Bird Box (film)

In a post-apocalyptic world, Malorie Hayes advises two young, unnamed children that they will be going downstream on a river in a rowboat. She sternly instructs them to not remove their blindfolds, or else they will die. From this point, the film alternates between two stages of Malorie's story, separated by five years, until they conjoin: her attempt to navigate the river and the events that led to it.

Five years earlier, a pregnant Malorie is visited by her sister, Jessica. A news report is on television about unexplained mass suicides in Romania that are quickly spreading across Europe. Jessica accompanies Malorie to a routine checkup. When leaving the hospital, Malorie sees a woman bashing her head into a glass panel followed by others panicking as chaos erupts. Jessica sees the entity, loses control of herself as she drives, and the car overturns. An injured Malorie then watches Jessica walk into the path of an oncoming truck, killing herself.

Malorie flees on foot, while a woman invites Malorie over to a house for safety even though her husband, Douglas, disagrees. However, the woman goes into a trance, begins talking to her dead mother, and casually climbs into a burning car. Malorie is rescued and brought into their house by Tom, a fleeing passerby. While recovering at their base, Charlie, one of the survivors who seems to have somewhat comprehensive knowledge of what could be happening, theorizes that demonic entities have invaded Earth, taking the form of their victims' worst fears and driving them insane. At Tom's insistence, they cover all the windows, and they blindfold themselves whenever they must venture outside. Later, Greg volunteers to tie himself to a chair while monitoring the surveillance cameras to see the entity on TV as it approaches but ends up killing himself by rocking his chair violently and slamming his head into a hearthstone after seeing it.

As the supply of food decreases (and with the arrival of a new survivor, Olympia, who is also pregnant), most of the group go to a nearby supermarket. Malorie finds pet birds and decides to take them along with their supplies. The group attempts to help a coworker of Charlie's who is locked outside the supermarket begging for help, and whom Charlie describes as "a little crazy". As they contemplate the risks of opening the door, the birds go into hysterics. The group is attacked by the coworker, who was not killed by the entities but is instead used to infect others. Charlie sacrifices himself to save the others, who can make it back to the house.

Sometime after, Felix (a survivor) and Lucy steal the car and drive away. Soon thereafter, Olympia lets Gary, a stranger and lone survivor of another group, into the house, against Douglas's objections. Douglas threatens the others with a shotgun but is knocked unconscious and imprisoned in the garage. Later, Olympia and Malorie go into labor. Olympia gives birth to a girl, while Malorie gives birth to a boy. At the same time, Gary works on various drawings of the entities and seems to undergo a trance. He then puts the birds in the freezer and peeks outside through the windows and starts tearing the paper that's blocking the windows. He opens the garage door in an attempt to get Douglas to see, then knocks out Tom and goes upstairs. He seems quite curious about the babies and starts to uncover all the windows in the room to force the people to see. Olympia fails to look away and jumps out the window. Malorie saves Olympia's baby and hides her with her baby under a cover. Gary forces Cheryl to look and Cheryl repeatedly stabs herself in the neck with a pair of scissors. Douglas blindly attempts to kill Gary with a shotgun but fails, which results in Gary being able to kill Douglas with scissors. While Malorie tries to protect the newborn babies, Tom recovers consciousness in time to overpower and kill Gary.

Five years later, Tom and Malorie are living together with the children, whose only names are "Boy" and "Girl". Malorie is worried because she has been crossing paths with unblindfolded survivors more often during runs. They receive a transmission from Rick, a survivor stating that they are well and safe at a community hidden in the forest. The four decide to go to the community but are ambushed by a group of unblindfolded along the way. Without hesitation, Tom runs out to distract the group while Malorie and the children attempt to escape. When the group notices Malorie and the children escaping, Tom decides to open his eyes and shoot the group dead. He is overtaken by one of the entities, but he manages to shoot the last member of the group before shooting himself.

Malorie, the children, and their pet birds, which are being carried in a box to provide a warning against the entity, make their way blindfolded down the river on a boat. The boat flips in the rapids, but Malorie, Boy, and Girl manage to all find each other. Soon after, all three are separated when Malorie accidentally slides down a hill and the entities attempt to convince Boy and Girl to remove their blindfolds using Malorie's voice. Malorie regains consciousness and asks the children to fight the urge and come back to her.

The three eventually reach the community, a former school for the blind. They finally meet Rick. Malorie sees Dr. Lapham, her obstetrician. She then releases the birds and finally gives the children names, Tom and Olympia, and acknowledges herself to be their mother.

The film had its world premiere at the AFI Fest on November 12, 2018.[27] However, due to the Woolsey Fire that hit California and out of respect for the victims of the Thousand Oaks shooting, Netflix cancelled AFI Fest's red carpet coverage scheduled for the premiere.[28] The film began a limited theatrical run on December 14, 2018, before streaming on Netflix on December 21, 2018.[29]

In Australia, Netflix originally partnered with four Twitch streamers in performing what they called a Bird Box challenge, in which they would play some popular video games while blindfolded.[45] However, the challenge became widely mimicked on the Internet by individuals wearing blindfolds while trying to do ordinary activities, causing injuries to some. In response, Netflix released several messages over social media advising people not to undertake the challenge or hurt themselves.[40] Nevertheless, in January 2019, a 17-year-old girl in a blindfold taking part in the craze drove into oncoming traffic in Utah and crashed her car, prompting state police to issue the same warning as Netflix.[46] YouTube has responded[47] to this issue by updating its community guidelines, and warns content creators not to put minors in harmful situations that may lead to injury, including dangerous stunts, dares, or pranks.[48]

In July 2020, it was announced that a sequel is in development.[49][50]

• Blood List

• Bird Box on Netflix
• Bird Box at IMDb