Triangle’s intriguing plot begins with a group of friends on a yacht suddenly coming upon a huge ghostly, abandoned ocean liner. What follows is a superb, well-paced thriller complete with deeper psychological concerns as the central character Jess (Melissa George) attempts to deal with a mysterious time loop.
Sci-fi suspense movie or horror? I’ll let you decide. However, a hugely positive reflection on Triangle is that the audience are left puzzling out a myriad of questions long after the credits have rolled. What follows is an explanation of what I believe took place in Triangle
Three Jesses Onboard Aeolus
It is important to realize that there are only ever three Jess’ on the ship at any one time. In other words, when the “Clueless Jesse” first leaves the Triangle and steps onto Aeolus, there is already a “Learning Jesse” and a “Mean Jesse” already onboard.
There’s also a dynamic character shift taking place in which Jess is constantly moving up the chain from “Clueless’ to “Learning” then “Mean” before being killed/thrown of the ship. As soon as “Mean” Jess hits the water, the whole process begins with the arrival of another Triangle yacht. In other words, Jess1 (our Jess pov) becomes Jess2 (learning) then realizes she must kill everyone to save them and so becomes Jess3 (mean). The circle continues after Jess1 (clueless) kills Jess3 (mean), who is then washed ashore on land, only to arrive later on board Aeolus again as Jess1 (clueless). Meanwhile, it is Jess2 who accidentally kills Victor1.
Three Types Of Jess Characters
As mentioned, there are three main Jess personas in Triangle:
1: “Mean Jesse” (blood and wound down face from gun shot, knows about loop, wears mask and dark outfit, kills everyone).
2: “Learning Jesse” (learning what’s happening, and how to complete loop so she can see her son again).
3: “Clueless Jesse” (no idea what’s happening, only a sense of deja-vu).
They then fall into one of two categories. Namely the Jess who boards the Aeolus with no previous memory of events. And the other two onboard the ship who already have some experience of the time loop.
Circle Of Events in Triangle
For the purpose of simplicity, I will refer to Jess1 (our Jess pov) as a static number. This number will not change as she progresses through the characters. In other words, Jess1 refers to the main character we follow in the movie. Meanwhile, Jess2 and Jess3 are the ones we see later on the ship with Group 2 then Group 3’s arrival. Don’t forget, however, that when Jess1 first arrives on Aelos, there are already two other Jesses already onboard.
1: Clueless Jesse
Single mother Jess1 goes off sailing with a group of friends (Group 1), consisting of boat owner Greg, Victor, Heather, and married couple Downey and Sally. The yacht is then struck by a storm and the group end up boarding a mysterious ship called Aeolus. Jess1 finds her keys on the floor. After going to the dining area she is attacked by Victor1 and accidentally kills him while defending herself. A masked killer then kills off all her friends. Jess1 subsequently forces the masked killer into the sea before Group2 arrives, including Jess2.
2: Learning Jesse
While running around, Jess1 drops her keys which Jess2 then picks up. Jess1 is then spotted running away. Victor2 runs after her, resulting in an accident in which his head is impaled on a sharp protrusion. Jess1 runs away, discovers a room with a shotgun and messages written in her own hand writing saying “kill everyone who boards”. Heading off, Jess1 interrupts the meeting between Jess2 and Victor2 which would have resulted in his death, and relates her experience of the time loop. Jess1 doesn’t kill Jess2, though, who then runs away. Jess1 goes to the theater. All her friends are now dead. Jess1 injures the masked shooter causing a flesh wound to her head. Jess1 makes the masked shooter fall off the ship.
3: Mean Jess
Group3’s arrival is watched by Jess1 and Jess2. Jess1 surmises that the loop will continue to run until everyone is killed and their counterparts are stopped from boarding the ship. Desperate to return back to her son, Jess1 now cleans up all the corpses and writes “Go To Theatre” on the mirror. Next, Jess1 puts on mask, kills Greg3, but is subsequently forced into the sea by Jess3. Jess1 then wakes up on a beach, watches an abusive sun-dressed Jess beating her autistic son Tommy. Jess1 kills “sundress Jess”, but suffers a car accident in which Tommy is killed. She then heads off sailing with her group of friends again.
Sisyphean Nightmare
Jess is being punished for losing her temper and killing her son at 8:17 am (the time Jess’ watch stops). The fact only Jess’ watch matches that of the ship Aeolus is further indication that the whole loop is solely about her. As the story progresses, we observe Jess as an abusive single mother on a waitress’s salary who probably cracked before killing her autistic son in a fit of frustration and rage. We then see Jess watching her other self abusing her son. This leads to Jess killing her other self and telling Tommy that things would be better from now on. Trying to leave town with her son, we witness a car crash (version?) of her son’s death.
– Car Accident
We can also say that Jess probably did not die in a car accident on the way to the harbor. After all, in the car crash scene, Jess is wearing a paint-stained sundress, which in reality she wouldn’t be wearing if she was off to see her friends. Therefore, the car accident which kills Tommy probably doesn’t happen in the real world, but only in the doomed afterlife. She likely killed Tommy back at her house after her temper snapped. This may have been triggered by Tommy spilling the paint which got onto her dress. Or alternatively, it may have been Tommy’s blood that forced the clothes change. That is why the Jess who arrives at the harbor is always wearing a white t-shirt and shorts.
– Yacht Accident
After her son’s death, Jess goes on her yacht trip. The group comes across a storm at 11:30 am, in which everyone dies (Gregg’s watch stops at 11:30 am). Heather, who gets washed away at sea, probably doesn’t die in the real world, though as she no longer plays a part in the rest of the story. Meanwhile, the rest of her friends end up on the doomed ghost ship.
The Truth Will Set You Free
The rest of Triangle centers around the never-ending guilt Jess endures as she tries to do something which might help avoid her son’s death. She also seems unable to come to terms with her culpability for what has occurred. Jess, therefore, seems condemned to be trapped in a never-ending circle of purgatory. The mysterious taxi driver reminds Jess that she has killed her son, who is now dead. He tells her that if she accepts this fact he can take her away. But as we see Jess continues in the loop so that she can eventually go home to see her son again.
The taxi driver represents Death’s messenger waiting for her to accept the truth and be set free from her circle of eternal suffering. Nevertheless, Jess remains unable to come to terms with her situation. She subsequently journeys on to join the sailing trip to relive the phenomenon all over again. Jess will therefore stay trapped inside a circle of suffering like the son of King Aeolus, Sisyphus. The cruel character from Greek mythology broke a promise to death and was punished by having to roll a huge boulder up a hill, only to have it roll back down, over and over again.
I think there were 2 loops happening, if you watch, the first time that the yacht approaches the ship, it approaches from the port (left) side. I call that loop 1. In loop one, Victor A tries to kill her and she pushes loop 1 Jess B (The one already on the boat) off the side.
The next yacht then approaches from the starboard side. That is loop 2. In that loop, Victor doesn’t try and as we watch, loop 2 Jess B beats loop 2 Jess to death on the side, and then the loop restarts to loop 1, which is the loop that Jess A pushes herself (she is now B) overboard ( being the second part of loop 1)
I saw 2 distinct loops happening simultaneously
Theres a mistake in the MOVIE PLOT EXPLANATION part.
In the 2nd loop , it is jess 2 who kills shooter jess not jess 1
in fact we watch jess 3( first jesss) so at 2nd loop we see jess 4 who kills jess 2 (unmasked jess) while jess 3 watch from deck!
Good review but I don’t understand why you and some other reviewers say she murderered her son in a fit of rage. Nowhere in the film does she murder her son. He dies in the car accident. The Dead Jess in the road is the Jess that has been murdered and stuffed in a bag in the car boot. It fell out onto the road in the crash. Also there was almost everyone’s favourite ‘through the mirror’ scene. The first Jess, after throwing Jess3 overboard hears music stuck in a grove and resets the record and then goes to look in the mirror. She walks away but the camera goes through the mirror, and now we are ‘in the mirror’ as it were. Everything is reversed and the second loop begins. This time, the second group on the upturned yacht approach the liner from the right side of the ship instead of the left side as the first time. – sort of a parallel mirror universe, and this second loop plays differently from the first. Also I don’t think you can try and analyse all the whys and wherefores. As I see it, there isn’t a beginning or an end. It exists in a place where space and time doesn’t exist. Hence one of the reasons it’s called Triangle. Just my thoughts. Thanks.
Hi Marjie. and thanks for the comments. They certainly may have died in the car accident, but the fact Jess in the car crash scene is wearing a sundress with paint spilled on it by Tommy earlier, while the Jess that arrives at the harbor is wearing white t-shirt and shorts may indicate that in reality she accidentally killed Tommy after he spoilt her going out dress, after which she changed her outfit, put Tommy in the boot, and on her way to the harbor had a car accident at 8:17 and died. Also, Jess was supposed to have taken her son on the yacht trip, but during the accident the big black bag falls out of the truck of her car, and later at the harbor she says that he is “at school” although it was Saturday!
i think she killed her son at real life (see at the end when jess return,shε watch her self to beats tomy and the clock behind her is at 8:15).So maybe her son died at 8:17 The accident i think is in her mind only
the girl in sundress at the accident spot is the jess killed by white shirt jess while abusing her son at the home. after killing she put that killed jess on the backside of the car, so while the car crashes the boy also came out of the car no need to bend the mind
Your explanation is very similar to my take on the movie as well. Thanks for sharing 🙂
Well your explanation really helped clear some messy plot loops, but there is one point I’m still confused, so at which point in the story did Jess “really” died? On the yacht (events here real or just a nightmare after death)? On the ocean liner (events here real or just a “nightmare after death)? In the car crash (events here real or only a nightmare after death)? Or when she was at home (my guess is this is where “reality” really took place, she killed her son out of rage then committed suicide in the house, she never left the house, and everything else that happened on the yacht, ocean liner, and in the car running over the seagull are all nightmare loops after her death)? Or did she die at all (perhaps she didn’t die after trying to commit suicide and was just suffering in a coma or a mental breakdown & living in a reality of endless repetition of nightmare loop)?!
She died on the yacht before the movie begins. The entire film takes place in purgatory. The beginning of the film story that we experience is following her, already dead, with no real memory of the ocean liner, just a sense of deja vu. Mean Jess is reset to Naïve Jess right before the film begins.
I think the theme of this film, come from the story from Ramayana/Puran, the holly book of Hinduism. Just read below story
One day, Lord Ram was informed that it was time for him to die. He had no
problem with that. He understood that creatures who take birth have to
experience death. “Let Yama (God of Death) come to me. It is time for me to return to my heavenly abode, Vaikuntha,” he said. But Yama dared not enter
Ayodhya. Yama, the god of death, was afraid of Hanuman who guarded the
gates of Ram’s palace and was clear no one would take Ram away from him.
To allow Yama’s entry, it was necessary to distract Hanuman. So Ram
dropped his ring into a crack in the palace floor and requested Hanuman
to fetch it. Hanuman reduced himself to the size of a beetle and entered
the crack only to discover that it was no crack but the entrance to a
tunnel that led to Nag-lok, the land of serpents. Hanuman met Vasuki,
king of serpents, there and informed him of his mission.
Vasuki took Hanuman to the centre of Nag-lok where stood a mountain
of rings! “There you will surely find Ram’s ring,” said Vasuki. Hanuman
wondered how he would do that. It was like finding a needle in a
haystack. But to his delight, the first ring that he picked up was Ram’s
ring. To his astonishment, even the second ring he picked up was Ram’s
ring. In fact all the rings that made up the mountain of rings were
Ram’s ring. “What is the meaning of this?” he wondered
Vasuki smiled and said, “This world we live in goes through cycles of
life and death. Each life cycle of the world is called a kalp. Each
kalp is composed of four yugs or quarters. In the second quarter or Tret
yug, Ram takes birth in Ayodhya. Then one day his ring falls from earth
into the subterranean realm of serpents through a tunnel. A monkey
follows it and Ram up there dies. So it has been for hundreds of
thousands of kalpas. All these rings testify to that fact. The mountain
keeps growing as more rings fall. There is enough space for the rings of
the future Ram.”
Hanuman realized that his entry into Nag-lok and his encounter with
this mountain of rings was no accident. It was Ram’s way of telling him
that he could not stop death from coming. Ram would die. The world would
die. But like all things Ram would be reborn each time the world is
reborn. So it would be forever.
This cyclical view of life is the essence of Indian thought.
For the Hindu mind, Ram is timeless and universal and so cannot be
fettered to period or place. That is why the day of his birth is
celebrated every year as spring gives way to summer. Every year he
comes, every year he goes. But everyone has faith that he will keep
coming back.
There are some staggering plot holes in the story.
Time travel never works…
non of my friends agree with me I’ve been saying from the start jess is in limbo for the guilt for killing & being a bad mother. Great film if you’re observant & like films that make your brain rattle lol
non of my friends agree with me I’ve been saying from the start jess is in limbo for the guilt for killing & being a bad mother. Great film if you’re observant & like films that make your brain rattle lol