PLOT SUMMARY: After losing his memory in an accident, Nolan tries to piece together his life with the help of an experimental treatment. But what he remembers doesn't coincide with what he is being told.
Memories are the most integral part of us. Our character is built on the moments we experience, the memories we retain, the lessons we learn from them.
Without it, we are just empty vessels, zombies that need instructions on how to go on with our daily lives.
Another thing about memories, they help us hold on to the good things we have experienced, the happiness we felt at a particular moment. Any time we are sad, our brain brings up the happy moments to assure us that not everything is bad, not everyone is heartless and the world isn’t so cruel. Where there were happy moments that you experienced, there are the bad ones but they too shall pass.
It’s frightening imagining a life where we have to live without memories. Forgetting who we are, forgetting everything we experienced...
Black Box has a scary concept but the movie itself isn’t scary but more on the bizarre side.
BLACK BOX Movie Plot
We meet Nolan who is struggling to remember who he is after the accident where he lost his wife and his memory. He watches videos of him holding his baby daughter Ava and can barely remember her.
Ava is a little girl but extremely patient with her father as he goes about trying to piece together his life. She complains about him not making tight braids for her or the fact that he can’t remember his colleagues.
He heads to work as a photographer hoping his latest photos will be commissioned. Sadly his boss tells him that his work no longer has the same charm that his previous work had. Nolan is saddened and disappointed with himself. He wants to be the best father he can be to Ava who is trying her best to be there for him.
He wants to remember their secret handshake but sadly can’t even after practice.
He returns home to wallow and of course, forgets his daughter at school. He rejects calls from clinics that want to study his brain and help him recover. He’s tried everything already without results.
Ava’s teacher asks if Nolan is going to pick her up, Ava insists he is coming.
Later, the teacher drops off Ava and Nolan profusely apologizes for forgetting her. The teacher issues a threat to report him to child services if he forgets again.
Upstairs, Ava is in a bad mood but apologizes to Nolan for being so problematic. She thinks she’s causing his nightmares which is basically arms coming from behind to choke Nolan.
He assures her she’s not the cause and thanks her for being so patient with him.
Ava isn’t convinced but goes to make dinner. Because who else will? Nolan has forgotten to make dinner as well.
Nolan is fed up with his condition and goes to the hospital to meet his friend Dr Gary who advises him to agree to Dr Brooks’ experimental treatment.
At the last minute, Dr Gary gets an urgent call and has to leave. Nolan watches a video of Dr Brooks receiving accolades for her experiments.
He is called in and meets Dr Brooks, a friendly-looking woman who shows Nolan the Black Box which can help him recover his lost memories. Nolan needs some time to think about it and leaves. Dr Brooks’ expression suggests she knows Nolan will come back.
Nolan looks at photo albums at home, experiences more nightmares and decides he needs to get a treatment done if he needs to be a fair and loving father to Ava.
Nolan goes for his first treatment and is hypnotized. He sees blurred faces and finds himself in an old church on his wedding day. He then sees a man walking backwards and making crackling sounds. Nolan gets scared and asks to be let out.
Dr Brooks comforts him and tells him he’s making great progress and in the next session, they should try staying in the Black Box more so that he can concentrate on the faces until they become clearer.
Nolan goes home and sees his photo albums and is mystified to see that he and his wife had an outdoor ceremony. He has a vision of eating at a sushi restaurant with his daughter. He sees the menu and learns the name of the restaurant.
To make up to his daughter, he takes her to the restaurant and is glad she enjoys the food. In a good mood, he goes for the next session and tells Dr Brooks of the restaurant. She gives a curious reply as if she can’t believe he went to that restaurant.
In the VR, Nolan finds himself in an old apartment where a baby is crying and his wife is sobbing by the stove. Her arm is covered in bruises. He can’t see faces but assumes it’s them. He sees the backwards walking man again, freaks and comes out.
He doesn’t reveal much to the doctor but asks Gary if he was an abusive husband. Gary thinks he’s being dumb as he was a pushover in college and would never hurt anyone. Although he’s puzzled by the fact that Nolan has been having bouts of anger in which he’s punching the walls of his house hard enough to leave holes and break his hand.
Nolan tries conducting research on the apartment he saw. According to him and Gary, he and his wife had never lived anywhere but the house he lives in now. He finds the apartment and remembers the floor and flat number.
A little girl answers the door and he enters to see a woman napping on the sofa. He gets nervous and leaves. The girl and woman both have curly hair.
BLACK BOX Ending Explained with spoilers!
Nolan goes into the Black Box again and tries to concentrate on the faces. The backwards man reappears as he jumps from one memory to another. The faces of the woman and child become clearer and he realizes it may not be Ava and his wife after all. But that doesn’t explain whose memories these are.
Dr Brooks has the answer. Nolan has already seen his reflection and knows that he doesn’t look like him. Dr Brooks explains how her son Thomas died after falling off a flight of stairs so she retained his conscience and memories in a thumb drive. She was simply looking for someone whom she could install her dead son in. Nolan was brain dead after the accident and so it was easier for her to experiment on him.
Thomas is shocked and wonders how to get his life back. His mother tells him he has a second chance and needs to go makeup to his wife and daughter. He wonders about Ava and she tells him Ava isn’t even his daughter.
Nolan drops Ava at Gary’s house and goes to see his real wife and daughter.
Gary is curious about his friend and decides to look into Nolan’s file and finds that Dr Brooks had taken Nolan to her lab after he was declared brain dead, after which he suddenly became conscious.
Thomas goes to see his wife who doesn’t believe he is who he’s claiming to be. When she tells her some of his memories, she becomes convinced but isn’t too happy about it. Thomas realizes none of his photos is there and it’s like he has been erased. He goes to see his daughter only to have his wife hit him on the head from behind.
He wakes up to find himself in front of Ava. He can’t understand what is happening to him and goes to Dr Brooks.
Dr Brooks seems to know what is going on and thinks Nolan may be inside and trying to become dominant. The backwards man is revealed to be Nolan fighting to regain control of his mind.
Thomas is instructed to go in and fight off Nolan.
Gary knows something is off about Dr Brooks and learns she lost her son. He starts putting two and two together but can’t believe she could be so nefarious.
He takes Ava with her who keeps asking for her father to wake up.
Thomas fights an already weak Nolan when he’s accosted by his own memories in which his wife had pushed him off the stairs after he pushed his daughter during an argument. He realizes that Ava needs her father the same way his daughter is better off without Thomas in his life.
He goes through a door in Nolan’s mind where he walks into oblivion.
Dr Brooks is horrified when Nolan wakes up as himself and finally does the secret handshake with Ava.
He takes her home and ties her hair tight like he used to before. He’s regaining his memory and can now be the loving, responsible, father Ava needs.
Later, Dr Brooks is ousted from her job after being reported for her illegal experiment. She still has her son’s conscience on file and uses the Black Box to see that he’s still present.
This was an interesting movie and the twist isn’t something that you’ll see coming almost immediately. In the second half, sure, but until then, the build-up is pretty smart and the characters compelling enough to want to stay with them as they figure things out.
For a change, the little girl wasn’t annoying and bratty like in most movies.
Scare scale: 4/5
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