Yes, I know I know. This is a movie that everyone and their mother has seen when it broke the internet back in 2018, but I do have my own thoughts and interpretations of this movie that I would like to share.

For those of you who live under a rock and did not watch this fantastic movie, here is the premise of the movie: (SPOILER WARNING)

In the beginning, the movie focuses on a pregnant woman named Malorie, who is played by Sandra Bullock. Soon after, the “apocalypse” starts, which involved “invisible beings” who are only actually visible to those who are getting attacked. These beings force you to harm yourself and eventually commit suicide. This attack, obviously, causes most of the human population to die. Once everyone realized that the reason people are getting attacked is because they are using their sense of sight, Malorie seeks refuge in a house with a group of random people. They covered the windows and anything that would allow the outside world to come in, but it wasn’t enough to stop the inevitable.

Malorie eventually has her baby and flees the house with her new baby boy, the baby girl of another housemate who died, and the one other surviving person in the house, who also eventually dies. They acclimate to this new life without their sight by always wearing blind folds and using the sounds of their birds to guide them (the birds go crazy whenever the “beings” are around). Malorie and the kids work to find their way to a community of survivors where they eventually permanently live.

Now, my thoughts. I am obsessed with this movie because there is soooo much more going on than meets the eye. I think this movie takes on the role of addressing the global issue of mental health and suicide. Why can only the person being attacked see the invisible beings? Because they are their own personal demons. Once they face their demons, they are so sad and filled with such guilt that they ultimately just end their lives right then and there. And what is the deal with the birds? After much research, birds are often connected to the idea of “freedom”, which would make sense because the birds were such a key tool in Malorie’s survival, since they alerted her whenever the beings were around. They helped guide her and her kids to freedom, meaning the community of survivors. The birds were her eyes when her sense of sight was not able to be used.

I believe the message that the writers of “Bird Box” were trying to portray is that the “apocalypse” that is going to end us all isn’t going to be stupid zombies or whatever, it is going to be us, humans. We are so focused on comparing ourselves to others and allowing our past to haunt us that is drives us to do irrational things that we will ultimately regret. We depend on our sight to scroll through Instagram or TikTok and see all these things that affect our mental health. So the movie shows that once we “take away our sight” and don’t allow those things to affect us, we will ultimately be happier and find peace within ourselves.