After his wife is forced to give up 40 years of her life as payment for an insurance debt, a man desperately searches for a way to get them back.
Set in the not too distant future where the company AEON has become a multi-billion dollar big pharma conglomerate. The start-up managed it with a revolutionary technology that makes it possible to transfer lifespan from one person to another. This has serious consequences for parts of society. Elena is confronted with insurance claims that she and her husband Max cannot pay. So she is forced to sell 40 years of her life to AEON. Max works for the company himself and from then on tries everything to get back the lost years of his wife. He finds out that the CEO of AEON is targeting Elena's lifetime. So he hatches a plan to kidnap her. For Max and Elena, a hunt begins that not only takes them across national borders, but also to the edge of their own moral concepts.
In Germany, in a near future, the company Aeon and its CEO Sophie Theissen have developed a revolutionary means to transfer lifespan from donors to compatible receiver. Poor people are usually the targets, receiving high amounts for their years of life. The terrorist group Adam Organization, led by Lilith, fights Aeon since it is a company that exploits poor people. Max is Aeon's manager of the year, since he is good in convincing people to sell their years of life and start a new life. He is married with Elena, who was his target in the past but they fall in love with each other, and now they expect to have a baby. When their fancy apartment is burnt to the ground, the insurance company realizes that it was an accidental arson caused by a candle and refuses to pay the loss. The bank immediately executes the mortgage and Elena is arrested since her lifespan was the loan guarantee. Max looks for Sophie and asks for a loan, and she promises to resolve the situation. However, she disappears, and Elena loses thirty-eight years of her life and aborts her baby almost dying. When Max learns that Sophie Theissen was the receiver of Elena's lifespan, he decides to recover the years of his beloved wife and plots a plan that does not succeed as planned.—Claudio Carvalho, Rio de Janeiro, Brazil
After years of extensive research and utilizing medical advancements, Aeon, a German-based biotech company, has developed a groundbreaking medical procedure capable of transferring life from one person to another, provided they share a matching DNA structure. This breakthrough has opened up a unique opportunity for those in urgent need of financial aid - they can opt to sell their age to the company, categorized according to specific requirements.
On the other hand, Aeon offers a helping hand to individuals with exceptional talents, enabling them to extend their life spans and continue to contribute their genius to the world. Meanwhile, due to the influx of migrants and asylum seekers in this society, Aeon proudly highlights its time-transferring technology as a lifeline for those who have little else to offer but their time to survive and thrive. This process has made them the primary recipients of Aeon's unique solution. At this point, we understand the film aims to explore the realities of capitalism, privilege, and corporate culture while delving into the complex ethical and societal paradoxes that arise from such AI advancement.
We are then introduced to our protagonist, Max Toma, a highly successful donation manager employed by Aeon. His job involves persuading people facing hardship to sell their age for the promise of improved life prospects. Max is exceptionally good at his job, earning him the prestigious title of "Best Donation Manager of the Year."
While Aeon has a dedicated following of individuals who are enamored by the company's cutting-edge technological advancements and the vision of a better world, there is also a group of people known as "Adam." This clandestine group is committed to making people aware of how Aeon is contributing to social and economic disparity in society. Adam operates covertly, infiltrating the Aeon campus and resorting to violent means in their quest to put an end to what Aeon's CEO, Sophie Theissen, initiated.
One day, upon returning home from his regular visit to his wife Elena's parents, Max discovers their apartment in flames, resulting in the loss of all their belongings. Seeking assistance from their lawyer, Max comes to know that Elena had enrolled herself as a donor with Aeon to secure a mortgage for their apartment, which was far more expensive than they could afford.
The lawyer informs them that since the fire was caused by a burning candle, the insurance company would consider it an owner's negligence and refuse any compensation for the loss of their possessions. Now burdened with a substantial bank debt due to the mortgage they must repay, Max and Elena find themselves with no choice but to clear the debt using Elena's time span, which amounts to 38 years. While Elena is sure that she put out the candle before leaving the apartment and believes it cannot be the reason for the fire, we also learn that Max had registered as a donor. However, he is unable to contribute his time span as his match had tragically died in an accident.
After the meeting with the lawyer, Elena is taken into custody by the authorities, as they suspect her intention to run away to escape her debts. Max is left with no choice but to wait for his wife to undergo the time-transferring procedure to clear the debt burden. Following the procedure, they find temporary refuge in a low-budget hotel, where Elena grapples with the aftereffects of her age increase of 38 years.
Meanwhile, when Max had earlier requested a quick loan from Aeon's CEO Sophie, he received word from the officials, offering him a promotion with an increased salary and better perks as a reward for his commitment to the company. Despite the tempting offer, Max realizes things are not what they seem, and he decides to leave Aeon.
On the other hand, Max discovers that his wife had a miscarriage as a result of the age transformation procedure. While Max remains determined to find a solution and improve their lives, Elena struggles to come to terms with her sudden age change. She feels that there is no point in trying to reverse it as it won't bring her youth back. Consequently, she decides to move back in with her parents and continue her work as a doctor at a community hospital.
Desperate to find a solution to reverse the effects of what Elena went through, Max happens to encounter a young girl selling drugs. Observing her, he instantly realizes that there might be a way to somehow reverse the age transplant. Through this young girl, he comes to know about a group that performs age-transplanting surgeries in Lithuania. While Aeon is legally performing these procedures, the group in Lithuania does it illegally to make instant profits.
After learning that he needs to have the recipient who took Elena's time, he plans to kidnap Sophie Theissen. After carefully monitoring the Aeon CEO for quite some time, Max follows Sophie to a graveyard in Berlin. However, upon finding her without guards, when he approaches her, he discovers a young woman much younger than the Sophie he knew. Convinced that Sophie used his wife's time to de-age herself, he kidnaps her.
Max then brings Elena to the place where he is hiding Sophie and explains to her about the procedure taking place in Lithuania. Elena is, of course, lured by the idea of getting her youth back with the de-aging procedure and tags along with Max to Lithuania. As they spend more time with Sophie during their journey, Elena notices that the young woman they kidnapped doesn't have any surgery marks on her body, unlike herself, which makes it evident that she is not Sophie.
It turns out that Sophie has a daughter named Marie Theissen, who has nothing to do with the age transplant procedure. While the world knew that Sophie had only one daughter who died of cancer many years ago, this tragedy became a driving force for Sophie to work on age transplantation. It also led her to hide her other daughter, Marie, from the world to avoid any sort of criticism or unwanted attention. Realizing that they have kidnapped the wrong person for the procedure, Max convinces Elena (who faces a moral dilemma) to use Marie's age to regain her youth, and Marie can take her time from Sophie.
Max and Elena's plan doesn't pan out the way they imagined when Adam's group leader, Lilith, discovers their location after German news declares them as fugitives. At this point in the film, Lilith's character serves as an explanatory mark, shedding light on the coincidental turn of events. Lilith explains to Max and Elena that their lives took a downturn because Aeon's CEO, Sophie, had long been fixated on Elena's time since she is her compatible match.
Sophie desired to use her compatible donor's time to de-age herself, allowing her to continue her research on the age donation procedure. When Aeon found a compatible match in Elena, they sent Max to persuade her to undergo the time donation. However, Max and Elena fell in love and got married instead, thwarting Sophie's plans. In response, Sophie orchestrated a series of manipulative actions that intertwined with both Elena's and Max's lives.
Firstly, Sophie convinced Elena to agree to a loan contract that involved donating her life as collateral for house insurance. Simultaneously, Sophie staged the death of Max's potential recipient, eliminating him from donating his time. This ploy set the stage for the subsequent fire accident, which Sophie's personal security agent, Kaya, deliberately caused by breaking into their apartment and setting it on fire. The fire incident ensured that Elena would be the only one left to donate her time in order to pay off the mortgage.
While Max and Elena are in utter shock from the revelation, Lilith offers them a deal: Max must secure an agreement with Sophie, allowing the Adam group to carry out their job by kidnapping her. Meanwhile, Kaya and her team discover the location where Max, Elena, and Marie are hiding and arrive fully armed, intending to rescue Marie. As per Lilith's plan, Max is sent outside to secure the deal. However, one of the Adam group members, who was covertly operating within Sophie's security team, shoots at Sophie, sparking a massive gunfight. Amidst the chaos, Lilith is killed. Max manages to rescue Elena and protect Marie from the crossfire.
During their escape, Marie attempts to kill Elena, but Elena defends herself by hitting Marie's head against the car, knocking her unconscious. On their way to meet the Lithuanian group, Max experiences a change of heart upon seeing the wounded Marie. He tries to convince Elena that what they are doing to Marie is no different from what big corporations do to exploit people, and they should not fall into the same unethical path.
However, Elena is completely entranced by the opportunity to regain her youth. Realizing that Marie could have killed her but didn't, despite Elena's kindness towards her, Elena becomes resolute in her decision. She threatens to kill herself and demands that Max leave the car, abandoning him. Elena drives straight to the compounds of the Lithuanian group, determined to proceed with their original plan of getting herself a reverse age transplant.
After the successful transplant, which is possible due to Marie sharing the same DNA structure as her mother, Sophie, Elena finally undergoes the age reversal procedure.
With the transplant completed, Marie is allowed to leave the compound. As she walks alone in the middle of nowhere, a truck driver comes across her and takes her directly to Sophie. It turns out the Aeon CEO was wearing a bulletproof vest during the gunfight with the Adam group member who had infiltrated her team.
The vest saved her from the gunfire. However, despite escaping the physical harm, Sophie now has to see her daughter, Marie experience the after-effects of the aging procedure, which increased her age by 40 years.
Max was left stranded in the middle of nowhere after Elena went to the procedure camp. Determined to put an end to the terrible money-minting medical procedure that took away his life, including his wife, he eventually makes his way to the refugee camp in Lithuania. There, he discovers that people from all over have gathered, seeking the illegal age transplantation provided by the gang. Realizing the grave consequences and moral implications of such a procedure, Max decides to join Adam's group as their new leader, taking on the role after the death of the former leader, Lilith.
The ending of the Netflix film "Paradise" shows that Max has vowed to stop this age transplantation business and put an end to the exploitation caused by it. Elena, having found a new life after reclaiming her youth, moves forward with hope for a better future with her new partner and their child.
On the other hand, Sophie remains unchanged, refusing to give up her obsession with age transplantation research despite witnessing her own daughter go through the procedure. (thanks to highonfilms)
