Plot Summary: A family on vacation go to a beach where they suddenly discover that they are ageing rapidly.
How many of us wished to be all grown up when we were young? At that time it felt like becoming an adult would sort all our childhood problems.
Of course, when we turned into adults, we wished we were kids again. That was the time when life felt so simple after all.
Some adults of course wish that they would reach the age where they can finally retire.
Now imagine if your wish to become older came true. But it doesn't happen gradually but all in a single day.
Life flashes before you. If you age that rapidly then that means death is imminent too. So now imagine living your whole life in one day. What would you do?
OLD Movie Plot
Guy and Prisca take their kids Maddox and Trent on a vacation. Unknown to the kids, Guy and Prisca are separating. Prisca has a tumour that isn't very serious at the moment but it seems that may be the reason behind the couple's tension.
The couple is given drinks upon arrival while the kids wander about the buffet table. Trent runs into a boy called Idlib who is the resort manager's son. He gives Trent a decoding game.
At night, while the parents are arguing, the kids play the decoding game and find a hint about ice creams.
The next morning, during breakfast, the manages comes over and invites the family to a secluded beach he thinks the family will have fun in. Apparently, the location is given to exclusive people only.
Charmed by this offer, the family drives off to the beach. The driver is none other than the director of the movie M.Night Shyamalan who likes to play cameos in every one of his movies.
The family is dumped on the beach and made to carry their own stuff through a path.
When they arrive, the kids spot a man sitting on the rocks and identify him as Rapper Mid-sized Sedan. He has been waiting for his girlfriend who went swimming on the beach and hasn't returned.
Soon enough, the family discovers that they weren't the only ones exclusively invited to the beach.
There's another family: surgeon Charles, his wife Chrystal who is obsessed with her looks and complains of low calcium in her body, their daughter Kara, and Charles' mother Agnes.
There is another couple, Jarin and Patricia who are all lovey-dovey and supportive of each other.
Soon enough, the body of Mid-sized Sedan's girlfriend is found by Trent who is swimming around. The parents and the others are alerted and they cover up the body.
Charles begins to suspect Mid-sized Sedan of murdering his girlfriend. He also begins to have nosebleeds which he says is due to an affliction.
Suddenly Agnes has a heart attack and dies. Chrystal makes sure everyone gets that she isn't the one responsible for the death even though she was the one with her at the time.
Meanwhile, Trent, Maddox and Kara begin to grow up. Their kiddy swimsuits barely cover them up anymore. The parents rush to conceal them while Charles is asked to take a look at the children. He cannot find anything odd, although he gets a little spacey himself. Turns out Charles has a touch of schizophrenia which has caused some problems for him at work.
Prisca suddenly collapses. Her tumour has grown twofold and is bulging out of her stomach. The kids now learn the truth about their mother. She needs to be operated on fast.
Charles asks everyone for assistance while the kids are turning into teenagers. Trent immediately takes to Kara while the operation is being performed.
Charles almost loses it as he uses a knife to cut open Prisca. He has a difficult time with it considering Prisca's cut keeps closing in. It is up to the others to keep her pried open. Charles' schizophrenia becomes more prominent but he just about completes the removal of the tumour which is the size of a rock now.
Trent and Kara are in a tent and give in to their instincts.
Prisca heals quickly and stands up, all recovered. The others are surprised that she has healed so quickly.
They are pondering on the strange effects of being on the beach, when Prisca, who wants to tell her kids the good news about her being tumour-free, rushes up the beach to find Trent and Kara emerging from the tent.
Kara has been extremely hungry and eating food that has been kept in special packs to preserve the freshness. She thinks her bulging stomach is the result of overeating.
Charles and Chrystal, Guy and Prisca, almost have a heart attack when they see that Kara is pregnant.
Trent makes gestures about staying with Kara and keeping the baby while his parents are going crazy with an unexpected pregnancy and a teen Trent.
Maddox seems to be the reasonable one and quickly adapts to her new grown-up body by wearing her mother's extra swimsuit.
In a short span, Kara has become heavily pregnant. The baby is coming.
Everyone prepares for it and the baby lets out one cry before it silences.
Turns out the baby has aged rapidly but since it didn't get the required attention a newborn should get, the baby dies.
Trent is heartbroken while the others realize they are stuck on an island with no cellphone signal. Every time anyone tries to leave, they suffer blackouts and end up back at the beach.
Charles' mental health suffers when he notices that Mid-sized sedan's girlfriend's body has decomposed in a matter of hours. Time is moving quickly and Charles' schizophrenia causes him to attack and kill the Rapper.
Everyone tries to subdue him and takes the knife away but he thinks he has killed the person responsible for all the strange occurrences at the beach.
Jarin decides to make a swim for it. He thinks he can swim to another area around the beach and get help. Patricia isn't too happy about it but lets him go. Jarin doesn't make it and his body is found later.
Maddox and Trent find a light on the cliffs at night and wonder if they are being watched.
Kara has had enough and thinks she can climb the cliffs. She does so while Trent begs her to come down because he is certain that the minute she reaches the top, she will blackout and fall.
That is exactly what happens and Kara falls to her death.
Heartbroken Patricia who suffers from seizures has a fatal one and dies.
Chrystal hates that she is rapidly ageing and becoming ugly. She also goes crazy and starts chasing Trent and Maddox through the cave. They are terrified because Chrystal now looks like a monster. Her limbs become all twisted as she suffers a severe case of deficiency in calcium. She dies.
Charles has become older and his mental state has worsened. Guy's vision has blurred while Prisca can't hear out of one ear.
So when Charles attacks Guy, he can barely defend himself because of poor vision. He calls for help but Prisca is deaf and takes her time to notice her husband isn't sitting beside her.
Once she does, she uses a rusty knife they had found at the beach, left by the previous visitors, and cuts Charles with it. The rust on the knife causes an infection in Charles that rapidly grows and becomes severe enough to kill him.
Guy and Prisca realize they don't have much time left and make amends. Their kids, who are now adults, are with them when their parents pass away minutes from each other.
OLD Ending Explained with Spoilers!
Trent and Maddox are the only ones left and wish they had taken the time to enjoy their childhood. They want to revisit being a kid and make a sandcastle. Trent finds a game by Idlib and realizes it's a clue to an escape.
They look into the distance and wonder if they will be able to make it through the coral without losing consciousness.
With nothing to lose, they dive in. They manage to almost get through when Maddox gets stuck on the coral.
On the cliffs, M.Night Shyamalan is watching and waits for several minutes. When Trent and Maddox don't surface, he assumed they have died.
He reports to his superiors at the resort where it is revealed that the resort is a facade for a testing facility.
There are dozens of scientists, experimenting on drugs. Turns out they have been choosing people with medical conditions, spiking their welcome drinks and throwing them on a beach that has been accelerating age and medical condition severeness. Because of the strange phenomenon on the beach, the scientists are able to finish their testing within a day rather than years.
Everyone at the resort moves on to the next batch of guests when Trent and Maddox arrive. They managed to survive the underwater swim and bring the notebook left by a former visitor with them. They have also brought the police.
The resort and the illegal testing are all shut down quickly.
Trent and Maddox are given a helicopter ride to go live with their aunt.
Imagine being an aunt to two grownups who know nothing of adulthood. The premise would make for a good comedy if the makers ever pursue a sequel or allow someone to make a spinoff.
As for the scientists, what are the chances they will be prosecuted? Considering the extent to which they have been conducting research, what are the changes a government official is also involved?
And when testing is complete, and the drug deemed fit to use, won't the test reports alert officials of the illegal testing on unsuspecting subjects?
So yes, chances are no one at the resort would actually spend jail time considering the whole operation could not be conducted without some assistance from the officials.
It's a theory anyway.
As for the movie, OLD is thrilling, fast-paced, with not a single breath wasted on tiresome scenes.
Scare scale: 3/5
Comments
Post a Comment