Circle ending explained: Here's how Eric survived the game

Circle is a film in the sci-fi and psychological thriller realm. It is written and directed by the duo of Aaron Hann and Mario Miscione, while Justin Bursch, Scott Einbinder, Michael Nardelli, Tim Nardelli, and Brent Stiefel are the producers. The film premiered at the 2015 Seattle International Film Festival and was directly released through video-on-demand on October 16, 2015.

Here's the official synopsis as per IMDb:

"Held captive and faced with their imminent executions, fifty strangers are forced to choose the one person among them who deserves to live."

Let's explore how the film's story concludes while touching upon the details.

What is the plot of Circle?

Circle focuses on a group of fifty individuals who wake up to find themselves inside a darkened room. Soon, they find out that one of them is getting killed after an interval of every two minutes. This can also occur if that person tries to escape. Moralities and values are tested when they realize that they have control over the individual who will be selected for the killing.

How does Circle end?

Towards the end of Circle, the killing continues, and only three contenders are left. They are a guy named Eric, a young girl named Katie, and a woman who is heavily pregnant. Eric comes up with a plot to get the two eliminated. He tells Katie that they should sacrifice their lives to save the pregnant woman because she is carrying a life inside her.

Katie, unaware of his plans, steps back from the circle. This immediately kills her. The pregnant lady is unbothered by this as she believes that the two are trying to help her. This is where Eric unveils his sinister plan and votes against the pregnant woman. However, his plan is thrown out after the machine that is scanning everyone recognizes the lady as two people. It is because she is pregnant and the foetus is counted as an individual. So there is another round of the game.

One needs to put their fist on the machine to cast their vote. Eric knows that the unborn child can't cast their vote. So he ends up voting against the child and not the mother. The final moments of the film showcase Eric in the outside realm, which is filled with people who have survived the game (mostly children and pregnant women).

The sky is filled with alien ships hovering around. This denotes that the experiment was done on a sizable number of people. The ending also implies that it was an experiment done by the aliens who have invaded Earth to study human values and morals. This is done to figure out which among them are worth saving from some catastrophe. Given that there are no clear answers, the remaining survivors might have to go through another game.

The makers don't directly reveal the death game mystery. But it is implied that aliens were observing how humans determine which is better or more worthy. While the game itself is bleak, the remaining survivors provide hope for humanity. It is because many people wanted them to be saved.