Bird Box
Bird Box Plot
In a post-apocalyptic world, Malorie Hayes informs two young children that they will go down a river in a rowboat. She sternly instructs them not to remove their blindfolds, or they will die.
Five years earlier, a pregnant Malorie is visited by her sister, Jessica. A news broadcast reports 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. Afterward, Malorie hurries to leave the scene with Jessica. While steering away from the hospital, Jessica sees something inexplicable that drives her insane and she deliberately crashes her car. She then walks in front of a speeding truck and is killed.
As Malorie flees on foot, a woman invites her into a house for safety. The woman then sees the entity before going into a trance and sitting inside a burning car. A passerby, Tom, picks up Malorie from the street into the house, where six other people – Douglas, Greg, Cheryl, Felix, Charlie, and Lucy – are taking shelter. Charlie says that humanity has been judged, and the appearance of demonic entities is a sign of the end times. He also mentions that those spiritual beings have different names in various cultures, such as Aka Manah, Surgat, Huli Jing, and Púca. Those in the house cover all the windows and blindfold themselves whenever they go out. As a new pregnant survivor, Olympia, arrives, Greg commits suicide after volunteering to test if it is safe to observe them indirectly through surveillance cameras.
Half of the group goes to the grocery store Charlie worked at to restock their dwindling food. They drive there in a car with covered windows using GPS navigation system. Malorie gets three pet birds along with their supplies. She notices the entities’ presence agitates the birds. Later, Charlie’s coworker attacks the group, attempting to force them to look at the creatures. However, Charlie sacrifices himself to save the others. They make it back to the house. Sometime after, Felix and Lucy steal the car and drive away.
Olympia lets a stranger named Gary into the house against Douglas’s wishes. Gary explains he escaped from a group of unblindfolded survivors who have gone insane from seeing the entities and try to force others to look at them as well. Douglas tries to force Gary to leave, but Cheryl knocks Douglas out, and the others lock him in the garage. As Olympia and Malorie go into labor simultaneously, Gary works on drawings of the entities, revealing he has seen them too and gone insane. He knocks Tom unconscious and opens the garage door, exposing Douglas to the entities. Gary goes upstairs and rips all the windows’ blinds. Olympia fails to look away, and after witnessing the creature, she dives out the window, killing herself. Malorie hides with both newborn babies 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 a few gunshots, Tom approaches her to say everything is fine.
Five years later, Tom and Malorie live together with the children, called “Boy” and “Girl”. They receive transmissions from survivors informing them of a safe community hidden in the forest, accessible only by boat along the river. As they leave their house, a group of unblindfolded survivors attacks them. Tom distracts the assailants so Malorie and the children can flee. He uncovers his eyes and sees the entities, but manages to eliminate all the 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 kids into taking off their blindfolds. Malorie regains consciousness and tells the children that 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 gives the children names, Tom and Olympia, admitting that she is their mother. She is also happy when she sees her obstetrician, Dr. Lapham, is one of the survivors.