Genre: Action/Sci-Fi/Comedy
Director: Joss Whedon
Writer: H.G. Hansen
Based on the novel by James Patterson
Cast: Olivia Cooke, Dylan Sprayberry, Nicholas Hamilton, Kevin Costner, Salma Hayek, Alyvia Alyn Lind, Colin Ford, Abby Ryder Fortson, Breanna Yde, Connor Kalopsis, Patrick Stewart (voice)
Plot: "Congratulations. The fact that you're watching this means you've taken one giant step closer to surviving till your next birthday." Max narrates the prologue. There is an immediate urgency in the tone of the narrator, begging the viewer not look away because to do so could result in dire consequences.
Max continues an instantaneous insight into the mind of a scared young adult, who is literally fighting for her life. The majority of the story is being told by Max, an eighteen year old girl who was created at a school designed to create hybrid human beings. Max, along with her adopted family of other genetically altered beings, is 98% human, 2% bird.
"The six of us—me, Fang, Iggy, Nudge, Gazzy the Gasman, and Angel—were made on purpose, by the sickest, most horrible 'scientists' you could possibly imagine."
According to Max, the 2% bird DNA has made a huge difference in each kid. Each kid knows how to fly and has many characteristics of a bird including a rapid heart rate, thin bones, and a voracious appetite. The children also have superhuman strength and vision in addition to a variety of supernatural gifts. Four years ago, a scientist at the School helped the six kids to escape. This scientist, Jeb, had taught the kids how to live "normal" lives. The kids learned to read, fight, and live in the real world as much as possible. Two years previous, Jeb had disappeared, leaving the kids alone. Most of them think Jeb is dead including Max.
In addition to their creation, the scientists have also created another group of hybrids known as the Erasers - part human, part wolf. The Erasers work as security guards for the School and can morph into wolves in the blink of an eye. Their one goal is regain the children, everyone back to the School. It is Max's goal to tell their story… And maybe something about saving the world…
The story begins with Max (Olivia Cooke) running away from a group of Erasers. While running, she comes to a stop at a cliff edge and proceeds to jump off. Upon jumping off, she snaps out her wings and flies away from the Erasers.
Waking up, she realizes that it was all just a nightmare, and then she throws on some clean clothes and heads to the kitchen of their house. As she is looking for food, Gazzy (Connor Kalopsis) enters the kitchen and tells her good morning. Max tells him good morning as well, and when he asks her what's for breakfast, she says it's a surprise. Iggy (Nicholas Hamilton), who is blind, soon comes into the kitchen making a joke about the surprise being bad then and falls "with perfect aim" onto the Flock's couch. Fang (Dylan Sprayberry) also sneaks up behind Max and responds sarcastically when told to quit it. Max then goes and awakens Nudge (Breanna Yde) and Angel (Alyvia Alyn Lind). Max helps Angel, who is her favorite out of the group, get dressed. Max worries about how this all will affect the younger ones till Angel tells her not to worry. Max then makes a joke about how she forgets Angel can read minds.
At breakfast, Angel says that she wants to go strawberry picking, and the Flock soon does so; however, they are briefly delayed by Gazzy passing gas, which explains to how they gave him that nickname. Shortly after they arrive outside, Erasers come and attack them. They all fight back to the best of their abilities till it results in Angel getting kidnapped. The Flock tries to rescue her, but Ari Batchelder (Colin Ford), who’s also an Eraser—the son of the Flock's "father", Jeb Batchelder (Kevin Costner) — holds a gun to Max's head while she tries to get into the Erasers' helicopter, resulting in them getting away.
The rest of the Flock makes a plan to go and rescue Angel. Fang looks through Jeb’s old files to find that the location of the School is in Death Valley. Max decides that she, Nudge and Fang will go to the School, while she tells Iggy and Gazzy stay home, who think it’s because Iggy is blind and Gazzy is emotionally involved. Max makes a stern face as they quiet down. They fly over Arizona, Max notices a girl being bullied by a group of boys. She tells Fang and Nudge to meet her at the northernmost point of Lake Mead and then dives down.
In the process of helping the girl, Ella (Abby Ryder Fortson), Max gets shot by one of the bullies. She wanders until she finds Ella’s house, where Ella’s mother Dr. Martinez (Salma Hayek) patches up her arm and discovers her wings. Despite Max’s fears, the Martinez’s seem trustworthy. They provide her with her first taste of a real home, and she loves it
Fang and Nudge reach Lake Mead and spend the night in a cave, studying the flight patterns of the local hawks, while Iggy and Gazzy – resentful at being left behind and eager to fight off Erasers – begin working on traps and bombs. The Erasers return to the area the next morning, only to drive into one of the traps. Iggy and Gazzy evade them and blow up their house in the process. They high five by their chaos.
Fang and Nudge begin flying around to find food and look for signs of Max, but stop in Tipisco to look for Nudge’s mother. Fang asks why she thinks this and she tells him she found out about her mother in Jeb’s files. While they look, Erasers ambush them with taunts that the house is destroyed and Iggy and Gazzy are dead. The two bird kids fight them off with spray paint, leaving Ari with green hair.
In the meantime, Angel wakes up in a dog crate and has to run through a barrage of painful tests that the scientists put her through in order to "test her abilities." During all this, she realizes that Jeb Batchelder — the scientist who broke them out of the school and brought them to the house—isn't dead. He actually went back to work at the School. Angel is left horrified by the betrayal.
Doctor Martinez takes Max to her veterinary practice for an X-ray, but they’re interrupted when Erasers arrive. Martinez hides Max in a supply closet and seems unaffected by the Erasers. The X-ray reveals that Max has a computer chip in her arm, but it’s in too deep to be safely removed. While Max spends a second night at the Martinez house making homemade chocolate chip cookies, Gazzy and Iggy arrive at Lake Mead and are reunited with Fang and Nudge. Max rejoins them the next morning.
Reunited, the five Flock members set off once more for the School. They stop at a strip mall, where they see a man using an ATM. Ari and the Erasers drive by and scare him off so quickly that he leaves his card behind, allowing the Flock to withdraw two hundred dollars.
They then steal a van and visit a fast food restaurant, each of them ordering a huge amount of food. However, as they eat, they realize that they’re surrounded by people who look suspiciously like Erasers. They race out the exit with Erasers chasing after them and Max drives the van through a cornfield back onto a road where she immediately crashes into a sedan. Erasers surround the wreck and pull them out. Iggy and Gazzy escape, but the others are taken to the School.
They are reunited with Angel but they are locked into cages like Angel. After making a mental note of checking air bags in a car next time, Max looks at everyone as Angel is seen crying and in pain. She tells them weakly she’s sorry for all of this. Max reassures her it isn’t but someone begins to open the door. Max prepares herself as she is about to try to break out and beat down who ever goes through the door. Angel tries to warn Max about something but it’s too late. Jeb walks into the room to everyone’s surprise. Jeb smiles big at Max as expresses how much he missed her.
When Max looks at Jeb again as she tries to convince herself she’s seeing things. She is horrified and feels betrayed. Every feeling she had for him, love and admiration replaced by pure hatred. Jeb opens the dog door on her crate, holds it open and lets her crawl out. She asks what if she decides to hurt him right now to which Jeb smiles and reminds her that she’s smart enough to know that wouldn’t be a bright idea.
They walk past a bunch of computers to a small room with a little kitchen area. Max remains quiet the whole time as Jeb tells her that this was all a test and she’ll grow to see he’s not the bad guy. She is destined to save the world. Max argues that she trusted him, everyone did. Jeb explains he did what he did for the greater good and how the world is coming to an end. He tells her she’s gonna save the world. Max is shocked by this and thinks Jeb has lost his mind. After all you don’t go telling people that every day. He refuses to tell her anymore but that it’s true. He takes her back to her crate and locks her inside. He tells them all he loves them very much and turns to leave them in the dark.
Max doesn’t talk to them since they be under surveillance. A scientist comes in a dead experiment into the crate next to her. Max stares at it as she is almost disgusted by what they did to him. The scientists along with Ari come back to load all of them onto a cart since they were still in crates. Then they push them outside and over to a yard at the School. The same yard where Erasers are trained to bring down and tear creatures apart. Ari taunts Max by putting his fingers into her crate. Max quickly leans over to bite down on his fingers as hard as she can. Ari freaks out, kicking her cage. It tumbles to the ground and Max quickly tries to unlatch Angel’s, with it being inches away. Angel gets out but Ari continues shaking Max’s crate, making her mad as hell. But she looks in the sky to see storm clouds brewing; she smiles as she can see afar they weren’t clouds. They were Gazzy and Iggy leading flocks of hawks with them.
With the help of Iggy, the Gasman with the hawks from Lake Mead, Max goes to unlatch Fang’s and Nudge’s crate. They fight the scientists and some Erasers as Angel breaks Max out. As the hawks attack the Erasers, Max orders everyone to fly up, but before she can Jeb runs out telling it was all a test as no one was gonna get hurt. Jeb pleads with her to trust him yet Max disagrees and flies off as hard as she can.
The Flock flies back to the caves at Lake Mead. Everyone regains themselves as Max tends to Angel. Now homeless, they begin slowly traveling around. Max is experiencing horrible headaches and beginning to hear a faint Voice. She begins to fall by the pain but Fang catches her. An hour later, Max feels better and the flock goes to find food. Max talks to Fang if the pain is because she’s reaching her life expectancy like a sign she’s gonna die since the Erasers live till they’re six years old. Angel overhears this and goes to tell she has a secret she found out at the School.
Angel reveals that she "overheard" some of the scientists' thoughts and learned there's a place in New York City called the Institute with information about the flock… and their biological parents. Apparently, they weren't just test tube babies like they'd all assumed; they had real parents. Nudge’s mom thinks she’s dead, Angel’s and Gazzy’s parents gave them away, Iggy’s mom died giving birth to him, while Max’s origins are completely unknown. After the pained news, they all decide to sleep on it. Fang and Max talk as Fang thinks his mom was a teenager who was happy to give him up. Max reassures him that she was stupid if that was true.
As a result, they decide to go to New York to find the Institute for Higher Living, where they can find more files. As they fly Nudge talks about how she is thinking about her mom again and how she’d be happy to see her “alive”. Max then thinks about Dr. Martinez and Ella, as she also longs for that kind of family connection.
They arrive in New York and go walking around enjoying part of the Big Apple. Gazzy likes how they don’t stand out as freaks. Iggy mockingly corrects him to call the freaks “New Yorkers” that’s how the rest of the world sees them. Fang then jokes how that comes from the “blind man who doesn’t need a stick to see.” Iggy then jokes back that’s he has them with him. Max tries to get them focused but it doesn’t take long for Ari and six other Erasers to find them. They go on a short chase scene as they scatter to lose them. To escape, they run into the Central Park Zoo, which only gives them flashbacks of their lives behind bars at the School. Everyone but Gazzy enjoys their time there. Gazzy tells Fang he feels sorry for the animals as he knows what it means to be locked up. Fang cheers him up by how they will never return to that. Gazzy is scared since they only escape a few days ago. Fang smiles and promises that was the last time.
Next day, they continue lying low, hiding from Erasers, and sleeping in the trees of Central Park. Eating food from street stands, Max focuses on the mission at hand and reminds them why they are here. They go to the New York Public Library of Humanities and Social Sciences. Max signs in as Ella Martinez and searches for the Institute to no results. They stay there doing research until closing time approaches.
They decide to take the subway to Central Park, but instead notice a light and follow it into an underground city in the abandoned tunnels.
The group sleeps as Fang and Max talk about how Max wishes for them all to have a normal life. Fang reminds her that she shouldn’t think like that. Max just feels responsible but Fang tells her she’s doing a good job. Fang takes first watch so Max can get some sleep. Suddenly while sleeping Max feels a burst of pain in her head. As she suffers through the flashing images along the terrible pain, she is woken up by a guy yelling about his broken computer and blaming Max. Fang asks what’s his deal is but gets interrupted after he tells him the source of it is coming from them. Max goes up to see if the guy was a crazy bum till she sees the screen. The computer screen was showing the same multiple images, gibberish, plans, and drawings then says “Institute for Higher Living”. The guy threatens to beat them up of they don’t tell him what happened. The Voice (Patrick Stewart) then says hello and welcome to New York and has big plans for her. She asks if Fang can hear it but he doesn’t hear anything. The guy looks at Max funny and goes to find proper equipment for his computer. Fang concerned asks Max what’s wrong, leading to her telling him they have to look for the Institute for Higher Living.
The next day, Max begins hearing the Voice frequently. It directs them around and they visit AFO Schmidt, a toy shop. Max keeps noticing strange things, like an Ouija board spelling out “Save the World, Max.” Angel wants a stuffed bear she’s found, but Max tells her that they’re almost out of money. Instead Angel telepathically convinces a woman to buy the bear, which she names Celeste. This makes Max uneven but decides to ignore it for now. The voice tells her she should relax and not worry too much. Max can’t stand it anymore and yells back at the voice, which makes the group look concerned. Max chuckles nervously as the voice reminds her to not talk to herself or she’ll look crazy. Max begins to reply back till something catches her eye.
Out of nowhere, they’re attacked again by Erasers in the middle of the city, but one of them dies upon reaching his expiration date. While hurrying away, Max sees a sign saying “Every journey begins with one step.” She takes one step and finds a bank card with her name on it. The voice then tells it’s hers if she can figure out the pin.
They sleep in Central Park again. Fang makes an educated guess that the voice inside her head is part of her senses, but they’re caught there by police and begin to run away. Max thinks she notices Jeb among the policemen. Angel drops Celeste and is heartbroken, but they keep running and hide in Saint Patrick’s Cathedral. They blend in by looking like tourist and they all pretend to pray. Nudge prays for her parents as Angel prays for her teddy. Max just prays to protect everyone.
They manage to access the bank card when Angel guessing the password was mother and withdraw more money. Angel just tells them that was the only word that popped in her head. They visit the 433 Building, hoping to find the Institute there. Max asks if the building has a basement, but the secretary just seems suspicious of them and they hurry out to avoid the security guards. The younger kids ask to eat at a fancy restaurant called Garden Tavern. However, they get into trouble with the manager after ordering large amounts of food. When cops arrive, the Flock smashes out of the restaurant without their food and land in some trees, where they are caught by Erasers. Ari has Celeste, but Angel telepathically forces him to give the bear back to her. However, Ari receives a call from the Director and the Erasers leave.
The Flock continues to hide out, now sleeping in a construction site. Pictures of them in the restaurant are now appearing in newspapers, so they need disguises. While getting food, they encounter a stylist who's giving out free makeovers. They camp out on a beach, Fang talks to Max about staying there but Max stays focused, which makes Fang uncomfortable but drops it and joins the rest. Max wonders about them all, mostly Angel after her new power developed. They go swimming and after a slight panic, Angel pops back out of the water to show she developed gills. Max is memorized but the Voice reminds her they all are works of art, mostly for Max. Max rolls her eyes and tunes him out before he gets to the rest.
Suddenly, Ari finds them again with a group of Erasers surrounding them. Ari mocks Max, stroking her cheek. Fang jumps in to defend her, but the Erasers grab him along with Max & Iggy. Angel quickly flies up and Max yells at Nudge & Gazzy to join her. Ari starts to beat up Fang while Max watches and screams. The Erasers let go of a beaten up Fang as Ari cracks his knuckles. Fang throws sand in Ari’s eyes but that only makes him angrier and grabs him with murderous intent. Suddenly, Jeb is heard telling him to stop as he walks through the Erasers. He reminds Ari he has to follow orders and Ari after staring hard at Jeb let’s Fang go. Jeb then walks up to Max and asks again if she gets it yet. Max spits on his shoe and yells that she doesn’t get it and she never will. Jeb smiles as he says she’s the best, the strongest, and the smartest 18 year-old, that she was engineered this way. He also says she doesn’t make stupid mistakes and nods to the Erasers to let them go. Jeb turns to leave as Max yells how he is her dad anymore and then mocks Ari about being daddy’s favorite. Ari wants to attack but Jeb snaps at sharp look at him and leaves with him.
The Flock checks on how injured Fang is, as he comes to and tells them no hospitals. Everyone’s relieved as is Max, who after telling not to die kisses him. Nudge clears her throat which snaps Max back to reality. She looks up to see everyone staring at her like she’s crazy. She says sorry to which Fang says he isn’t. Max looks down at him with a sharp look.
They fly back into the city once more and spend the night in the underground city, where Max talks to Fang about the computer chip in her arm and that it maybe is tracking them. The Voice sends Max a vision and a mental map that leads the Flock through the sewer system into the Institute, where they find a secret door. Iggy picks the lock to which leads to a staircase going down. The Voice leads them into a room with a bunch of computers. Max tries to hack in till Nudge tells her a password to use and it works. They discover Nudge can connect with computers by touching them. They look through the files, finds the ones about them and print them out.
They begin to head out till Gasman stops them by pulling fabric-covered wall away. Angel gasps as there are a bunch of cages with dozens of mutants sleeping them, what’s worse they’re all kids. Max removes the wall and they walk past all the cages, some are alive while some are dead, visible or nor visible. Fang says they can’t save them all but Max wants to anyway. They all release the mutants from the cages as one child with wings asks her why they are doing this, Max replies that kids don’t belong in cages.
As they get most of the mutants to the sewers, Ari is heard right behind them. Max goes to distract him while the others run away. She asks what happened to him why did he become an Eraser. Ari is upset by that as he felt left behind by his father, who considers Max a perfect hybrid. Also, he resents her for shutting him out when they were kids. Max almost feels sorry for him but that fades as soon as Ari runs at her. Max kicks him which makes him fall down the tunnel ledge onto his back. Max double stomps him on the chest and screams at everyone to run. Ari catches her off guard and punches her. As he pummels her, he loses balance again and she kicks him in the throat. She then hits his neck against the side of the tunnel. She goes to land another hit but she looks down to see Ari’s neck is broken and dead from impact. Voices are heard coming down the stairs and Max turns to fly with the other out of the tunnel. Jeb is heard screaming about how his son is dead and how it’s his fault putting him through this test. But before she truly leaves, he screams at her why she should care since she killed her own brother.
After the group of mutant along with the bird child leave to form their own group, the group is left wondering what to do next. They banter back and forth till Nudges finds out Angel kept a dog she’s found at the Institute, which she names Total. Max is hesitant till the group even Fang convince her. They all celebrate till the fact that Total can jump super high in the air. Everyone is stunned as Angle smiles and plays with him.
That night, they find a beach on Staten Island. They are all excited as Max takes out the paper they gathered. They find an address in Virginia along with names & places. Fang chokes up after seeing photos of people who look like him. Gasman and Angel pull out a picture of their parents and Angel begins to cry. Though Max doesn’t have any info and sad and lonely, she braves a tough face as everyone is happy about their info. Max talks to the Voice as it tries to tell her to go back to the Institute. Max ignores it and goes to watch her friends. Based on their new information, the Flock decides to fly to Washington, D.C.
Max and the Flock flies over New Jersey. She talks about the plight of the Flock and how the story may seem fantastic and unbelievable but that it is entirely true. The Voice then reminds Max of her knowledge is a terrible burden and how it’s a double-edged sword. He tells her how it may help her but puts her in grave danger in the long run. Max ignores The Voice and looks up to Fang who smiles big back at her. She blushes a bit and quickly then looks at Angel who holds Total, who seems to be enjoying the breeze from flying. The Voice then tells her finding everyone’s parents aren’t as important as her destiny, saving the world not her friends. Max smiles big and looks out to the distance and tells the Voice he’s wrong. “You what, Voice… My friends… my flock… are my world.” They all fly into the distance till the sun completely fills the screen.
No comments:
Post a Comment