Line #28 Film/TheDarkestMinds


1	[[quoteright:350:https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/thedarkestminds.jpg]]
2	[[caption-width-right:350:''"We don’t have to stay in darkness. We’ve survived all of this. I will fight for all of us."'']]
3	->''"Soon there wouldn’t be any kids anywhere. The government wasn’t afraid of what happened to the ones that didn’t make it. They were afraid of us, because the ones that survived changed."''
4	-->-- '''Ruby'''
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6	''The Darkest Minds'' is a 2018 American ScienceFiction film [[TheFilmOfTheBook based on]] Creator/AlexandraBracken's [[Literature/TheDarkestMinds novel of the same name]]. It is directed by Jennifer Yuh Nelson (director of ''WesternAnimation/KungFuPanda2'' and ''WesternAnimation/KungFuPanda3'') in her live-action directorial debut, and stars Creator/AmandlaStenberg, Music/MandyMoore, Creator/GwendolineChristie and Creator/HarrisDickinson.
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8	After a disease wipes out almost all of America's children, the survivors gain mysterious abilities and are placed in internment camps due to the government deeming them to be a threat.
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10	Ruby is a 16-year-old girl who survived the disease when she was 10, who by happenstance finds a group of teens who are in hiding from the government as well. They then work to reclaim their future and find others trying to survive in the process.
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12	The film was released on August 3, 2018 by Creator/TwentiethCenturyFox.
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14	'''Previews:''' [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tN8o_E_f9FQ Trailer 1]]
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16	!!''The Darkest Minds'' has examples of:
17	* AdaptationalHeroism: In the books, the Children's League turns out to be not very different from the government. Here though, while they still have a bad reputation, it's portrayed as false and they're heroes. [[spoiler: Ruby joins them at the end]].
18	* AdaptationalSuperpowerChange:
19	** Unlike in the books where there was no way to tell what color psi a person was unless they were seen using their powers, here the psis are depicted as having their eyes glow in the color of their government classification whenever their powers are used. Also the children who died from the IAAN virus also have their eyes glow similarly shortly before they die, which did not happen in the original novel. Possibly due to the RuleOfPerception, because if all Psis could be identified thus Ruby would have been killed years earlier.
20	** In the books Red psis can create and control fire, here this is changed to having them exclusively breathing fire from their mouths.
21	** In the books Yellow psi can generate and control electricity, with some who have difficulty controlling this ability causing minor electrical malfunctions or creating large bursts of electricity whenever they touch an electronic object. Here all [[AdaptationNameChange Gold]] psi seem to require electronic objects to channel their power through.
22	** Chubs is changed from being a Blue psi (being [[MindOverMatter telekinetic]]) in the books to a Green (having SuperIntelligence) psi here.
23	** Less of a change and more of a case of increased ability. By the end of the film, Ruby has the power to control people without first making physical contact and can control more than one mind at a time [[spoiler:skills she would gain in the second and third books, respectively]].
24	* AdaptationalVillainy: [[spoiler:Clancy was definitely a piece of work in the books, but here he's taken the place of his father in the books as the cause of ''all'' the government's atrocities, due to having mind-controlled enough of the government to be shown getting off Air Force One in the ending scenes. A soldier he's mind-controlled reports that his father is "still in your rubber room". Whereas the FallenStatesOfAmerica in the books is the result of internal and international {{Realpolitik}}, here it's because the country is being run by a [[TeensAreMonsters sociopathic teenage]] telepath]].
25	* AdvertisingByAssociation: The trailer and poster advertise the film as being from the producers of ''Series/StrangerThings'' and ''Film/{{Arrival}}''.
26	* AfterTheEnd: The film takes place after a disease has wiped out almost all the children in America.
27	* BigBad: President [[spoiler:Clancy]] Gray is the dictator of America behind the mass experimentation on psychic children.
28	* CuteMute: Zu, a pretty little girl who never speaks in the film. It's unclear if she can't, or simply won't. She is heard humming at least once, however.
29	* FaceOfAnAngelMindOfADemon: [[spoiler:Clancy]] looks like he could've been carved by Michelangelo, with dainty features and a proportioned built. Doesn't stop him from being [[spoiler:TheManBehindTheMan and a full-on sociopath]].
30	* FantasticRacism: The government puts any children with superpowers in internment camps.
31	* GlowingEyesOfDoom: Kids' eyes glow their respective colors when they use them, which in the case of Greens is the only way to show viewers that those powers are in use.
32	* InformedAttribute: The [[MindOverMatter Blues]] being somehow less dangerous than the [[ShockAndAwe Golds]], [[PlayingWithFire Reds]] or [[{{Telepathy}} Oranges]]. Telekinetics usually become PersonsOfMassDestruction in speculative works and [[spoiler:this universe is no exception. Liam even kills four Reds single-handedly and while still reeling from a NoHoldsBarredBeatdown]].
33	* PlayingWithFire: Some of the teenagers are able to create blasts of fire from their mouths.
34	* PowerIncontinence: Ruby has a hard time controlling her powers, and causes a lot of damage as a result.
35	* PragmaticAdaptation: Black Betty was changed from a small mini-van in the book to a much larger delivery van, so that the camera crew would be able to fit filming equipment inside it.
36	* PsychicAssistedSuicide: [[{{Telepathy}} Oranges]] have the ability to make people kill themselves or others. Ruby even uses it to [[spoiler: make a helicopter pilot perform a {{suicide attack}} against Clancy.]]
37	* ShoutOut: To Literature/WatershipDown. In the book the characters are reading it and directly talk about how it relates to their experiences. In the movie, Ruby reads to Zu from the book as a bedtime story, and the closing speech contains some lines from Frith's advice to El-Ahrairah.
38	* SupportingLeader: Although Ruby is TheHero, Liam is the one in charge of the main group.
39	* TrailersAlwaysSpoil: The trailer and several posters show Ruby's body disintegrating at several points, [[spoiler:which in the movie is a visual representation of Ruby erasing herself from a person's memory]]. This is made worse in that the trailer specifically shows a shot of this happening in front of [[spoiler:Liam]], which is one of the very last scenes of the film.
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41	->''♫ This is a revolution\
42	We're rising up\

Context Film / TheDarkestMinds