Suggested alternative ending....(spoilers) - The Girl with All the Gifts (2017) Discussion

[–] 000000000000000000000000 8 years ago

My preferred alternate ending is that the doctor was right about Melanie all along, and she is simply the fungus parasite pretending to be a child to gain an advantage in its attempts to wipe out humanity.

It also fixes some apparent problems with Melanies character and explains away some of the "movie coincidences" (such as the zombies breaking through the facility fence which has survived for at least a decade the day after the doctor begins killing off the thinking zombies, and on the day when Melanie, who is obviously the alpha zombie, is about to be killed, or that there is even zombies around to break down the fence (though at least one of these is explained away in the book from what I have seen)).

This alternate ending would also work though. I mean she has no qualms about beating them to death after all so why would killing one or two to make a vaccine be out of the question.

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[–] C.S.Wood 8 years ago

Why didn't Melanie think to bring the dead feral kid or maybe one of the live feral kids to complete the vaccine? I read about the books secret chapter and accept it as a good conclusion after the movie ends but I think it would have been better for all if what I suggest happened instead. What do you think?

Because that goes against the point the movie is trying to make. That would mean killing the children to save the adults. It makes more sense for the adults to sacrifice themselves for the children.

The teacher is doomed to spend the rest of her life in that shelter, but she has the chance to teach the surviving generation what they will need to know to hopefully survive and thrive.

Revenge is the most important meal of the day.

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[–] tenshinhan_san 8 years ago

Rest of her life? How long can she survive in there? Not long I would guess.. Then what do those stupid kids do?

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[–] 000000000000000000000000 8 years ago

Because that goes against the point the movie is trying to make. That would mean killing the children to save the adults. It makes more sense for the adults to sacrifice themselves for the children.

The teacher is doomed to spend the rest of her life in that shelter, but she has the chance to teach the surviving generation what they will need to know to hopefully survive and thrive.

The movie doesnt really make a point though. Thats kind of one of the main problems with it. The book it is based on only makes that kind of sensical by giving the zombies magical powers.

But this film has next to no magic. In the film these people who, assuming the characters are correct in what they say, are capable of making a cure for the infection and getting it to the last remaining enclave of survivors in the country are killed off by a bunch of infected children who will starve to death within a couple of weeks because one of the infected children was frightened of dying and intelligent enough to kill all humans.

There is no point to that, its just rubbish. The ending only makes sense if you are aware of the book's ending.

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[–] C.S.Wood 8 years ago

In the film these people who, assuming the characters are correct in what they say, are capable of making a cure for the infection and getting it to the last remaining enclave of survivors...

But the movie establishes that the toward of seeds is going to infect the air in a mater of time. Assume the doctor could actually make a cure (and there was no hard evidence that she could, simply her belief) and then the tower of seeds catches fire and kills all the adults before the cure could be widely distributed. There's a LOT of risk in the doctor's plan given they had no way to alert people they had a cure and would have no way to even test it aside from infecting themselves.

The movie basically tells us "the last remaining enclave of survivors" are doomed either way. The group with the best chance of surviving are the kids.

a bunch of infected children who will starve to death within a couple of weeks because one of the infected children was frightened of dying and intelligent enough to kill all humans.

The kids won't starve though. As demonstrated by the movie, the infected kids have heightened and enhanced abilities that allowed them to survive in the while independent of adults or an easy food source. And I think with the teacher teaching the feral children how to be civilized and them working as a group increases their chances of rebuilding some semblance of civilization.

The point of the movie for me is the passing of the old guard to make way for the new guard. The adults had to die so the children could live.

Revenge is the most important meal of the day.

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[–] 000000000000000000000000 8 years ago

But the movie establishes that the toward of seeds is going to infect the air in a mater of time. Assume the doctor could actually make a cure (and there was no hard evidence that she could, simply her belief) and then the tower of seeds catches fire and kills all the adults before the cure could be widely distributed. There's a LOT of risk in the doctor's plan given they had no way to alert people they had a cure and would have no way to even test it aside from infecting themselves.

The movie basically tells us "the last remaining enclave of survivors" are doomed either way. The group with the best chance of surviving are the kids.

The kids won't starve though. As demonstrated by the movie, the infected kids have heightened and enhanced abilities that allowed them to survive in the while independent of adults or an easy food source. And I think with the teacher teaching the feral children how to be civilized and them working as a group increases their chances of rebuilding some semblance of civilization.

The point of the movie for me is the passing of the old guard to make way for the new guard. The adults had to die so the children could live.

There is no risk involved in trying to manufacture and distribute a cure. Remember, the only other option was extinction of the human race.

And the kids will starve. The film specifically makes out that they need to eat living creatures, and that there is almost nothing left (by showing the infected's aggression and by only having 2 animals seen in the entire city of London).

Rebuilding civilization isnt possible. Try to farm when you are overtaken by bloodlust every time you see your livestock. Try to farm when the entire country is full of predators. Try to farm when you can only derive sustenance from fresh meat. Etc.

The kids will starve, at least as shown in the film. The book gives them magical powers, which are the only thing which saves them.

This is ignoring all of the other stuff, like the spore release killing all animals on earth, including the zombified children. Because even a non host species will be infected with a parasite given enough exposure, and the children's "symbiotic" relationship will be destroyed by infectious load.

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[–] C.S.Wood 8 years ago

There is no risk involved in trying to manufacture and distribute a cure. Remember, the only other option was extinction of the human race.

And the kids will starve. The film specifically makes out that they need to eat living creatures, and that there is almost nothing left (by showing the infected's aggression and by only having 2 animals seen in the entire city of London).

I disagree though. The kids ARE human, they have just evolved into something else. And we didn't see any food for the adults to eat aside from the store the soldier broke into so by the logic there's no more food for any of the survivors.

The movie establishes that the kids learn extremely fast, have excellent sense of smell, require less oxygen to stay active, and the group of feral kids were somehow surviving. Just because we didn't see animals all over the place doesn't mean they couldn't find alternative means of food. Was it ever stated that they couldn't eat non-living food? They might prefer fresh meat but a hungry person is going to eat what they can get their hands on.

Rebuilding civilization isnt possible. Try to farm when you are overtaken by bloodlust every time you see your livestock.

The main girl was able to control her hunger when she was around the adults, and again, it's not unreasonable to assume the kids won't learn to adjust with the proper teaching and training. The kids aren't animals, they are still human that can be trained and taught, which is what the closing shot suggests.

They won't rebuild society as WE know it but they will create a new society based on their new social structure and needs.

The kids will starve, at least as shown in the film. The book gives them magical powers, which are the only thing which saves them.

This is ignoring all of the other stuff, like the spore release killing all animals on earth, including the zombified children. Because even a non host species will be infected with a parasite given enough exposure, and the children's "symbiotic" relationship will be destroyed by infectious load.

Wait, the animals don't suffer from the virus though, at least not as the movie showed us. We never saw a rabid animal attack them. As far as I know this was a human-specific virus.

Also, how were the kids at the military compound being fed? I just got the sense that the virus caused a mutation in the kids that made them highly adaptable to their situation.

Revenge is the most important meal of the day.

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[–] oscar_ray2_jimenez 8 years ago

Also, how were the kids at the military compound being fed?

Honestly, no offense meant but weren't you paying attention to what you were watching at all?

They were fed bowls of live white maggots. There was even a huge close-up devised to gross the audience out. Makes sense. Lots of protein of relatively good quality, and alive in top of that. Perfect zombie food.

EDIT. Also, this:

The main girl was able to control her hunger when she was around the adults

.

Nope, she couldn't. They made a huge point out of this. She only could control herself when the uninfected were covered in that protective ointment and/or when she was just feed a live cat or live pigeon or any other poor live creature meal. Otherwise, she's a frigging unhinged vampire time bomb waiting to go off.

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[–] C.S.Wood 8 years ago

Nope, she couldn't. They made a huge point out of this. She only could control herself when the uninfected were covered in that protective ointment and/or when she was just feed a live cat or live pigeon or any other poor live creature meal. Otherwise, she's a frigging unhinged vampire time bomb waiting to go off.

It's been a while since I've seen the movie so I forgot about the worms, but she did display some level of restraint around the adults when she lets them know that she can smell them and that she needed to eat. That is a huge difference from just going nuts and trying to attack them the moment she could smell them. It shows that, with practice, she was getting better at fighting off the need to go full zombie when she smelled them without the cream.

Revenge is the most important meal of the day.

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[–] 000000000000000000000000 8 years ago

It's been a while since I've seen the movie so I forgot about the worms, but she did display some level of restraint around the adults when she lets them know that she can smell them and that she needed to eat. That is a huge difference from just going nuts and trying to attack them the moment she could smell them. It shows that, with practice, she was getting better at fighting off the need to go full zombie when she smelled them without the cream.

No, it isnt a huge difference. Melanie did go nuts within a minute when she smelled Justineau without gel. That is the only time in the entire film she is near someone without gel. And there is only so long that you can fight off a natural urge. It is the reason why hunger strikes only last for days.

Look, Melanie saw a cat, the cat was prettymuch the most important thing in the world to her after Helen. She lasted for all of 5 seconds.

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[–] 000000000000000000000000 8 years ago

I disagree though. The kids ARE human, they have just evolved into something else. And we didn't see any food for the adults to eat aside from the store the soldier broke into so by the logic there's no more food for any of the survivors.

...

Also, how were the kids at the military compound being fed? I just got the sense that the virus caused a mutation in the kids that made them highly adaptable to their situation.

The kids arent human.

And there is food for the human survivors. As is shown, there is still scavenging, plus humans can eventually forage/farm, something the zombies cant do.

The kids were surviving on the few animals which were left. Depopulation isnt an instant thing. And yes, it was shown that they need living food. If they could eat anything else then the kid would have been able to eat the same supplies as everyone else. Instead they have to give her just the larvae, which as horrid as it seems now in the situation they were in is valuable.

The main girl wasnt able to control her hunger around the others. Its kind a major plot point. I have no idea how you missed it. There is a SIGNIFICANT!!! (Imagine that in 12 foot tall flashing neon lettering) difference between delaying giving in to an urge for a few hours to being able to co-exist. And the girl, who had more self control than any other child zombie, could only hold off for spans of hours, and even then only with the aid of the blocker gel. Again, the kids in the class caved within 30 seconds, and they themselves would have much more familiarity with people. Even the girl could only last for around a minute when the teacher went into her cell without blocker gel on.

They wont create a new society. They will die out.

They didnt suffer from the disease because of the concept of pathogen loading. Look it up. Essentially being infected with a disease comes down entirely to its ability to survive in your body. Even if you arent a native host to a pathogen, get enough of it in you and it survives long enough to have an effect. A good example of this is raw fish infections like Anisakis, even though we arent primary hosts, take enough in and we can be infected. A low level infection causes the parasites to die, which causes damage due to alergic reactions, a large level of exposure can lead to true infection (which runs a huge list of potential complications).

All land animals being largely identical to humans, will be infected and killed by a sufficient load of the fungus, even if it doesnt effect them in the same way. Another example of this is leptospirosis infection in humans. The virus doesnt properly infect humans (which is why we cannot transmit it between ourselves) however exposed to enough of it through things like rat waste, it will infect people, make them significantly ill (more ill than the natural hosts in most cases) and can lead to things like liver/kidney failure and death.

And the kids in the base were fed by farmed grubs. Which is something we might all be eating in like 50 years due to them being one of the most efficient protein sources. I dont know how you missed that, there was a big gross-out shot at the start.

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[–] Brommabo 8 years ago

The kids won't starve though. As demonstrated by the movie, the infected kids have heightened and enhanced abilities that allowed them to survive in the while independent of adults or an easy food source. And I think with the teacher teaching the feral children how to be civilized and them working as a group increases their chances of rebuilding some semblance of civilization.

I agree. We already saw the feral kids working as a group even without any guidance. We saw that they had access to rats (and enough self control not to eat it directly but try to use it as bait). And if nothing else they could dig in the ground for worms like the ones the kids at the base were fed.

There is no such thing as too much time

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[–] Sword_or_Pen 8 years ago

..giving the zombies magical powers

I don't disagree with you, but I would like to add that's what happens when an adaptation doesn't happen slowly (evolution), it would appear as magic.

I don't believe in magic either.

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[–] thepicturesthatgotsmall 8 years ago

Why didn't Melanie think to bring the dead feral kid or maybe one of the live feral kids to complete the vaccine?

It couldn't just be any infected child, it had to be Melanie.

That's what Dr. Caldwell learned when she dissected Kelly (#13) and it didn't work.

Also, in the end Melanie didn't want a vaccine to be completed. She wanted the old human race to be wiped out so that her race could thrive.

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[–] Sword_or_Pen 8 years ago

I was thinking the same thing, but that the doctor would fail, just like she had in all her previous attempts.

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