Welcome back to Movie Recappped. Today I will show you a drama,
horror, sci-fi film from 2017, titled The Cured. Spoilers ahead! Watch out and take care.
For many years, the Maze virus has spread across Europe, rendering those infected in a violent,
psychotic, zombie-like state. Even though the cure has now been found, 25% of the treatment
cases remain unsuccessful. As the Government debates the fate of the Resistant 25%,
the successfully cured 75% of the infected are facing reintegration issues.
The rest of the society still views them as a threat, murderers who should be treated as such.
Senan is reminded of horrible memories of his past; blood dripping on his shoes,
his breath hollow and quick, his eyes bloodshot red. He looks upon himself in
the bathroom mirror and when he makes sure there are still some red blood vessels on
the lower corner of his eye – the indication that a person has been cured – he calms down.
He sits on the bathroom floor and recollects when he hears the bathroom door creaking.
His friend Conor sits next to him and asks him if he is okay but Senan does not answer.
He only asks Conor how things might be in the outside world. Conor reassures
him things are going to get back to normal but both of them know that this is unlikely.
In the office, Cantor asks Senan for how long he was infected with the Maze virus.
Senan was infected for four years. After further procedural questions, Cantor asks if Senan has
any nightmares. Officer Cantor strictly believes that nightmares are beneficial,
for it reminds people of what they have done while being infected and how much suffering
they have caused. Cantor announces that Senan will be taken in by his sister-in-law, Abigail.
This is a rare instance, for most of the Cured were not wanted by their families anymore and
would have to stay in the accommodation centers. Later, Senan and Conor are walking towards
the bus that is going to take them to their new location accordingly.
The bus is making its way to the accommodation center through a city full of militia, UN troops
and camps. Protestors are waiting outside the accommodation center where the bus stops.
The people throw objects on the windows and call the Cured murderers. Soon Senan and Conor have to
part ways. They embrace and Conor tells him it was best to hide the truth from Abigail.
The public is divided when it comes to the reintegration of the Cured.
While some think the previously infected people can’t hurt anyone anymore,
others believe that they are still a danger to society. Meanwhile, the government thinks
that the elimination of the remaining 25% who cannot be treated is the most merciful solution.
Abbie is a reporter working behind the camera for a news channel and lives alone with her son,
Cillian, after her husband’s, Luke’s, demise during the virus outbreak. While Abbie was
helping Cillian finish his homework, a knock is heard on the front door. Abbie opens it to
greet Senan with a tamed embrace. Later, Senan and Abbie chitchat in the kitchen and Senan reassures
her that he doesn’t have to stay. Abbie tells him that it’s what Luke would have wanted. Finally,
Abbie asks Senan if he was there during Luke’s last moments, but he doesn’t say much about it.
During the night, Senan is unable to sleep. He sits on his bed is thrown back years ago.
Senan was in the very same house with his brother Luke while the evacuation sirens were
ringing outside. Luke was looking for Abbie and baby Cillian but they were nowhere to be found.
Senan urged Luke to get out of the house and that Abbie would know what to do when a shadow
emerged from behind him and attacked. Luke quickly defended his brother and tried to hit the intruder
with a hard object. But it was too late; the blood was already running crimson on Senan’s arm.
Senan, knowing well that he was now infected, told Luke to leave the house at once.
The next day, Conor is standing in his father’s yard, waiting for the moment that he would
come out. He asks him if he can help him find a better job, since now he is working as a cleaner,
a position far from the courtrooms he was used to before he was infected.
His father, however, is furious at this request and he pushes his son against the car,
calling him a monster and refusing to help. Senan rides his bike to work at the treatment
center. A Blue Helmet checks his eye for the blood vessels forming a circle on the white of his eye.
When the officer confirms he is indeed Cured, he enters the building. There, Senan is required to
help Dr Joan Lyons deal with a patient who is still resistant to the Cure of the Maze virus.
The Resistant, Jo, is restrained to a bed and as soon as she sees Dr Lyons, frenzy takes over
her. The Resistant screams and growls and tries to free herself to attack the Doctor.
Dr Lyons asks Senan to hold Jo down for an injection. Senan quickly notices that the woman’s
only object of crave was Dr Lyons and not him. The Doctor tells Senan that once someone is infected,
traces of the Maze virus can still be found in one’s cells even when cured – in other words,
the woman recognized Senan as one of her own. Senan arrives at the accommodation center to
meet Conor. When he tells him that the Resistant do not attack the Cured, Conor concludes that the
Cured are safer with the Resistant than with the ones that were never infected.
After all, the Cured are hunted down and attacked in the streets. The conversation is interrupted by
officer Cantor. Cantor sits opposite Conor and confronts him about skipping work but
Conor proclaims that he is not a cleaner. Cantor arrogantly states that Conor doesn’t have the same
power as he did before the outbreak of the virus and that he should obey the rules. Furthermore, he
orders him to stop contacting his family, for they do not want him back. This is when Conor snaps; he
attacks at once but Cantor is quick to throw him on the floor with such force that Conor does not
rise to fight back. When Senan tries to intervene, he is held back by two armed men. Cantor considers
his message received and leaves the room while Conor is still laying on the floor in pain.
Conor is waiting outside Abbie’s house, hoping to see anyone he knows. When he sees her walking out,
he introduces himself as Senan’s friend. Abbie, who is generally open to the Cured, talks to him
and even asks him about his experience with the virus. Conor shares that it was brutal;
a constant feeling of being trapped inside your own body. What was worse, however, was not
being able to resist your urge for bloodthirst. Back in the treatment center, Senan is taking a
break when he notices two soldiers leaving their post and entering the building where the Resistant
are kept. As Senan carefully walks down the stairs, he hears the muffled screams of the woman.
Senan follows the voice to an unlocked cell where he finds the two soldiers. The first soldier is
keeping a woman Resistant down as the other one was urinating on the floor. Senan rapidly tackles
the man aside but the man was much stronger and Senan finds himself stuck against the wall. Amid
the confusion, the Resistant has released herself from the arms of the soldier and has started to
chase him through the corridors of the ward. The second soldier doesn’t wait. He picks up his gun,
follows the woman and shoots her without missing. Senan watches her gasping for a last breath
but the soldier guiltlessly proclaims that she was going to die soon anyway.
The Cured in the accommodation center are listening to the news. Dr Joan Lyons is
opposing herself to the plans of the government about the elimination of the Resistant and insists
that she could find the cure for them given the time and the resources. The hostess, however,
like most people, talks about the elimination of the 5000 Resistant as an act of humanity.
The oppression of the Cured has driven Conor furious and desperate for change.
He believes that the elimination of the Resistant is just the beginning and that it is a matter
of time before the government turns against the Cured as well. He takes Senan down at the basement
of the accommodation center where an uprising is being organized by the Cured Alliance, a terrorist
organization fighting for Cured rights. Makeshift bombs are being readied and Conor hands Senan a
bottle of alcohol ready to be lit. He assures him that the homes they are targeting are empty.
That night, houses of Irish Defense Volunteers are bombarded or set on fire and Senan truly believes
he is doing the right thing. After all, Conor has an enormous influence over him. The next morning,
however, Senan hears on the news that due to this attack, several civilians are injured and one is
found dead. This is when he decided to distance himself from the Alliance and Conor alike.
Senan’s flashbacks do not stop tormenting him and he is once again standing in front of the mirror,
reminded of the horrible memory of his shallow breath and his brother, Luke, trying to talk some
sense into him. He felt Conor’s presence behind him but did not acknowledge him, because now
the only thing he wanted to do – attack. Senan came back from the flashback almost in tears.
In the treatment center, Senan discovers a picture of Doctor Lyons with Jo.
She and Dr Lyons found the Cure together before Jo was infected. They found it
very unfortunate that the patients remembered the atrocities they did while they were sick.
Abbie has noticed Senan staying late out at night and suspects his involvement with the
Cured Alliance. One day, she confronts him about it but Senan denies it at once, saying that he
simply does not want to be in his way. Abbie sits down and confesses that she considers him family.
After all, she and Callian had gone away from the city to escape the virus outbreak,
losing Luke in the process. When Abbie heard about the Cure, she has hopes of returning
home to him where he would have recovered. However, she only found his body in the house.
During dinnertime, Conor knocks on the door. Abbie tells him to take a seat and tips Cillian
to go to bed. The three of them talk about the terrorist attack and Abbie notes how hard it
must be to live in the accommodation center but Conor opposes that at least someone was arrested.
Abbie seems convinced that the person arrested wasn’t acting alone but she is not harsh towards
the Cured either. She reveals that she truly believes in forgiving the Cured for their actions,
since they were not in control while sick – and therefore it is insinuated that she would forgive
Luke’s killer as well. When Abbie leaves the room Senan confronts Conor about the casualties
of the terror attack but Conor seems adamant that there are always casualties in a fight.
However, Senan does not want to be part of the Cured Alliance anymore. He has started viewing
Abbie and Cillian as his own family and he is not willing to turn against or endanger them.
The next day, while Senan is driving Cillian to school officer Cantor visits Abbie at her house,
presumably to ask her how living with Senan at home is. However, he soon reveals his ulterior
motives. Cantor believes that the Cured are still a pack, a herd of monsters looking for
people to kill and feast upon. He slides an envelope of confidential documents across
the table and urges Abbie to contact him should she want to share anything with him.
When she opens the envelope, she is startled to see pictures of Senan and Conor while they
were still infected, both zombie-like and with eyes of beasts staring right at her.
Abbie decides to visit the accommodation center along with her camera and what she records there
is horrifying; five Cured standing in a circle, eyes closed and breathing with synchronized,
short breaths. In a gathering, Conor is giving a speech, encouraging the Cured to rise,
take arms and rebel. As Abbie is discreetly filming, she is violently pushed against the
wall by a woman that seems feral and wild and that only steps aside after Conor orders her.
Conor takes Abbie to an empty room to confront her about why she was there. When Abbie tells
him she is certain he was involved with the bombings, Conor reveals the nature of his cause:
the treatment of the Cure being so horrible, he has seen no other choice but to turn against
his oppressors. Abbie wants nothing to do with it and orders him to leave both her and Senan alone.
After all, she doesn’t think their former sickness binds them in any way.
She storms out, clutching the bag where she has hidden her camera. At once, she notices
two Cured watching her in the corridor. With a quick leap, she makes a run for it,
climbing the stairs and finding a window where she can flee. A hand grabs her just as she is about to
jump and just in the nick of time, she escapes the grasp, running away from the accommodation center.
In her office, Dr Lyons is watching Jo on her monitor when she notices that for the first
time she is tranquil and calm. She visits her in her ward and tries to communicate with her, and
at first, Jo seems unresponsive, yet the moment Dr Lyons spreads her hand out to Jo, she attacks
her with frenzy. By the time Dr Lyons draws back to escape from Jo’s grasp, the soldiers,
alerted by her screams, are already in the ward and are yanking her back. This, for them, was the
last straw and would mean that Jo would be taken to the euthanization ward along with the rest of
the Resistant. Just like that, Dr Lyons’ vision of curing the rest of the Resistant is lost.
It is a relatively quiet night and Cillian is already in bed, when at about 10 o’clock,
the door is smashed open and a hooded man enters with a baseball bat. Rapidly, Senan finds himself
unconscious on the floor and the last thing he can hear is the man calling him ‘cured scum’.
This is a sign for Senan that staying away from the Cured Alliance is not going to keep
his family safe. The next day, he returns to Conor’s team, which is now willing to make
a bold move in order to force the public to listen to their requests. The same day,
Abbie searches for her camera. She notices that her disks with the videos of the Cured planning
their attacks are gone and is at once certain that the person behind the break-in is Conor.
Therefore, she calls officer Cantor right away, urging him to intervene.
Back in the accommodation center, Conor takes Senan to a Cured meeting,
where he is surprised to see Dr Lyons. Saving Jo is the only thing she is interested in, which
only gives Conor the weapon he needs. He believes that having a Resistant with them is the only way
for the government to take them seriously. The meeting is interrupted when havoc wreaks in the
building. Soldiers raid the halls, chasing after the Cured but Senan refuses to fight with them.
When pushed up against the wall and asked where the rest of the Cured are going, he doesn’t
respond. Even when interrogated by officer Cantor and promised protection for him and his family,
he does not say a word but heavily considers it. Conor is adamant to keep Senan in his family,
so he doesn’t hesitate to find Abbie and tip her off about who truly killed her husband.
That night, Abbie waits for Senan to come home in tears and demands to know the truth.
To Senan it is now obvious that Conor has told her something about that day,
so he confesses at once – how even though Luke closed himself in the bedroom, Senan eventually
lost himself and attacked. Abbie, betrayed and in tears, tells him to get out of the house.
At midnight, when Canor meets Senan, he admits that he indeed tipped Abbie off about Luke’s
true killer to show him the real nature of the uninfected when they come face to face with the
truth. The discussion was short when the subtle sound of a gun locking interrupts them. Officer
Cantor emerges from the shadows orders both the men on their knees. Although Senan does not object
and starts cuffing himself without opposition, Conor quickly grabs the shards of a broken beer
bottle that is laying on the sidewalk and attacks officer Cantor, stabbing his neck open violently.
When Conor realizes Senan has betrayed him by leading officer Cantor here,
he grabs his gun and points it right on his head, demanding to know why he gave up on the fight.
Sirens can be heard in the background and Senan realizes there is no time to waste.
He demands to know what Conor’s plan is and to terror Senan’s, Connor confesses his
plan has already been manifested. He flees before the police are able to get to him.
The next day, when the plan to obtain Jo is set in motion, Senan decides to stop the
Cured by sneaking into the Resistant’s ward. Dr Lyons and a Cured are in the control room
where she can unlock Jo’s cell door through the security system. Before she knows it, however,
the Cured is pointing a gun at her face and is unlocking all the doors in the Resistant’s ward.
Senan is there when the doors open at once and all zombies are released in the corridor, growling and
looking for their prey. It is not long before the Cured bomb and take down exit to the Resistant’s
ward and soon the Resistant are running wild into the free world in a state of frenzy.
Dr Lyons is watching in horror from the control room but then realizes that even though everyone
has left the Resistant’s ward, Jo is the only one who does not even leave her bed but is rather
staying quiet and peaceful, seemingly cured of her infection. She approaches her carefully,
sitting next to her and is only able to give her one last kiss before a savage
Resistant attacks to get a bite of her. Abbie is sitting silently in her house
when she hears noise from outside. She leaps outside with an axe in her hands and knocks a
zombie with a blow on the neck. A UN truck is approaching, evacuating the neighborhood but
the thought of Cillian hits Abbie. An officer tells her all schools are also being evacuated
but she can’t help but scream in a desperate need to set herself free and run for her son.
Senan is bolting towards the house at that moment when Abbie sees him and recognizes him as her
last chance to save her son. Through the gunshots and shouts, she screams for him to fetch Cillian.
Senan reaches the school to find people either dead or changing into zombies.
He shouts and shouts Cillian’s name and when he finally hears his brittle voice behind him,
he takes the child in his arms and runs. He is blindly unaware, however, that Conor is
standing right behind him, following him. Senan, clutching Cillan in his arms,
tries to walk to a safe place in the city but soon comes to notice that the zombies are everywhere.
One is after them and now Cillian has to run on his own, chased after by two vicious zombies.
One would think Conor, who is watching closely, would help but instead it is Senan that he
strikes down. With words of betrayal, he starts beating him, throwing his fists into his face.
It is by wonder that a bullet hits Conor on the chest and at last, Senan is free to finish him
off. It is at that moment that he hears Cillian’s voice asking for help. He finds his nephew hiding
under a car, only an arm’s length away from the Resistant that were after him. After Senan takes
them down, he sets Cillian off and thinks it is safe to start making his way back to Abbie.
In the meantime, Abbie was restless in the safe spot where the civilians were gathered.
She was not satisfied waiting in for Senan to show up with Cillian and decided to escape.
She finds her way back home, hoping that Cillian would be waiting for her there,
and when she hears him calling for her, she takes her son in a loving embrace.
It is not but a moment later that a zombie attacks Cillian from the back and bites his arm.
Senan is quick to kill the Resistant off but it is already too late. Cillian’s transformation has
already begun and Abbie, in a moment of despair, contemplates mercifully killing her son. Senan,
however, knows there is another alternative since Dr Lyons has managed to find a cure for
all who are infected, and promises to cure Cillian and bring him back to his mother.