Bird Box (film)

Bird Box is a 2018 American post-apocalyptic horror thriller film directed by Susanne Bier and written by Eric Heisserer. Based on the 2014 novel by Josh Malerman, the film stars Sandra Bullock alongside Trevante Rhodes, Jacki Weaver, Rosa Salazar, Danielle Macdonald, Lil Rel Howery, Tom Hollander, Colson Baker, BD Wong, Pruitt Taylor Vince, Sarah Paulson, and John Malkovich. The film follows the character Malorie Hayes (Bullock) as she tries to protect herself and two children from entities that cause people who look at them to kill themselves.

Bird Box had its world premiere at the AFI Fest on November 12, 2018, and began a limited release on December 14, before streaming worldwide on Netflix on December 21, 2018. Despite mixed reviews from critics, the film became the most-watched film on Netflix at the time within 28 days of release, according to Netflix. A spin-off sequel, Bird Box Barcelona, was released on Netflix on July 14, 2023.

Plot

In a post-apocalyptic world, Malorie Hayes informs two young children that they are going down the river in a rowboat. She sternly instructs them not to remove their blindfolds, or they will die. The film then cuts between the events of the start of the pandemic and the events of present.

Five years earlier, a pregnant Malorie was visited by her sister, Jessica. A news broadcast reported unexplained mass suicides spreading across Europe and Asia. After a prenatal checkup, Malorie witnesses a woman smashing her head repeatedly into the hospital window. Others start acting suicidal, as well, causing panic and chaos. Malorie and Jessica leave hurriedly. Driving away from the hospital, Jessica sees something inexplicable, which drives her insane, so she deliberately crashes the car. She then intentionally walks in front of a speeding truck. As Malorie flees on foot, a woman offers her shelter. The woman then sees the entity, goes into a trance, and sits inside a burning car. Passing by, Tom picks up Malorie from the street into the house, where six others – Douglas, Greg, Cheryl, Felix, Charlie, and Lucy – are taking shelter.

Charlie says that humanity has been judged, so the appearance of demonic entities is a sign of the end times. He mentions those spiritual beings have different names in various cultures, such as Aka Manah, Surgat, Huli Jing, and Púca. They cover all of the house's windows and blindfold themselves whenever going out. As new pregnant survivor Olympia arrives, Greg kills himself after testing to see if observing the entities indirectly through surveillance cameras is safe. Half of the group goes to the grocery store Charlie worked at for supplies. They drive there in a car with covered windows using GPS navigation system. Malorie gets three live birds with their supplies, as the entities' presence agitates them.

Later, Charlie's coworker attacks the group, attempting to force them to look at the creatures. However, Charlie sacrifices himself to save them. They make it back to the house. Sometime later, Felix and Lucy steal the car. Olympia lets stranger Gary into the house against Douglas's wishes. He explains that he escaped from a group of unblindfolded survivors, who, driven insane from seeing the entities, try to force others to look at them. When Douglas tries to force Gary to leave, Cheryl knocks Douglas out, and they lock him in the garage.

As Olympia and Malorie go into labor simultaneously, Gary sketches the entities, revealing he has seen them and gone insane. He knocks Tom unconscious and opens the garage door, exposing Douglas to the entities. Gary goes upstairs and uncovers all the windows. Olympia fails to look away, and after witnessing the creature, dives out the window, killing herself. Malorie hides with both newborns under a cover, while Gary forces Cheryl to look at the entities, causing her to stab herself in the neck with a pair of scissors. Douglas escapes the garage and blindly attempts to kill Gary with a shotgun, wounding him in the process, but Gary kills him with the scissors. Tom begins to recuperate shortly after, fighting Gary over the gun. After Malorie hears gunshots, Tom lets her know everything is fine.

Five years later, Tom and Malorie live together with the children, "Boy" and "Girl". They receive transmissions from survivors informing them of a safe community hidden in the forest, accessible by boat along the river. As they leave their house, a group of unblindfolded survivors attacks them. Tom distracts them so Malorie and the children can flee. He uncovers his eyes and sees the entities, but manages to eliminate all attackers before killing himself. Malorie and the children go blindfolded down the river on a boat, carrying the birds to warn them of the entities. They encounter several obstacles, including an unblindfolded survivor and river rapids. Soon after the three reach shore, they are separated when Malorie accidentally slides down a hill. The entities nearly trick the children into uncovering their eyes. Regaining consciousness, Malorie tells the children she loves them and where to find her. They eventually reach the community, a former school for the blind. Malorie releases the birds and finally names the children Tom and Olympia, declaring that she is their mother. She also happily sees her obstetrician Dr. Lapham is among the survivors.

Cast

Production

Development

The film rights to Bird Box were optioned by Universal Pictures in 2013, prior to the book's release. Scott Stuber and Chris Morgan were set to produce the film, with Andy Muschietti was attached as director. Eric Heisserer was in negotiations to write the script. In July 2017, after Stuber became head of the feature-film division of Netflix, Netflix announced it had acquired the rights to the book and would develop the film, with Sandra Bullock and John Malkovich starring. Susanne Bier was announced as the director.

Casting

In July 2017, Sandra Bullock and John Malkovich were cast in the film as Malorie Hayes and Douglas. In October 2017, Danielle Macdonald, Trevante Rhodes, Jacki Weaver, Sarah Paulson, Rosa Salazar, Lil Rel Howery, and Amy Gumenick joined the cast. In November 2017, Machine Gun Kelly and David Dastmalchian were also added.

Filming

Principal photography began in California in October 2017. Wilderness scenes were shot on the Smith River in the far northern part of the state. The house exterior is from a place in Monrovia. Filming partially took place in Santa Cruz, and the final scene was shot at Scripps College in Claremont.

The production used live birds during filming as much as possible, replacing them digitally for sequences when they became "agitated".

The film uses footage of the Lac-Mégantic rail disaster, which caused the death of 47 people in the town of Lac-Mégantic, Quebec, on July 6, 2013. Netflix later removed the footage and replaced with an outtake from a canceled U.S. TV series. The same footage was also used in another Netflix production, Travelers, but has since been removed.

Visual effects

The visual effects were created by Industrial Light & Magic and supervised by Marcus Taormina.

Music

Trent Reznor and Atticus Ross (of Nine Inch Nails) were hired to score the film. The soundtrack album itself was released about two weeks after the release of the film, on January 1, 2019. It was first released for sale only on Nine Inch Nails's website, and later on iTunes, Apple Music, Spotify, and other platforms. The released version consisted of 10 tracks, totaling an hour and six minutes of music. In a statement on the Nine Inch Nails website, Reznor said:

Like all soundtrack records we release, we aim for these to play like albums that take you on a journey and can exist as companion pieces to the films and as their own separate works. We created a significant amount of music and conceptual sound for Bird Box, a lot of which never made it to your ears in the final version of the film. We've decided to present you with this version of the soundtrack record that represents what Bird Box is to us. We hope you enjoy. For those interested, we will be releasing a more expansive (read: more self-indulgent) physical-only offering this spring that will contain an additional hour of music and artwork that colors further outside the lines ...

The full version of the soundtrack was released on November 22, 2019, exclusively on a special-edition vinyl box set (with a digital download at purchase). The full version contains 13 more tracks and an extra hour of music, resulting in a two-hour (plus six minutes), 23-track album.

In December 2019, Reznor criticized Bird Box producers over their use of Ross and his music, and the film editor over making an inadequately low mix of the music in the film, calling the experience a "fucking waste of time".

Release

The film had its world premiere at the AFI Fest on November 12, 2018. 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. The film began a limited theatrical run on December 14, 2018, before streaming on Netflix on December 21, 2018.