Five years after Bird Box was a huge hit, notably with the movie becoming one of Netflix’s biggest debuts of all time and the viral Bird Box Challenge, another movie set in the world is here. Bird Box Barcelona, a spinoff that has been in the works since 2021, explores the dystopian concept in another location and follows a whole new set of characters. Now that the movie is officially new on Netflix, it’s time to get into SPOILERS about the big answers we learn about the monsters and the “seers” this time around.
Bird Box Barcelona begins by following two survivors, Sebastián and Anna, a father and daughter who appear to be sticking together as they move through an apocalyptic world where using one’s eyes in daylight leads people to suicide. However, there’s an early twist that really sets it apart from the story Sandra Bullock’s character told in the original movie. Blindfolds off, we’re going to shed light on the subject.
Who Are The Monsters In Bird Box Barcelona?
First off, let’s talk about Bird Box Barcelona’s concept. Much like the 2019 movie, the spinoff sees a world where invisible monsters have sent humanity into hiding and rocking blindfolds wherever they go because if they open their eyes outside, they will be inspired to kill themselves. As the movie illustrates, the creatures seem to be supernatural, almost demonic entities because of their ability to reach in ones deepest fears and taunt people with it in order to get them to take off their blindfolds and commit suicide. However, in Bird Box Barcelona, the movie delves deeply into a segment of people who do not instantly die when they open their eyes. We’ll get into that now, in the next section.
Who Are Seers In Bird Box Barcelona?
As Bird Box Barcelona builds upon with its main character, Sebastián, not everyone who gets exposed to these monsters will die right away. The early twist in the movie is that his daughter Anna is not alive, but more so a projection of his loss from the monsters using him to inspire more humans to die at the hands of them by exploiting his deep grief. Throughout the movie, Anna is whispering in her father’s ear to get the other people around him to open their eyes to the dark fate, and has him thinking that the monsters are actually angels rather than demonic beings.
As the movie progresses, we learn that Sebastián is one of a handful of people who can see without dying right away, called “seers”. In fact, there’s a group of them led by a priest who hunts down other people and forcibly makes them open their eyes in the light in order to be saved by God. The religious group is brainwashed by the monsters and being used by them to wipe out more of humanity.
How Does One Become A Seer?
At the end of the thrilling horror movie, we learn about how Sebastián and the others may have become seers. This comes to light when the two survivors who rolled with Sebastián throughout the movie, Claire and Sofia, finally reach safety together when they enter some kind of military-run bunker where tests are run on them, which Claire questions.
What we then learn is that the military is making sure seers don’t get in their sanctuary by testing their blood. Apparently, they’ve found that emotional trauma can change one’s DNA and therein one’s blood. It’s referred to as “epigenetic alterations” which is a heritable change that does not affect the DNA sequence but results in a change in gene expression. So, the belief is that some people with those specific trauma markers in their blood could be exposed to the monsters and become immune to killing themselves, therefore turning to seers.
What Is The Significance Of Anna In Bird Box Barcelona?
Let’s take a step back for one moment and talk about Sebastián’s daughter Anna and why her role in the movie really plays into Bird Box Barcelona’s ending. Throughout the movie, Sebastián is clearly going through the grief associated with losing his daughter (and his wife) and listening to the projection. He sees her as an angel calling to him from the other side, even though she is a vessel for the monsters, in order to have a piece of her left in his life. He’s a seer, but even if the monsters don’t get him to kill himself they are getting through to him in destructive ways for the world.
By the third act of the movie, Sebastián realizes that in his grief, it was creating this believe that he was “chosen” to help what he thought were angels, but he was aiding and abetting the death of multiple people. With the help of Claire and Sofia, Sebastián pushes through his grief and lets Anna go by no longer listening to the monsters. With that epiphany, he does everything in his power to help Claire and Sofia get to safety, dying in the process of stopping the priest and the other seers from getting to them.
What Does The Ending Mean For The Dystopian World?
That brings us to the final moments of Bird Box Barcelona. Once Claire learns of the reasons why seers exist, we then see that the military is pumping blood out of a seer and giving it to rats to see if they can create a cure through animal testing. The credits roll before we see if the rats lived or died, but the scene goes to show that humanity always looks for ways to survive and adapt to major threats. The ending builds upon how different DNA can affect the reaction to these monsters, while also showing how the monsters cleverly have adapted as well to those who don’t kill themselves off the bat. The ending brings some hope to the Bird Box dystopia, while also building on the evolution of the Bird Box world.
But, at the same time, real talk, the reasoning for the whole thing doesn't really make sense. It’s suggested that because Sebastián was dealing with the grief of his daughter (along with his wife), he became a seer, but I imagine just about everyone in that world is losing people close to them left and right and dealing with a great deal of trauma, loss and violence on a daily basis living in that world. Bird Box Barcelona may not make all the sense, hence critics’ mixed feelings on the movie, but it’s an entertaining way to build the world and discuss some deep themes through a horror concept.
