PLOT SUMMARY: Malorie and her children try to find a safe place following a phenomenon where people begin killing themselves unless they wear a blindfold.
Picture this, you're in a world where inexplicable things are happening. People are killing themselves for no reason and this threat, whatever it is, cannot harm you if you do not see it. So what do you do to combat this evil?
You put on a blindfold.
It is a terrifying thought to never be able to see the world around you anymore, isn't it?
But what is this threat? Where did it come from? Who realized first that if you don't see it, it cannot harm you?
These are some questions not answered in the movie but you must make the deduction yourself.
Bird box is actually two different plots, blended together.
BIRD BOX Movie Plot
In one, we see Malorie, a woman, a painter, deserted by her husband and now pregnant. She has issues with motherhood and couldn't care less for her baby. Her sister advises her that the worst thing wouldn't be that she would have someone, but that she would be alone.
Before Malorie can process a suggestion given by her doctor to consider giving away her baby, disaster strikes. The incident that has so far been going on in Russia, has made its way to Malorie's hometown.
In a matter of seconds, Malorie's sister is struck by the phenomenon and intentionally crashes the car, and when she still survives, stands in front of a bus. All around Malorie, catastrophe occurs, things are blowing up, and people are killing themselves.
Fortunately, Malorie is dragged into a mansion by a stranger, Tom, and is saved. It is then that we see that Malorie has suffered literally no injuries in the crash.
A gang of people with nothing in common are now stranded in a house. The outside world is no longer safe. The characters are typical in such movies: we have the grouchy man, the optimistic woman, the good girl who turns bad and then the bad guy turning selfish. Then there is Tom who flirts with Malorie without asking her if the husband is still in the picture or not. He could still be alive somewhere, holed up somewhere. But no, he starts to flirt with a pregnant woman and excuses this behavior by saying "hey, the world is ending."
The next stranger to enter the house is another pregnant woman. In the meantime, the intercut shows Malorie in a boat with her kids, all of them blindfolded. Now we know one of them is Malorie's and the other Olympia's.
The person whose house it is bravely accepted the suggestion to watch the cameras and learn about whatever it is that is killing people. Turns out, this thing can kill through the cameras as well.
When half of them decide to go to the supermarket for supplies, the grouchy old man suggests living there and they wouldn't have to go back and forth for supplies. His suggestions are quickly shot down because no one likes him. One of them could have gone back to the house for the others and brought them to the supermarket, but they wanted comfortable beds and toilets.
Another unexplained phenomenon was where the food supply was coming from. The intercut scenes show the future, five years later. How have people been surviving? How is Malorie with two kids getting food?
More people die, two of them in the group abandon the rest and take the car. Another unusual phenomenon occurs where Malorie and Olympia go into labour at the same time. This is after Olympia lets in a weirdo who claims crazy people are not affected and are forcing people to see outside.
Of course, he's the crazy one who actually makes good sketches. Although it made no sense why he told the others the crazies were attacking people and didn't attack the people in the House right away. He waits until the babies are born before he goes berserk.
Olympia dies and so do the remaining. Malorie now has to take charge of Olympia's daughter.
Before Malorie can process a suggestion given by her doctor to consider giving away her baby, disaster strikes. The incident that has so far been going on in Russia, has made its way to Malorie's hometown.
In a matter of seconds, Malorie's sister is struck by the phenomenon and intentionally crashes the car, and when she still survives, stands in front of a bus. All around Malorie, catastrophe occurs, things are blowing up, and people are killing themselves.
Fortunately, Malorie is dragged into a mansion by a stranger, Tom, and is saved. It is then that we see that Malorie has suffered literally no injuries in the crash.
A gang of people with nothing in common are now stranded in a house. The outside world is no longer safe. The characters are typical in such movies: we have the grouchy man, the optimistic woman, the good girl who turns bad and then the bad guy turning selfish. Then there is Tom who flirts with Malorie without asking her if the husband is still in the picture or not. He could still be alive somewhere, holed up somewhere. But no, he starts to flirt with a pregnant woman and excuses this behavior by saying "hey, the world is ending."
The next stranger to enter the house is another pregnant woman. In the meantime, the intercut shows Malorie in a boat with her kids, all of them blindfolded. Now we know one of them is Malorie's and the other Olympia's.
The person whose house it is bravely accepted the suggestion to watch the cameras and learn about whatever it is that is killing people. Turns out, this thing can kill through the cameras as well.
When half of them decide to go to the supermarket for supplies, the grouchy old man suggests living there and they wouldn't have to go back and forth for supplies. His suggestions are quickly shot down because no one likes him. One of them could have gone back to the house for the others and brought them to the supermarket, but they wanted comfortable beds and toilets.
Another unexplained phenomenon was where the food supply was coming from. The intercut scenes show the future, five years later. How have people been surviving? How is Malorie with two kids getting food?
More people die, two of them in the group abandon the rest and take the car. Another unusual phenomenon occurs where Malorie and Olympia go into labour at the same time. This is after Olympia lets in a weirdo who claims crazy people are not affected and are forcing people to see outside.
Of course, he's the crazy one who actually makes good sketches. Although it made no sense why he told the others the crazies were attacking people and didn't attack the people in the House right away. He waits until the babies are born before he goes berserk.
Olympia dies and so do the remaining. Malorie now has to take charge of Olympia's daughter.
In the next scene, we see Malorie telling the kids that they are approaching the rapids and one of them have to look. It can't be her or everyone dies since she's been rowing. The boy offers himself but Malorie says nope and that she would decide. The girl understands Malorie is waiting for her to offer herself and does so.
In the end, Malorie decides to wing it and keep everyone's blindfolds on, even if it means the boat can capsize which it does. Miraculously, they all survive.
What happened to Tom? The crazies came just before the family was about to leave and he sacrifices himself, even forcing himself to fight the thing trying to corrupt his brain. He shoots his attacker then kills himself. So, could this corrupt thing be defeated by willpower?
Malorie on the other hand has reached the forest, a territory unknown to her that she still manages to navigate through. Yes, she does trip once but then doesn't bump into a tree or anything. Same with the kids. Malorie has trained them well.
Bird Box Ending Explained
They reach a colony when they hear the sound of birds after evading several tricks by this weird thing. Apparently, it mimics voices and tricks people into looking at them. But we are never shown exactly what these people see before they die.
Perhaps they are overcome with something that makes them so sad that they think of suicide? Or are they overwhelmed with guilt? I wish something had been shown to make us want to really feel scared for these characters.
The colony, Malorie discovers, is a school for the blind. All of the blind people are there. None of them was in the city and none of them searched for survivors either.
There are birds there that the blind keep to alert them of anything bad happening. Malorie knows this weird alarm system because she stole three birds from the supermarket.
Did they belong to the manager? One of the employees? We will never know as well as how Malorie still had the box after she lost all her belongings in the river.
The birds are let go and Malorie is happy to finally give her children names. Meaning, she finally accepts the fact that she is their mother. This doesn't happen in the five years she had to take care of them. Tom, too, never bothered giving the kids names or cajoling Malorie into treating them properly.
Nope, to make the ending heartwarming, Malorie does this in the final scene.
The movie, despite some of its flaws and unanswered questions, is actually interesting and I found it a little better than A Quiet Place which had a similar theme.
The movie also had some intense scenes, some heroic characters, and portrayed the dilemmas of each character very well. In fact, I actually felt very bad for a character who never got to finish his novel. Taking a cue from this, I intend to finish every novel I'm working on, ASAP.
Scare scale: 3.5/5
In the end, Malorie decides to wing it and keep everyone's blindfolds on, even if it means the boat can capsize which it does. Miraculously, they all survive.
What happened to Tom? The crazies came just before the family was about to leave and he sacrifices himself, even forcing himself to fight the thing trying to corrupt his brain. He shoots his attacker then kills himself. So, could this corrupt thing be defeated by willpower?
Malorie on the other hand has reached the forest, a territory unknown to her that she still manages to navigate through. Yes, she does trip once but then doesn't bump into a tree or anything. Same with the kids. Malorie has trained them well.
Bird Box Ending Explained
They reach a colony when they hear the sound of birds after evading several tricks by this weird thing. Apparently, it mimics voices and tricks people into looking at them. But we are never shown exactly what these people see before they die.
Perhaps they are overcome with something that makes them so sad that they think of suicide? Or are they overwhelmed with guilt? I wish something had been shown to make us want to really feel scared for these characters.
The colony, Malorie discovers, is a school for the blind. All of the blind people are there. None of them was in the city and none of them searched for survivors either.
There are birds there that the blind keep to alert them of anything bad happening. Malorie knows this weird alarm system because she stole three birds from the supermarket.
Did they belong to the manager? One of the employees? We will never know as well as how Malorie still had the box after she lost all her belongings in the river.
The birds are let go and Malorie is happy to finally give her children names. Meaning, she finally accepts the fact that she is their mother. This doesn't happen in the five years she had to take care of them. Tom, too, never bothered giving the kids names or cajoling Malorie into treating them properly.
Nope, to make the ending heartwarming, Malorie does this in the final scene.
The movie, despite some of its flaws and unanswered questions, is actually interesting and I found it a little better than A Quiet Place which had a similar theme.
The movie also had some intense scenes, some heroic characters, and portrayed the dilemmas of each character very well. In fact, I actually felt very bad for a character who never got to finish his novel. Taking a cue from this, I intend to finish every novel I'm working on, ASAP.
Scare scale: 3.5/5
thanks
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