Summary And Analysis Of The Film Children Of Men
The movie Children of Men is a dystopian film taking place in the future where there is a worldwide fertility crisis. In the middle of the world chaos going on, the main character Theo is sought out by his former wife, Julian, who devotes her life to helping refugees, to help a young refugee woman named Kee to get transit papers, he agrees and afterwards ends up having to escort her since he got the papers for her. On the way to the place Julian is taking Kee, they are attacked and Julian dies, this leads Theo to take responsibility for Kee. They then move to a safe house where Kee reveals to Theo that she is pregnant. Late at night, Theo discovers that the group called Fishes, supposedly set to help Kee, are actually trying to use her baby to start a revolution, he then flees with Kee and her midwife, and plans to take them himself to the “Human Project. ” He’s told by a friend that there will be a ship from the “Human Project” passing by outside a refugee camp. They go there and pose as refugees where Kee starts having contractions. They find a woman there whom then houses them in a small apartment and that night Kee gives birth to a baby girl.
The next day a war begins between the refugees and the soldiers which is started by the Fishes. While trying to escape the battle, Kee and her baby are captured by the Fishes. Theo finds them and they start leaving. As they are leaving, everyone, even the soldiers stop fighting to look at the newborn. When they make it to the water to find the ship, it is revealed that Theo was shot when escaping and he dies, soon after the ship, Tomorrow arrives. The major theme surrounding this film is of hope, hope for humanity. In the film, there hadn’t been a child born in almost 20 years meaning if there weren’t any children born soon, the human race would near extinction. The sense of hope first arrives when Kee shows Theo that she’s pregnant, as a viewer when seeing this seen you get an overwhelming feeling of joy because now there is a chance for salvation. The technique that director Alfonso Cuarón uses to enhance this feeling, is the implementing of religious symbols throughout the entire movie. The two major ways in which this is shown is first in the scene of the reveal of Kee’s pregnancy, then after the baby is born where everyone stops to admire the newborn baby.
The reveal of the pregnancy scene takes place at night in a barn. Kee undresses and shows her round stomach to Theo, she goes on to joke that she is a virgin. Now the reference to the Virgin Mary is significant, this is a clear and direct message to the audience that this like the incarnation of God. That this is the child that will give humanity a second chance. Another thing that brings out this reference is the location of the scene, a barn, like in the nativity scene, which again shows that this just might be the child of God.
