Starring: Sandra Bullock, Sarah Paulson, Trevante Rhodes, Jacki Weaver, Rosa Salazar, Danielle Macdonald, Lil Rel Howery, Tom Hollander, Machine Gun Kelly, BD Wong, John Malkovich
OUR RATING: ★★★☆☆
Story:
Post-apocalyptic horror directed by Susanne Bier. In wake of an unknown global terror, in which a mysterious force where if you see it, you take your life, the story follows a mother, Malorie (Sandra Bullock), who must find the strength to flee with her children down a treacherous river in search of safety. However, to survive, they’ll have to undertake the perilous journey blindfolded.
Best Quotes (Total Quotes: 23)
[first line; over the radio]
Man: We have a place, a compound. We have a community. It’s safe here. How many of you are there? Are any of them children? Because the fastest way to get here is by the river, and I don’t think you could make it with kids.
[to the children]
Malorie: Listen to me. I’m only going to say this once. We are going on the trip now. It’s going to be rough. It’s going to feel like it’s going on for a long time, so it’s going to be hard to stay alert. It’s going to be even harder to be quiet, but you have to do both. You have to do every single thing I say or we will not make it. Understand? Under no circumstance are you allowed to take off your blindfold. If I find that you have, I will hurt you. Do you understand? It’s cold. We have blankets. Boy, you have your dog. Girl, you have your kitty. This is just a place. There’s nothing more that we need from it. Do you understand? And no talking on the river. You must listen as closely as you can. If you hear something in the woods, you tell me. If you hear something in the water, you tell me. But you never ever take off your blindfold. If you look, you will die. Do you understand?
[Malorie is having a pregnancy checkup at the hospital]
Dr. Lapham: You still don’t want to know the gender?
Malorie: And ruin the surprise, Dr. Lapham? No.
Dr. Lapham: How have you been feeling? Have you been sleeping any better?
Malorie: Rough. I never slept well before I had this condition.
Dr. Lapham: It’s called pregnancy. It’s okay to say it out loud.
Jessica: Oh, don’t you know, doctor, if you don’t acknowledge a thing, it simply goes away?
Dr. Lapham: Oh, really? All this time, I had no idea.
Jessica: When a horse gets pregnant…
Malorie: God, the horse.
Jessica: [to Lapham] Do you know anything about horses? When a horse gets pregnant, it knows right away.
Malorie: Does it?
Jessica: It changes the way it eats. It changes its gait. It bites all the other horses who come too close.
Malorie: It’s too bad we’re not horses.
Jessica: It is too bad. It’s great to be a horse. Then we would have like a mother who would have actually raised us, and a father off on some faraway stud farm.
Malorie: Hold on. Our father was off on a faraway stud farm.
Jessica: That is correct.
Malorie: That is correct. Poor us.
Jessica: I think we should go feel sorry for ourselves with lunch and a bottle of wine.
Malorie: Oh, finally, now you’re making some sense.
Jessica: Good.
Dr. Lapham: Really, in front of me?
Jessica: We didn’t mean it. Like a big, like a little…
Malorie: No, like a tiny glass of rosé is not going to hurt the little bean.
Dr. Lapham: I’m pretty sure I heard the word bottle. And you might want to think of another name besides little bean, seeing as your child is now the size of a small melon.
Malorie and Jessica: A small melon?
Dr. Lapham: I know it’s hard to love someone you haven’t met yet.
Malorie: Oh, that’s beautiful. Thought about stitching that on like a little lavender sachet? You could sell them down in the gift shop.
Jessica: In the gift shop.
Dr. Lapham: You’re having a baby, Malorie. Pretty soon you and I, Jessica, and some hard-ass labor and delivery nurse are going to be on the third floor making the same wise cracks. Only this time, you won’t be going home by yourself.
Malorie: I know. I know.
Dr. Lapham: But if that’s not what you want, there are plenty of couples who are desperate to adopt a child. There are no judgments here. You can make whatever choice you want. But what you can’t do is ignore it and hope it just goes away.
[she give Malorie a leaflet on adoption]
[as they see other drivers losing control on the road]
Malorie: Oh, my God, Jess. Just go, go, go, go, go, go.
Jessica: I’m not running the light with a pregnant lady in the car. No.
Malorie: There’s nobody there. There’s nobody there. Just drive the car!
Jessica: Malorie, you got to let me just drive. You’re freaking me out. Seriously, just let me do it.
[as she’s driving she sees something]
Jessica: Oh, my God. What the fuck is that?
Malorie: What the fuck is what? What the fuck is what? Jess, what the fuck is what? What are you looking at? What did you see? Talk to me. Tell me what you saw! What the fuck is what? What are you doing?
[Jessica starts driving erratically]
Malorie: Oh, my God, Jess. Jess, don’t do that. Just what are you, what is wrong with you? No, no, no! Stop it! Stop it! No, no, no! Please stop it! Stop it! Jess, what the fuck is wrong with you? Jess, please stop it! Stop it, Jess! God damn it! Stop it! Please stop it!
[suddenly the car flips over]
Felix: What? What in the shit is happening?
Charlie: It’s an end game, man.
Cheryl: I’m sorry, what?
Charlie: The end game. Humanity has been judged, and we’ve been found wanting.
Lucy: Judged by who?
Charlie: They go by different names, right? You got world religion and mythology that’s full of mentions of demons or spirit creatures. People who’ve actually seen these creatures almost always describe their encounter as this, as with an entity that takes on a form of your worst fears, or your deepest sadness, or your greatest loss.
Felix: Sounds like bullshit to me, man. Religious talk.
Charlie: It’s not bullshit, okay?! It’s real talk. It’s facts. They come in all different forms. Right, you got the Aka Manah, you got the Varios Daevas from ancient Zoroastrian legend. You’ve got the Surgat from ancient Christian occult beliefs that made pregnant women encounter their unborn children as other creatures such as lobsters or spiders. You’ve got the Huli-jing from China. You’ve got the Puca from Celtic mythology. All different names, but the same thing.
Tom: And what’s that?
Charlie: The end of us.
Lucy: Charlie, did you learn all of that working at the supermarket?
Charlie: No, I’ve been studying it for years.
Lucy: In college?
Charlie: Not college per se, but I mean the Internet. That’s where you get all your information from. I’m working on a novel, guys.
Douglas: Fuck’s sake.
[referring to Jessica]
Malorie: We were just driving, and then she saw something, and I didn’t see what it was, but then she got this look on her face. It’s like she got, she got so sad, and Jess does not get sad. No. She stepped out of the car and ran into the street, and she’s not suicidal. She would never do that.
Lucy: We’re never getting out of here. No one’s coming for us. No one’s coming for us.
[referring to Malories accidentally walking in on Lucy and Felix having sex]
Tom: That’s something you can’t unsee.
Malorie: Uh, no. No, you cannot.
Tom: Yeah.
[they both laugh]
[on the walkie-talkie as her and the kids are in the boat on the river]
Malorie: Hello, can anybody hear me? Hello? This is Malorie. Anybody, can you hear me? Hello? Can anybody hear me? Hello? Hello? Can anybody hear me? Hello? Testing, hello?
Malorie: Who are you?
Olympia: He was scared, okay? I just let him in.
Douglas: You let a stranger in the house?!
Olympia: I’m sorry. He was terrified!
Douglas: Are you a simpleton?
[Douglas points the gun at Gary]
Douglas: Get up and get out. It’s not an orphanage. New guy, you had a great visit. We really loved meeting you. Now fuck off. And anybody who doesn’t agree, you go with him. Out now.
Malorie: Douglas, that is murder.
Douglas: No. This is murder!
Gary: Please.
Douglas: Letting strangers into this house! Every contact we have had with the outside has brought us death. Lydia, Greg, Charlie. If you want to save people out there, then you go right through that door and you go do it. We’re not bringing any more strangers in here. Not while I’m alive. I won’t tell you again, get up and get…
[suddenly Cherly knocks him unconscious by smashing a pot over his head]
Olympia: I feel like such a burden.
Malorie: You are no more a burden than I am, okay?
Olympia: That’s not true.
Malorie: It is. It is.
Olympia: You’re not soft like me. I’m so spoiled. My parents have always done everything for me, and then my husband, and I just, I got soft from all that love.
Malorie: Well, I was raised by wolves, so consider yourself lucky.
Olympia: If something happens to me, I want you to take care of my baby. Okay?
Malorie: No. No.
Olympia: Please.
Malorie: It’s your baby. No.
Olympia: Malorie, promise me.
Malorie: Nothing is going to happen to you. It’s your baby.
Olympia: Please, promise me.
Malorie: Nothing…
Olympia: Please, promise me.
Malorie: Yeah, okay. Yeah, of course.
[to Girl and Boy]
Tom: You know, when I was little, we had a boat just like this. And every single summer, we would take it to the lake. Every summer. You guys would have loved it up there. They had trees. They had flowers. The water was warm, the clouds were in the sky. And we’d all play in the water. All the kids, all the children. We would all just run up and down the shore.
Girl: There were other children in the world?
Tom: Yeah, just like you. Just like you. Like you. And one day, we saw this really, really big oak tree. It was bigger than this house it was so big. It was so big and old, I couldn’t see the top of it. Guess what we did?
Boy: Climbed it.
Tom: We climbed it. Yes, we climbed it. We climbed it and climbed it until we got to the top. Guess what we saw when we got to the top?
Malorie: Boy, Girl, time for bed.
Boy: But Tom is telling a story.
Tom: Yeah, Mal, let me just, we’re almost done.
Malorie: I’m not going to say it again. Come on.
[Boy goes to her]
Malorie: Girl, come on. Right now. Come on. Right now! Bed!
Malorie: What are you doing?
Tom: What are you doing?
Malorie: Now they think they’re going to go outside and climb trees with all these new kids and see butterflies and flowers and bullshit!
Tom: It’s a story, Malorie. It’s a story, Malorie.
Malorie: It’s not a story! It’s a lie, because they are never going to climb trees, they are never going to make new friends. Why would you make them believe something like that?
Tom: Because they have to believe in something. What is this for if they don’t have anything to believe in, Mal?
Malorie: So that they survive.
Tom: Surviving is not living, Mal!
Malorie: Well, they’re going to die if they listen to you!
Tom: Life is more than just what is. It’s what could be. What you could make it. You need to promise them dreams that may never come true. You need to love them knowing that you may lose them at any second. Okay? They deserve dreams. They deserve love. They deserve hope. They deserve a mother. They deserve a mother. You haven’t given them names, Mal. Their names are Boy and Girl! Think about that!
Malorie: Every single decision I have made has been for them. Every single one.
[he climbs into bed next to Malorie and finishes his story to the kids]
Tom: You know what I saw, at the top of the tree? I saw a nest with five birds, sitting on the top branch. And then they just flew away.
[as they are being are ambushed by a group of infected survivor]
Malorie: No, I’m not leaving you.
Tom: Listen to me. Listen to me. I love you so much.
[he gives Malorie his necklace]
Tom: I love you. Go.
Malorie: No!
Tom: Go. Please, go.
[after Malorie gets separated from the kids in the woods]
Malorie: Boy, Girl, where are you? Don’t take my children! Do not take my children!
[after Malorie and the kids make it safely to the community, which was a school for the blind]
Malorie: The birds.
Rick: They warn the sighted people whenever those things are around. It’s not much, but it’s something.
[last lines; at the new community]
Dr. Lapham: Malorie? Malorie Hayes?
Malorie: Dr. Lapham.
[to the kids]
Dr. Lapham: And what are your names?
Girl: Girl.
Boy: Boy.
Malorie: Actually, your name is Olympia. Yeah. Named after the sweetest girl I ever met. And your name, your name is Tom.
Boy: Tom.
Malorie: And I am their mother.
Dr. Lapham: Would you like to come and play with the other kids?
Malorie: You want to go play?
[Girl nods her head]
Malorie: You want to go play?
[Lapham hugs Malorie before taking the kids to play; a woman hands Malories some clothes]
Malorie: Thank you. Thank you very much.
Total Quotes: 23
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Trailer: