History Fridge / BirdBox

* In a similar story in the graphic novel ''Literature/{{Memetic}}'', the visual medium is only the first wave of attacks. What happens when the creatures run out of seeing victims? Would they launch a second wave?

* In a similar story in the graphic novel ''Literature/Memetic'', the visual medium is only the first wave of attacks. What happens when the creatures run out of seeing victims? Would they launch a second wave?

* In a similar story in the graphic novel Literature/Memetic, the visual medium is only the first wave of attacks. What happens when the creatures run out of seeing victims? Would they launch a second wave?

* Malorie saw the monsters and the ending is her fantasy. Malorie's whole character arc centers around her inability to connect with people and truly care about others. It could be argued that criminally insane people suffer from the same problem, which allows them to hurt others. When they see the monsters, they see "the most beautiful things" - including a world where they can hurt others with no repercussions. For Malorie, the most beautiful thing she could see was a safe place, with the kids surrounded by other children and trees, and with her finally able to connect [[spoiler: (and give them names)]]. The implausible appearance of [[spoiler: Dr. Lapham]] adds to this, as Malorie would dream up someone who could validate her success at connecting with her child.

* Malorie saw the monsters and the ending is her fantasy. Malorie's whole character arc centers around her inability to connect with people and truly care about others. It could be argued that criminally insane people suffer from the same problem, which allows them to hurt others. When they see the monsters, they see "the most beautiful things" - including a world where they can hurt others with no repercussions. For Malorie, the most beautiful thing she could see was a safe place, with the kids surrounded by other children and trees, and with her finally able to connect [[spoiler: (and give them names)]]. The implausible appearance of [[spoiler: Dr Lapham]] adds to this, as Malorie would dream up someone who could validate her success at connecting with her child.

* The creatures can be a metapher for the truth about oneself. When people look at them they see their true self and all their trauma reflected in them. In another words, the truth is so devastating, that they commit suicide to not admit to it or even allow to expand their perception of their reality.

* Tom and Olympia are both shown being able to [[HeroicWillpower resist killing themselves for a short time after viewing the creatures]]; Olympia hangs on long enough to hand her newborn daughter to Malorie and Tom manages to kill the last of the fanatics before turning his gun on himself. So does this mean that every person who sees the creatures is FightingFromTheInside? Imagine finding yourself [[AndIMustScream trapped in your own body, watching helplessly as you prepare to take your own life.]]

*** Children without any trauma would accept the creatures for what they are, without any effect on their psyche. The idea is, that these creatures bring forth all rejected trauma back to the surface, which causes a strong emotion to reject oneself, due the unwillingness to feel them. The mentally ill can cope with them, because they are already dealing with their trauma on a daily basis, but have the willpower to keep on living.

* The creatures can be a metapher for the truth about oneself. When people look at them they see their true self and all their traumata reflected in them. In another words, the truth is so devastating, that they commit suicide to not admit to it or even allow to expand their perception of their reality.

** In the same vein, the movie invites the viewer to consider just what would happen to a newborn infant who saw one if their parents didn't. We never find out, but given the inability of a child that young to effectively kill theirself and the fact that all of their real mental development is ahead of them, it's difficult to imagine just how differently they would develop with that unremembered image in the back of their mind. It's also difficult to imagine that the direction they took would be good.
*** Childs without any traumata would accept the creatures for what they are, without any effect on their psyche. The idea is, that these creatures bring forth all rejected traumata back to the surface, which causes a strong emotion to reject oneself, due the unwillingness to feel them. The mentally ill can cope with them, because they are already dealing with their traumata on a daily basis, but have the willpower to keep on living.

** Except if these humans learn to be authentic and instead of rejecting their traumata, they start to feel and resolve them in the process.

* If dogs can be affected by the creatures, what about other animals? Many species would be entirely wiped out, and it will affect many of Earth's ecosystems.

* Despite the relief at the end, humanity is still screwed. They really have no way to combat the things, so the future is at best a few isolated groups of humans hiding inside forever.

** In the same vein, the movie invites the viewer to consider just what would happen to a newborn infant who saw one if their parents didn't. We never find out, but given the inability of a child that young to effectively kill theirself and their mental plasticity, it's difficult to imagine just how differently they would develop with that unremembered image in the back of their mind. It's also difficult to imagine that the direction they took would be good.

* We never find out, nor is it considered by the characters, what would happen if you physically restrained someone from committing suicide after they'd seen the creatures? Would they snap out of it after being brought back to safety, or are they forever doomed to keep trying to kill themselves?

* The title symbolically relates to the main action of the book: the children "leaving their nest" for the first time and taking a major step in learning how to function on their own.

** Companionship is valuable in a world where the human population is dwindling quickly and the remaining humans are isolated from each other in order to survive.

*** It's not a big stretch to imagine someone there with sight has a degree of familiarity with training guide dogs. A member of staff, a friend of a staffer or student, a professional colleague who realized it would be either a good place to seek a community or felt obliged to help. Or even someone familiar with dog handling in general, and learning the specifics from information in the school and people who are taking refuge there. We've used dogs this way for hundreds of years, so even if modern training techniques aren't something we can continue we can probably get them trained well enough.

*** It's not a big stretch to imagine someone there with sight has a degree of familiarity with training guide dogs. A member of staff, a friend of a staffer or student, a professional colleague who realized it would be either a good place to seek a community or felt obliged to help. Or even someone familiar with dog handling in general, and learning the specifics from information in the school and people who are taking refuge there. We've used dogs this way for hundreds of years, so even if modern training techniques aren't something we can continue we can probably get them trained well enough.

*** The question posed by the OP is not about why people would use guide dogs; rather, they are questioning how anyone could possibly train them in the first place when they (the people) are unable to see.

*** The question posed by the OP seems to not be about why people would use guide dogs; rather, they are questioning how anyone could possibly train them in the first place when they (the people) are unable to see.

*** The OP’s question doesn’t seem to be about why people would use guide dogs: it’s about how anyone could possibly train them in the first place when they (the people) can’t see.

** On the contrary, a seeing-eye dog would be an incredibly valued companion in a world where most humans can't safely see the world around them. Training new seeing-eye dogs would be a major benefit to a community. From what we see, humans are the only animals we know of that are affected.

FridgeLogic:

Why do they still have guide dogs in the future? They typically only last for 6-7 years, and it's not like anyone would be training them after the apocalypse. The two seen at the end of the movie must have been trained right before the apocalypse, and even then they would be pretty old by dog standards.