Characters / Bird Box

Malorie

• Abusive Parents: Malorie's parents were terrible, and Malorie herself threatens her kids with physical harm at least a few times to make sure they know not to stray from any orders she gives, which is probably traumatizing, and leaves the girl particularly frightened of her. She severely regrets it in the end.
• Anger Born of Worry: Malorie is searching for supplies and whatnot, and she's taking rather long in doing so. Girl tries looking for her. When she gets dragged back to the boat, Malorie screams at her for not listening. She also threatens to hurt both kids should they disobey her but she's only doing that to ensure their safety.
• Beauty Is Never Tarnished: This applies to Malorie in the beginning. She throws up into the toilet for a few minutes and when she's finished, her make-up is immaculate.
• Chekhov's Gun: The story Tom was telling the kids near the end of the film. Malorie cuts him off before he finishes, scared that putting the idea of playing outside in their heads will have them try to attempt to go outside where they could be put in danger. In the climax, when she loses track of "Girl" in the woods and calls out to her, she finishes the story to counter the creatures trying to mimic her voice and lead the girl to her.
• Cold Equation: At one point, Malorie needs to choose one of the kids to look to navigate a part of the river. If one of the kids commits suicide, Malorie can still reach the end with the remaining child. If Malorie sees a creature, then the kids will be left on their own. She ends up not having the heart to go through with it and risks the journey blind, instead.
• Disappeared Dad: We never learn what the situation is with the father of Malorie's baby. All she says is it's just her when asked. By the reluctance she shows at having a baby, it's probable the pregnancy wasn't planned. Near the beginning it's mentioned that she lived with a man named Ryan, who was probably the father.
• A Dog Named "Dog": Malorie calls both children just "Boy" and "Girl", for which she's chided by Tom. She eventually names them at the end: Tom and Olympia, after deceased friends.
• Earn Your Happy Ending: Malorie and the kids make it down the river and to the sanctuary, which is full of contented survivors and children to play with. She finally gives them names and tells them she's their mother. Even the parakeets get a luxurious retirement to the sanctuary canopy with all the other guard birds.
• Good Is Not Nice: Malorie is often cruel to the children as a means of ensuring they survive. She even tells them that if they take off their blindfolds or disobey her during the journey that she will hurt them as punishment. She is saying this so they will be fearful enough to obey they rules and survive.
• Heel Realisation: On finding out the Girl is afraid of her.
• Heroic BSoD: Falls into shock after seeing Jess die when the creatures arrive and has to be snapped out of her daze by people running past her including Tom.
• Hesitant Sacrifice: Malorie needs one of the children to be a lookout and risk seeing the creatures. Boy wants to do it, but Malorie shoots him down. Since she's the only other option, Girl realizes Malorie would rather she die instead and offers to do it. Thankfully, Malorie decides to make neither of them do it.
• Meaningful Name: Malorie is French for ‘bad luck’ or ‘bad fortune’, and she’s had the bad luck to be stranded with two children in the apocalypse. Subverted when the three of them survive at the end.
• Parental Favoritism: Malorie raised both Boy and Girl from the moment they were born and could do anything for them but she still holds Boy in a higher regard than Girl as shown when Malorie, knowing they won't be able to make it to through the rapids without someone looking, tells Boy and Girl that she can't look as she must steer and one of them must but she immediately shoots Boy down when he volunteers and it becomes apparent she wants Girl to do it. It makes sense since Boy is her own biological child but thankfully Malorie has a change of heart and decides to guide and steer herself even if it means risking Boy's life, proving that she loves both kids very much and both are indispensable for her.
• Parental Substitute: Malorie kept her promise to Olympia and took care of Girl, growing to love her as her own while Tom also became a father figure to both Girl and Boy.
• Platonic Declaration of Love: As the creatures are trying to lure Girl into taking off her blindfold, Malorie begs Girl to come to her, speaking about the future she wants her to have and telling her she loves her.
• Tough Love: Malorie does whatever she can to ensure the survival of her babies, even if it means preventing them from having hope or dreams.
• Tragic Keepsake: Malorie also has Tom's necklace, which he gave to her as a farewell gift before he sacrificed himself to save Malorie and the kids.
• Vomit Discretion Shot: Malorie throws up in the toilet due to morning sickness before the apocalypse.

Jess

• Deadpan Snarker: Jess jokes with Malorie about her living situation, their crappy childhood, and even Malorie puking, all with an even tone as if she was talking about the weather.
• Foolish Sibling, Responsible Sibling: It’s pretty obvious that Malorie is only functioning in the world because Jess comes and takes care of her. She doesn’t even have food in the fridge or any plans to take care of her impending baby.

Lydia

• Senseless Sacrifice: Despite Douglas’s warnings not to, Lydia goes out in the street to try and save the pregnant Malorie. She sees a creature and succumbs before she reaches her. Tom and Lucy come up behind Malorie immediately afterwards and pick her up off the ground and they all run for the house. Malorie likely would have made it inside without Lydia’s help.

Douglas

• The Alcoholic: Shown helping himself to a Quick Nip and only volunteers for the supply run to get his hands on more booze.
• Big Damn Heroes: He recovers in time to get Gary away from finding Malorie and the babies, though he dies in the process and Tom has to off Gary instead.
• Jerkass Has a Point: Douglas could tell that Gary was unhinged and not someone to be trusted from the get-go.
• Jerk with a Heart of Gold: Even though he's selfish and callous most of the time, Douglas shows moments of decency early on (such as thanking Greg for the risks he takes watching the surveillance videos and somewhat apologizing for their past disagreements), and at the end willingly risks and eventually loses his own life to protect women and children from the deranged Gary.
• Serial Spouse: Divorced twice because he's a jerk; his third wife is killed because she insists on rescuing Malorie.

Greg

• Bury Your Gays: After the initial slaughter, Greg is the first to die in a rather foolish experiment to see if the creatures can be seen on camera without causing the viewer to go mad. They can’t.

Tom

• Heroic Willpower: Tom has to take his blindfold off to kill the remaining deranged. He sees a creature while there is still one left (who will likely kill Malorie and the kids if he is left alive). Tom keeps his wits just long enough to shoot him, and then turns the gun on himself.
• Parental Substitute: Tom takes on the role of father to Boy and Girl.

Lucy

• Insistent Terminology: Lucy likes to inform the group that she is a cop. Felix likes to inform Lucy that she was only a cadet.
• Slap-Slap-Kiss: With Felix. She rebuffs him for leering at her and admonishes him for being a criminal and a coward. She eventually hooks up with him and they run away together.

Felix

• Slap-Slap-Kiss: With Lucy. She rebuffs him for leering at her and admonishes him for being a criminal and a coward. She eventually hooks up with him and they run away together.

Cheryl

• Beware the Nice Ones: Cheryl is kind and motherly to the group, but when Douglas tries to turn a new arrival out at gun point, she sneaks up behind him and smashes a vase over his head.
• Forced to Watch: After the reveal that Gary is a Deranged, he does this to Cheryl, holding her eyes open next to the smashed window so she has to see the creature.

Charlie

• Heroic Sacrifice: Saves the others at the supermarket by tackling his infected coworker outside to prevent him from letting the creatures in. He gets exposed and kills himself.

Olympia

• Disappeared Dad: It's probable Olympia's husband is dead, as he's absent in the film due to being a member of the US Air Force who's been called up, leaving her pregnant and alone.
• Hair of Gold, Heart of Gold: Olympia has long, blonde locks and is incredibly sweet and innocent. She visibly contrasts with dark-haired Malorie who is hard and cold.
• Heroic Willpower: After being exposed to the creatures, she lasts long enough to give her newborn to Malorie before killing herself.
• The Kindness of Strangers: Olympia is saved when the group lets her into the house having no idea who she is or what her intentions are. She quotes this trope when she lets Gary in, saying she remembers what it was like being on the other side of the door.
• Spoiled Sweet: Olympia says that she is soft because her parents and then her husband protected her from the real world and gave her everything she ever wanted.

Gary

• Forced to Watch: Gary claims the deranged did this to him and his friends with the creatures. After the reveal that Gary is a deranged, he does this to Cheryl.
• The Kindness of Strangers: Olympia lets Gary into the house because she remembers what it was like being on the other side of the door.
• Mask of Sanity: There’s always something a little off and creepy about Gary, but he seems fine enough that the others let their guard down and don’t suspect him as a deranged until it is too late.
• Unreliable Expositor: Gary is the first to tell the group about the deranged and how they survive seeing the creatures to force others to look. He labels them as escapees from the asylum for the criminally insane. When Gary turns out to be a deranged, it puts his entire story to question.
• Would Hurt a Child: Tries to expose two newborns to the creatures.

Boy

Boy a.k.a Tom Jr. by the end of the movie is the biological son of Malory.

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• Big Brother Instinct: Technically Boy is only a few minutes older than Girl but he clearly loves and cares about his adopted sister as shown when he hugs her when they are scared and gets Malorie to stop being so harsh on Girl. When Malorie informs her children that one of them needs to lookout (and possibly go mad and die), Boy immediately jumps at the call.
• Calling Parents by Their Name: The children only ever call Malorie by her name. She in turn simply calls them "boy" and "girl".
  • It's implied that the children may not have known Malorie was their mother, or even what a mother is, due to Malorie not telling them anything about their past.
• Dead Guy Junior: Malorie names him after Tom, the kids' surrogate father.

Girl

Girl a.k.a. Olympia Jr. by the end of the movie is the biological daughter of Olympia Sr. and becomes the adopted daughter of Malory upon her death.

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• Calling Parents by Their Name: The children only ever call Malorie by her name. She in turn simply calls them "boy" and "girl".
  • It's implied that the children may not have known Malorie was their mother, or even what a mother is, due to Malorie not telling them anything about their past.
• Tragic Keepsake: The Hello Kitty keyring that Malorie gives Girl's biological mother Olympia as a gift, which is passed down to Olympia's daughter when Olympia dies and Girl is born. It apparently serves as a Security Blanket for Girl.
• Dead Guy Junior: Malorie names her after Olympia, her biological mother.
• The Unfavorite: While Malorie treats both children harshly, it's implied she's willing to make the Girl take off her blindfold even though the Boy has volunteered to do so, because the Girl is not her child. Worse, the Girl seems to sense this. Malorie finding out she's afraid of her leads to her Heel Realisation.

Dr. Lanpham

The Creatures

The unknown entities that have attacked humanity.

• Adaptational Villainy: In the book, they don't seem to be aware of the effect their appearance has on humanity. In the movies, they're fully aware of what they're doing and actively go out of their way to kill people.
• Brown Note Being: Their main trait — anyone who sees one either kills themselves, or ends up brainwashed by them.
• Fair-Play Villain: Strangely enough, despite being physical entities that can interact with the world around them, they never just pull anyone's blindfold off. Whether they can't or are following some strange set of rules, like most things about them, is unknown.
• The Ghost: We never see them, barring a quickly moving shadow during the car scene. Probably for the best, really.
• Lie to the Beholder: It's strongly implied that they look different to different people, with each person seeing their own greatest fear.
• Nothing Is Scarier: We learn absolutely nothing about the Creatures — where they came from, what they want or why they're killing people remain complete mysteries.
• Shrouded in Myth: We get a few theories as to what they are — Charlie thinks they're The Legions of Hell, Douglas suspects some kind of bioweapon and Octovio theorizes an Alien Invasion. None of these theories are ever confirmed.
• Voice Changeling: They can mimic the voice of loved ones to trick people into looking at them.