The Devil, Probably (1977) (2012) Plot Summary Explained

Charles searched for meaning in these institutions but found them fundamentally inadequate. Politics and religion offered collective meaning, but Charles felt they were empty performances that masked human cruelty rather than addressing it. Psychoanalysis promised self-understanding but only intensified his awareness of his own nihilism, leaving him more horrified by the human condition rather than reconciled to it.

Foreshadowing: The film opens with the grim certainty of Charles's death, establishing that none of these searches will provide salvation.

• meaning
• nihilism
• existential crisis
• disillusionment
• society

When a passenger asks 'Who made this mockery of humanity?' and another responds 'The devil probably,' it crystallizes Charles's worldview. The phrase becomes an ironic acceptance of the world's inherent corruption - not literally blaming Satan, but acknowledging that humanity's suffering stems from forces beyond individual control. This moment validates his sense that existence itself is fundamentally flawed.

Foreshadowing: This conversation occurs after Charles has already tried and failed to find meaning through politics, religion, and relationships, marking his complete resignation.

• bus conversation
• devil probably
• humanity
• meaninglessness
• satire

Charles's alienation was so profound that even intimate relationships felt like performances. His friends and girlfriend represented the very society he found abhorrent - people who could still find meaning in politics, careers, and love despite the apparent futility of existence. His inability to connect wasn't about others failing him but about his complete emotional detachment from ordinary human experience.

Foreshadowing: Early scenes establish Charles as fundamentally apart from those around him, watching life rather than participating in it.

• alberte
• michel
• albert
• edwige
• isolation
• emotional detachment

Valentin was a drug-addicted friend who lived on the margins of society, making him one of the few people Charles respected because he at least rejected mainstream values. Charles approached Valentin to arrange his suicide because Valentin could obtain a handgun without questions - but more importantly, Valentin embodied the discarded portion of society that Charles saw as honest about life's meaninglessness. Their shared nihilism created a strange bond.

Foreshadowing: Charles's previous failed attempts at connection (politics, religion, psychoanalysis, relationships) all involved mainstream institutions; Valentin represents the opposite extreme.

• valentin
• suicide
• gun
• addiction
• friendship
• nihilism

Charles's fixation emerged from a logical conclusion: if nothing in the world holds meaning and all attempts to find purpose fail, continued existence becomes absurd. His suicide wasn't impulsive but intellectual - he saw death as the only dignified response to a world he found fundamentally repugnant. The horror he felt watching humanity's casual cruelty made survival feel like complicity.

Foreshadowing: His increasing observation of the world's 'horror' in the middle chapters directly precedes his suicide planning.

• suicide
• death
• nihilism
• despair
• meaninglessness

The opening establishes that Charles's story is being examined in retrospect, with the outcome known from the start. This structure allows the film to explore how a seemingly intelligent, young man arrived at such a desperate conclusion. The flashbacks from his friends' perspectives investigate whether they could have intervened - though the film suggests his path was essentially inevitable given his philosophical stance.

Foreshadowing: The two contradictory newspaper headlines in the opening suggest conflicting interpretations of Charles's life and death.

• flashback
• structure
• pere lachaise
• opening
• cemetery

The title refers directly to the bus conversation where a stranger answers 'The devil probably' to the question of who leads humanity. Charles adopts this phrase as his worldview - not literally believing in Satan, but accepting that the world's suffering stems from some fundamental corruption beyond individual remedy. The 'probably' adds fatalistic resignation: things are likely bad and likely beyond saving.

Foreshadowing: The title appears before the character does, hinting that this philosophical statement defines Charles's entire journey.

• title
• devil probably
• meaning
• satire
• fatalism

Charles approached intimacy as another failed avenue for connection, finding that physical pleasure couldn't substitute for genuine meaning. Even with Alberte, who genuinely cared for him, Charles couldn't overcome his fundamental sense that human connection was ultimately futile. Sex became another reminder of the gap between human animal instincts and the intellectual awareness of existence's absurdity.

Foreshadowing: The pattern of failed pursuits - politics, religion, psychoanalysis - extends to relationships, reinforcing Charles's conclusion that nothing works.

• alberte
• sex
• intimacy
• disconnection
• relationships