The Girl with All the Gifts Dvd

The Girl with All the Gifts is a 2016 British post-apocalyptic science fiction horror film directed by Colm McCarthy and written by Mike Carey, based on his 2014 novel of the same name. Starring Gemma Arterton, Paddy Considine, Glenn Close, and Sennia Nanua, the film depicts a dystopian future following a breakdown of society after most of humanity is wiped out by a fungal infection. The plot focuses on the struggle of a scientist, a teacher, and two soldiers who embark on a journey of survival with a special young girl named Melanie.

Plot

In the near future, humanity has been ravaged by a disease caused by a parasitic fungus transmitted by bodily fluids. The infected have turned into fast, mindless zombies, called “hungries.” Mankind’s only hope is a small group of hybrid second-generation children who crave living flesh, but retain the ability to think and learn.

The children are imprisoned by a group of soldiers led by Sergeant Eddie Parks, and go to school at an army base in the Home Counties, where they are experimented on by Dr. Caroline Caldwell. Helen Justineau is responsible for educating and studying the children. Among them is an exceptional girl named Melanie. Melanie is brought into a lab by Caldwell to be dissected to develop a vaccine for the disease.

When the base is overrun by hungries and the operating lab is breached, Melanie escapes and wanders outside, where soldiers are being violently attacked. She is stunned by what she sees, but attacks and bites two soldiers who are trying to restrain Justineau. Justineau and Melanie board an escaping truck with Sergeant Parks, Caldwell, and two surviving soldiers, Gallagher and Dillon. The soldiers want to shoot Melanie, but Justineau and Caldwell protect her. Melanie is restrained and muzzled to prevent her from biting the others. Dillon is killed when hungries attack as the group stops for water, and the truck is disabled.

The group reaches London by foot and makes their way through a swarm of dormant hungries using a “blocker” gel that masks their scent, rendering them largely invisible. They take shelter in an abandoned hospital for the night. Caldwell reveals that second-generation hungries were discovered after newborns killed their infected mothers by burrowing out of the womb.

In the morning, the group realises they have been surrounded by hungries. Melanie, as a second-generation hungry, is ignored by the hungries. She eats a stray cat and then explores abandoned houses. She helps the group by leading the hungries away with a stray dog so the group can escape.

As they progress through London, they come across piles of infected bodies encircling the BT Tower, which has been overgrown by a massive fungal growth. Caldwell explains that the growth contains seed pods which, if released, could release airborne spores that would end mankind. They take shelter in an abandoned mobile laboratory that was sent into the city earlier by the military authorities.

Caldwell, injured and dying of sepsis, reasons that she can save the human race by sacrificing Melanie to complete her vaccine research in the lab. As the group runs out of food, Gallagher ventures into the city on a supply run, but is killed by a tribe of feral hungry children who have learned to track uninfected people, despite the blocker gel. When the rest of the group is surrounded by the feral children, Melanie kills the leader with a bat. The remaining children back off, allowing them to escape.

Caldwell attempts to dissect Melanie upon the group’s return to the lab, imploring her to sacrifice herself for Justineau. Melanie comes to the realisation that she is not an experiment and that her kind, human-zombie hybrids, will be the future of the world. She escapes and sets the towering seed-pod structure alight, causing it to release an immense cloud of spores. Caldwell chases after her, but is killed by the tribe of children.

Parks leaves the lab in search of Melanie, but becomes infected by the spores. He hands Melanie his gun and tearfully asks her to shoot him, as he does not want to turn into a hungry. Melanie obliges and shoots Parks as he is about to turn. In the lab, Justineau stands inside the sealed door, watching the spores fall.

The film ends with a tearful Justineau, safe but confined to the sealed mobile lab due to the lethal environment. Outside, the hybrid children of the army base, along with the feral children, sit together, kept sternly in place by Melanie. Justineau speaks through a microphone, once again educating them.

Cast

Gemma Arterton as Helen Justineau
Paddy Considine as Sergeant Eddie Parks
Glenn Close as Caroline Caldwell
Sennia Nanua as Melanie
Anamaria Marinca as Jean Selkirk
Fisayo Akinade as Private Kieran Gallagher
Anthony Welsh as Private Dillon
Dominique Tipper as Private Devani