The Incident (2014): When Time Breaks, Madness Fills the Void

When space becomes a cage and time runs in circles, there's no escape from your past. 

The Incident (original title: El Incidente) is a 2014 Mexican sci-fi psychological thriller written and directed by Isaac Ezban. Bold, brain-bending, and emotionally unsettling, the film explores the terrifying consequences of being trapped—physically, mentally, and emotionally—in an infinite loop of time and space.

The story unfolds in two parallel narratives. In the first, two brothers fleeing a crime scene and a detective chasing them suddenly find themselves stuck in a never-ending staircase—an Escher-like trap where each floor leads back to the same place, and time becomes meaningless. In the second thread, a woman and her family on a road trip discover their highway loops endlessly, with no destination in sight and no way back.

What starts as a disorienting mystery quickly becomes a study in human psychology, as days become years and the characters are forced to reckon with hunger, madness, memory, and regret. Each person trapped in these loops experiences the collapse of linear time and the agonizing pressure of eternity. They age, despair, adapt—and ultimately reveal the connections that tie their stories together in a stunning, emotional twist.

Ezban’s direction leans into minimalism, letting the existential dread grow organically from the characters' desperation and helplessness. With eerie repetition, gradually decaying settings, and a haunting score, The Incident blends science fiction and philosophical horror into a unique cinematic experience.

More than a puzzle-box thriller, The Incident is a meditation on trauma, consequence, and the prison of the mind—and how the past, when left unresolved, can trap us forever.