>>18594011I break it down to three layers:
1: It's a sportsball movie where the bad corporate guys are making money by injuring players. Most people see this and rightfully think it is underwhelming but it is realistic since the NFL has been caught with some scandals.
2: Political allegory. Jon and Marcus represent two kinds of major American attitudes. Other characters are symbolic too, especially the German player. The nightclub scene is full of red vs blue imagery for the plebs on the lower level. Military uniforms are also different on the lower level vs where the owners hang out. Everything the media figures say is scripted and it is all planned like professional wrestling. There is even a Shane McMahon cameo and Paul Heyman makes frequent appearances through it all to drive this point home. The whole movie is so dense with stuff I can't even begin to cover it.
3: Petrovich represents the devil and everyone sells their soul to him to get a piece of the pie. There is symbolism with bridges and crossing over in a spiritual sense. There is other esoteric stuff like the character Rabbit who is ignored until his incident in the second game. Paul Heyman even says, when he is reading "the rules", that a team who gains possession of the Rollerball must first do the rabbit hole, an obvious conspiracy theory reference when you start analyzing the film in this schizo way.
