"I've seen The Road, and there is no way I'm living like that."
— Bella
Silent Night is a 2021 British Christmas-themed apocalyptic Black Comedy written and directed by Camille Griffin and starring Keira Knightley, Matthew Goode, Roman Griffin Davis, Lucy Punch, Kirby Howell-Baptiste, Annabelle Wallis, Rufus Jones, Lily-Rose Depp and Sope Dirisu.
Nell (Knightley) and Simon (Goode) are hosting a Christmas dinner party at their posh country estate for a group of family and friends. Their "perfect" soirée is dampened, however, by the prospect of the rapidly-approaching, climate change-induced toxic storm that is spreading across the Earth. As the friends eat, drink, and party, they also face the moral dilemma of how to handle their inevitable impending deaths.
Not to be confused with Silent Night (2012), a loose remake of Silent Night, Deadly Night or the 2023 action film.
Silent Night contains examples of:
- Always Identical Twins: Nell and Simon have identical twin sons.
- Ambiguous Ending: After everyone has committed suicide and the storm has passed, the following morning sees Art suddenly open his eyes despite appearing to have been killed by the cloud the previous night, it’s uncertain whether he is the sole surviving human or not and if so how he will survive.
- Apocalypse Anarchy: Downplayed, the most that happens is two characters robbing a supermarket for some sticky toffee pudding offscreen and some very blunt conservations.
- Ascended Fridge Horror:
- The characters constantly discuss how afraid they are of leaving their children alive alone. At the end of the movie, this is what happens to Art.
- Art insists that nobody knows if the fog will turn out to be that deadly. It's heavily implied that it makes you appear dead and then spares you, judging from Art's reaction.
- Simon and Nell discuss that "only poor and homeless people" are the only ones not to be given a Cyanide Pill. Which would mean these are the only people around who could possibly "care" for Art under any circumstances, if they even survived.
- Awful Wedded Life: There clear signs of unhappy marriages between several of the married couples.
- Big "NO!": Bella's reaction when she hears Alex vomiting up her suicide pill.
- Bolivian Army Ending: Art's whole family and all of their friends are dead from suicide, as are most of the other people who were given suicide pills. Art, an eight-year-old boy, is left alone in a world where potentially the vast majority of the population, with the possible exception of "the poor and homeless people", are dead.
- Both Sides Have a Point: Art and Sophia are against giving up and committing suicide because it’s possible the governments/scientists could have got something wrong and the apocalypse is actually survivable, the others argue that they have no way to know if it is survivable and if they don’t commit suicide before it arrives they could all suffer agonising deaths while trying and failing to survive.
- Cosy Catastrophe: Deconstructed. The catastrophe presented is very cosy, complete with Christmas presents, nice food and sweets, sticky toffee puddings, and charades. However, Art rebels and rages against the cosiness.
- Cyanide Pill: The government has issued suicide pills for people who don't want to experience the climate apocalypse.
- Deliver Us from Evil: Discussed. Sophie is the only adult member of the family to have changed her mind about taking the pill, because she's pregnant and it would mean "killing" her baby. At the end, she does eventually (albeit very reluctantly) agree to take the pill, because James says he'll only kill himself if she does, too. And then the ending heavily implies they could have survived anyway.
- Died in Ignorance: Exaggerated in the closing minutes. Every single major character commits suicide before the poisonous gas rolls over and kills them excruciatingly. If they had only waited, they would've learned that it doesn't, and survived.
- Eagleland: Sophia is the only american among the otherwise british characters.
- Elephant in the Room: Most of the adults try to ignore or stop anyone from bringing up the fact that the world is ending.
- End of the World as We Know It: The friends gather together for a final Christmas party and have agreed to a suicide pact before an apocalyptic storm that is rapidly spreading across the earth reaches them.
- Everyone Went to School Together: All the friends did, even the married couple Simon and Nell. The only exceptions are James's young girlfriend Sophie and Bella's wife Alex.
- Face Death with Dignity: The central premise of the film is the whole cast trying to meet their demise as happily and peacefully as possible rather than trying and likely failing to survive. Only Art refuses to give in.
- Final Boy: Art.
- Gaia's Vengeance: The Earth is apparently punishing its inhabitants for climate change by releasing a poison cloud that will kill them all. But at the end, Art actually survives, which leaves it ambiguous if it was as homicidal as previously thought.
- Green Aesop: The source of the apocalypse is climate change, which has led to a cloud of poison gas wiping out humanity.
- Halfway Plot Switch: Although there's a lot of foreshadowing, the story shifts dramatically once Simon stops the argument about the death of old people at the Christmas table.
- Hands-Off Parenting: Since the world is ending in a matter of hours, Nell and Simon freely let their boys swear, play violent video games and gorge on junk food.
- Horror Doesn't Settle for Simple Tuesday: The poisonous gas seems to arrive the day after Christmas Day (Boxing Day in the UK), or actually at midnight on Christmas.
- Ignorance Is Bliss, Most of the adults deliberately avoid openly discussing the fact that the world is ending in order to not bring down the mood.
- Improbable Infant Survival: Zigzagged. Although all the other children die, including Nell and Simon's younger twins and Kitty, the child with the most focus, Art, appears to die from the poisonous gas before the final shot reveals that he actually survived.
- Instant Death Stab: Bella stabs Alex once in the side/ribs, and she falls down instantly dead in what seems to be less than a minute.
- Know When to Fold 'Em: Most the characters use this logic as their reasoning behind committing suicide rather than wait to be killed in the approaching storm.
- Mercy Kill: Bella stabs Alex after realizing that Alex has vomited up her suicide pill.
- My Secret Pregnancy: When James and Sophie arrive, it becomes clear to the others they are hiding something, it's soon revealed that Sophie is pregnant and because of this, she is undecided if she wants to join the suicide pact because it would kill her baby.
- Never My Fault: The adults sit the kids down to tell them that the end of the world (which is the result of climate change) is not their fault.
- Not Quite Dead: Art.
- Only Sane Man: Art and Sophia are the only two willing to openly talk about the fact that the world is ending and they are only ones who argue against the suicide pact.
- Pietà Plagiarism: Simon briefly cradles the apparently dead Art in the pieta position before moving him over so they can lie together to die.
- Queer Romance: One of the couples is Bella and her wife, Alex.
- Running Gagged: Sandra keeps pleading with her daughter Kitty to hug her. Kitty keeps refusing, but at the end of the movie, she hugs Sandra...as Sandra is dying from the cyanide pill, and Kitty herself will soon die.
- Sadistic Choice:
- The film opens with Simon releasing the family’s flock of chickens because Nell’s mother believes it is kinder to let them be killed off by predators than die in the approaching storm.
- Two sets of parents face the decision to give their children suicide pills in order to spare them a drawn-out, painful death. Another character discovers she's pregnant and her baby will die no matter what she chooses.
- Skewed Priorities: Ziggzagged, one the one hand Nell and Simon are okay with letting the kids swear and gorge on junk food, on the other they don't want the kids playing video games, watching television, going on the internet or looking at their phones, despite the fact that it will be their last night alive.
- Sir Swears-a-Lot: Art. Since the world is ending soon, his parents don't seem to mind him or the other boys being profane.
- Suicide Pact: Nell, Simon, and their guests have agreed to commit mass suicide after the dinner party.
- Shout-Out: Bella mentions watching The Road.
- Token Black Friend: Although Bella's wife Alex is also Black, all of the friends are white except for James.
- Trademark Favorite Food: Kitty's is sticky toffee pudding, to the point where her doting father steals it from the shop so she doesn't go without.
- Twisted Christmas: A Christmas party rapidly evolves into mass murder/suicide with the revelation that the apocalypse is coming.
- Wham Shot:
- The sight of Art's phone when he sees the "exit" website.
- The final shot of Art opening his eyes.
- While Rome Burns: While an apocalyptic storm is rapidly approaching, a family and their group of friends decide to get together to have a final Christmas party at a country house.
