That's a Wrap // The Girl with All the Gifts

SPEAKER_00 0:25

Hi, I'm Dahlia. And I'm Alma. Welcome to the Gory Details podcast, where we discuss horror from every angle. We break it down with humor, sarcasm, and curiosity, looking at what scares and excites us most, what gets ignored, and the people shaping the genre right now. Speaking of people shaping the genre, this is my beautiful co-host, Alma. Alma, what have you been up to this week? I know you've been telling me that you've gotten this uh this shopping bug going on right now.

SPEAKER_01 0:54

Yes, I'm addicted to shopping for little things. And I I'm not lying. I spent the whole day yesterday. And I think Friday going out. I went to three different spirit Halloweens because I'm looking for a specific teddy bear and I can't get it anywhere. Wait, okay, tell me more. I also had to peek in Target. I know I should be going in there, but I didn't get anything. And um just because I'm looking for collector things. Like and I have a major, it feels like Chucky is everywhere right now. And he's my favorite, you know that. Yes. And so I can't stop myself from looking for these tiny things. Or I got that. Do you see that big one next to the TV behind me?

SPEAKER_00 1:47

Yes, yes.

SPEAKER_01 1:48

I got him new, and I I don't remember where I found him at. Oh, at a random toy store. At a toy store, um, Big Boys in um in Edinburgh. And so I think it's Edinburgh. Uh it's one of the cities down here, but I go in there frequently and I look for stuff. But also, I've been looking for these little bag clips. These little bags. This is McCritty. Oh yeah, so um I bought six of these so I could find the Chucky one, and I found Chucky. Chucky's on my backpack right now. So I did win him, and this one was another good find. But I have all of these little bag clips because they're blind bags, and I was just about to buy more. Yeah, so I've got duplicates of a couple of them, but I was basically looking for Chucky and I found him. And then at five below, they had um these little blind boxes that come in little yellow boxes, and I found uh a Chucky, a Tiffany, and a Glendal. So yay! Oh my god. I did really good with those. But I absolutely love to open the little packages of things. It's addicting. It's like I need to stop it. I just can't help myself. Please, somebody, where do you get them? From different places. Um, wherever I see videos from on TikTok, honestly, if they say go to Ross, I'm gonna go to Ross. If they say go TJ Maxx, I go to TJ Maxx. And it's random places. And five below is one of my favorite ones to go to because it's cheap. And if you're looking for blind bags, then you can get more of them because they're like three to five dollars each, you know? And so I can't help it. I can't help it. So I need to.

SPEAKER_00 3:40

You got your you got your what you wanted. Yeah, it sounds like you found, but you didn't find the the big teddy bear thing.

SPEAKER_01 3:50

No, I didn't find the big teddy bear. I'm I'm I'm just gonna keep going back to Spirit Halloween and checking. I went to the same one in Harlingen two times yesterday because they said they were gonna get a shipment and when they when they got the shipment, they didn't have any teddy bears. Oh they didn't have any. But I need to have I need to have the ghost face one. I need the ghost face one. Can you order it online or what's going on? It's um not available. Like every time I've checked, they're out of stock. So maybe they're in stock right now, but I'll keep checking. I'll keep checking back. You know, it's not that big a deal. Not that big a deal.

SPEAKER_00 4:27

Well, we get it. It's it's only now August, so we got plenty of time, plenty of time for you to get your um. I know you're not shopping for Halloween, but you got plenty of time to get it before Halloween. Yes, from spirit. Uh-huh. Yes, I do.

SPEAKER_01 4:45

So that that's just me to us. Right.

SPEAKER_00 4:48

It sounds like it sounds like she's having a a much, much more interesting time than I am. I've just been working and doing pretty much nothing. And again, always vicariously living through my sister's uh uh shopping, uh collecting, her collecting, not her shopping. Um, but anyways, so this week we're back to zombies. Well, zombies. It's kind of we'll we'll talk about it a little bit more. So this month we are talking about zombies. We've discussed uh the return of the living dead, we bury the dead, warm zombies. Oh, I did it again, warm bodies, and then this week is what movie, Alma? The girl with all the gifts. Yeah. So this is a oh, I forgot to update my spreadsheet here, but this is uh 2016, yeah, 2016 uh movie based on a book. Again, based on a book. We did this this like the second or no, it's the second time we've done this. Yeah. It's by the same name. This is interesting because this book and this uh screenplay were written around the same time. So by the same person, the same author wrote the screenplay, and that was, I thought, uh, I'm not a writer, so I don't know how hard that is, but that sounds extremely hard to me. How can you be writing two very different stories, but same stories at the same time for two different uh uh media, and then come up with these two different stories because that's what I'm reading, anyways. I did not read the book, obviously. So this is uh The Girl with All the Gifts 2016, based on the book, like I said, and on Rotten Tomatoes, it is 86%. 86%. We've been doing really good with picking movies. I say we, I haven't been picking the movies, um but uh yeah. With picking movies that are scoring really well on Rotten Tomatoes. So yeah, these are uh I I I agree. I'm just gonna say it right off the bat, real quick. I agree this was a this was a good one. Um go ahead.

SPEAKER_01 7:14

No, I'll just say, well, I'm glad.

SPEAKER_00 7:16

Yeah, yeah. It was a good one because I I had uh it's been in my brain to watch this movie for a while. I just haven't gotten around to it. So this was a perfect excuse when Alma said, let's do this movie this week, and I'm like, yeah, let's do it. We ran with it, and it's it was, yeah, let's get into it. IMDB describes it as a scientist and a teacher living in a dystopian future embark on a journey of survival with a special young girl named Melanie. I didn't like this uh description. I saw some other ones that were better, but I always read the IMDB one because usually uh IMDB has been doing pretty good with describing the movie really well. If I had read this, it it it sounds different than what I actually saw. But anyway, speaking of IMDB, Alma, who wrote, who directed, who's in this movie? Tell me all the good stuff.

SPEAKER_01 8:04

It was written by Mike Carey, uh directed by Comb McCarthy. Um Senia Nanua is playing uh Melanie. Uh Fasayo Akinade plays Kieran Gallagher. Uh Patty Considine is playing Sergeant Eddie Parks. Gemma, or is it Gemma? I always get that confused. Gemma. Arderton plays Helen Justinow and Glenn Close plays Dr. Caroline Caldwell.

SPEAKER_00 8:35

And that was a very uh it's a very small core cast, but of course there's lots of people in this because we have all the uh the supporting cast in the beginning when they're on the base, and then all the of course the hungries as they call them. They call the zombies hungries. Um, and we'll get more into that as why they're they are not zombies. I don't know, we'll discuss. All right, so this movie is based, like I said, on the book. I wish I had read the book now. I say that like my days are done. I can still read the book.

SPEAKER_01 9:09

You can read the book. I bought the book, I bought it, so I can read it too because I've seen it, I've seen the movie before. And um, and then I was like, you know what? I got this book. Let me read this book. So I haven't read it yet, but um I plan on it because this is the second time I've seen the movie. And after the first time, I was like, oh, I'm gonna go buy the book, and I didn't, and so now I have it and I have no excuse.

SPEAKER_00 9:35

Well, I also like the fact that it's written by the same person, so they're like taking two different ideas of what they wanted to do with this story and went with it. Although I did read that the ending is faithful to the book. So yeah. Anyways, uh again, spoilers galore, people. We talk about movies, we're gonna get into all the discussion about everything, spoiling everything. So let's start off with the I keep talking about how are they zombies. They call them hungries. So in the sense of movies um in zombie movies, this is an infection. So I am a fan of infection movies because you can have a little bit more, I think you could do a little bit more with the with them. And in this case, I think they did a really, really interesting job of talking about the evolution of these uh of this infection. Um the children are the ones that are going to be the next evolutionary step of these uh of the infection of the zombies of the hungries. And I know kids and in general in zombie movies, they're just kind of always kind of pushed to the side, or they just might be used as a shock scare, or shock scare. I can't even talk this morning, um, just as a jump scare or something. But in this one, it's all about the kids. It is all about the kids. All right, so the movie begins with we already know that these kids are somehow special, somehow. I guess is the best way to just jump right into it. They're yes, they're different. Yeah, they're being held they're being held captive. They're prisoners is what they are.

SPEAKER_01 11:43

Yeah, but little prisoners in little orange suits.

SPEAKER_00 11:46

Yeah, and they are being um studied, right? I mean, that's yeah, they're being studied. We don't know why, but we kind of get the an idea why. We're watching we're watching a zombie flick, so we kind of have an idea that these kids are not probably as innocent as they look. Although uh, you know, who's innocent? Who's not innocent in this movie? I think everybody's kind of like uh just trying to survive. Not I think everybody is just trying to survive. And um, that includes the infection. The infection is in the children. Um and uh so we're on a military base and they are being, I don't know, I I guess probably what, 30-ish kids, maybe less, maybe more?

SPEAKER_01 12:38

Yeah, I think so. Uh there there's not very many of them, and they also go to a classroom where it's numbered. I don't think it goes past 20. But I think they have I don't think that that's exactly how many they have.

SPEAKER_00 12:52

No, no, no. But I mean for this this group, I'm just trying to get a sense of idea of how they are doing the actual experimentation because this is one base. Are there more bases out there that are doing this? And how many are they uh how many do they hold? How many are they uh um studying? How many did they start with? Because as we go on, we find out that, you know, they're eliminating the kids as they study them. I mean, it's just straight up. They're like they're experimenting on these kids. Um they're kids. I don't know. I'm sorry. I I'm just gonna keep fixating on that because this would really kinda it's a really, really good movie, but it really kind of uh it really kind of messed with my head a little bit because they are um they're kids. Yeah, they're just children. They're just they're just children. We little we little lads. And so we're guessing that they're probably see the actress was I think they said 12, 13 years old when she filmed this. How old were they was this supposed were they supposed to be in the movie? Do you know? No, no clue. Okay, so let's say it was it's about the same time period, 12, 13 years have passed since I guess the beginning of this infection starting, and um they're still trying to figure out what's going on. And we do know it's an infection of uh fungus, a fungus of some sort has uh Yeah, I know. It's like it it's kind of based on a not based, but it is the idea gotten from there is an ant that is they call it, I think it's a zombie ant or something like that, that gets infected by uh fungal spores the same way.

SPEAKER_01 14:53

And oh yes, that gets infected and then oh, and then it gets taken over by it. That's really messed up.

SPEAKER_00 15:00

So I mean it is it is a little bit obviously this is a little bit more far-reaching, a little bit more, I say. It's more far-reaching than that.

SPEAKER_01 15:09

But um yeah, so there are a lot of similarities, well, not a lot, but similarities between this and The Last of Us, the PS4 game or PS game.

SPEAKER_00 15:22

I did read that. I did read that. So you'll have to tell me about that because I haven't uh I don't know much about it.

SPEAKER_01 15:29

I only know the game through videos and people playing them. Like I watched some videos of people playing it, and uh, I just wanted to get a little background before I watch the television show The Last of Us. But in The Last of Us, it's also a fungal infection that gets spread um amongst the people and turns them into zombies. Now, the kids and everything, of course, they all change too, but there is a girl in it that is immune to the bites and the the fungal infection itself, and they're trying to capture her so that they can um tick her brain and use it as a to help find a cure for for everybody. So that's kind of the same thing. Here we're seeing similarities because they're keeping them all, and the doctor um she is uh really close to finding a cure. I guess that's how you it would be a cure, right?

SPEAKER_00 16:30

Or vaccine. A vaccine cure, same thing. Uh it's not technically the same thing, but it's it's the same thing. I know what you're talking about. Uh-huh. Um it is uh Dr. Caldwell, yeah. To protect them versus curing them. Um and that is uh that I think is the part where I think this movie does it so well because you get movies where they capture, I mean, in general in horror movies, they capture like the monster, this the zombie, this case is gonna be the kids, but in this case it's kids. They're like you're looking at them, everybody's looking at them differently. Uh, we have the doctor who's looking at them as the possible uh savior uh or cure for humanity, but not as like people, but as a thing that could cure and help humanity, and then we have all the military personnel who are on guard because they are keeping these children who captive who are essentially infected, they are infected, and then they're also protecting the base from all the other hungries out there that are pretty violent. They got the kids under control because they have them, they can tie them up, they can um they're controlling everything about them, they're they're they're basically kind of training them, they're doing everything to keep them under control, but they're still a threat. And that threat is also outside trying to come into the base. So you have it on both sides, and it kind of happens really quick in the beginning, even though it seemed like you know, um, we were we were getting set up really well in the beginning, showing us how you know what the routine is with the kids. The kids um they they get taught by a teacher, they get uh, they get, like I said, guarded, um, they get experimented on all of this stuff. But then we have an invasion of the infected come onto the base and kind of kick off the whole thing where they have to leave the base and they're out there. And it's just uh I keep calling I I I haven't even referred to her as name by her name. It's Melanie, right? The little girl. The little girl, yeah. Yeah. The little girl Melanie, and she is a um not only is she a beacon of hope for the doctor, but she's also like just a child that is learning and curious, and she's so smart, and she's just absorbing all this knowledge that they're giving her. But at the end of the day, again, she is this new evolutionary uh thing in the zombie strain or the hungry strain or the whatever you want to call it. Um she's got this DNA in her that is telling her how to survive. And even though she is human, this like we all know, uh, viruses or or bacteria or whatever want to survive, and they survive by just killing all the people around them, right? Because that's their sustenance, that's their food. Um, and they thrive off of these senses of smell. And so that brings into play this weird stuff that they they don't really ever show it, but I I imagine it probably smells freaky. Um, this ointment or hand sanitizer. Uh whatever it is that they put on themselves, they they use it to mask their scent because that's what these uh hungries, you know, they smell the people and that's how they know that they're you know, their food. So they put this hand sanitizer stuff, Almost says this blocker, on themselves to block the smell. And um, yeah, I was wondering in the beginning, like how are they not, you know, attacking them at first, but it's because they're putting on, I would imagine it gets annoying to have to constantly slather this stuff all over you. And there is uh the element of that it washes off, so you're still gonna smell like a human, like food to these hungries. I'm getting ahead of myself because that's gonna all come into play more later on. But anyways, Alma. So we have the base that gets invaded, we get uh one, two soldiers that uh survive this core group.

SPEAKER_01 21:40

Two the Sergeant Parks, which was the older one, and then we had um uh Kieran. Kieran was a friend of hers. Well, a friend of Melanie's. Melanie uh thinks of these people as her friends and she likes them, and that's what's supposed to make her stand out or stick out of the world. Little from everybody else. She escapes because she was going to be already dissected. She was already in line to be dissected. And she uh gets free with the whole base coming down. And the zombies are the hungries. They're really fast, but not fast like superhuman. They just run. They're the running kind of zombies. They're the kind of zombies that you don't want around. They're kind of dormant when they're not doing anything. They huddle together like in mass, but they don't move in mass. They stand around in mass until something uh, you know, piques their interest or whatever, or whatever they might smell, then they go start chasing after them. But this base is overrun pretty quickly here in the beginning. And it seemed like really quickly, they establish all the what they're doing, what they're trying to get done, and then the base is overrun. So um she helps get the her favorite teacher, Miss Justinel. Justinot, I cannot pronounce that, but um, she gets her loose along with the Dr. Caldwell, um, the sergeant, and Kieran. So they all get into one of those big heavy army militarized trucks and they get off base, and then they're basically held up somewhere, right?

SPEAKER_00 23:27

Like they find somewhere to go. They find somewhere to go because they are trying to get to another base or another holding station so that they can bring this little girl, Melanie, who is the again, the beacon of hope for this scientist, uh Glenn Close. So I have to mention that a little bit of trivia here is that I guess it was Glen Close's sister-in-law, is a huge fan of zombies and was able to play one of the hungries in this movie. Um, I already forget which one it was, though. But I thought that was kind of cool. You know, it's like, oh, you know, you have this uh very famous actress in-law, and it's the zombie movie that you probably are like so most excited about. Ah, yeah, I get to mean that's pretty cool. That's pretty cool.

SPEAKER_01 24:33

Like you, that she wanted to be a zombie. You can be a zombie still.

SPEAKER_00 24:36

Yeah. So we have them trying to manage and survive through these hordes of zombies. I I'm saying zombies, zombies, because it sounds weird for me to say hungries, but they are they are making their way through London, which was another interesting bit about the filming. They used drones to film over Chernobyl and like certain like areas of Chernobyl to get like that uh apocalyptic, which sadly it, you know, we have some reality here on Earth. But they wanted to use that footage and they overlaid it obviously with uh uh scenes of London and stuff like that to make it look more like, you know, it was London. But I just found it interesting because as I'm watching it and I'm watching them drive through or walk through these neighborhoods and everything, I'm thinking like, how long has time passed? What has happened to these buildings? Um, because it's one thing I always think about. Like, I remember I think it was The Walking Dead at first. When I first started watching it, I noticed how all the the lawn seem so well manicured still. It's like, um, how much time has passed and how who's out here mowing these lawns? But in this case, it was a little bit more realistic that shit starts to go, you know, things start to look bad after a few years. And in this case, it was the urban, uh, the urban centers being overgrown by um, you know, by plant life. And in this case, because it was a fungus, maybe that had a lot to do with the the way it was being spread throughout the the city um itself, not just the people. Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 26:35

Are the are the zombies dead?

SPEAKER_00 26:38

No. Or are they just infected people? I don't think they're dead. That's my opinion. I don't, I don't know. Do they do they outright say it? Maybe they do, and I missed it because I was like so busy watching other things. Um maybe on my second or third time around, I'll pick up more. But when I'm looking at it, I see them getting bit. And then when they get bit, they change. And that is the same way that it happens with that ant that I was telling you about when it gets infected with the spores of the of the fungi, um, and they start to convulse and then they turn. Apparently, that's what happens with the with the ant as well. And I'm just like, this is creepy. Why are this is just too, this is why this movie really got under. I've already had a weird week to begin with. And then this movie just it just really messes with your head. They know it's coming too. Once they're bit, the people know that they're gonna turn. That's the other thing, too. And they know what they're gonna turn into, and there's no stopping it because I guess like we said in the beginning, they're trying to find the cure or the vaccine or whatever. And um it doesn't happen right away for some, because I know for some of them it did. And then we have someone like um, oh gosh, who was it that it took a bit of time for him to turn? Oh, there's the sergeant at the very end. He got bit and it took a bit, he get he inhaled. He didn't get bit. He inhaled the spores. That's right. So it took him a while. So maybe it's it's the method of of of uh of how they they get it. But either way, they know it's coming because the the ones that we saw turning knew it was coming, and that's I think that's the part that makes it very quintessential zombie when you know that you're gonna get you're gonna turn. And that's just right there. That makes my heart go like just beat like a mile a minute because you that's so scary. You're you're gonna have no control over your own destiny at that point, unless you can get killed before it happens.

SPEAKER_01 29:02

If I could add another little story from the movie, a little story from the movie, um just to add the time frame because you brought it up earlier. They're the little kids are the time frame for how long this has been going on. Because at least their length of their lives, they the world has been this way. So, because they were found as newborns. And so, yeah, so we had them found as teeny tiny uh hungries, but they immediately noticed something was different about them, that they retained their human looks, they didn't get covered in the in the fungus like the other ones did. They didn't run and chase after them. Well, obviously they were newborns, but um they communicate and they learned, they're still learning, so they started to live symbiotically with the with the fungus inside of their brains, which they show a brain from one of the children, and it's covered with that fungus that's definitely gotten gotten it. So the doctor's right, she does not treat these kids like kids, she's treating them like subjects, but subjects that are very important. She's not trying to be cruel or anything like that. She's trying to help the rest of humanity, and these children really aren't. Um, you know, they're different enough that they're hopefully hoping to get what they need from them. Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 30:34

So how they came about is also very interesting because it's a very, I mean, if you think about it, if you're going to be creating this zombie verse, this zombie universe, and you want to talk about all the things that could possibly happen, and in this case, it's these spores or it's being spread by this fungi. And um you have people that are pregnant that are getting infected while their babies are growing in utero, and then you would expect some kind of um I wouldn't say I I I accidentally said almost accidentally said transformation, but it's not a transformation. It's like just they're they're uh they're evolving, yes, but they're surviving, they're learning how to survive with this infection. And babies are really resilient like that, you know. Um so many things can make a pregnancy go wonky and so many other things. It's amazing how a baby can fucking thrive and grow through all the shit that it's going through. And that's what these babies did when they were in utero. They got infected and then they fucking end up eating their host, basically their parents, their moms.

SPEAKER_02 31:59

Eating their way out.

SPEAKER_00 32:01

So that's how they were they were found. That's how they knew that they were special. They had these little babies who had eaten their way out of their their uh their their host, their parent there, and then they saw something unique there and were able to, I say train the kids because the kids every morning they had to get themselves up and get themselves in that restraint before they get they leave the room. The they have a routine, they come by, the guards come by, they wake up all the kids, the kids get up, they get into their little wheelchair of restraint, and they get ready to get buckled in. So they're being trained from the moment that they were babies all the way through to whatever this is 12, 13 years later. And even though they are have this uh hunger, what are they feeding them? Bugs. But that's it. I mean, I saw I saw that one I saw that one time, but what else could they possibly be feeding them?

SPEAKER_01 33:11

I just like I guess if they find animals, they would they would feed animals to them. But right now, right now, um, during the the only time they really show her eating other than a cat, um, they only showed her eating bugs. So Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 33:29

Yeah. I I was just curious because I I that's another thing I was thinking about throughout the whole movie. It's like, what are they feeding them this whole time? Because I we saw the bugs that one time, but I can't imagine that they're actually surviving off. Yeah, they have to eat and they're growing. They're yeah, they're growing kids. Kids need a lot of calories. They and uh they they're trying to keep them alive. That's why I'm wondering if they keep the population down. Uh if this is the only place where they're experimenting on the kids. Because I you can't imagine that this is the only place they've discovered these kids and everything like that. Because if you think about it, all the pregnant people in the world during the when the infection happened, there had to be pockets of this, of these surviving children or these surviving babies. And then they had to be, you know, other uh they talk about other bases and stuff like that. But anyways, what I'm trying to say is that they it I think they would keep the number purposefully down to a manageable few. That's why I almost said 20. I thought it was me, you know, I thought it was more, but I'm not very good at guesstimating that anyways. Um, and uh we have them being controlled by routine every day. The routine is they get up, they go to school. I don't know honestly why they're even teaching them so much. I get that it's part of the seeing how much they learn and how much they mimic and stuff like that because they talk about it. But they're really teaching them like I thought, like some high-level sciences and shit like that. I'm like, why the fuck are you teaching them this kind of stuff if you're afraid of them? Yeah, you're eventually planning on experimenting on them and dissecting them and all that, but at the end of the day, you're still giving them all this knowledge. So I think something we need to learn there. Don't give your enemies so much knowledge. Yeah, keep them dumb. I know I it's it's sad that I I I uh I describe them as enemies, but that's what they is. That's that's what they're looking at them as.

SPEAKER_01 35:47

They are. Sorry, go ahead. They keep trying to prove to Miss Justineau that she needs to think of them as the enemy, too. And she just won't listen because of the way that she's interacted with the students and the way that this special Melanie is um showing repeatedly that she thinks she's even more special than the other ones. Well, I think she is. She is. They they get away off the base, like a little teacher's pet. Um yeah, yeah. She's smart and she trying her, she's likes the soldiers. She thinks of them as friends, she sees them every day. Um, and that's why she liked the Kieran so much, um, the one soldier. And she was always really nice to the sergeant, but he was kind of mean and and not mean, like he didn't go out of his way to be mean or anything, but he was very, very, you have to understand that these guys are not our friends, yeah. And just trying to make Melanie understand too by action um that she is she's different, and she's different in a bad way. Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 37:02

But in a bad way. Well, it I mean, yeah. I mean, again, I know we're talking about kids here. We're talking about uh it's kind of hard because you do get to, at least I did, I I get to um you you you grow attached to like Melanie in this case, and you see what she is, you know, she's the girl with all the gifts. She has empathy, she has curiosity, she has intelligence, she has a connection to the the humans, and she has a connection to this infection. Um, and she has even though she may not know and be able to form into words, at least I don't think she can, because later on, you know, we kind of get an idea that she can't. She knows that the future is for this infection to survive versus humanity. And that's I think the part that is really just really dangerous to put in the hands of a well, in in this case it's the children that it can be um what's the word I'm looking for? They're straddling both sides of the of the spectrum here. They are uh on the side of the infection, and then they're also human. So they're they have the benefits of both sides playing with it, playing on their side, or you know what I mean. I'm not using the correct words here, but um so they have both sides that are wanting to survive, they are going to thrive in this atmosphere as uh being able to grab this knowledge, use it from the sources that were giving it to them, and then plus they have this biological uh propensity to move forward like all infections do. They find a way to survive. And that's what you know Melanie's doing. She doesn't know how or why, because she's constantly asking questions like, why this, why that? She's very curious. She's I remember one time she asks, um, why, why are you using that type of bullet? And um, she keeps, you know, asking the question, why, why, why, until she gets the full answer out of the sergeant. And when the sergeant gives it to her, she's like very thankful, like, okay. So she may not know why she wants all this knowledge, but it's like in her uh it's part of her DNA as a as this infection to like accumulate this knowledge and to grow and to use it to her advantage. And so I don't know. I just I find the fact that the writer was able to put in all these little pieces into the story in many different ways. I find it fascinating because yeah, you do want a uh you do want the humans, I guess, to exist and to survive and everything at the end. But at the same time, you have to take the biological component of the these the the disinfection is going to spread regardless. It's we can't destroy it. So what are we gonna do with it? We're gonna make it evolve with the children who survived as part fungi, part fungus and part human. Okay, so they're out in London, they're doing their thing, they're trying to survive. Uh, we have little Melanie who uh is sometimes leading the way for them because she has this gift of being on both sides of the world and she can smell things out, she can she has this uh intuition that's uh another thing she's got going for her as far as like the connection to the to this uh um to the infection. And um, I know I keep saying infection because I don't know what else to call it. Sorry. Um yeah, infection. Infection sounds right. Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 41:17

They definitely are infected, the infected.

SPEAKER_00 41:19

Yeah. So she's able to lead them through the city, and but there comes a point where they meet up, they meet up, like it's a like a like a night out on the town. They meet up with some other little kid hungries, some Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 41:37

Well, what happens is they send Kieran out to go look for supplies. He stumbles upon some random food while rummaging through stuff, but then eventually it's almost like it is a trap. He follows um like some canned goods. It was very obviously a trap, too. Come on.

SPEAKER_00 41:57

It wasn't like a piece of candy.

SPEAKER_01 41:59

He follows up like, oh, yes, yes, yeah, a piece of can. That's exactly what it was like. It was like, ooh, a cat of food. Ooh, a cat of food. And then he ends up inside what looks like a dis uh disused um um shopping center, like it's full of food. It's like a grocery store. There you go. I couldn't think of the word for grocery store. I love that. Um and then they the little kid is there with a rat in their hand. So this is where Kieran encounters one of the kids that he's used to dealing with, except this is on the outside. This is a feral child, and he's trying to make language with something that doesn't know his language or anything. And he um he's just trying to get out of the situation, knows he's in trouble, and more kids show up. More kids show up, and when it comes down to it, he was gonna have to hurt the children and kill himself or or not, and he couldn't even do that because he was already used to the children. He's already used to it. He knows he knows what's gonna happen to himself, and he still just lets go and lets these children feast upon him. And they they do and they do hardcore. And um at that point, Melanie is like he's in trouble. Y'all don't understand. He needs to he needs to get help, so they end up showing up too late, and they encounter the children because she knows it's a trap. She knows it's a trap because it's something that she would do if she was hunting or whatever. And also it's childlike. It was childlike the way that the little cans of food were set up, and so she's on that same level, and she's encountered now this group of feral children, and she's got the sergeant with her, and Miss Justinau um with her, and she is surrounded by all. the children and one of them's the leader with a bat and so it kind of gets exciting from that point because she's gonna meet with them and what happens is she ends up in a battle with the little king of the of the little children. The little like the way you refer to him as the king of the children. Yeah yeah you know they have they have makeup on they've learned to to to set up their own community she saw them yeah uh hanging out together and just like a big family and she has to show them who's boss and she ends up killing that little boy who is in charge just to save the two people that she's with and leaves leaves with them.

SPEAKER_00 44:44

That's how she does it and she uses all her um abilities including you know grunting yelling shouting fighting um hitting everything that the feral children exactly just like one of the feral kids yet she and this is all from watching them just as she got gathered this because obviously this is not what she'd been doing while she was in captivity. So this is new behavior for her. Even though it's instinct for her to want to survive and to you know eat in this case flesh or people or whatever or not just people because she was eating animals. She was able to observe the other kids and how they interacted with each other and their community and then she saw okay this is how again maybe not being able to put words to it but this is how I'm going to be able to survive by using this knowledge that I acquired from watching them and I am going to be the head honcho here now you know comes into play again later on. So unfortunately this poor guy doesn't this private doesn't survive we already knew that um because he got taken by the old trick he got taken by that trick ooh piece of candy and then I'm sorry every time I it's just like it was like it was so obvious I was like dude come on what's going on here really and then taking off his shit so he can get under underneath the door so they can go into the I'm like well what what are we doing here dude uh you're you're you're supposed to be a smart guy here but I guess desperation calls for you know desperate measures and you throw all that aside and again like you said he's used to dealing with the kids in a certain environment too so maybe he thought that he could control that situation a little bit more than he ended up obviously being able to we haven't really talked about the relationship between Melanie and the teacher now that is a really sweet connection that we have going on because we have the teacher who I'm sure she's not quote unquote just a teacher. She's got other uh training and other knowledge behind her that makes her understand that these children truly are not just children but she's still a teacher that is connecting to these children and she made this uh connection with Melanie and Melanie has really imprinted upon her she looks at her almost like she's her mother and I guess she brings it up later again um when they were talking about why are the uh hungries all congregating together or why are they all in these little pockets of you know groups of people or whatever. And she goes oh because they're lonely or they must be lonely so you get an insight into the fact that it it's connection some kind of connection that they want um whether it's just Melanie that wants that connection or whether it's all of the hungries out there that are trying to connect somehow they don't know how to connect but they just they don't want to be alone and in this case she connected to her teacher who is almost like a mother figure to her because she's nice to her. She cares about them she doesn't yell at them she doesn't um she's not the one that's experimenting on them or holding the gun to their heads she you know she has a different connection to the kids than everyone else around her does. And I would be curious to know if the other children also had thought of her that way or if it was truly just Melanie the girl with all the gifts that was able to really evolve with the best of all of that the best of humanity and the um I don't know if you could say the best of an infection here but I mean it it survived.

SPEAKER_01 49:18

So I would guess so I mean it they went out at the well they made a point when they had the children and they'd wake them up in the morning the soldiers would make a great ruckus and bang and hit all the walls and everything but she was the only one who sat still and got in her chair the other ones still had fight in them I believe and I think that they were different but they also knew that they needed to follow this routine and so they did the best they could the children in this situation but I think that for sure Melanie was the different one she was the special one that you know complied complied isn't good you know what I mean like she's a child but she also knew that following the routine was just going to make everything faster. It was going to make everything easier it was going to make everything more fun because then she could go see her teacher and get read to and learn because she actually enjoyed doing it. She wanted to be a good girl trying very hard to live with this infection that she knew that she had because she wasn't trying to be um eating people and attacking them. She tried her best not to but she couldn't help it.

SPEAKER_00 50:39

It's part of her and she uses it to their advantage too though because she uh to protect them um I mean obviously they weren't asking for it but I mean I I don't know if someone's you know fighting for me to live I'm gonna be like okay do what you gotta do but uh in this case it was uh this tiny little girl munching on some people to get them you know out of there uh so yeah they go through London they go through uh they find this these kids these other community of children that are thriving in their own way living you know with this infection in them and also creating this basically they're just creating this new race is what they're doing they came from a world that is uh they don't know they don't know the the the adults just want to the world to go back to the way it was they want it to be free of this infection free of these hungries free of this chaos but the kids don't know any better they just know that they need to survive that they and what what is survival to them survival to them is eating and uh uh surviving together in these groups so I think that's what the other thing that makes it difficult because um who's gonna win out here though the thing that's gonna win out is the thing that probably is going to adapt the the most to the environment around them and what's adapting. The infection is adapting. The humans aren't the humans are still trying to live by their uh you know using their old ways to live and trying to go back to the they're not saying that we should give in not at all I'm just saying that that's just what went out what was adapting and the infection was the adapting the fungus the one that was spreading and the kids the learning to evolve with it to learning to grow with it. They didn't have anything keeping them to the old world they just know that they want to survive and that's why Melanie at the end of everything ends up choosing like I only know one thing and one thing is survival and in order for me to survive I've got to have you know all of my kinfolk with me I guess if you want to look at it that way and so she chooses a path that um is unfortunately uh not great for humanity no it isn't that's the part that like I said at the end is like it's really you can't fault her she's just a kid and she doesn't know any better. And she doesn't know any better though. And not in a a way like oh kids don't know any better. I mean this just it's they're just trying to survive and she's not doing it maliciously either she doesn't choose the infection over humanity as like a punishment of like oh humans you deserve this no it's just I want to survive I want to live and it was bound to happen.

SPEAKER_01 54:10

It was bound to happen the whether she had decided to start it with the fires you know or not it was going to eventually happen because that was that's nature nature's gonna start some sort of wildflower fires nature's gonna make it rain nature's gonna make it um storm whatever it is that needed needed it and the only way to get along with it was just to deal with it I think and so she thought let's just let's just start it yeah let's just get it done.

SPEAKER_00 54:47

And it's again it's the the thing that makes it so complicated at the end it's because she didn't do it out of like a hatred for anybody because she felt bad throughout the whole time she was always feeling bad for the humans. She was feeling bad for the the adults the humans that were just trying to survive she tried to save the sergeant at the end but you know he got out of the airlock um she is trying to keep the teacher alive and so she's not doing anything to be malicious or to be mean spirited or or anything. She just again it's just the survival game and it's not a game like the last of us or whatever you know yeah it's it's kind of it's sad. It it was it was really depressing feeling at the end of the movie. Now I'm sad again well were you happy were you happy at the end of this movie?

SPEAKER_01 55:51

Were you like singing Well actually yeah I like the ending. I like I like it. I like the way it ended with the teacher and um all the kids being outside and she's the one who's being protected and she's gonna be the next thing that teaches these children how to grow up in this world that is you know wasn't at first made for them but now now it's forced upon them so now they're going to survive in their way. Yeah. They're gonna get it done their way.

SPEAKER_00 56:26

So it kind of makes you wonder too how many uh again going back to how many of these uh communities there were that survived like this because again there was pregnant people all over the world when this infection started so there had to be more pockets of people that uh that survived this way and if other maybe communities are out there thriving the same way or are they all feral like you know they came upon this group of kids or I don't know it's it's an interesting universe and I think I would love to read the book to see gain some more insight into this world because I don't know it's fascinating to me um to think of it as I'll read it and then I'll loan it to you. Okay, we'll do that. We'll do that. So that I don't know just wrapping it up I guess what how would you rate this movie amongst all the zombie movies?

SPEAKER_01 57:33

I mean I don't mean like rate like it's it's just better or whatever, but as far as like the um well I chose it because I really wanted to explore the different kind of zombie each each movie didn't really I didn't put that much thought into it. That's that's just me being honest. I was just thinking which movies had interesting zombies and then it came easy to me picking the movies um which would we would do next and this one was probably the most interesting because of the infection being spread and because of the fact that the children were different. It had like two also two different kinds of zombies just like the bonies and the scaldies or whatever in the warm bodies this one also had two different kinds of zombie and um the kind that were human dealing with an infection and then the kind that were already lost and had already been dealt with um the infection yeah or dealt the infection. And so I found it interesting because of the child point of view that the movie is in and the the fact that it also had so much um so much in this world to explore so many questions so many everything so much everything um but I rated it as a very good movie because of that because of the differences because of the child just because of the the the humanity in it was something that that is a big part of it and yeah and you've nobody really to feel bad about even Dr. Caldwell even though she's the one who's trying to um dissect her get Melanie's brain yep get Melanie's brain in um she's still trying to do something that's good and she's not being evil about it unfortunately she's just being very scientific about it. And she's the only one who is really really like that and so yeah I I really enjoyed this this movie.

SPEAKER_00 59:56

And that's what sucks because there is no bad guys to hate and there's nobody there's nobody to hate and there's no you know you can't you just really feel for everybody. Because again I know I've said it like a million times but it's it's about the survival they're just trying to survive the humans are just trying to survive the kids are just trying to survive this infection this these spores this fungus whatever is just trying to survive there's no real bad guys here. And so when you see the ending transpire the way it does where they the spores end up spreading and taking over the world even though we don't see it that's what where you know we can guess happens um you you kind of feel like okay I guess that was the next logical step it's gonna be this thing taking over the world and I guess our time as humanity is done if that's what it is and so like in Warm Bodies they were going back to being human and then in this movie they're using the humanity in their favor I think to be able to take over the world I don't know that's just how I see it. Okay so this month we had the um what do we have we had warm bodies we had the girls with all the gifts this one uh we had we bury the dead and we had the return of the living dead four very different selection of movies I think so too four very different breeds of zombies here and they all I loved all these movies um in their own way I know I kind of trashed we bury the dead and I the the movie as a whole disappointed me but the zombies themselves in each of the movies I really enjoyed is what I'm trying to get at how would you did you have a favorite or how would you uh rate any of these or like total rating because I know we already talked about how how much I like this one.

SPEAKER_01 1:02:18

Um if I was going to pick a favorite from the four I think I'd still go to the Return of the Living Dead just because that's just my um um you know my go-to movie it's one of my favorite nostalgic picks it's just also I think it I'm very excited because there's gonna be a sequel to it. Yeah and so um I just want to see where that's going. So yeah and then this movie it is a sad movie but I thought it ended very hopeful. No it is it is hopeful for the children. For the children but the thing is for the planet because the planet was gone.

SPEAKER_00 1:03:01

Yeah this is uh you know it was just those even if they found a cure those pods are everywhere yeah they already were in their next step of evolution the zombies yeah not the zombies humanity yeah humanity exactly and so the only hope is this child teaching these children to grow up in this world and learn to deal with it so yeah I don't know I like to think that it's she's that she's the hope Melanie that she's gonna give them a little bit of some kind of uh of that piece of the of the old world because she is still connected with that she's connecting with the teacher she has that hold of wanting to be a part of something and so maybe that will help her I don't know if you could say mold or you know whatever but uh kind of aim the trajectory of this evolution of at least um the immediate uh evolution of these kids to be a little bit more not as feral maybe a little bit more um I don't know with purpose I guess he could say but at the end of the day it's a fantastic movie I really loved it little girl uh I forget her name um the actress the actress or the the actress the actress um is uh Senia Nanua yeah I believe this was her first um film yeah first film or her first major role is what I read and I think she did fantastic with it so that was the girl with all the gifts that was our month of zombies and uh yeah so I really enjoyed it all right Alma and save me from gushing all over this movie even more uh where can people find us online if they wish to find us on the interwebs uh you can visit our website thegory details podcast dot com on Instagram where thegory podcast on Blue Sky where the gory details and over on buy me a coffee where buy me a coffee dot com slash the gory details and that was another week and another great episode the girl with all the gifts thank you so much for listening everybody until next week bye bye bye