Climax is a 2018 experimental psychological horror film directed, written and co-edited by Gaspar Noé. Featuring an ensemble cast of 24 actors, led by Sofia Boutella, the plot is set in 1996 and follows a French dance troupe holding a days-long rehearsal in an abandoned school; the final night of rehearsing is a success, but the group's celebratory after-party takes a dark turn when the communal bowl of sangria is spiked with LSD, sending each of the dancers into agitated, confused and psychotic states.
The film is notable for its unorthodox production, having been conceived and pre-produced in four weeks and shot in chronological order in only 15 days: although Noé conceived the premise, the bulk of the film was unrehearsed on-the-spot improvisation by the cast, who were provided no lines of dialogue beforehand and had almost complete liberty as to where to take the story and characters.
Plot[]
In the winter of 1996, a professional French dance troupe, led by manager Emmanuelle and choreographer Selva, gathers in a rural, abandoned school to rehearse an upcoming performance. After succeeding in completing the elaborate closing piece of the dance, the group commence a celebratory after-party, dancing and drinking sangria made by Emmanuelle, while Goth Daddy provides music. The diverse group has several personal issues and share gossip about one another during the celebration.
As the party progresses, the dancers get increasingly agitated and confused. When Psyché urinates on the floor, Selva begins to realize that something is wrong and that everybody is behaving strangely. The dancers eventually come to the conclusion that the sangria has been spiked with a hallucinogen, presumably LSD. At first they accuse Emmanuelle since she made the drink, but she points out that she drank it and is also suffering from its effects. Taylor, already resentful towards Omar for dating his sister Gazelle, points out that Omar, a teetotaler, has not touched the sangria and accuses him of being the one responsible. The group gets angry and locks him outside the building in freezing conditions.
Emmanuelle sees her young son, Tito, drinking the sangria and locks him inside an electrical room to protect him from the agitated dancers. Selva goes to the room of her friend Lou, who is also feeling ill despite not having drunk. Lou confesses that she did not drink because she is pregnant. Dom, strongly affected by the drug, enters the room, accuses Lou of spiking the drink and kicks her several times in the stomach, not believing her claim of being pregnant; Lou, injured, retching, and weeping, passes through an altercation between Alaia and Jennifer in the kitchen due to Jennifer's refusal to share her cocaine, during which Jennifer's hair is set aflame after Alaia pushes her against a portable stove.
A frenzied Lou confronts Dom on the dance floor, but the group, all heavily affected by the LSD at this point, turns on her and accuse her of having spiked the drink. At first taking up a knife to defend herself, the taunts of the group cause Lou to have a breakdown, and she ends up punching herself in the stomach and slashing herself with the knife on her face and arm as the group encourages her to kill herself, before being comforted by Eva.
Selva, hearing screams, forces herself to walk through the building in her drug-addled, hallucinatory state and finds Emmanuelle, who has lost the key to the electric room in which Tito is locked and is screaming for help due to hallucinations. While Emmanuelle desperately searches, Selva sees Taylor and a group brutally beating David, who has spent the night talking about and approaching women salaciously. When the school suddenly loses electricity and switches to red emergency lighting, someone laughingly shouts that Tito has electrocuted himself.
Ivana drags a heavily hallucinating Selva through the halls passing a distraught Eva in a shower, trying to wash off the blood from Lou's cuts. Entering Ivana's room, the two take shelter and begin to have sex. A distraught David stumbles upon the two and is kicked out by Selva. David tries to enter DJ Daddy's room but is also evicted. Rejected, David encounters Gazelle and her brother Taylor, starting to have sex. Gazelle flees from Taylor and stumbles into the central hall where the remaining dancers have descended into drug-induced psychosis, dancing wildly, writhing on the floor, chanting in tongues, having sex, and physically assaulting one another. Taylor catches up to Gazelle and professes his love to her, telling her only he can make her happy as she cries. Gazelle has a seizure and Taylor takes her to his room while David is attacked by another dancer who slams his head against the floor.
When police arrive the next morning, they find almost all of the dancers either unconscious or dead. Psyché continues to dance alone. Dom is curled up alone, sobbing. Omar has frozen to death outside while Emmanuelle has killed herself outside the electrical room out of grief. Tito's corpse lies beside the open door of the electrical junction cabinet. Gazelle wakes up next to Taylor, seemingly having forgotten the evening as Taylor instructs her not to say anything to their father. Eva is curled up naked in the shower cubicle. Jennifer is splashing water on her burned scalp, screaming. Lou exits the building, and writhes outside in the snow, laughing uncontrollably, having gone insane.
As the police search the building, Psyché, who has several books related to hallucinogens in her bag, and apparently suffering no ill effects from the acid, goes to her room and drops liquid LSD into her eye.
List of deaths[]
| Name | Cause of Death | Killer | On Screen | Notes |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Omar | Frozen to death | Dom (and others) | No | Drug induced by Psyché |
| Tito | Electrocuted | Himself | No | Accidental/Drug induced |
| Claude Emmanuel Gajan-Maull | Suicide | Herself | No |
Cast[]
- Sofia Boutella as Selva
- Romain Guillermic as David
- Souheila Yacoub as Lou
- Kiddy Smile as Daddy
- Claude Gajan Maull as Emmanuelle
- Giselle Palmer as Gazelle
- Taylor Kastle as Taylor
- Thea Carla Schøtt as Psyché
- Sharleen Temple as Ivana
- Léa Vlamos as Eva
- Alaïa Alsafir as Alaïa
- Kendall Mugler as Rocket
- Lakdhar Dridi as Riley
- Adrien Sissoko as Omar
- Mamadou Bathily as Bart
- Alou Sidibe as Kyrra
- Ashley Biscette as Shirley
- Mounia Nassangar as Dom
- Tiphanie Au as Sila
- Sarah Belala as Jennifer
- Alexandre Moreau as Cyborg
- Naab as Rocco
- Strauss Serpent as Serpent
- Vince Galliot Cumant as Tito
Gallery[]
