The Paramedic

The Paramedic (Spanish: El Practicante) is a 2020 Spanish thriller film directed by Carles Torras, written by David Desola and Hèctor Hernández Vicens and starring Celso Bugallo, Mario Casas and Déborah François.[2]

This article is about the 2020 film. For the 1988 film, see Paramedics (film). For the specialist healthcare professional, see Paramedic.
The Paramedic
Film poster
SpanishEl Practicante
Directed by
  • Carles Torras
Written by
  • David Desola
  • Hèctor Hernández Vicens
Starring
Production
company
Distributed byNetflix
Release date
  • September 16, 2020 (2020-09-16)[1]
CountrySpain
LanguageSpanish

The Paramedic was released on September 16, 2020 by Netflix.[1]

Plot

Angel Hernandez is a paramedic who lives with his girlfriend Vanesa (Vane) Francois. Angel has an ambiguous attitude towards his patients and sometimes steals from them, selling the more valuable items to a local fence. At home, he is possessive and controlling towards Vane. The couple are trying for a baby without success. Angel takes a fertility test and discovers that he has a low sperm count, but does not confide this to Vane.

One day, while taking an injured patient to hospital, the ambulance (driven by his colleague Ricardo) is in an accident and Angel is left paralysed from the waist down and confined to a wheelchair. He blames Ricardo and is unable to forgive him. His disability puts a strain on his relationship with Vane, and he begins to suspect her of cheating on him. Vane works at a call centre at night, and Angel installs spyware on her phone to keep tabs on her.

Via the phone spyware, he overhears a conversation between Vane and her friend, who suggests that Angel is abusive and that Vane should leave him. When Vane returns home that day, Angel has cooked her favourite meal and is contrite about the way he has treated her. They try to have sex but do not succeed because Angel is unable to feel anything. While he is showering, Vane discovers from his laptop that he has been spying on her. Disgusted, she packs up and leaves for good.

Several months pass, but Angel is still obsessed with Vane. He stalks her and eventually sees her kissing Ricardo, with whom she has begun a relationship. Later, Angel observes the couple shopping for baby things and realises that she is pregnant with Ricardo’s baby. Angel meets Vane in the street and tells her that he has boxed up her remaining possessions and asks if she would like to come and pick them up. However, on their arrival at the apartment, Angel injects Vane, causing her to lose consciousness. When she awakes, she finds herself gagged and tied to a bed. Angel uses Vane’s phone to send Ricardo a message, telling him that she does not want to have their baby, and asking him not to contact her. Ricardo later approaches Angel to say he does not believe Vane sent the message and is worried because he can't find her.

Angel injects Vane with an epidural so that she temporarily loses the use of her legs. He presents her with a engagement ring (actually stolen from one of his former patients) and talks of their future together raising their (Vane’s) baby. Vane makes an escape attempt but he overcomes her. His elderly neighbour hears Vane scream and comes to investigate. When the old man threatens to call the police, Angel stabs him to death, and pays his friend the fence to dispose of the body. Angel also goes over to Ricardo's house and kills him.

A few days later, police arrive at Angel’s apartment and advise him that they are investigating Ricardo's death, and the disappearance of Vane (whom Ricardo had reported as a missing person). Angel manages to satisfy the police that he knows nothing about either.

Vane manages to escape while Angel is out of the apartment. Although with only partial use of her legs, she succeeds in dragging herself down the staircase of the building, but when the lift stops on the landing, Angel exits. They struggle, but Vane stabs him with a screwdriver and he falls several flights down the stairwell.

In the final scene, Angel is in hospital, now completely paralysed, unable to talk and breathing through a tube in his throat. Vane appears, fully recovered and visibly pregnant. She tells the helpless Angel that from now on she will be taking care of him. His fate is left unknown as Vane wheels him out of the hospital with a sinister smile on her face.

Cast

References
  1. Mallenbaum, Carly (August 19, 2020). "Netflix in September: Tom Holland film, 'Jurassic' show, 'Ratched'". USA Today. Archived from the original on August 19, 2020. Retrieved August 19, 2020.
  2. "Netflix Films "The Paramedic" with Mario Casas". The Futon Critic. October 16, 2019.
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