Today I will recap a 2021 South African ecological horror thriller film named Gaia.
An injured forest ranger on a routine mission is saved by two off-the-grid survivalists.
What is initially a welcome rescue grows more suspicious as the son and his renegade father
reveal a cultish devotion to the forest.
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At the beginning of the movie, we see Tsitsikamma forest, a very dense forest in South Africa.
Here Gabi and Winston, two employees of South Africa's forestry service, are traveling along
a river, searching for something with the help of a drone.
Suddenly their drone goes in front of a man present in the forest and he catches and breaks
it.
Gabi decides to enter the forest, retrieve the drone and rejoin Winston later, saying:
"they can't just leave their trash here.
Now Gabi enters the forest and then we see 2 tribals who are taking the drone with them.
One of them puts soil on the camera installed in the forest and then we see them setting
a trap.
On the other hand, Winston goes to change the card of the camera installed in the forest
and is surprised to see that it is covered with soil, and he could not understand who
would have done this and why.
Here they both collect some insects and mushrooms and something comes out of that mushroom.
Gabi hears some strange sounds due to which she starts leaving from there in fear but
then she triggers a trap, which leads to a wooden stake piercing through her foot.
Now she tries to contact Winston for help but his device was left on the boat.
Then she realizes that someone is around her and she starts removing the wooden stick from
her foot.
Now Winston hears her scream and runs to get the wireless on the boat.
But it accidentally falls into the water and gets damaged.
Now the forest gets covered by a red glow as night falls., which Gabi is quite surprised
to see.
She starts walking towards that light and reaches a wooden cabin where no one is there.
Now she sees the wound in her leg there and decides to stop there and rest and recover.
On the other hand, Winston sees someone behind the tree and starts following her mistaking
it for her.
Now while sleeping gabi sees a fungus growing on her hand, but it was a nightmare.
Then those 2 tribals come to the cabin and looking at her wound, tell her that she broke
their trap.
Here Winston hears some sound and sees a strange creature in front of him and runs away in
fear.
A man in the cabin tells his name as Barend and treats Gabi's wound.
The other boy is Stefan, Barend's son.
Gabi tells him that one of her companions is also outside in the forest.
On the other hand, on the run, Winston once again encounters the Creator.
Now before going to sleep, Gabi asks Barend about some strange creature seen in the forest
but he doesn't answer it.
Now Willett is hiding from the creature when a Fungus suddenly attacks and infects him.
The next morning, Barend applies an herb paste to Gabi's foot, and Stefan begins to bandage
her.
Here he touches her and Gabi wakes up from sleep and sees that fungus has grown on her
body, but it is a nightmare.
After some time she tries to contact Winston but there is no answer, but then she hears
Winston's screams.
Barend and Stefan go to the forest to hunt, kills an animal, and apply its blood to their
chin.
Then they read a prayer and only then do they smell of burning.
Gabi lights a fire in the cabin so that Vincent can get a signal, and during this time he
finds a photo of a lady.
Then she hears Barend's voice and puts the photo back and Barend extinguishes the fire.
He says that they do not make a fire in the daylight.
Now in the night, Gabi again tries to contact Vincent but does not get any reply.
Barend tells her that he used to be a plant pathologist who started living in the forest
after his wife Lily died of bone cancer thirteen years prior and that Stefan was conceived
in the house, which was where he and Lily had their honeymoon.
He then states that he met "God" while in the forest.
Here Gabi sees that her wound has healed.
Stefan then gives her a locket which she wears.
On the other hand, the fungus has grown on Winston's body.
Later, Gabi is almost infected by a similar rapidly-growing fungus while sleeping, but
she is saved when Barend wakes her up due to the creatures trying to break into the
house.
Barend tells Gabi that the thing is blind and asks her to stay by the wall.
Then the creature breaks in and, and is revealed to be ordinary humans covered with fungus.
Stefan stabs it, after which Barend hits it and drives it away.
Now because its blood had spilled on Gabi, Stefan takes off her clothes and starts cleaning
her, so that she does not get infected.
Barend explains that the fungus infects humans and feeds on the eyes, mouth, and lungs and
that they infect other people via spores.
He also explains that the largest organism on the planet lives close to the house and
is looking to spread, saying: "She was here long before the apes started dreaming of gods."
The next morning, Gabi wakes up again seeing a nightmare and Stefan is sitting beside her.
Then she shows him her phone which he is quite surprised to see and seeing a car says a monster.
Just then Burnet comes there and angrily tells her to keep her things away from them.
And he breaks that phone too.
Later, Gabi finds Barend's writings, which compare humanity to monkeys in captivity.
Barend provides offerings to a tree, which contains the previously-mentioned organism,
he then prays, and both he and Stefan eat some of the mushrooms growing in the tree.
Then when they come back, they see that fungus is growing on Gabi's hand.
Now Gabi is leaving from there, which makes Stefan very upset.
Gabi asks Barend to take Stefan with her.
But Barend and Gabi start heading out of the forest when Gabi finds Winston's flashlight.
Now they start looking for Vincent and after some time they find him too, who is now covered
with several species of fungi.
But he was still alive and begs them to kill him.
Gabi stops Barend from shooting him with an arrow.
So he places an arrow in front of Winston's mouth which he impales himself on it.
Now the noise attracts the attention of the creatures, forcing Barend and Gabi to return
to the house.
Now at night, Gabi sees that fungus is growing on her Thigh and she tells Barend that she
knows he has medicines.
But he leaves from there without saying anything.
Stefan tells Gabi that he has gone to pray, then he says that his mother lives in this
forest and he will show her.
On the other hand, Barend makes an offering to that tree and there he notices something
that scares him a lot.
Here in the house, Gabi is trying to persuade Stefan to move in with her but he says that
dad says everyone is going to die, only then does Barend comes back scared.
Now the next morning Barend gives Stefan a mushroom to eat and then he starts following
her.
Stefan comes running home and feeds the mushroom to Gabi, which Barend sees.
Then he asks Gabi to go, to which she says that she is staying.
She sees that her fungus is getting destroyed by eating mushrooms.
Now Gabi and Stefan are getting closer to each other, he then takes her to see his mother,
who has been transformed into an animate tree and still has her wedding ring on one of her
transformed fingers.
Now they come back home and Gabi inserts the SD card from one of the cameras she and Winston
placed in the forest and finds that several of the photos show the creatures.
Barend reveals in a rant that he believes the world is doomed due to humanity's actions.
That's why nature will now take its revenge and these organisms will grow by eliminating
humans and then only forests will be left in the world.
Now Gabi says that she wants to see this.
Now in the night, they do a ritual in which Barend blows a powder on Gabi's face due to
which she faints.
Then she comes to another world where they are all naked and stands in front of a tree.
She then touches it and starts seeing strange visions.
She sees Stefan emerging from the swamp and then starts following him, after which she
becomes intimate with him.
But then after a while, she wakes up and sees Barend banging the tree and Stefan's mouth
impaled with an arrow.
Then the blood starts coming out of her eyes too and she comes back to her world.
She asks where did she say, to which Barend tells that she was in Dreamtime for 15 minutes.
He asks her what did Lily tell her?
And then she suddenly wakes up from sleep and Barend is sitting next to her.
It is now revealed that that night Lily had asked Barend for Stefan's sacrifice.
Next, Gabi and Stefan are playing outside when she tells him that they must get away
from here.
Now at night when Barend goes out, Gabi gets up and wakes Stefan and they begin heading
towards the city but are confronted by Barend.
Barend tells Stefan that she will sell him as a slave, He tries his best to convince
him and Stefan finally agrees and goes back to him.
Then Gabi begins heading back to the city alone, however, changes her mind and returns
to the house.
She hides and sees that Barend is taking Stefan with him and taking him somewhere.
After they leave, she takes Bow and Arrow from the house and starts chasing them.
Here we see an ax in Barend's hand, and when Stefan asks him about it, he says that they
are going to give sacrifice.
Then he makes Stefan sit in front of the tree and tells him that she has chosen it.
Then he cuts Stefan's back with a knife.
Here in the forest, some creepers start chasing Gabi and she starts killing them and moving
forward.
Here Barend makes Stefan lie down in front of the tree and Roots starts clutching his
hands.
Now he is about to kill him but then Gabi reaches there and stops him.
Then he leaves Stefan and starts coming towards Gabi and both of them start fighting a lot.
But Barend is about to kill him by overpowering him but Stefan stops him, now during this
Barend hits Gabi due to which she falls down.
Just then a Creator comes to Gabi and infects her and Stefan starts attacking that Creator.
Meanwhile, Barend takes Gabi and puts it in front of the tree, and is about to kill her
when Stefan comes from behind and attacks Barend.
Now Gabi takes Stefan to the house where she starts cleaning herself and Stefan comes from
behind and hugs her.
Now the next morning, Gabi wakes up again with a nightmare.
Barend is later shown with the fungus growing from his back and offering his own blood to
the organism, But this time he doesn't get mushrooms.
Sometime later, Gabi becomes infected by the fungus, and her body becomes covered with
it.
She begs Stefan to kill her, and it is implied that he does so.
Then he sees Gabi for the last time and leaves her body in the house and heads to the city,
Then we see him city to city where he has a meal and then leaves the restaurant.
the leftovers of his meal quickly become covered with fungus and the movie ends here.
Thanks for watching.