Sandra Bullock’s Bird Box created history upon release when it became Netflix’s most popular movie at the time. It broke several viewership records within a few days of its release and also had a pop cultural impact as many tried the ‘Bird Box Challenge’. The challenge even prompted Netflix to urge fans not to do dangerous things while blindfolded.
Despite its popularity, many fans have complained about the ending and the lack of explanation about the entities. The alien entities are revealed to influence people to kill themselves and the only way to protect oneself is to not see them. The treatment of the people who have seen the entities and survived is extremely problematic.
Reddit fan’s theory on the ending of Sandra Bullock’s Bird Box is much better
The introduction of the apocalyptic world in Sandra Bullock’s Bird Box sees many people around Malorie (Bullock) killing themselves after seeing the entities. The conceit of the film is that humans have to survive the aliens’ ruthless onslaught by blindfolding themselves and avoiding visuals of the entities.
However, it also introduces some characters, mainly Tom Hollander’s Gary as someone who has seen the entities and later gone insane. Gary becomes a major obstacle for the survivor team that Malorie tags along with. However, it is never revealed what exactly the entities show the humans that compels them to kill themselves (although there are some hints).
The ending reveals little about the entities and ends with Sandra Bullock and her children reaching a school for the blind and taking shelter there. A Reddit fan posed a theory on how they could have made the ending more interesting. Their Biblical explanation makes a lot of sense and gives some justification to the characters who have seen the entities.
While Sandra Bullock’s film goes for a more optimistic traditional way of ending, the fan theory actually makes a lot of sense and is far more interesting. It also somehow falls in line with the original novel’s author’s idea.
Bird Box novel’s author explained what he hoped to show with the aliens’ ability
While seeing the alien entities in Bird Box usually ends up in the death of the watcher, there seem to be different reactions to the way they perceive the aliens’ abilities. Some are terrified and anxiously take their lives while others seem to accept it wholeheartedly, like it is nirvana. It also depicts people turning ‘insane’ because of seeing the entities.
Author Josh Malerman of the origins novel Bird Box and its sequel Malorie revealed that the book actually hoped to compare and contrast these divisive reactions based on the people’s own mental state. He said to Esquire,
If you’re already broken, what would being rendered insane do to you? If you’re already crazy, then are you fine? Or does it just take a longer time to reach that breaking point? That waiting time for Gary took longer because he already surfs those waters.
The fact that people who already have issues might see it as liberation is certainly in line with the Reddit fan’s theory of angels and heaven before death.
Bird Box is available to stream on Netflix.
This post belongs to FandomWire and first appeared on FandomWire
