossfire between the two sides, he shot the AEON CEO, Sophie. She fell to the ground, but it was later revealed that the bullet barely touched her since she’d been wearing a bulletproof vest underneath.
And though Kaya, her old bodyguard’s loyalty had helped keep her alive all this while, she ultimately severed ties with Sophie and moved on with her life, finally realising how futile it was to carry out all those sinister plans and hold other lives at their mercy.
Was Marie Rescued?
She made it out alive, but only after the age-transplant procedure was successfully completed. Reuniting with her mother, she returned back to their house safe and sound, but gradually the signs of ageing started becoming more evident. Sophie indirectly backed out of helping her own daughter despite them being a direct match for the process. Promising her that the search for more donors was on, she claimed that she needed all the strength she could get to keep up with her mission, showing her true colours yet again.
What happened to Elena and Max?
They didn’t get their happy endings with each other after all. While Elena was able to earn her life back, she went on to accomplish her old dreams of living by the beach and even took a step closer to being a mother upon her new pregnancy. However, none of these moments are shared with Max, but with a new beau of hers.
On the other hand, Max, looked at her from afar, and ultimately went on to live the new chapter of his life. After the original Adam Group’s leader, Lilith, dies in the fatal altercation, it seems that Max took over her spot. He finally saw eye to eye with their mission and accepted that AEON wasn’t the only one responsible for this fall of society, as other illegal age transplantations were also happening in the shady nooks no on knew about.
Finally, we see many changes of heart in the end. Max goes from being singularly focussed on getting his wife her life back by resorting to any means necessary, to realising how faulty and botched up the whole concept was. Conversely, Elena goes from being a caring and soft-hearted person to someone who’s hellbent on getting back her life regardless of how it impacted others in her path, quite similar to Sophie Theissen, who felt no urgency in helping her daughter out, but was more concerned with her own classist and ageist propaganda.
Paradise 2023 is now streaming on Netflix.