Many film critics believe that Vivarium is a warning film for those who are constantly in the digital world. Some young people just don’t think about tomorrow. When it comes time to grow up, they realize that they are not ready to take responsibility not only for others, but also for themselves. The meaning of the film “Vivarium” is to open the eyes of the audience to the harsh reality. Most young people sooner or later will have to try on the role of a parent. It was then that the characters had significant problems.
Cuckoo
First we need to talk about the well-known cuckoo bird. Many consider her a cute and harmless bird. If its singing is cute, the bird itself is not. She is the real parasite. To reproduce, the cuckoo tosses its eggs into the nests of smaller bird species. She finds the right moment when there is no one near the nest and knocks down one of the eggs of the poor bird, replacing it with her own. But that is not all. When a cuckoo chick is born, the first thing it does is throw other eggs and young chicks out of the nest. He does this insidious act to trick the poor mother bird into feeding him alone. But wait, that’s not all. The cuckoo can make sounds that make the mother bird hunt and gather food endlessly. Eventually, the baby cuckoo eventually becomes larger than the nursing bird, and only then does it leave the nest, leaving the poor mother with an empty nest and heart.
How is the cuckoo related to the movie?
The cuckoo bird is the key to the plot of the Vivarium. Watching a cuckoo chick destroy another bird’s family is exactly what happens to the two main characters in the film. At the beginning of the film, Gemma tells her student that the cuckoo is part of nature, and that’s how it should be. To this the child replies that it is terrible. Unfortunately, she and Tom are going to be the victims of one such terrible thing.
final spoiler
Let me say this right at the start. The idea of the film is that people fall for the lure of inexpensive houses, fall into a trap. They must raise the non-human child as their child (this is analogous to the cuckoo situation). When the child grows up, the parents will be killed, and this alien child goes out into the world to trap more people.
Movie Plot Explanation
A loving young couple Gemma and Tom go to a real estate agent to buy a house. The agent turns out to be a creepy person with creepy mannerisms and creepy intent. They laugh at this and follow him into a maze of identical houses from which they cannot escape.
What is this child?
Under the threshold of the house they throw a box in which there is a child with the inscription: “Raise a child and become free.” It is never mentioned in the film, but the release is death. This child is not human and belongs to another unknown species, possibly aliens, because only they can distort reality in order to lure people into a trap. The creepy real estate agent is also one of the species. Similar to the cuckoo, the boy grows rapidly, mimicking humans and screaming when he needs food and attention. I’m not saying that the cry of a human child is that terrible, but sometimes they are really terrible.
As the director explains, we are now seeing three stages in the lives of Gemma and Tom. Youth, middle age and old age. Although they do not age physically, their life is sucked out of them by the clock. The child drains them from the inside, demanding timely food and playing creepy calls to Gemma’s mom, whom she hates.
One day, throwing a cigarette on the artificial turf, Tom saw the ground underneath. In search of a way out of this place, Tom in desperation begins to dig a hole. He will do this until the end of the film, and his health will be greatly reduced due to bad food and physical exertion.
Kill the baby!
Tom even tries to kill the child to death, but Gemma, being a good person, saves him. She will regret it later when the child returns from somewhere with a book. This book was given to him by an elder of his kind. During this period of time, the child briefly transforms to show its original form. It is this creature with a swollen neck that we can see in the book.
Would Gemma and Tom have survived if the child had been killed? Unlikely, they could just get another box with another baby. What do you guys think about this? Write in the comments.
What is the boy watching on TV?
Models on television are similar to the mindless repetitive programs that children are so addicted to these days. The visuals and sounds are really annoying for parents when their kids watch these shows in full.
The child quickly turns into a man
Before the couple understands what’s going on, the child will grow up to be a strong person. And like the baby of the cuckoo, the baby becomes much bigger than his adoptive parents. This is not shown on the screen, but it is possible that a fight broke out between Tom and the non-human. As a result of the wounds inflicted by the child, the plastic food, and the stress of constant digging, Tom’s condition deteriorated greatly.
What was in the hole?
Tom continues to dig a hole and finds a dead body deep below. All he did was dig his own grave. There is no light at the end of this tunnel, only death. This dead body may have belonged to a previous occupant who was also trapped in this house. Looks like Tom wasn’t the first to dig a hole in desperation to get out.
Gemma falls through other realities
The child locks up Gemma and Tom when he goes away for the day. Tom dies on the pavement, and the child returns with a box containing a body bag. He loads Tom’s body into a bag and throws it into the hole as Gemma cries helplessly. Gemma tries to attack and kill the child, but he suddenly stops imitating a person, drops to all fours and moves like an animal. He runs under the pavement, which he has raised like a carpet. Gemma is chasing him. She traverses the fabric of her twisted reality and falls through other realities where different couples are held captive. But, unfortunately, she returns to her own prison of reality and cries, knowing that she will never be saved.
The meaning of the ending of the film Vivarium
The ending of the film Vivarium shows us that Tom and Gemma have been used as trusted parents to raise a child that belongs to an unknown species. This is similar to how a cuckoo baby is reared by other bird species. It’s sad, but in the context of this film, it’s a part of nature that is sometimes terrible. Tom and Gemma are trapped in a distorted reality. Many people are trapped in their own prisons of reality.
Here is the final conversation between the child and Gemma:
Gemma: Who am I in this? Mother?
Child: Yes. Someone who is preparing his son for the world.
Gemma: What does mom do then?
Child: She is dying.
People only have to raise and prepare children for the world, which is exactly what the cuckoo wants. After that, parents are fit for only one thing – death.
Analysis ending scene
Gemma: I’m not your mother.
Child: Anyone.
The final scene in the film shows that the child can now fully imitate the subtleties of people and their way of expressing themselves through body language and words. He is ready for life and takes Tom and Gemma’s car to the real estate store. The real estate agent has aged to death in that short time as their kind is aging rapidly. The person puts the agent in a bag and folds it like a newspaper, showing us that they quickly decompose and their human form is just a cover. The child continues the work of luring other people when the movie comes to an end.
So what is the hidden meaning of the film?
The film is about two things. The first is a metaphor for all the soulless, monotonous houses sold in many parts of the world that were left uninhabited when the markets collapsed. Those who owned them were left trapped in debt that sucked everything out of them.
The second is the existential crisis that one kind of bird places in another, replacing the bird’s eggs with its own. The film is if people went through something like that.
Simply put, the film shows the absurdity of life. Vivarium literally means a container, often with a glass front, in which small animals, especially small reptiles, are kept as pets or for study. Tom and Gemma are placed in a twisted sci-fi vivarium.
If you look, the only commodity that is distorted in terms of value is the house. This is the situation all over the world, because builders have found a way to increase their value indefinitely. While you can handle all other living expenses, real estate is mostly unaffordable and overpriced. Buying a home is the dream of most people, and they end up doing it with a mortgage that lasts for decades. These loans are huge and people are starting to get stressed when it comes to supporting their families and children. They are forced to do the chores they hate for the paychecks that pay off the mortgage.
Quite often in our lives, young people take out loans, pay them back most of their lives, and then die.
During the crash of 2007-2008, builders were building residential buildings with hundreds of identical houses. It was the maximum use of the minimum area with the maximum benefit. Due to the inflated price, these houses remained unsold and were as empty as the place where Tom and Gemma end up.
Write in the comments your assumptions and theories about what and what is the meaning of the film “Vivarium”. We look forward to waiting!
