film / 2020
Another Round
Four teachers test a theory that constant low-level intoxication improves life, and discover how quickly liberation can become dependence and loss.
Verified facts
- Runtime
- 1h 57m
- Director
- Thomas Vinterberg
- Released
- 2020
- Origin
- Denmark
PlotGeeks explainer signals
Why read this explainer
The film changes tone without treating comedy and damage as separate stories. This guide tracks the experiment's stages and explains why Martin's final dance is neither a simple celebration nor a warning label.
PlotGeeks note
Alcohol initially gives the friends permission to act like versions of themselves they miss. The danger begins when the experiment becomes the only way they know to reach those selves.
Timeline
Major events
- The friends begin the experiment
Measured drinking appears to restore confidence, sociability, and pleasure in teaching.
- They raise the alcohol level
A controlled theory becomes permission to chase increasingly unstable results.
- The experiment ends
Damage to family and work makes the men stop, but Tommy cannot return to moderation.
- Martin dances after the funeral
Loss and possibility occupy the same celebration without cancelling one another.
Story in 60 Seconds
The short version
History teacher Martin feels detached from his students, family, and former ambitions. During a birthday dinner, friends Tommy, Nikolaj, and Peter discuss a theory that people function better with a small amount of alcohol in their blood. They begin drinking during work and recording the results. Confidence and creativity improve at first: Martin reconnects with his classes and family, while the others take new risks. The group raises the target level, then tests extreme intoxication. Their relationships and judgment deteriorate. They stop the experiment, but Tommy, already isolated and dependent, cannot regain control.
Spoiler sectionEnding ExplainedShow ending detailsHide ending details
Tommy takes his boat onto the water and dies. After his funeral, the remaining friends join graduating students celebrating by the harbor. Martin receives a hopeful message from his wife Anika and begins dancing with the energy he once trained professionally to use. He finally leaps into the water. The ending holds grief, danger, friendship, and renewed appetite together. Martin's movement is alive precisely because Tommy's death prevents the celebration from becoming innocent.
Original context
Why it matters
The camera joins the changing energy
Early inertia gives way to movement and looseness as the experiment begins. Later disorder shows that vitality and control are no longer the same.
Key turning points
Martin jumps into the harbor
The leap answers stillness with movement, but it follows a funeral. The image can celebrate continued life without approving the method that endangered it.
Character links
Who connects to whom
Character motivations
Martin wants access to his former self
He remembers confidence, dance, and desire as qualities alcohol might unlock. His real task is learning whether they can survive without the experiment.