The Girl with All the Gifts (2016)
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A scientist, a teacher, and two soldiers embark on a perilous journey of survival with a special young girl who is a hybrid of human and zombie.
The story
In a dystopian future, humanity has been ravaged by a parasitic fungus that turns the infected into mindless zombies known as 'hungries.' The only hope for a cure lies in researching a small group of carrier children imprisoned at an army base in the Home Counties. Among them is Melanie, an exceptional girl who forms a special bond with her teacher, Helen Justineau. When the base is overrun by hungries, Melanie escapes and joins a group of survivors—including a scientist, a teacher, and two soldiers—on a desperate journey toward London to find safety.
Full plot (contains spoilers)
In the near future, a parasitic fungus has turned most of humanity into 'hungries.' Children who are carriers of the fungus are held at an army base in the Home Counties for experimentation by Dr. Caroline Caldwell. Melanie, a girl among them, forms a bond with her teacher, Helen Justineau. During a breach of the base by hungries, Melanie escapes and joins Justineau, Caldwell, Sergeant Parks, and two soldiers on a truck. After losing one soldier and the truck's fuel line, they travel toward London on foot, using a 'blocker' gel to mask their scent. They take shelter in an abandoned hospital, where Caldwell reveals that second-generation hungries, or neonates, possess intelligence and a symbiotic relationship with the fungus. Melanie, a neonate, helps the group escape a swarm of hungries. They eventually reach a mobile laboratory near the BT Tower, which is covered in fungal growth. Caldwell, dying of sepsis, plans to sacrifice Melanie to complete a vaccine. After a confrontation with feral hungry children, Melanie realizes her kind are the future and sets the fungal pods on fire, releasing spores. Caldwell is killed by the feral children. Parks is infected by the spores and asks Melanie to shoot him, which she does. The film ends with Justineau confined in the sealed lab, watching the spores fall and speaking to the newly-dominant human-zombie species.
- Original title
- She Who Brings Gifts
- First release year
- 2016
- Runtime (minutes)
- 111
- Production countries
- United Kingdom
- Original languages
- English
- Directors
- Colm McCarthy
- Writers
- Mike Carey · writer; Mike Carey · screenplay
- Cast and characters
- Gemma Arterton · Helen Justineau; Paddy Considine · Sergeant Eddie Parks; Glenn Close · Caroline Caldwell; Sennia Nanua · Melanie; Anamaria Marinca · Jean Selkirk; Fisayo Akinade · Private Kieran Gallagher; Anthony Welsh · Private Dillon; Dominique Tipper · Private Devani
- Genres
- post-apocalyptic adventure; horror; thriller; psychological; drama; dystopian; science fiction; zombie
- Themes
- Survival; Humanity vs. Monstrosity; Evolution; Sacrifice; Science Ethics
- Premise and plot tags
- Post-apocalyptic; Zombie; Fungal Infection; Science Fiction; Dystopian
- Source material / true-story basis
- The book of the same name by Mike Carey
- Content notes
- Horror
- Reported review scores
- Metacritic · score: 67 · scale: 100 · review count: 20
- Production trivia
- The film was originally titled She Who Brings Gifts.; The title is a reference to the ancient Greek legend of Pandora the gift-giver.; Aerial views of a deserted London were filmed in the abandoned Ukrainian town of Pripyat.
Film metadata comes from the open sources listed in Credits & Contact. Catalogue details may be incomplete.
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