Carl, a model, attends an uncomfortable and demeaning casting call with other male models. Carl is dating Yaya, a fellow model and influencer, and resents her for expecting him to pay for meals even though she earns far more than he does. They bicker about money and gender roles. Yaya admits that she is in a relationship with Carl for the engagement it earns them on social media, and that she seeks to become a trophy wife, but Carl declares that she will come to love him.
Carl and Yaya are invited on a luxury cruise aboard a superyacht in exchange for its social media promotion.
Among the guests are the Russian oligarch Dimitry and his wife Vera; the elderly couple Clementine and Winston, who have made their fortune manufacturing grenades and other weapons; Therese, a wheelchair user only capable of speaking a single phrase in German (in den Wolken, i.e. "in the clouds") following a stroke; and Jarmo, a lonely tech millionaire who flirts with Yaya, who uses her sexual appeal to influence him despite this making Carl upset.
The guests luxuriate on the yacht, oblivious to the crew working to meet their every need and ridiculous whim. The head of staff, Paula, demands they obey the guests' absurd requests, including having every crew member swim in the sea. The kitchen crew is ordered to swim as well, despite the chef warning that the food will go bad. Carl complains to Paula about a crew member whom Yaya finds attractive, inadvertently getting the man fired. Meanwhile, the yacht's captain, Thomas Smith, spends his time drunk in his cabin.
Despite a raging storm, the staff carries on with holding a fine dining dinner the guests expect. The guests become violently ill with a combination of food poisoning and seasickness due to the food being left out earlier in the day and the tumultuous storm. The drunken Thomas and Dimitry debate in favor of communism and capitalism, respectively, which is broadcast over the intercom. The guests spend the evening puking while wearing their life jackets, creating a mess and flooding the sewage system. While the menial staff get to work cleaning things up, the guest staff sabotage the entire ship's power in an attempt to cut the captain's intercom to put on a cheerful face and stop him from upsetting the guests.
When morning arrives, pirates attack, killing Clementine and Winston with one of their own grenades and sinking the yacht.
A small group of survivors consisting of guests Carl, Yaya, Dimitry, Therese, and Jarmo, ship's head of guest staff Paula, ship's mechanic Nelson (whom Dimitry accuses of being a pirate), and Toilet Manager Abigail manage to escape to an island. At first, Paula continues to order Abigail to serve the useless cruise guests. When it becomes clear that Abigail is the only one with survival skills, such as catching fish and starting a fire, the traditional class system is upended.
Abigail rises in power and the others must curry her favor with gifts and labor. Paula quickly shifts allegiance to Abigail. Abigail gains her own private shelter inside a lifeboat and lures Carl into a sexual relationship by giving him food in exchange for sexual favors. Yaya grows resentful at the role reversal and is disoriented that her own lack of sexual power in the situation on the island means she has zero means of influence. The wealthy guests remain fairly nonchalant and carry on like normal, creating games and making art. Jarmo kills a wild donkey for food by smashing it with a rock, which Dimitry, Nelson and the others celebrate with a primitive dinner party.
When Yaya decides to hike to the other side of the island, Abigail volunteers to go with her. Back at the camp, Therese encounters a beach vendor hawking fake luxury goods, but is unable to communicate her situation to the man as he is only interested in selling to her. Yaya and Abigail discover a lift built into the rocks and realize they have been stranded near a luxury resort. Yaya celebrates finding the lift, but Abigail prepares to attack Yaya with a rock to prevent her from telling the others and forcing Abigail to return to a menial, powerless role back in society. The camera cuts away to an injured Carl frantically running through the jungle.
Triangle of Sadness was announced by director Ruben Östlund in June 2017, after his film The Square won the Palme d'Or at the 70th Cannes Film Festival the previous month. He said the film was to be called Triangle of Sadness, a "wild" satire set against the world of fashion and the uber-rich, with "appearance as capital" and "beauty as currency" as the underlying themes. The English title refers to a term used by plastic surgeons for the worry wrinkle that forms between the eyebrows, which can be removed with botox.
Research for some parts of the script took place in May 2018.
Reception
Triangle of Sadness grossed $4.6 million in the United States and Canada, and $28.3 million in other territories, for a total worldwide gross of $32.9 million. It sold over 2 million tickets in Europe.
In the United States, Triangle of Sadness opened in 10 locations in Los Angeles, New York and San Francisco to a debut of $210,074, for a per theatre average of $21,007. In its second weekend, it grossed $657,051 on 31 screens. In its third weekend, it grossed $600,000 on 280 screens, finishing tenth at the box office.
