Children of Men
Universal Pictures Jan 5, 2007
In 2027, in a chaotic world in which women have somehow become infertile, a former activist agrees to help transport a miraculously pregnant woman to a sanctuary at sea.
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Technical Specifications
Sound Mix: SDDS,Dolby Digital,DTS
Aspect Ratio: 1.85 : 1
Other Details
Country of Origin: United States,United Kingdom,Japan
Language: English,German,Italian,Romanian,Spanish,Arabic,Georgian,Hebrew,Sanskrit,Russian,Serbian
Summaries
Plot Summary
- In 2027, eighteen years of total human infertility have led to war and global depression, pushing civilization to the brink of collapse as humanity faces extinction. The last person in the world to be born was nicknamed "Baby Diego". When the story opens, Diego has been murdered by one of his fans. The United Kingdom, the last known stable nation, is deluged by asylum seekers. In response it has become a militarized police state as British forces round up and detain immigrants. Refugees are arrested and either imprisoned, deported, or executed in concentration camps.Theo is former activist turned cynical bureaucrat. He visits his spirited and jovial best friend Jasper (Michael Caine) who is a cartoonist. His wife Janice was a journalist, who was reportedly tortured into a catatonic state by the secret services for her reporting. Jasper tells Theo about organizations like the Human Project working on a cure for infertility. Theo believes it is too late already and that mankind is beyond the point of salvation. Jasper is able to cheer Theo up with new strain of cannabis he's been growing and bombastic techno music.Kidnapped by an immigrants rights group known as "The Fishes", Theo Faron (Clive Owen) is brought to its leader, his estranged wife Julian Taylor (Julianne Moore). They parted ways after their son died from a flu pandemic in 2008.Julian offers Theo money (5000 pounds) to acquire transit papers for a young black female refugee named Kee (Clare-Hope Ashitey). At first Theo refuses as the transaction would be too risky and he would have to put himself in danger to get the papers. Julian releases Theo but pays him the 5000 pounds in case he changes his mind. Julian believes that every immigrant should have equal rights and has dedicated her organization to helping them.Theo obtains the papers from his cousin Nigel (Danny Huston), a government minister. Theo says that the papers are for his girlfriend, whom he loves. However the papers require that the bearer must be accompanied by their significant other, so Theo agrees to escort Kee in exchange for a larger sum. Theo cannot understand why Julian asked him for the papers as she could have got them through other means as well. Julian only says that she trusts him.Luke (Chiwetel Ejiofor), a Fishes member, drives them and former midwife Miriam (Pam Ferris) towards the coast to a boat. On their route, they pass through a heavily forested area. They are ambushed by an armed gang and Julian is fatally shot. Theo fights off their attackers, but the car is damaged in the fight. The police notice the damaged car and follow them and intercept the car further down the road. Luke kills two police officers that try to question them, and the group hides Julian's body in the surrounding forest, before heading to a safe house at another Fishes' farm. Theo wants to leave, but Luke says that it is too dangerous and says that Theo will be taken care of the next day.At the farm Kee reveals to Theo that she is pregnant, making her the only known pregnant woman in the world and that Julian told her to only trust him. Theo realizes that Kee could unlock the future of mankind by providing a cure for infertility. Julian had intended to hand Kee over to the "Human Project", a mysterious scientific group based the Azores dedicated to curing infertility. However, Luke persuades Kee to stay. Luke becomes the new leader of the Fishes.That night Theo is awakened by a commotion outside. One of the group that attacked Theo's party in the forest, Patrick, has brought another man severely injured in the attack to the farm; the man is Patrick's cousin. Patrick is furious and wants to kill Theo in revenge. Theo eavesdrops on their meeting and discovers that Julian's death was orchestrated so the group could use the baby as a political tool to support the coming uprising. Theo wakes Kee and Miriam and they steal a car, escaping to Jasper's secluded home deep in the forest.A plan is formulated to board the Human Project ship, the Tomorrow, which will arrive offshore from the Bexhill refugee camp and Jasper proposes having camp guard Syd (Peter Mullan) smuggle them in, as he's had dealings with him in the past. From there they can take a rowboat and rendezvous with the Tomorrow. The next day, the Fishes discover Jasper's house, forcing the group to flee.The Fishes trail the group, and Jasper stays behind to stall them, giving the government-issued suicide drug Quietus to his catatonic wife. A horrified Theo witnesses the Fishes mercilessly torture and kill him before escaping with Miriam and Kee. At an abandoned school, Miriam tells Theo about her experiences as a maternity nurse when the first reports of infertility became known.Later they meet Syd (Peter Mullan), who transports them to Bexhill as prisoners. He tells his charges to meet up with a woman named Marichka after they pass through processing and puts them on a bus to the town. Just as Kee begins having contractions on the bus, a guard enters the bus to select people for execution. When he notices Kee hurting, Miriam feigns religious mania to distract the guard and is taken away; she is lined up among other detainees and a hood is placed on her head. Theo fools the guard into thinking Kee just soiled herself, after which the guard leaves her alone.At the camp Theo and Kee meet Marichka (Oana Pellea), who provides a room where Kee gives birth to a girl. The next day Syd informs Theo and Kee that a war between the army and the refugees, including the Fishes, has begun. He then reveals that Theo and Kee have a bounty on their heads and attempts to capture them. Theo subdues Syd with Marichka's help and the group briefly take shelter with Marichka's friends.When the boat has been arranged, they head out into the hazardous streets where Muslim protestors are marching and rebels and British soldiers exchange fire. They group are ambushed by the Fishes, who capture Kee and the baby. As British troops attack, Theo tracks the Fishes to an apartment building under heavy fire. Patrick is killed and Theo confronts Luke, taking Kee with him. Luke is killed in an explosion, and Theo escorts Kee and the baby out. Awed by seeing the first live infant in years, the British soldiers and Fishes temporarily stop fighting and allow the trio to leave. Marichka leads them to the boat but stays behind as they depart.As British fighter jets conduct airstrikes on Bexhill, Theo and Kee row to the rendezvous point in heavy fog. Theo reveals that he was shot and wounded by Luke in the blasted-out apartment building. He teaches Kee how to burp her baby, and she tells him she will name the baby girl Dylan, after Theo's and Julian's lost son. Theo smiles weakly, then loses consciousness as the Tomorrow emerges from the fog. As the screen cuts to black, children's laughter is heard.
Storyline
- In the dystopian world of 2027 London, humans have been incapable of reproducing for 18 year for an unknown reason, meaning the imminent extinction of the species. Britain is the one remaining civilized society on the planet, which has resulted in people wanting to migrate there, so it has become a police state to handle the immigrants, who are placed into refugee camps. Lowly government bureaucrat Theo Faron, once an activist, is approached by the Fishes, deemed a terrorist group, led by his ex-wife Julian Taylor, whom he hasn't seen in almost 20 years, since their marriage disintegrated after their infant son Dylan's death during the 2008 flu pandemic. Although the Fishes did use terrorist means in their on-going revolution against the state in the fight for immigrant rights, Julian vows that they now garner support solely by speaking to the people, and she wants Theo to use his connections to get transit papers for a young immigrant woman named Kee who needs to get to the coast. Although initially reluctant to do it because of the difficulty, Theo is able to grant Julian this favor, however with the change that he now needs to accompany Kee on her journey. As Theo and Kee progress on that journey, Theo learns more and more about what's going on, including the reason that Kee needs to get to the coast, the fact that no one in the group knows if their end destination even exists, and that his and Kee's lives are in greater danger than he believed when they started the journey. But Theo's sole mission becomes to help Kee at any cost for the survival of the species. — Huggo This sci-fi epic from Alfonso Cuaron imagines a future world that has fallen into anarchy on the heels of an infertility defect in the population that has made humankind face the likelihood of its own extinction. Set against a backdrop of London torn apart by violence, the film follows an unlikely champion of Earth's survival: Theo (Owen), a disillusioned ex-activist turned bureaucrat, who is forced to face his own demons and protect the planet's last remaining hope for a future generation. The world's youngest citizen has just died at age 18, and humankind is facing the likelihood of its own extinction. Set in and around a dystopian London fractious with violence and warring nationalistic sects, this movie follows the unexpected discovery of a lone pregnant woman and the desperate journey to deliver her to safety and restore faith for a future beyond those presently on Earth. — Production World divisions, chaos and anarchy--these are the ways the world and its last remaining inhabitants are checking out. No child has been born for 18 years. Human life and its moral self is eroding into extinction. Set in Britain in the year 2027, this is Theodore Faron finding his ghosts coming back to haunt his fruitless life, in the form of an underground band of rebels The Fishes. Unwittingly drawn into their plight, learning who can be trusted, who can be dependable, and how he must hold the most precious secret the Human race has been so longing to hear, the miracle that can change the course of Humanity; the first pregnant woman in 18 years. On the run, he, Kee, and Miriam must travel cross-country on the run, terrified, and helpless to the safe haven of the Human Project with help from aging hippie Jasper Palmer. This horrific, dark, unconventional, and uncompromising road movie is all that is left between the demise of the Human race and the birth of a new dawn. — Cinema_Fan 1 more See all