Bird Box – An Exercise in Why a Severely Flawed Movie Captivates a Country

For the first time ever, the cinematic buzz over the holiday season was not about a blockbuster that came out in theaters, but about Netflix original Bird Box. America’s top streaming service boasted that the film garnered 45 million viewers within a week of its December 21, 2018 release date.

If for no other reason, Bird Box is significant for that – another obvious sign that this generation has changed the way it primarily consumes content, entertainment or otherwise.

But make no mistake. There is some intrigue surrounding the significance of the material itself. Anything that captures the attention of 50 million people must necessarily be tapping into something that feels common and important to the human experience.

The story is that of Malorie (played by Sandra Bullock), a mother, who is trying to bring two children to safety in a post-apocalyptic world. The movie flashes back and forth between the days at the outset of the cataclysmic event – the arrival of a mysterious force that is driving most of humanity around the world to suicide – and the “present day” – which consists of Malorie paddling the two children she’s responsible for down a river to attempt to reach safety. The catch, the reason for the blindfold, and subsequently the frontrunner for best meme fodder of 2019, is that the force cannot actually affect you so long as you don’t look at it.

The movie did not receive tremendous reviews, netting only a 51 Metascore. So why the popularity?

Crazy special effects? The $19.8 million budget is minimal by comparison to most large theater releases.

The flawless plot? Can’t be. A quick glance at IMDb’s user review page will help you see that the lack of explanation for the origin of the evil entities, the inconsistent powers/limitations of those entities, the lack of explanation for why some humans remain entirely unaffected by the entities are all problematic. Furthermore, the lack of character dialogue about the cause or intention of the entities is a recurring theme amongst critic reviews. While I can’t speak for the book, most reviewers would consider it a fairly significantly flawed plot. So that can’t explain viewer attraction.

Is the movie’s appeal the fact that Sandra Bullock is incapable of turning in a bad performance? Nope. Although, I’ll admit, this is my favorite movie of hers in a while.

I believe that storytelling, at its best, taps into something powerful that we know deep down, but we previously lacked the intellectual framework, or the vocabulary, to give explanation to. With that, I’ll offer 3 “biblical” reasons why I think Bird Box has been a hit:

1) Post-Apocalyptic Intrigue

“The end game. Humanity has been judged, and we’ve been found wanting.” This is what Charlie, one of the main characters, says in the opening minutes of the film. He goes on to talk about “world religions and mythologies” full of “demons” and “spirit creatures.” He says that in the end, these philosophies all teach of evil entities that take on the form of your worst fears, deepest sadness, or greatest loss. At the end of his passionate tirade, Charlie concludes with the very modern thought about religion: “All different names, but the same thing.”

While every religion is clearly not the same, the overlap across religions of certain teachings is most definitely fascinating and telling. For instance, we know of over 270 stories from distinctly different cultures of an ancient worldwide flood. While the stories vary, there are major recurring themes and commonalities. This would seem to suggest that there was indeed a worldwide flood from which all cultures trace their ancestry.

So, the fact that every culture has always been fascinated with not only the catastrophic end of the human race, but some ensuing judgment, is intriguing. And the fact that every generation makes predictions about this would support the Bible’s logic that God would always be presenting signs that keep believers on edge.

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Nation will rise against nation, and kingdom against kingdom. There will be famines and earthquakes in various places. All these are the beginning of birth pains….Because of the increase of wickedness, the love of most will grow cold, but the one who stands firm to the end will be saved. And this gospel of the kingdom will be preached in the whole world as a testimony to all nations, and then the end will come.

Matthew 24:6-8, 12-14

Deep down, we all know that not only is the end coming, but a final verdict will also come. And as the moment arrives, our selfishness becomes increasingly difficult to dismiss. We’ve been found wanting.

2) Satan As A Liar

When the evil entities in Bird Box attack, it’s not with weapons and fear, but with beauty, deception, and self-destruction. Characters who witness the entities say things like, “Look! It’s beautiful” or “You’re not so bad.”

American mythology and folklore about Satan has misunderstood his modus operandi for a long time. He doesn’t attack you in haunted houses. He attacks you by capturing your imagination with the “perfect house” this side of heaven. He doesn’t frighten with pitchfork and horns. He entices with angelic beauty. He doesn’t hold out rotten, worm-filled fruit. He holds out fruit that is “good for food and pleasing to the eye” (Genesis 3:6).

Satan can’t force you. He can only deceive you. He can distract you. He can only invite you to destroy yourself.

The biblical solution, however, is not merely to avoid looking at him. Eyes are meant for looking. They must look at something. And the thing that your eyes most want to see will become your god. That’s why the Bible says: “Fix your eyes on Jesus, the pioneer and perfecter of faith. For the joy set before him he endured the cross.” (Hebrews 12:2) Salvation comes not by your courage, your aptitude, your zest for life, or your love, but by seeing His.

3) Weakness As Strength

If you haven’t actually seen the movie at this point, and want to, this is where I should give the proverbial SPOILER ALERT. My favorite part/theme of the movie is, at the end, when Malorie and her kids arrive safely at their destination: a school for the blind. The blind, while living with an obvious impediment throughout life, are actually immune to the evil entity’s deception…precisely because of their weakness.

Comic book writers have been tapping into this theme since the mid twentieth century. Superpower is born out of pain and horrific circumstance. While your greatest talent might be the thing that destroys you, your greatest weakness might be the very thing through which you are saved.

The Apostle Paul explains that he had a tremendous impediment in his life that he begged God to remove. But his loving God would not. He allowed the pain in order to facilitate blessing in Paul’s life. He told Paul, “My grace is sufficient for you, for my power is made perfect in weakness.” (2 Corinthians 12:9) Faith is not only a trust in God, but an acknowledgment of personal incompetence. It’s a profession of weakness. And it is in admitting our tremendous weakness, in our need, in our repentance, and in the confidence in Christ alone, that the Spirit comes down. At that moment, we become eternally indestructible.

Many professional critics seem to think that Bird Box is primarily a story about the fear of blindly stumbling into parenthood (or some variation of that). I think that’s in there. But I see something different.