The Darkest Minds by Alexandra Bracken is being adapted for film and it’s exactly the kind of movie we need right now to remind us how powerful kids can be.
If you know nothing about The Darkest Minds, my number one suggestion would be to go pick up this book as soon as humanly possible. It takes place in a world where 98% of the Earth’s population of children have died due to a mysterious disease. The remaining 2% have developed powers and the adults are terrified.
The first trailer for the movie was released on March 28. Watch it below!
The movie stars Amandla Stenberg, who you might recognize as Rue from The Hunger Games, and despite the powers and big Hollywood budget (seriously, Brienne of Tarth is in it), this film is more than a little topical.
At its core, this story is about how powerful children can be, and if you’ve been paying attention to real life headlines, you’ll know why it’s relevant.
Watching the trailer, I’m reminded of why I loved this book so much. It’s fun to think about how cool it would be to have powers like Ruby, Liam, Chubs, or Zu, but it’s also important to think about what a person is capable of if they set their mind to it.
Ruby is a loner and a survivor, but she ends up surrounding herself with three other kids who are, at least to an extent, just like her. As cliche as it may sound, love and the power of true friendship changes her outlook on life and she becomes a force to be reckoned with.
The scene in the trailer where all the kids proudly wear their colors (which signify the types of powers they have) gives me chills, much in the same way as that scene where Katniss holds up three fingers in the arena. There is power in determination. There is power in numbers. There is power in unity.
And that’s what we’ve been seeing recently across the country. The Marjory Stoneman Douglas students may be the ones in the limelight, but they’re joined by countless other survivors and advocates who want tighter gun control so kids stop getting killed simply for daring to attend school.
There’s a tweet that’s been going around the Internet — you’ve probably seen it — which I can’t stop thinking about:
Me reading The Hunger Games in 2008: wow what a crazy, unrealistic story
2018: children are going to the capital to fight for their right to not be murdered by each other and a creepy looking TV star is there pretending like nothing is wrong
— kelsey crist (@kelseycrist) March 26, 2018
Dystopian novels were still at the height of their game about five years ago, though now that the major players (The Hunger Games, The Maze Runner, Divergent) have wrapped up their franchises, it seems to be the Age of the Superheroes. No one can really argue with that. Marvel is the King of the Box Office and has been for quite some time.
I don’t know if The Darkest Minds will do well. I certainly hope it does. I think the story deserves to be told on film, but the truth of the matter is that dystopian book-to-movie adaptations are on their way out. Audiences are looking for other content. And that’s okay.
The tide is changing and it’s becoming less cool to like dystopian novels. They’re still around, of course, and always will be — this generation certainly didn’t invent the genre — but mainstream audiences are beginning to look elsewhere for their entertainment. Maybe that’s a good thing, considering how The Hunger Games played out. (Less death arenas, more hugs.)
But I love the genre because every dystopian story told is a cautionary tale. Sometimes it’s to warn us against our oppressors. Sometimes it’s to warn our oppressors against us.
The Darkest Minds is the latter. At the start of the story, most children have already been rounded up and placed in camps. They’re meant to protect the children — from themselves and others — but in reality they’re prisons in prison clothing. Adults are afraid of these kids. And they should be.
The outcome of the March for Our Lives campaign should have its detractors shaking in their boots. This is the power that children have. Much like Ruby and her friends, those who have been affected by gun violence have come together to stand tall in the face of those who fear them. These kids are here to demand to be given the kind of life they deserve.
Art and Life often find themselves on a two-way street. One imitates the other, and vice versa. Lately, it’s been hard to tell which side of the road we’re on. But I don’t think this is a bad thing. We should be taking note of the fictional stories that warn us of what’s to come unless we change our ways. And authors and filmmakers should be taking note of the real life stories happening all around us and transferring them into books and onto the silver screen so we never forget what has happened to get us where we are today.
Maybe The Darkest Minds is just a movie about a girl with cool powers who wants to live a life free of fear, but I can’t help but see reflections of today’s headlines in nearly every shot of that trailer.