Transcript note: This transcript is based on the original working script. It may contain production notes, draft wording, spelling mistakes or other material that differs from the finished video - these scripts were meant to be spoken, not read.

Films, as a rule, explain themselves.

Triangle is not one of them, it dares you to keep up instead.

It looks familiar enough to begin with - Small group of people. Boat trip. Sudden storm. Distress call. Huge abandoned liner.

I mean, don’t stop me if you’ve heard this before - Course you have.

But stop me if you haven’t seen this film before, because look - fair warning - spoilers ahoy.

Let’s take a look at what makes Triangle… Cult, Actually.

[INTRO]

On the surface, Triangle wears the skin of a mid-2000s slasher.

It’s got the isolated location, the ‘Final Girl’ energy, the mysterious killer.

But it’s wearing that skin as a disguise.

And I know - we’ve all seen the film before - but just a quick recap if it’s been a while, lets make sure we’re on the same page.

When we meet Jess, she’s already unsettled - Right from the start. She’s anxious. Distracted.

We see her having a bad morning - an argument with her autistic son, who doesn’t want to go on a boat trip, and it’s left her out of sorts.

When she arrives to meet the rest of the group she feels like she wants to be anywhere else but there.

Which, honestly… feels familiar.

Cue the usual fun and frolics - until the storm hits.

It’s quick, chaotic and oddly impersonal.

The boat capsizes, they lose one passenger almost immediately which sets the stakes high

And then they see it.

A ship - A huge ocean liner to be exact - Or, salvation to them.

As they approach, they spot someone watching them - but when they board the ship looking for help, it’s completely empty.

No crew, passengers and no sign of the person they saw watching their arrival.

And this is where Triangle quietly begins to change the rules.

This stops being mistaken for a standard horror movie, and instead becomes more of a puzzle.

Strange things have clearly happened on the ship - and it doesn’t take long before strange things start happening again.

People disappear, accusations start flying and nothing quite lines up.We’re as confused as the characters.

Before too long, it becomes clear they’re being hunted, culminating in Jess witnessing two of her friends being shot by a masked figure.

She runs and gets caught, naturally - But Jess doesn’t give up easily.

She disarms her attacker and begins her own offensive, but this is when the masked figure begins to give her a warning instead of properly fighting back;

“You have to kill them. It’s the only way to get home.”

Jess lashes out again. The attacker falls overboard.

It’s a relief, but - a short lived one

Because then Jess looks out at the water…

…and sees another boat arriving.

Her boat. Again.

With another version of herself on board.

It doesn’t take long for Jess to realise what’s happening.

Time isn’t moving forward. It’s folding back on itself. The classic time loop.

But what makes Triangle brilliant isn’t the loop itself - that’s been done before.

It’s that the loop isn’t clean.

There’s no reset button.

No neat restart.

The rules aren’t there to be mastered - they actually make less sense the longer this goes on.

The film lets the loop rot.

Jess experiences it unevenly.

She remembers things others don’t. Sees events before they happen.

Slowly realises she’s been here before - more than once.

At first, that knowledge gives her an edge, but then - it starts to cost her.

Each loop leaves behind physical, psychological, and moral debris.

And bodies.

They pile up.

What started as a slasher begins to feel like a cosmic nightmare.

Every choice Jess makes doesn’t just affect what happens next, instead it stacks on top of the choices she’s already made.

She becomes convinced that if she can just do the right thing - kill the right person or prevent the right event -

the loop will stop.

But everything she tries only breaks more things.

And slowly - at the same time Jess does - the realisation begins to dawn:

She isn’t trapped by the situation, she’s trapped by herself.

Jess isn’t just trying to survive - She’s trying to win.

And this is where Triangle separates itself from other cult sci-fi thrillers.

It has no interest in clever mechanics for their own sake, the time loop isn’t a gimmick.

It’s a punishment.

If you know the myth of Sisyphus, you can see what’s happening.

Condemned to repeat the same task forever - not because he failed - but because he believed he could outsmart fate.

Even the name of the ship matters - Aeolus - Sisyphus’s father.

If you caught that on a first watch - fair play.

Jess tells herself she’s doing all this for her son. It’s justified, necessary even.

But the film never lets her off the hook.

Each pass through the loop reveals more of who she really is.

Her temper, her selfishness and her willingness to sacrifice others if it means she gets another chance.

And here’s the most unsettling part.

We don’t think she’s wrong, far from it - We want her to escape.

Triangle doesn’t frame Jess as a villain, it frames her as human

And that - might be its cruelest trick.

Because by the time the final pieces fall into place, the horror isn’t the ship.

It isn’t the murders, it’s not even the time loop.

It’s the realisation that the loop began before the film started.

The storm didn’t cause this - Nope - Jess did.

The argument that morning wasn’t just a bad moment - it was an abusive one, when seen in full.

The version of Jess we believed was the hero? - Yeah. Not so much.

When she finally sees herself clearly, she’s horrified but she tries to take back control.

She kills the other version of herself and approaches her son with genuine remorse and trying to make things better for him, trying to do better.

But the loop doesn’t care - She’s still trapped.

Distracted again, she crashes the car - and the accident takes her son’s life.

A taxi driver stops to help, clearly knowing she’s been involved with the accident, but offers her a ride anyway.

She absent mindedly asks to be taken back to the harbour.

When be drops her off, he asks if she’s planning to return and she promises she will.

And that’s when the loop closes.

Jess arrives at the dock and boards the boat - Just like we saw at the start.

She was given a chance to walk away.

Instead of accepting responsibility - Well - She choose to try again.

The taxi driver isn’t just a driver - He’s Charon - the ferryman.

She could have stepped off - She didn’t.

Things were never repeating because of the storm.

They’re repeating because Jess refuses to accept responsibility.

The ending doesn’t explain itself.

It doesn’t tidy anything up.

It simply shows you the truth - and leaves you with it.

And that’s why Triangle has lasted.

It wasn’t marketed well and it didn’t have stars.

It wasn’t a crowd-pleaser.

But over time, it found its audience - I think word of mouth did more for this film than most others I can think of. The name passed around like a campfire legend.

People who like films that trust them and that reward rewatching and - don’t care if you like the protagonist.

That’s how it became Cult.

Triangle doesn’t want you comfortable - It wants you complicit.

Because once you understand what’s happening, you’re left with the same question Jess never can answer:

If you could go back…

and try again…

how far would you go before admitting you’re the problem?

Anyways - I’ve been Paul and Triangle is Cult, Actually.

If you’ve liked this video, do me a favour and drop me a like - Subscribe as well if you want while you’re there - or, don’t - I’m not going anywhere.

I shall catch you on the next Rewind - Thanks for watching.