The Hidden Messages in Bird Box

Film and Ideology

Bird Box is a post-apocalyptic movie. The apocalypse here is when people see the monster, they will be driven to suicide. Five years ago, when the apocalypse first hit the U.S., Malorie took shelter in Douglas’ house with nine other people hiding from the outside, which became unsafe eventually. So she and Tom brought two babies with them and lived together. Five years later, Tom saw the monster and shot himself. Marolie alone had to bring the two kids to leave their shelter, which was almost a shortage of supply, for meeting other survivors. After rowing down a fast river and cross a dangerous forest, they made it to a school for the visually impaired and lived there.

Bird Box makes mental illness villains by making them kill people, and send negative impressions and perceptions of the psychos to the audiences as if psychos were the missionaries or disciples of the monster. On one hand, the movie uses Charlie, one of the survivors who also sheltered in Douglas’ house, to explain the monster. He said that humans are now judged by demons or spirit creatures of various world religions and mythology, including Aka Manah and Deva from Zoroastrian mythology of ancient Mesopotamia, the Christian demon Surgat, Puka from Celtic folklore, or 狐狸精 in the Chinese culture. The monster will trigger the fear or sorrow in one’s heart and drives them to commit suicide by shooting themselves, walking in a burning car, or stabbing themselves in the neck with scissors, etc. And on the other hand, let Gary, the after-come stranger who knocked for help and was let in the house, tells them that he escaped from the psychos who are from a mental institution for the criminal institution. Those psychos didn’t commit suicide after seeing the monster, instead, they force other people to look at the monster, and praise the beauty of the monster and say that everyone should see it. It turns out that Gary is also one of the psychos, and he, directly and indirectly, killed most of the survivors in Douglas’ house. So Bird Box is linking mental illness and evil together through Charlie and Gary’s lines, making the audience keep the concept of “those with mental illness are unsafe” in our minds unconsciously.

It not only vilifies those with mental illness but also makes pain, sorrow, or mental illness negative. This idea is based on Charlie’s explanation of demons in the previous paragraph. Once the monster is defined as a devil, what it makes us see is definitely unfriendly. The monster makes us face our pain and sorrow, and these drive a person to suicide, to death. Whenever the characters see the monster, the camera shows their painful and heartbroken facial expressions. But fear, pain, or gloom are not something as negative as the movie portrays. Those down moods are something unavoidable in our life, when the monsters use this part of human nature to kill, it’s like telling people it’s wrong to have these feelings, and are what have to be wash away. Bird Box makes an illusion some dark side in humans’ hearts can break them down is a disaster or an apocalypse that has to be punished and be diminished. But those who are already broke mentally can survive because there is no way for them to be broken the second time.

In Bird Box, how the monster influenced humans is definitely saying that no one has free will. If we define houses as our inner self, the monster is what breaks us down. The monster is a trigger to humans’ emotions of sorrow and pain, the monster is everywhere, it is amorphous, no one can escape from it. Once a person leaves the house, he will see the monster, no matter he wants it or not. Even if the person wears a blindfold, it is another sign of the lack of free will, because if the person has no choice but to wear it, or he will die. If a psycho see the monster, he has no free will either, because since then his only mission is to find the survivors and force them to see the monster. Also, the survivors have no free will. They can never go out again because the monster is everywhere. They have no choice but to stay in the safe zone. So no matter one is driven to suicide, or is life to force other survivors to see the monsters, or survives at the end of the movie, they all don’t have free will. This reflects the real human life outside the movie, no matter one shuts himself in his heart or interacts with people, there is always something invisible controlling everyone’s decision.

Bird Box is despotism. The monster in the movie killed whoever against it except the psychos, who were defined as the monster’s side and were evil. The monster wants to kill those who have fear or sorrow and let go of those who might could not aware of their true mood. This is what tyrants do when there are contrary thoughts. They kill, they purge. It’s like a massacre, it’s like the flood in the Bible that destroyed man when God was unhappy. The monster confined the physical liberty of no matter the followers or opponents by suggesting that no one has free will. This is something worse than curfew, this is what Hitler had done to the Jews, the monster in Bird Box is Hitler. Also, though when Marolie kept and fed the birds seems to be kind-hearted or saving them, what Marolie did to the birds — bringing them from the supermarket to the shelter or carrying them in a box with her during the journey, letting them go when they arrived at the visually impaired school — is actually confining their freedom. We can say that the birds are like humans who suffered from the apocalypse, and humans keeping birds are like monsters.

Bird Box is creating an illusion that there is a promising place of happiness and safety. After Tom got the information that there are still survivors out there living in a safe place from Rick, the owner of the visually impaired school, he decided to believe it without much hesitation. After Tom died, Marolie also strives to make the promised place, though she has to go down a fast river and cross a dangerous forest with two five-years-old, and wearing blindfolds. But the idea of there is a happy place waiting for us somewhere else is not correct. Marolie giving the boy and the girl their names after entering the school and setting the birds free are signs that she believes they finally get away from the monster. However, it is not. At first, Marolie stayed in Douglas’ house, where it seems safe enough, at least far from the chaos outside; Then she lives with Tom and the two kids in a house for five years, which also seems nice enough to be a permanent place to live in. But then Douglas’ house is invaded by the psychos Gary, the house they lived in for five years faced a supply shortage. So it’s wrong for Bird Box to set a fake happily ever after ending for Marolie and her two kids.

The last to mention is how the skin colors and genders work in this movie. The first example is the only Asian American, Greg, in this movie. Though he made a good guess that maybe the monster won’t affect human from the monitor, he died. This made me think of the Asian American in Fantastic Beasts: The Crimes of Grindelwald, the royal follower was also easily killed by Grindelwald. And Although Tom, who is black, made it through the chaos and lived with Marolie for another five years, but he was also dead after being a hero to save Marolie and the kids from the psycho who was following them. And Marolie, who is a white woman, who seems so tough and strong to survive in the end and go to the promised happy destination, who seems to be the heroine in the whole story, had to be saved by a white man. Because the white man is who owns the visually impaired school, he is who brings all the survivors together and offers a safe place. To be blunt, he, the white man, is the final hero, as most of all the movies do.

Bird Box linked the mentally impaired together, vilifies the down parts of human feelings and suicide, said that there is no free will, is despotism, provided a fake happy promise, and couldn’t escape the tradition of the savior is a white man. Though watching this movie was enjoyable, and this movie is very popular, but there is still a lot to think about. Only being aware of this hidden information we will not be a total consumer.