Bird Box Barcelona: the ending explained and what it has to do with psychology (spoiler alert)

If you haven’t seen the movie yet Bird Box Barcelona (the latest Netflix hit and expected spin-off of the film Bird Box starring Sandra Bullock), don’t keep reading this well let’s reveal the end so you can see its relationship with mental health and trauma.

The film, set in an apocalyptic Barcelona, ​​stars Mario Casas and Once again, it focuses on the arrival on the planet of some mysterious creatures that lead the people who see them to suicide.

The creatures, which are not shown on camera at any time in the film, are quantum beings that by establishing their gaze with a person they are able to read their hidden feelings and martyr them to lead them to take their own lives. That is why citizens who go out into the streets do so blindfolded, to prevent that visual contact. However, some people who make that eye contact seem to resist the temptation to take their own life and become what the film calls “seers”, individuals who persecute others to make them look towards the creatures and cause them to commit suicide.

Bird Box Barcelona: references to mental health

The film Bird Box Barcelona is a thriller typical based on the classic spread of a global epidemic or invasion that leads humanity to extinction. However, what is unusual about the film is that in this case Human beings do not suffer an attack on their physical health but on their mental health, which is what leads them to end their life.

The issue of suicide is already, in itself, a very important issue within mental health, which is beginning to be given the visibility it deserves in recent times. But the references to mental health in this film do not stop there. For example, strange creatures that induce suicide seem to tap into people’s deepest feelings and invade their brains with commands that they hear in your mind in much the same way as the “voices” what some people with mental illness say they hear.

In addition, the film suggests that the “seers” – the people who instead of committing suicide become accomplices of the mysterious creatures – have some kind of mental imbalance or have experienced a trauma that the creatures take advantage of to completely control them.

In the film, the protagonist –played by Mario Casas– becomes a seer after experiencing the trauma of watching his daughter commit suicide, but it seems that he manages to free himself from the control of the creatures after receiving therapy from a doctor. It can be interpreted that This intervention helps him improve his mental and emotional health and that prevents them from continuing to manipulate him.

BIRd BOX BARCELONA: TRAUMA alters DNA

At the end of the film it is revealed that in a refuge in Barcelona’s Montjuic Castle there is a “safe” place where the seers and their psychological resistance to the strange beings are investigated. Researchers have been able to observe that these people have some genetic marks that could explain this resistance. That is, they suggest that what makes these people immune to the creatures is that their DNA had previously changed after suffering strong events, traumas, or even situations of continuous grief. For this reason, the researchers intend to investigate this altered DNA of the “seers” to find a vaccine against these creatures.

What is true in this theory that tries to support in part the peculiar plot of the film? Actually, it has been found that traumatic situations or extreme situations –such as war, torture or famine– they can cause “marks” on genes that can change their expression.

An example of this is the impact of the famine in the Netherlands during World War II. This severe famine affected the residents of the Netherlands significantly. Babies born to mothers who suffered from starvation in the final stages of pregnancy weighed less than normal. On the other hand, the children of mothers who experienced the famine early in pregnancy tended to be more obese, more prone to stress, and had a higher incidence of heart disease. What is most remarkable about this phenomenon is that the effects of this epigenetic mark on the fetus were passed on to subsequent generations.

Another example is a study published in Nature that investigated the multigenerational hypothesis that a grandmother’s exposure to psychosocial stress during pregnancy may affect the methylation – a molecular mechanism – of her grandson’s DNA. This study supports the theory that DNA methylation –a biological molecular mechanism– is involved in the transmission of stress through generations.

It has also been observed that mothers who have been exposed to biochemical substances during pregnancy, had a poor diet or taken antibiotics can transmit epigenetic alterations to their children. Besides, climate change has also been shown to have an impact on the epigenome. A study carried out by the Institut de Ciències del Mar has identified subtle changes in the epigenetics of animal species that are adapting to climate change. For example, sea bass hatched in waters that are two to four degrees warmer than normal have been observed to show changes in gene expression associated with stress response and growth.

Returning to the film, at the end we see how, in trying to study these phenomena, they have recruited a “psychic” to explore the DNA pathway to prepare vaccines without taking into account that, although they do not try to commit suicide, they are still a problem. Tragedy is chewed and, perhaps, a new spin off of the film