Netflix’s Bird Box Barcelona follows Sebastian and his daughter Anna trying to survive a desolate landscape in the wake of a global attack on humanity by invisible, preternatural creatures.
Warning: This article contains heavy spoilers
Plot summary
Sebastian and his daughter Anna struggle while wading their way through desolate streets. They come across a group of survivors and Sebastian asks Anna to wait until he goes and confirms that they’re good people.
He convinces the group to help by telling them that he has helped to offer as well, in the form of generators the locations of which he claims to know. They give him refuge in the large bus port.
They all sleep inside one of the buses and Sebastian wakes up in the middle of it, steals the keys, turns the ignition on, and shuts the door so others can’t come close to him. He then pumps the accelerator, intending on taking the bus outside so they can all see the creatures.
The survivors try to stop him but fail, ultimately dying after looking at the creatures, except for a blind man who walks away devastated and traumatized.
Sebastian then targets another survivor, but he’s stopped in his tracks by the woman’s survivor mates who also have dogs with them. He manages to convince most of them that he’s just an innocent guy who’s been robbed, although the veteran doesn’t believe him.
He is taken to the hideout for the promise he makes about the generators. He meets the rest of the group of survivors who all take refuge inside the tunnels.
One of the survivors is a young German girl named Sofia, who Sebastian uses as his shield as he’s the only one who knows her language, while Sofia also trusts the innocent-looking Sebastian. Claire is another survivor, an English-speaking psychiatrist who looks after Sofia.
Conversing with Sofia about her mother and how she came to be separated, the young girl reveals that she and her mother were to head for a refuge at the Montjuïc Castle. Sebastian convinces the group to hear for the same place and find not only a proper refuge but hopefully Sofia’s mother too.
They all move ahead and Sebastian sabotages it all by getting the dogs separated from the group. The creatures arrive and Rafa ends up looking, dying shortly after that. Meanwhile, Sebastian’s faith in the creatures, who he thinks are angels, begins to weaken.
Sebastian manages to grab onto a fleeting opportunity and make Octavio see the creatures, but he quickly stabs himself to death as soon as he’s affected. This impacts Sebastian’s faith even more and the hold that the creatures’ mind control has over him even further.
The surviving members move ahead and a group of seers led by the priest that killed Sebastian’s daughter arrives. When all the other members have died, Claire learns that Sebastian is the saboteur. He manages to convince her though that he can help her and Sofia get to the safe haven.
Sebastian makes a grand sacrifice as Claire takes Sofia to safety successfully. They arrive at the safe place where Sofia reunites with her mother while Claire is tested for a chemical marker and learns a bit about the Seers like Sebastian.
Meanwhile, the military doctors research with mice the immunity against the creatures, one of which they have captured inside a containment room. That’s where Bird Box Barcelona rolls the credits.
Bird Box Barcelona ending explained in detail:
Who are the Seers?
Bird Box Barcelona expands upon the lore and world-building of the original, revealing a couple of key things about the effects of the invisible creatures that have decimated humanity. The humans who end up looking at said creatures and don’t kill themselves are what this film refers to as Seers.
It’s at the very end of the movie where the viewers first hear the name being used to refer to the people driving others to see the creatures and face the consequences. Seers do so because they’re affected by the creatures themselves.
They all share one commonality that the soldiers at the safe haven of Montjuïc Castle have caught on to — epigenetic alteration of the DNA. When one of the people takes Claire’s blood for testing, the psychiatrist asks what they’re going to do with it.
She then learns from them that they’re looking for a chemical marker, or an epigenetic alteration of DNA, which is essentially sign of trauma, something that can be brought about through abuse, violence, or grief. It’s revealed that all the Seers might be victims of these epigenetic DNA alterations.
They also believe that DNA from these Seers can be key in creating a community against the creatures. They are also doing research on immunity building and DNA testing, using captured Seer’s blood and mice for the experiments.
How does Anna die?
Sebastian manages to save his daughter Anna for a long time since the creatures first arrive. He can’t save his wife and the two have to survive without her. They take shelter inside abandoned homes.
However, one day, on Anna’s birthday, the priest that the father and son stumbled upon the day of the creatures’ arrival, returns. He’s one of the Seers and leads a group of people like him. He manages to capture the father-daughter duo.
He then forces Anna’s eyes open, which affects her, and she shortly throws herself off the terrace. Overcome with trauma and grief, Sebastian also ends up looking and becomes the Seer.
The creatures use his faith, fears, and grief to manipulate him, using a hallucination of Anna to make him do their bidding, which is to make other people open their eyes and either kill themselves or become another Seer.
What happens to Sebastian?
Sebastian is a Christian and after his daughter’s death, the creatures alter his mind, using his faith and grief over his daughter’s death to make him believe he’s serving the will of God. Sebastian thinks he’s the shepherd, herding others to the great beyond by letting them unto God’s light.
In reality, he’s being manipulated by the creatures to either kill other survivors or make them like him. Sebastian is shown to be an admirer of the Seraphim and sees the creatures as angels. However, with time and in the company of others, this facade begins to fade.
When he makes Octavio see the creatures, Octavio entertains bodily autonomy for the last time. He stabs himself multiple times and dies. Sebastian is horrified at it as his faith in the “angels” begins to decrease. The creatures try and mess up with him using his dead daughter’s hallucinations.
By the time he has to open Sofia’s blindfolds, Sebastian has been reached by others, namely Sofia and Claire. The humanity inside of him inspires him to side with Sofia and Claire. Sebastian then defends the two by taking head-on the priest and his posse. He manages to kill the priest using a rebar but gets stabbed as well.
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