Orion and the Dark follows the titular character, who’s a young kid plagued by a menagerie of fears of most things. After encountering the manifestation of darkness — the thing he fears most — he is taken on a journey during which he must learn to overcome his fears. The film is currently streaming on Netflix.
Warning: This article contains heavy spoilers
Plot summary
Orion is terrified of many things, some of them are understandable feats but most of them are irrational.
He fears the dark the most. One night, the Dark appears out of thin air in his room, as a living manifestation of the darkness.
He takes Orion on a journey across the world and introduces him to the night entities: Sweet Dreams, Sleep, Unexplained Noises, Quiet, and Insomnia.
At first, the entities hate Orion but the Dark helps him warm up to them.
They all become great friends until Orion introduces them to the idea of joining Light, someone Dark considers his enemy.
They all leave Dark and so he drowns in despair and decides to vanish. Orion is later helped by Hypatia, his daughter from the future.
They bring back Dark by traveling to Orion’s dreams, and the night-time entities help them. Dark is brought back and the balance in the world is restored once again.
Hypatia has to go back to the future and she is helped by Ticho, who takes her to the future with his time machine, as Orion and the Dark shortly concludes its runtime.
Ending explained:
Who is the Dark?
Dark is the manifestation of darkness, something that Orion fears most, even more than the bullies or the great beyond.
He can’t sleep without the room lights on and prepares a lot before hopping into bed, both mentally and physically.
One night, after struggling to sleep because of his fear of the dark, he finally finds it conducive to do so, until a power cut.
The storm rages on, and all lights even the torchlight, fail. He has no choice but to cower before screaming at the dark, calling on it to leave him alone.
Moments pass, and a hooded, imposing, and grand figure appears in his room. One can make out eyes and a mouth inside the hood of this large, smoky silhouette.
It’s a tangible entity, though, and one that can switch between being material and immaterial, which implies sentience.
It is the darkness itself, as a humanoid figure capable of talking and behaving like a normal human being.
Dark introduces himself and tells the little kid that he’s 500,000 years old before Orion and the Dark’s adventure begins.
Did Orion really meet Dark?
Orion and the Dark is a film where the titular character is a father who’s telling his young daughter Hypatia a bedtime story about him and the dark.
He’s doing so because she’s afraid of the dark just like he used to be.
Orion has been trying to help her overcome her fear of the dark by telling her a story of how he overcame the dark; she is aware of that and far too wise for it too.
Hypatia knows fear doesn’t work like that. She knows the dark isn’t a magical entity you can befriend and then overcome your fear of it.
She has studied it and knows that fear is an evolutionary adaptation humans developed to protect themselves from nocturnal animals.
Nevertheless, she enjoys her father’s story and is impressed by how he’s able to make up such a creative story on the go.
Does Orion overcome his fear of the dark?
No, Orion doesn’t overcome his fear of the dark. It is still there, but he does learn to live with it.
In the story, a young Orion meets Dark, who is the manifestation of darkness.
He becomes friends with Dark after coming to know him and relating to him.
Orion feels like he’s hated by many, and when he sees that so many people hate Dark too, he can empathize with him.
The bond between them only grows stronger.
Then Orion’s fear of darkness forces him to make excuses for not entering a dark room.
He then starts telling the night-time entities about the great things that Light has to offer.
They all get bedazzled by Light and resentful of Dark, deciding to leave him.
Dark becomes morose and decides to vanish by remaining in one spot and letting Light go past him.
Orion’s story ends there, with his younger self stuck atop a flying turtle with his friend Dark having disappeared. Hypatia doesn’t like this ending and wants a better one.
So Orion and Hypatia complete the story together.
So the story continues, and Hypatia joins young Orion and together, they help Dark and other night entities from their extinction.
This signifies their awareness of the fact that everything has importance, that the darkness is important too, for it is only in the night when the stars can shine.
Hypatia and Orion have learned to live with their fear of the dark by the time Orion and the Dark rolls the credits.
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