Birdbox Barcelona Ending Explained 2023
Today I am going to explain and recap the most anticipated sequel horror film of the year, Birdbox Barcelona. Even though it's a sequel to the 2018 Birdbox film but the events here run parallel to it with a slight time gap. As the name suggests events are happening in the city of Barcelona where at first we see the protagonist's dad by the name of Sebastian who was enjoying skating with his daughter Anna in a closed indoor stadium. Like in America and Russia, mysterious supernatural creatures have invaded the city, and anybody who happens to look at them immediately kills themselves. Soon a group of blind survivors attacks Sebastian and steals his supplies. Sebastian starts to bleed and wanted to fight back but Anna stops him. The city was in chaos as food and water were in short supply. People used to roam around for food with blindfolds suspecting others as threats. Sebastian soon encounters one such group of survivors who were headed for their secret hideout. He approached them with an offer of providing the location of generators for food and shelter. Generators were precious items here as they can provide electricity at night. Interestingly Sebastian lies to these people about being alone even though Anna was with him in hiding. But he left her there and walked with these guys.
These people reach an abandoned bus station camp which was double locked with two doors. Inside a camp doctor Liliana stitches Sebastian's wound and makes him feel safe. At night another guy who himself removed his eyes narrates his horror story. According to him, there are people out in the city who can see these creatures. When they first saw them they didn't kill themselves instead they became their followers. It seemed they had their own share of mental issues and when they saw those creatures it triggered something in them. They called themselves Seers and are now roaming the city with open eyes. Like the guy Gary and the rest in the last film. Seers forcefully opened the eyes of his friend which got her killed. His survival instinct forced him to stab his eyes with the knife lying there on the table.
Sebastian here doesn't seem surprised hearing this. In the middle of the night, we see him waking up and picking up a bunch of keys. The next morning while everyone was asleep on the bus he locked himself in the driver's cabin. He was constantly trying different keys to start the bus to take it out in the sunlight. Clearly, he lied and his intentions were hideous. Just in time, Liliana woke up and saw this in horror. She tried stopping Sebastian but it was in vain. As the bus started moving everyone woke up, they banged on the glass door and broke it open. They tried stopping Sebastian but it was late, he accelerated the bus and crashed it into the open. The guy who brought Sebastian to the camp saw the creatures and like others, he killed himself by slitting his throat. But for Sebastian, it all seemed like he liberated that guy, he saw his soul leaving his body. He was thinking that he is doing god's job, these creatures are angels sent from above.
When Sebastian forced open Doctor Liliana's eyes she heard the voices of her beloved, she felt at ease and happily died. Another guy exploded the bus which killed many. We now see Anna beside Sebastian who affirms to him that they all are saved. She calls Sebastian a shepherd who is guiding souls to their destination. She assures him that if he continues this job then soon they all will be together. Meaning here Anna was not real, she was just a hallucination in Sebastian's mind and he knew his family is dead.
Here we were shown a nine-month earlier flashback where Sebastian is an engineer for a German wind power generation company. Soon the creatures invade the city and everyone starts killing themselves. Government issues the warning to people to stay indoors as Sebastian rushes to his daughter's convent school to pick her up. Here chaos was everywhere with people jumping from above, in front of trains, and whatnot. Sebastian picks Anna up from school while coming out he encounters Father Estaban who seemed odd.
He believed all these creatures were angels who descended to earth to liberate people. It seemed clear from his way of talking that he was depressed on the job. His faith made him delusional and he lost his sense of logic in the face of calamity. He was suicidal all along. Sebastian was deeply religious but not blindly faithful, he covered Anna's eyes and gave her the necklace of the fiery angel Seraph. When these two reached home, Sebastian's wife Laura was waiting for them to leave this city. But she gets killed while crossing the road.
Next, we see Sebastian in a church where he confesses to lying earlier for liberating those people. Here the image of the angel Seraph on the ceiling of the church is shown moving to symbolize it has the approval of a higher power. While scouting for the next victim Sebastian came across another guy who could see them. He had the marking of an eye on his forehead implying some Seers forcefully opened his eyes. To him, these creatures appeared in the form of aliens as he believed they traveled many light years in a big ship. He was fighting their influence but it was in vain, he too killed himself.
Sebastian next encounters another group of food searchers headed by Claire. As he tried sneakily attacking her two dogs jumped on him with their eyes closed. Apparently, like birds dogs too were sensitive to these creatures, they could sense their presence early. Two guys Rafa and Octavio were their handlers. Like earlier Sebastian used the trick of the generator to lure these people, and Rafa was dead against taking Sebastian in but kind-hearted Claire insisted on helping. In their hideout, we see an old couple Roberto and Isabel with a German child Sofia. Once inside Sebastian confesses to lying about the generator earlier. He claims he was scared, alone, and needed help. Of course, all this is another lie to blend in.
As Sebastian could speak German he translate Sofia's journey. She and her mom were tourists when the invasion occurred. Her mom saved her for days and then they heard an emergency broadcast on the radio. Apparently, there was a safe hideout on Montjuic with all sides sealed. The only way to enter it was through cableways. This hideout made sense to all as they collectively decided to head there in the morning. At night when everyone is deeply asleep Sebastian makes a cut in the dog's collar.
The next morning on the road the creatures attack these people with tempting voices. Claire hears her dead brother's voice who was clinically depressed. Sofia heard her mom's voice. Dogs were barking in rage which caused the tear in their collar. Rafa and Octavio ran behind them to fetch them. Rafa heard his dog's voice in pain, out of love he opened his blackfold to see but it turned out to be a trick. Rafa saw the creatures and kills himself. Soon his dog too loses its blindfold and gets possessed. Later it bites Roberto.
Octavio somehow took everyone to a nearby apartment. Everyone was shocked at Rafa's death but Claire was confused as to how could these creatures manipulate them with their memory. Octavio had a theory like these creatures might behave as quantum particles, until someone sees them they can be in any form. Once one observes them then they take the shape of the deepest emotion of the observer. Emotions can be fear, grief, pain, faith, etc. For some, they may appear as aliens, or for others, they may appear as angels. Octavio had a master's degree in physics from Mexico.
Here we were shown another flashback where Sebastian and Anna were hiding in an apartment. Father Estaban from the church was alive and ironically he was the leader of Seers. He was forcefully opening people's eyes like Gery in the last film with the pretext of doing God's job.
In the present state, Child Sofia was crying like hell from all this, to calm her down, Sebastian gave her Anna's necklace. He started seeing Anna in Sofia. Claire understood these creatures' manipulation, she shares her story of grief with Sebastiaan as to how she lost herself when her brother died. How her Grief led her to the point of self-destruction. She warns that these creatures are taking advantage of our emotions. She offers help to Sebastian to manage his grief but he was not ready for it yet. But all this has seeded a seed of doubt in him. Roberto's infection was getting worse, he needed antibiotics.
While searching for it Octavio enters a room whose window was made open by Sebastian. Upon seeing the creatures Octavio stabs himself but this time Sebastian doesn't see the soul leaving his body. This shatters his belief, what he believed was an absolute truth turned out to be fake. He quickly stopped Claire from entering here while the entity Anna was asking him to remove her blindfold. Claire applied the antibiotics to Roberto's arm and these guys once again starts their journey toward Montjuic.
While going there, Sebastian observes a series of corpses hanging from the wall. It was the job of Seers. Soon one of them started chasing them on wheels. While running away Roberto and Isabel were left behind. They accepted their fate by seeing each other one last time. Sebastian, Claire, and Sofia hid themselves in a nearby house. Here Claire finally saw Sebastian's semitransparent glasses. She was shocked in horror as Rafa was right all along. Claire rushed to the roof with Sofia to find a way as Anna was ordering Sebastian to take their blinds off. While in blindfold Claire falls from the top onto a construction platform and gets knocked out. Sebastian upon reaching the roof was bombarded with Anna's order but deep down now he knew what he did was wrong. He hugs Sofia as a mark of confession.
In a flashback, we see Sebastian give away his location while celebrating Anna's birthday. Estaban made Anna open her eyes which led to her jumping from the rooftop. This incident triggered intense grief in Sebastian, he too wanted to jump and commit suicide knowing now there is nothing left to live for. But when Estaban opened his eyes he saw the creatures in angel Saraph's form. The creatures tricked him by exploiting his faith, he was brainwashed by Anna's hallucination. He convinced himself that he could join Anna and his wife up in heaven once he paid his price for it.
At this stage finally, Sebastian overcomes his grief and decides to redeem himself by helping Claire and Sofia. He explains everything to Claire and these three drive to the Montjuic. At the entrance of the tower, he blocks the way with his car and later decides to stay put to fight the army of Estaban's Seers who were following them. Claire starts climbing the stairs with Claire. At the top, the gondolas were not working as they were operated at the other end. To attract the attention she starts ringing the bell.
At the bottom, Father Estaban arrives to fight with Sebastian as he was fully delusional. Sebastian tells him that he is not doing God's job but creatures. They are no angels. Anna now appears amongst the raging flame yet Sebastian was not tricked. He attacks her with a rod which in reality pierces Estaban. He too stabs him back and both kill each other. The creatures upon hearing the bell sound climbed the towers and again started tormenting. Claire was determined to save Sofia, as by this time Gondolas were operational. She makes a perfect jump with Sofia. On the other side, it was a safe haven with ample food and protection. Scientists and army soldiers there took Sofia and Claire for testing. They were looking for specific genetic stains which were immune to these creatures. All Seers were either mentally ill, depressed, or had some form of clinical stress which made them see these creatures and became their followers.
The Scientist had captured a seer along with the creature and they were testing his modified genes on rats. But they were unsuccessful as off now. From the last film, we know that there is no cure for the next four years at least. This film is not as terrifying as the last one but has an interesting take. First of all, it addresses the issue of faith. Never lose your common sense and logic while practicing faith. Father Estaban was delusional in his belief that killing people was God's plan. His blindfolded faith in his mind made him depressed and vulnerable. As Sebastian overcame his grief, everyone who suffers from mental illness can overcome it, it's just a matter of time. As for the creatures, nothing new is revealed, their origin accepts a theory of quantum particles.
I guess what Octavio said makes sense, these creatures prey on weakness. They show the most uncomfortable and painful memories to the ordinary mind over and over again. when the mind can't take it anymore it chooses self-destruction. For this to happen these creatures must have the ability to scan the amazing brain in real time and extract data. This is not an easy thing to do as the human brain can have a vast amount of storage. Overall this is an interesting spinoff.
