We discuss the ending of the 2023 Netflix film Bird Box Barcelona which will contain significant spoilers.
Set in two timelines, Bird Box Barcelona starts by introducing our lead, Sebastian, and his daughter, Anna, enjoying some much-needed downtime at an abandoned roller skating rink. Nine months have passed since the mysterious creatures turned the city of Barcelona into a dystopian nightmare, and at first, it seems like the two are just trying to survive.
After being robbed by a group of blind thieves, Sebastian convinces some survivors to take him while claiming to be alone.
The group offers Sebastian food, shelter, and medical treatment. As a thank you, he steals the key to the bus they were sleeping in and drives it outside, forcing all of them to see the creatures and end their own lives.
Bird Box Barcelona Ending Explained
Where is Anna?
The real Anna is dead, and the version of her Sebastian has been talking to is a hallucination created by the creatures. Sebastian is one of the few people who can look at the mysterious monsters without killing himself. Every time he forces another person to see and commit suicide, he gets a little thrill out of watching their souls break free from their bodies.
In Sebastian’s warped version of reality, he’s saving people.
It doesn’t take long for him to find yet another group of survivors. Among them is a young German girl named Sofia, who got separated from her mother when the creatures first arrived.
The man feels immediately protective of the girl because she’s the same age as his daughter. He also bonds with Claire, who’s been taking care of Sofia for the past few months.
He convinces the group to head towards Mount Montjuïc, where there are rumors of a safe haven. On the way, Sebastian manages to trick all the group members into seeing the creatures, and they lose their lives, one by one.
But he also starts slowly losing faith in the creatures and the hallucinations telling him they’re angels.
After most of the other survivors die in horrifically self-inflicted ways, Claire figures out his secret and that he’s responsible for the death of all her friends.
Still torn, the protagonist chases Claire and Sofia to the roof of a building and gets close to taking off the girl’s blindfold. Hallucination Anna is adamant he needs to make the little girl see, but Sebastian simply can’t bring himself to kill her.
He finally tells “Anna” to leave him alone and decides to help Sofia and Claire make it to the safety of Mount Montjuïc.
What happened to Sebastian’s family?
A series of flashbacks throughout the movie reveals how Sebastian spent the first few months since the creature’s arrival hiding out and surviving with Anna after his wife’s death on the first day of the invasion.
The day after Anna’s 11th birthday, Father Esteban found the pair and forced them to the roof of the building. At first, Anna tried to keep her eyes shut, but the wicked priest forced her to open them. As soon as she saw it, the little girl jumped from the building.
Filled with grief, Sebastian was ready to attack the priest. Instead of making him commit suicide, the creatures projected a hallucination of Anna, telling him he needs to “save” more people before he can join his family in the afterlife.
The fight to reach safety
After successfully fighting off the hallucinations, Sebastian convinces Claire to let him guide her and Sofia to the cable car to Montjuïc. On the way, the trio is intercepted by Father Esteban and his group of followers.
The three make it to the cable car, but Sebastian stays behind to ensure the priest doesn’t follow them up the mountain. In a particularly cruel move, the creatures make Father Esteban appear to Sebastian as his dead daughter, Anna. But the man fights off the mind control and stabs the priest.
In the ensuing struggle, our hero kills Father Esteban but ends up mortally injured himself.
What do Claire and Sofia find on Mount Montjuïc?
After their own close call with the creatures, Claire and Sofia make it on the cable car. As soon as the car arrives at the mountain, they’re met by armed guards. While being escorted through the facility, Sofia is overjoyed to see her mother among the survivors.
Claire is taken to a medical area, where doctors start running tests. They need to ensure she’s not a “seer” like Sebastian.
All the seers share a genetic mutation that often happens to people who’ve survived extreme traumas. The researchers at the facility are running human experiments in hopes of coming up with an immunity injection. This, of course, leaves the door wide open for a sequel.
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