Bird Box, Netflix's terrifying journey into a world where you can't trust your eyes, is
packed with intriguing little details that you'll be thinking about long after the credits
have rolled.
Let's break down those little details, and what they might mean, as we unpack the movie's
ending.
One of the most frightening things about Bird Box is how little it tells us about what's
really happening to the world, specifically regarding the mysterious creatures plaguing
humanity.
We know that from a mere glance they can drive most people to suicide and some people to
madness.
But why?
Lil Rel Howery's character, Charlie, suggests that the creatures are demons feeding on souls,
somehow sustaining themselves by devouring peoples' sanity, but that theory is never
proven, leaving much of the creatures' nature and what people see when they look at them
up to the audience's imagination.
Another part of the puzzle the creatures pose involves where exactly they came from, and
why they arrived.
We're told the creatures' emergence began in Eastern Europe before crossing into the
United States, but that's all we get to go on.
They could be extraterrestrial creatures, biological weapons, or spiritual demons — all
answers seem equally likely.
"Did you learn all that working at the supermarket?"
The creatures' unknown motives drive the movie's mystery, leaving the characters with no clue
what they're up against.
The threat is almost beyond description, which is where the movie gets most of its horror.
Some questions the characters have to consider is: Do the creatures reproduce?
Is there a finite number of them, or will they just keep coming?
Just how screwed is planet Earth?
If the protagonists' knew the source of the monsters, they'd be better equipped to fight
back.
Instead, all they can rely on is their own guesswork.
When Malorie and the children - which she calls “boy” and “girl” - finally arrive
at Rick's compound down the river, they discover that it's a school for the blind, complete
with a bird sanctuary that serves as a kind of early warning system for the compound's
sighted residents.
It seems to be a secure system, although it does have some troubling implications for
the future of humanity.
If this is the status quo in the world right now, and these creatures will never truly
go away, does that give blind people a genetic advantage for the future of the human race?
If Rick and his students survived, other communities of blind people likely did as well.
The implication is that sightless people are the only ones who have a chance at thriving
and living on in a world plagued by these monsters.
For people who enjoy being able to see the world, that's a pretty frightening thought.
Unfortunately, the creatures aren't the only thing that the people in Bird Box have to
worry about.
There's also the creatures' human acolytes, who are all bent on exposing everyone to the
creatures that they can.
Depending on who you talk to, these people were either already insane when they saw the
creatures or were driven insane by contact with them, but in the wake of this contact
they remain alive and very dangerous.
They're not insane in the sense that they are incapable of rational behavior.
They can give the appearance of being reasonable, carry on conversations, and deceive people,
implying something more nuanced than mere madness.
If these people are so convinced that everyone should see the creatures, it stands to reason
that they would choose to reproduce and show their children as well, potentially raising
a whole generation of people who find the creatures "beautiful."
"Look at this" "Isn't it beautiful?"
It could all set up a strange future society in which humanity is divided into two very
different sides — one trying their hardest not to look at the creatures, and another
trying to expose them to the world.
Rick's compound is a school for the blind, meaning the majority of the people there when
the outbreak began were people who simply couldn't be influenced by the creatures' strange
ability to drive people who see them mad.
It's a clever plot development, and it makes sense in the context of what we know about
the creatures, but what about the other ways the creatures can influence humans?
We see during the grocery store run that they're able to rock the car, which means they can
affect the world in a physical way, and even when Malorie isn't looking at them, they're
able to get inside her head and tempt her with the voices of dead people.
Can they do the same to the blind?
Do they get stronger as they influence more people?
Are the blind people truly safe in this world, or can the creatures ultimately find a way
to influence them too?
Only time will tell.
The bird box of the film's title refers in a literal sense to the cardboard box Malorie
uses to store her birds for the journey down the river, using the sensitive little birdies
as an alarm system for when the creatures or their followers are near.
In a metaphorical sense, though, the bird box can be seen as Malorie's own heart, tensed
up and locked away while she simply tries to survive the horrors of her life.
When they finally arrive at the school for the blind, one of Malorie's first acts of
relief and comfort is to open the box and release the birds to "be with their friends,"
and shortly after that she finally softens with her children, giving them real names
as a sign that they're now about to live a better life.
Throughout the film we see Malorie's growth as a leader, as a mother, and as a survivor,
and now she's found a place where she doesn't have to be so harsh all the time as a means
of staying alive.
Will that strong sense of leadership continue to be with her in times of crisis, or will
she continue to soften, and get her humanity back?
More likely, she'll just have to find a balance as she works for a new way forward with her
fellow survivors.
The ending may be happy enough for her and her children, but as for the fate of the rest
of the world?
Well it really just doesn't look good.