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The Darkest Minds

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The Darkest Minds
Theatrical release poster
Directed byJennifer Yuh Nelson
Screenplay byChad Hodge
Produced by
Starring
CinematographyKramer Morgenthau
Edited byMaryann Brandon
Music byBenjamin Wallfisch
Production
company
Distributed by20th Century Fox
Release date
  • August 3, 2018 (2018-08-03)
Running time
105 minutes
CountryUnited States
LanguageEnglish
Budget$34 million[1]
Box office$14.6 million[1]

The Darkest Minds is a 2018 American science fiction thriller film directed by Jennifer Yuh Nelson, and written by Chad Hodge, based on Alexandra Bracken's young adult novel of the same name. The film stars Amandla Stenberg, Mandy Moore, and Gwendoline Christie, and follows a group of teenagers who are on the run from the government after mysteriously obtaining superpowers. The film was released in the United States on August 3, 2018, by 20th Century Fox, and received negative reviews from critics.

Plot

A disease known as Idiopathic Adolescent Acute Neurodegeneration, or IAAN, sweeps through the United States, killing 90% of children under the age of eighteen. The children who survive are endowed with psychic abilities and, fearing their power, the government places them in internment camps sanctioned by the President. Here, they are classified based on their psionic abilties: Greens are the least dangerous and have impossible intelligence and memories; Blues are mildly dangerous and have telekinetic abilities; Golds are somewhat dangerous and have the ability to control electricity; Reds are highly dangerous and have the ability to generate and manipulate fire; Oranges are lethal and have the ability to enter and control the minds of others.

Ruby Daly celebrates her tenth birthday with her parents the night before, as IAAN generally displays symptoms in children ten or older. Her parents give her a keychain which she innocently jokes "may not be cool" by the time she is driving, but her parents show obvious concern, which Ruby picks up on. In the middle the night, Ruby wakes up and ventures into her parents' room, telling them that everything will be alright but experiencing a flash of memories upon touching her mother. Startled, Ruby returns to her bed. When she wakes up in the morning and approaches her mother, she does not recognize her own daughter. Panicked and confused, Ruby is locked in the garage where soldiers from the internment camps come to collect her. At the camps, Ruby witnesses another adolescent classified as "Orange" force a soldier to commit suicide, after which he is tackled and beaten. When she is taken for classification, the examiner finds that she, too, is an Orange, prompting him to attempt to euthanize her, but she is able to use her powers to convince him that she is a Green, and she is spared.

Six years later, Ruby is still in the internment camps, where a soldier harasses her as she is polishing boots with hundreds of other Greens. Another Green stands up for her and is harshly dragged away. When the prisoners journey outside, they are bombarded by a painful frequency called the White Noise that is only detectable by those in the Orange category. Ruby suffers a more adverse reaction to it and falls unconscious. When she wakes up, she is in the medical lab, where a doctor named Cate Begby examines her. When Begby leaves, Ruby looks at her clipboard, where she finds a note telling her that the camp controllers now know she is an Orange due to the frequency and that her life is in danger, and she is directed to meet Begby in the boiler room. She and Begby escape with Ruby using her powers once more to trick a guard into believing that he doesn't feel well and should just let them leave. After this, she passes out.

Ruby reawakens in a different car, having been switched along with Begby to keep their cover. Begby offers Ruby a pendant with a help button on it, telling her that upon being pushed, the button activates a tracker that allows them to find her. Ruby and Begby drive to a gas station, where they meet another man working with Begby and her team. The man laments that he was not able to escape with the psionic adolescent he was supposed to. Ruby avoids physical contact with the man, not wanting to activate her abilties, but trips and the man catches her by the wrist. She slips into his minds, seeing that the psionic he was supposed to rescue did not cooperate and was seemingly killed as punishment. Fearful of who Begby and the man might be, Ruby decides to change in the convenience store attached to the gas station and is looking for a way out when she spots a young girl. The girl is startled and reveals herself to be a Gold when she short-circuits the store's lights and flees. Desperate to escape Begby and threat she represents, Ruby chases the girl back to a van where she begs to be let in and the girl relents, seeing that she might be killed if she is left outside. The little girl hides Ruby under a blanket as two boys return to the van. When they see the two adults searching for Ruby, they hastily drive the van away.

Ruby reveals hers presence to the older boys, one of whom introduces himself as Liam and the other as Charles, nicknamed "Chubs" out of irony, and the little girl as Suzume, shortened to "Zu." As they drive, they are tracked down by a gold coupe, the driver of which shoots a hole in the windshield. She is revealed to be Lady Jane, a bounty hunter who subdues and brings in psionic kids. Begby and her partner also pursue Ruby, however, and manage to run Lady Jane off the road. Liam then demands that Ruby take the wheel while he, a Blue, uses his abilities to pull a tree from the nearby forest and throw it in front of Begby's car. Chubs tells Ruby that Begby is part of an organization called the Children's League, a band of individuals who recruit psionic kids to fight against the camps but in a cruel and violent manner. After the skirmish, they stop and Liam gives Ruby, who has claimed to be a Green like Chubs, the chance to leave, should she want to, but she chooses not to after Liam tells her that she would be treated like family with them. They stop in a motel overnight, where Zu has a dream that Ruby accidentally slips into where she relives her escape from one of the camps, an escape orchestrated by Liam but at the cost of several lives. In the morning, Ruby finds Liam outside trying to scrape the words off the van to make it less recognizable and they flirt before two bounty hunters step out of their motel room. They make an advance toward Ruby and Liam, but Ruby manages to use her powers and drive them away without telling Liam how she did it.

After departing, the group comes across a seemingly abandoned mall where they run through supplying themselves with clothes, food, and other amenities before taking bikes and children's toys for joyrides around the open mezzanines. Ruby and Liam come across a threatening sign which warns them to "get out" before they are pinned together telekinetically and thrown through several objects. Once they are put down, another ragtag group of children reveals themselves as the residents of the mall and, after seeing that they aren't a threat, they allow Ruby's group to stay the night, but no longer. The groups sit together in the evening and discuss Liam, Chubs, Ruby, and Zu's ultimate goal of finding the elusive "Slip Kid" who is one of the few remaining Oranges and has been rumored to run a safe haven for psionic children called East River. Ruby inquires about finding the haven, but the other kids are willing to give no more information until Ruby uses her powers and forces "EDO" out of one of them. Unsure about the clue, the group goes to sleep. Ruby wakes up in the middle of the night and finds Chubs also awake, stating that somebody needed to keep watch to make sure they were safe. Ruby finds that Chubs has been spending the hours thinking up countless meanings for EDO, but hasn't found a conclusive one yet. They stumble across a shelf full of radios and Chubs has an epiphany: EDO stands for the AM radio station 540. He tunes the radio to that channel and finds a message in a frequency only psionic children can hear directing them to the East River haven. Ecstatic about their discovery, the group departs the next morning to head for the safe haven.

On their way, they pass Ruby's house and Liam offers for her to go and visit her parents. Ruby accepts and goes up to the window of her house, but anticipating her mother's heartbreaking reaction and ultimate contacting of the camp soldiers, she turns away and runs into an open field, where Liam finds her. They share a tender moment and almost kiss, but Ruby pulls away, not wanting to slip into Liam's mind. They make their way back to the van only to be ambushed by Lady Jane, who subdues Liam and has already tied up Chubs and Zu. Ruby is forced to use her powers in front of the other three, sending Lady Jane hiking into the forest with orders to never stop, despite her hunger or exhaustion. Ruby passes out from the effort and awakens to Liam and Chubs debating over leaving her behind. Feeling betrayed, Ruby volunteers to leave on her own, but the two reveal that they were simply talking about having to abandon the van, nicknamed Betty, because it was still too easy a target. They also reveal that they don't care that she is an Orange and that her kind of power does not drive them away from her.

They hold a ceremony for Betty in the woods before departing for the safe haven. When they arrive in an open clearing where the camp should be, they are ambushed by several masked soldiers. One soldier recognizes Liam, however, and he tells the others to stand down. It is revealed that they are simply guards for the safe haven and are kids just like the four of them. Inside the camp, they are introduced to the Slip Kid himself, who is revered to be none other than the President's son, Clancy Gray, the only other known remaining Orange. Clancy earnestly greets them and gets them set up within the camp. While the others are assigned to various jobs around the haven, Ruby is called into Clancy's office so he can teach her about her abilities and learn about her. Over the course of the next few weeks, Clancy tries to help Ruby get more of an understanding and a grip on her powers, allowing her to dance with Liam and be comfortable with coming in contact with him.

One day, Ruby ventures down to the dock and finds Chubs looking at the water, where he reveals that he hates the haven because it feels too much like a freer version of the internment camps. Ruby acknowledges that he is anxious to communicate to his parents that he is okay and Ruby approaches Clancy about letting Chubs use Clancy's computer to send them a message. Clancy agrees to this on one condition: Ruby teaches him how to erase a memory. It is revealed that this is what she did when she touched her mother's hand the morning of Ruby's birthday, effectively erasing any trace of Ruby having ever been in their lives. Clancy then tries to rape Ruby, who punches him and flees into the forest where Liam finds her. She transfers to Liam what had happened and Liam threatens to kill Clancy, but Ruby convinces him to leave with her, Chubs, and Zu instead. They return to the cabin and pack their belongings, then make a break for the exit, but are blocked by Clancy and a horde of government soldiers. Clancy uses his abilities to temporarily deafen and paralyze Liam so that Clancy can beat on him. Clancy reveals that he is holding kids in the camp for the purpose of selling them off to the government and tells Ruby his plan to erase all the bad memories she has of him (now that he had been taught how) so that she can lead by his side.

Ruby uses her powers to force the leading commander to commit suicide, causing a panic that allows she, Liam, Chubs, and Zu to escape back into the camp. As helicopters and soldiers arrive, the camp runs amok with kids being shot down and collected everywhere. The government unleashes an army of Reds, who set fire to the camp. Liam manages to get Zu to safety with a group that escapes the haven. Clancy forces several residents of the haven to bow to him as he makes his way to Ruby, attempting to get inside her head and erase the memories she has of him trying to rape her. She connects to the mind of the pilot of a chopper above and forces him to go into a nosedive. As she runs away, the explosion blows her off her feet and spreads fire everywhere. Chubs picks her up and tries to carry her away, but a seconds explosion burns Chubs and blows them down a hill, with Chubs taking most of the damage. At the bottom of the hill, Ruby finds that Chubs is gravely injured and knowing it is the only way to help him, she activates the Children's League pendant Begby gave her. In the morning, Liam finds Ruby and Chubs and Ruby warns him that the League is coming, but he chooses to stay. The three are taken into custody, with Chubs being admitted to a League hospital and Ruby and Liam being taken to a private safe house.

When Ruby awakens, Begby explains that Chubs is in critical condition but is being treated and that she and Liam will now be a part of their team. Ruby threatens to run away again unless the League releases Liam. Begby agrees reluctantly to this and packs a bag for him with fresh clothes, supplies, and new ID. Ruby explains the situation to him, but he refuses to leave her with the League. Seeing no other option, Ruby kisses Liam goodbye, purposefully erasing his memories of her in the process. He reawakens bewildered but leaves with Begby's bag, which Ruby clipped the keychain her parents gave her for her tenth birthday to. Clancy is then seen assembling an army of soldiers while Ruby salutes the thousands of kids who have joined the Children's League's army.

Cast

  • Amandla Stenberg as Ruby Daly, a teenager with the ability to get into peoples' minds who escapes from her government camp and finds a group of runaways looking for East River.
    • Lidya Jewett as Young Ruby
  • Harris Dickinson as Liam Stewart, a kid with telekinesis in the group of runaways. Ruby's love interest.
  • Skylan Brooks as Chubs, a kid with super intelligence in the group of runaways.
  • Miya Cech as Suzume "Zu", a kid with electrokinesis in the group of runaways.
  • Patrick Gibson as Clancy Gray, the president's handsome son, who, like Ruby, has the power of getting into people’s minds.
  • Mandy Moore as Dr. Cate Connor, a doctor and member of a group fighting against the government
  • Gwendoline Christie as Lady Jane, a bounty hunter of superpowered teens who escape from the camp
  • Golden Brooks as Molly Daly, Ruby's mother and Paul's wife
  • Wallace Langham as Dr. Viceroy
  • Mark O'Brien as Rob Meadows
  • Bradley Whitford as President Gray, Clancy's father

Production

On September 15, 2014, it was announced that 20th Century Fox had bought the film rights to Alexandra Bracken's young adult novel The Darkest Minds, the first book in her The Darkest Minds series. Shawn Levy would produce the film along with Dan Levine and Dan Cohen through his 21 Laps Entertainment, while the television writer Chad Hodge was hired to write the adaptation.[2] On July 12, 2016, it was reported that animation director Jennifer Yuh Nelson had been hired to direct the film, and it would be her first live-action project.[3]

Casting

On September 26, 2016, Amandla Stenberg joined the film to play the lead role of Ruby Daly, a 15-year-old girl who runs away from her government camp and joins a group of teens.[4] On January 17, 2017, it was reported that newcomer Harris Dickinson had signed on to play Liam, who also develops superpowers surviving the disease.[5] In February 2017, Miya Cech was cast in her debut film to play Zu, and Skylan Brooks was cast in the film to play Chubs.[6][7] In March 2017, Mandy Moore was cast to play Cate, a doctor and member of a organization who is fighting against the government, and Patrick Gibson was cast to play Clancy Gray, the president's handsome son, whose posters are all over the camp for being “cured” of his powers. He also has the power of seeing into people's minds.[8][9] Gwendoline Christie was also cast in the film to play a bounty hunter of teens who escape from the camp.[10] In April 2017, Golden Brooks joined the film to play the mother of Daly.[11]

Filming

Principal photography on the film began in April 2017 in Atlanta, Georgia.[12][13][14]

Reception

Box office

As of August 10, 2018, The Darkest Minds has grossed $9.5 million in the United States and Canada, and $5.1 million in other territories, for a total worldwide gross of $14.6 million, against a production budget of $34 million.[1]

In the United States and Canada, The Darkest Minds was released on August 3, 2018, alongside Christopher Robin, The Spy Who Dumped Me and Death of a Nation: Can We Save America a Second Time?, and was originally projected to gross around $10 million from 3,127 theaters in its opening weekend.[15] However after grossing $2.3 million on its first day, including $550,000 from Thursday night previews, weekend estimates were lowered to $6 million. It went on debut to $5.8 million, finishing eighth at the box office and marking the 11th worst opening for a film playing in over 3,000 theaters.[16]

Critical response

On review aggregation website Rotten Tomatoes, the film holds an approval rating of 17% based on 88 reviews, with an average rating of 4.2/10. The site's critical consensus reads, "The Darkest Minds does little to differentiate itself in a crowded field of YA adaptations, leaving all but the least demanding viewers feeling dystopian déjà vu."[17] On Metacritic, the film has a weighted average score of 40 out of 100, based on reviews from 25 critics, indicating "mixed or average reviews".[18] Audiences polled by CinemaScore gave the film an average grade of "B" on an A+ to F scale.[16]

William Bibbiani of TheWrap praised film and the cast, but concedes "it's not quite thrilling enough [...] so it plays a bit more like a manifesto than a sci-fi thriller."[19] Alex Hudson from Exclaim! criticized the film's pacing and underdeveloped story, saying, "The Darkest Minds is just a schlocky teen romance with a post-apocalyptic backdrop."[20]

References

  1. ^ a b c "The Darkest Minds (2018)". Box Office Mojo. Retrieved August 11, 2018.
  2. ^ Kit, Borys (September 15, 2014). "'Wayward Pines' Creator Tapped to Adapt 'Darkest Minds' (Exclusive)". The Hollywood Reporter. Retrieved April 30, 2017.
  3. ^ Kit, Borys (July 12, 2016). "'Kung Fu Panda' Director Jennifer Yuh Nelson to Make Live-Action Debut With 'Darkest Minds'". The Hollywood Reporter. Retrieved April 30, 2017.
  4. ^ Kit, Borys (September 26, 2016). "Amandla Stenberg to Star in Fox's YA Adaptation of 'Darkest Minds' (Exclusive)". The Hollywood Reporter. Retrieved May 8, 2017.
  5. ^ Patten, Dominic (January 17, 2017). "Harris Dickinson To Star In Fox's YA Adaptation Of 'Darkest Minds'". Deadline. Retrieved May 8, 2017.
  6. ^ N'Duka, Amanda (February 1, 2017). "Miya Cech Joins Fox's 'The Darkest Minds'; Noah Centineo Cast In 'Sierra Burgess Is A Loser'". Deadline. Retrieved May 8, 2017.
  7. ^ Rought, Karen (February 19, 2017). "'The Darkest Minds' movie adaptation has found its Chubs". Hypable. Retrieved May 8, 2017.
  8. ^ McNary, Dave (March 7, 2017). "Mandy Moore Joins Amandla Stenberg in Dystopian Thriller 'Darkest Minds'". Variety. Retrieved May 8, 2017.
  9. ^ Lodderhose, Diana (March 13, 2017). "'The OA' Star Patrick Gibson Heads To Fox's 'The Darkest Minds'". Deadline. Retrieved May 8, 2017.
  10. ^ Kit, Borys (March 22, 2017). "Gwendoline Christie Joins Sci-Fi Thriller 'Darkest Minds' (Exclusive)". The Hollywood Reporter. Retrieved May 8, 2017.
  11. ^ McNary, Dave (April 4, 2017). "Golden Brooks Joins Amandla Stenberg's Dystopian Thriller 'Darkest Minds' (EXCLUSIVE)". Variety. Retrieved May 8, 2017.
  12. ^ Walljasper, Matt (April 26, 2017). "What's filming in Atlanta now? Simon Vs. the Homo Sapiens Agenda, The Last Full Measure, Darkest Minds, plus how a looming WGA strike could threaten Georgia – Atlanta Magazine". Atlanta Magazine. Retrieved April 30, 2017.
  13. ^ "What's Filming in Atlanta Now?". On Location Vacations. Retrieved April 30, 2017.
  14. ^ "Casting Call for Kids and Adults in ATL for "The Darkest Minds" Sc-Fi Movie". Auditions Free. April 26, 2017. Retrieved April 30, 2017.
  15. ^ Rubin, Rebecca (August 1, 2018). "Box Office: Can Disney's 'Christopher Robin' Top 'Mission: Impossible – Fallout'?". Variety. Retrieved August 1, 2018.
  16. ^ a b D'Alessandro, Anthony (August 4, 2018). "'Tom Cruise's $34M 'Mission' Takes Out 'Christopher Robin' — Saturday AM". Deadline Hollywood. Penske Business Media. Retrieved August 4, 2018.
  17. ^ "The Darkest Minds (2018)". Rotten Tomatoes. Fandango Media. Retrieved August 10, 2018.
  18. ^ "The Darkest Minds reviews". Metacritic. CBS Interactive. Retrieved August 10, 2018.
  19. ^ https://www.thewrap.com/the-darkest-minds-film-review-amandla-stenberg/
  20. ^ Hudson, Alex. "'The Darkest Minds' Review: Teen Dystopia Meets Romantic Schmaltz". Exclaim!. Retrieved 2 August 2018.
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