HUMANE 2024 | RECAP | MOVIE REVIEW | ENDING EXPLAINED
hello everybody, welcome to my channel. today I will recap and explain a recently released movie called Humane. It is set in the distant future where an ecological disaster is plaguing the world with water, food and air being in limited supply. The sunlight has become dangerously hot due to the weak ozone layer and a health department is sending notifications to citizens about it. Here a whole new department called the Department of Citizen Strategy is enacted to carry out this task of euthanasia. In the first scene, we see in a poor neighbourhood people queuing up to grab their daily quote of water in the hot sun with two delivery guys watching the DOCS agent bring a body bag from a house. Bob the boss guy hands a hefty check to the lady in return as the government is paying citizens for this voluntary act. The ads to become DOCS agents are everywhere as it's the need of the hour. Another ad reads enlistment equal opportunity with dad seeing their kids from the sky. Meaning if parents sacrifice their lives then their children will get money or educational quotes in some Ivy League college. Naturally, many don't agree with this as we can see from this, they have equited it to a devils act. The two delivery guys spill their coffee over this ad to show their anger against this. later they move into a rich neighbourhood where the water is plenty and being used to water lawns. They arrive at the house of one famous farmer news broadcaster Charles York to deliver a piano. Charles is watching the news in which his son Jared, an anthropologist is arguing the need for a DOCS programme in an interview. He says the US is way behind its yearly quote of enlistment, our enlistment rate is just around 9% whereas our target is 20%. Meaning the government wants to end 20% of the population. He argues that it's not a war but a struggle with humanity against its own extinction. He is ok with lowering the age of enlistment to below 18 as if kids want to help their families they must be allowed. The interviewer here disagrees in shock and says hope your kid won't be watching this. Jared hopes otherwise and says if he is watching this then he must know the stacks. We all are together in this, One of the delivery guys gets agitated seeing this, he curses Jared in front of Charles as Jared has not committed his name to the program but asking others to do it.
As they leave we see Charles cleaning the house, tonight he had invited all four children for a special dinner where wanted to share something big with his family. In background news, we hear Russia completing its quote in record time. Well, no one needs to guess how could they have done it. Later he dumps all the booze he had collected over the years and admits to his chief partner Dawn that quitting alcohol was the hardest thing he had ever done. Dawn is cooking a special meal for tonight with her collectable sharp knives where most of the ingredients are banned by the government for general consumption, like seafood. But if you are rich, powerful and influential then you can manage. Dawn gets emotional while doing this as something big is definitely on the menu. In the news, we see Charles's other daughter Rachel who is a bigshot CEO of a pharma company involved in some sort of courtroom drama involving peddling an addictive pain medication.
After some time Jared arrives here and his car alerts him that the UV rays are moderate. Meaning outside is not safe. Just then he gets a call from his wife who goes ballistic on his comment about allowing his ten-year-old son Lucas to get enlisted. Lucas has been crying like hell knowing his dad wants him dead. Jared pleads with her that the news misquoted his comment and twisted it, he tries to speak to Lucas but his wife shuts him down. He curses his life and enters the house. Upon seeing the empty fridge with no booze in it he assumes his other brother Noah is also coming tonight. Charles on the other hand opens up the UV shield on his window to embrace the light. Then, Rachel and her daughter Mia arrive, where Mia wonders about the gas engine sports car parked outside. She thought it to be one of Charles's old antique cars as nowadays only electric cars are produced for the general public. Rachel tells her it is Jared's mid-life crisis by-product. Meaning if you are rich you can buy a gas-powered luxury sports car by paying extra tax. This Jared guy is really a hypocrite, for the sake of the environment, he is asking others to kill themselves while he himself polluting the world. Charles was taken aback by seeing Mia here as he had clearly mentioned adults only.
Then we see, Noah near the house hiding behind a tree, unsure of whether to go inside or not. His relationship with Charles was always on shaky ground. His girlfriend Grace calls him to encourage him and asks him to breathe slowly. She was hoping he share her news with his family. The last family member Ashley then rolls in in her car and says to Noah, I can't do it all alone. She too didn't know why Charles had invited them out of the blue. Noah and Ashley greet each other, she rants about her failed life after five years in theatre school. She has no solid acting career with a job offer for an ad shoot with fifty other compitators. Noah tells her about Grace and asks her to keep it a secret. He is not sure how the others would take it. In this fractured family, these two were close since childhood.
Charles welcomes Noah with a big hug while giving a sort of cold shoulder to Ashley. Dawn servers the dinner which she learnt first in Japan many years ago. Charles toasts to family and apologises to his kids for not being there while growing up. He being a prime-time news reader spent most of his life neglecting the family. Today he is happy that all of them are here. Every one now toasts to family and finishes this fancy dinner in quick time. Noha tries to share Grace's news but Rachel cuts him short. She was restless to know the big catch behind all this. Charles and Dawn drop the bombshell by saving they are enlisting for DOCS. This shocked everyone as clearly, no one was ready for this. Rachel sends reluctant Mia away from the table as Charles earlier remark of adults only makes perfect sense. Jared is confused about why they are doing this. It's not like they need money.
Charles says I tried educating the public for the last thirty years about the ecological dangers of climate change. I watched the whole Amazonian rainforest burn out of existence in one night. When the world needed fewer people, I created four children. now, the government is bringing in legislation to randomly pick at least one person per family, I want it to be mine. Jared is taken aback, he says the legislation is not for people like us. we can manage. Rachel asks Dawn why the hell she is up for this scheme. Dawn was once a celebrity chef famous all over the internet. She hoped famous people like themselves opting up for the programme would encourage others to come forward. From all this Ashley concludes only one thing. Charles and Dawn see their kids as failures and want to protect their legacy by doing this act. Mahatma Charles York, to whom no one listened. Everyone starts to argue about this which agitates Noah. He wanted to share his life with his dad who now wants to die at the first instance. Dawn cools down everyone and tells them to take a break, while she heads to prepare the final deseart.
We see more footage of street protests about the proposed legislation and a commercial ad by DOCS where a Mexican Mexican-American blue colour couple had gone through the programme allowing their kid to get money. Noah had heard from a colleague of his that the government was lying about the numbers. The real numbers are around 16% with the majority being immigrants, addicts and poor. Jared tries to defend the government about the numbers, as for the government there is no incentive to lie. It's not like the government is Hitler's SS on steroids. These guys start to argue about this where Ashley accidentally spills Noah's secret about Grace. Noah was an addict, he had a fallout with Charles on this. But after many years, he is now clean. He met Grace in a community meeting, she too has been clean for over a decade and works in a mall. Noha too plays piano there for a living. He was once a famous child piano prodigy. Charles was very happy to hear this. On the other side, Mia goes through social media where content is heavily censored. The social media police wing monitors what the public says, writes and blocks everything against the DOCS policy. Mia sees many memes on Ratchel depicting her as evil.
After all this Charles finds a letter from Dawn who had escaped silently. She got cold feet about the procedure. Just then the same DOCS agent Bob knocks on the door as he and his crew are here for the scheduled procedure. Rachel and Ashley freak out knowing that Charles had scheduled it for tonight. Bob knew Charles and Dawn as they were famous, he admits that it feels a bit nice to be in this kind of a neighbourhood. As the rich seldom enlists. Charles explains the whole situation of Dawn to him and asks him to come another time. Bob at first agrees but then asks for a sidebar. Charles takes him to his home office where we see him with many celebrities. Bob hands him a paper to sign the cancellation deed which comes up with the consequence of rejecting the booked slot. Charles gets raged seeing this as and asks Bob in a condescending tone do you even know who I am? Bob replies, I am a big fan, of the many people in your position you will be remembered as one of the greats, Whatever the government decides to call you. Kids enjoy that last dessert when Charles finally decides to go ahead with the procedure. Noha plays his favourite tune, he decides the property equally amongst them and asks them to be nice to each other. He again apologises to them for all his mistakes and tells them to stick together as a family. Bob pushes in the anaesthetics while the weeping family bids farewell to their beloved father.
After Bob's crew took away the body, he now insists on the second body. Since Charles had already enlisted Dawn's name he needed a second body. Noah tries to smack him in the face but his crew rushes in with guns. Since the government is running behind in enlistment it's difficult to cancel a slot. He now takes away Mia from the house as kids are exempt from the procedure. He gives two hours to these four guys to figure out who would die. Ashley asks about sending a search party for Dawn as clearly, she enlisted herself. To this, Bob says finding her in the next two hours is difficult since I have my next appointment fixed. Of course, you all can cancel the second slot which would mean you all will lose your assets, your accounts will be frozen and you will go to jail for the rest of your lives. Here DOCS had hired a private agency to carry out the work and agents are paid based on bodies delivered. Bob gets paid only if he delivers a body, from a family if not the actual person. Jared tries to threaten him with his contacts at the government and then tries to bribe him but nothing helps. He and his crew had already jammed the signals at the house so that no one could make a call. He hands over a servalience report from their internet history. DOCS collects it for situations like this. It tells their life's worth, what others are saying about them, what their partners doing behind their backs. Jared had left his loving wife Beth for a hot girlfriend who is changing men like T-shirts. His son Lucas hates him and wants him dead for saying nasty things on air. Rachel now punches him in the face which makes him bleed. Now, these guys have two hours to decide who will die. Once they do they have to flicker the outside light.
Ashley went to Charles' office to check out the internet, but it was down. There she sees a confirmation email about a wire transfer. Apparently, Charles had sent three million dollars to someone as a final settlement. After this, she starts reading her report where her friends, producers and directors are talking lightly. They feel that she has no talent for acting and only exploiting Charles' name. After reading this, Ashley starts vandalizing the place in anger. Rachel doesn't even try to read her report as she knows what others are saying about her. The world has always seen her as a criminal, greedy and selfish woman. Jared starts slapping himself instead of reading it as he knows how many criminal mistakes he has made and it's due. Now these four start deciding who will die. Jared says that Nova should sacrifice his life because Charles gave him everything, a good school, piano classes, and a good family, but still, he kept running after drugs. In a drunken state, he caused an accident which cost a woman her life. Ashley gets a little angry on hearing this and says that Jared should die because no one loves him, he left a good wife and ran after a girl who has relationships with others. His son is abusing him, there are so many who would kill him for his views on TV. Ashley blames Jared for many government atrocities. These two siblings start to fight physically while Noah stops them. He says I have always been a disgrace to this family, but now I have improved my life and want to move forward, I came here today so that I can share my happiness with you people and we can again live together. Rachel gets frustrated seeing this and she blames Charles for this.
Bob was playing cards with Mia when another dude came in and said that they had decided. When Bob asks who dies, Rachel reverts and asks how he will decide if given a choice. Bob casually says I have perfected a time-tested method, he takes out four sticks from his pocket to draw. This means the lucky draw, the one who gets a smaller stick will die. Here Rachael also asks another question out of curiosity. Whether he will have to do the procedure or if he gets a dead body then it will be fine. Bob gives priority to the procedure but even if he gets a dead body, he will manage.
When Bob returns to the caravan, Mia has torn his cards. She understood what he was, a sadist bully who enjoys seeing others die. Rachel cuts the chase and says, she can't die because she had Mia. She doesn't give a damn about others, she now quickly stabs Noha who is still perceived as an addict. Ashley quickly rushed to help him as she was close to him. Ashley and Noha were artists with emotional hearts while Rachel and Jared were science guys with logical minds. Rachel's logic is, that she and Jared are well-off in life, don't need money but Ashley is still struggling. If Jared dies she could inherit it all which makes sense. Ashley gets swayed by this and she lets Noha to wolves. Jared hits him with the fire poker while Noha fights back and runs away. He then locks himself in a room, tries to text Grace but the network is down. He tosses the phone through the window in disgust which catches the outside signal and delivers his message. He just wanted to see her before death. He then leaves the room holding a fork and a stick. In Charle's office, he finds Ashley who is hiding in fear. She says sorry to him as she gets carried away by Rachel's talk. Noha always had a soft corner for her, as clear from their childhood portrait hanging on the wall. As these two are talking, Rachel sneakily attacks Noha with a screwdriver which pierces his palm. He fights back, kicks her and Jared while Ashley runs like hell. Noha then stabs Rachel with a fork and beats Jared with a baseball bat. It's a full bloody fight for survival. As it seemed Noha made it, Ashley stabbed him in the back by hitting him from behind and knocking him out.
Back in the caravan, Bob tries to justify his work as not many are willing to do what needs to be done. He was seeking some sort of respect from Mia but she understood his true character. These three siblings are now ready to kill Noah as there is no other option. For a change, all of them felt sorry. Just then they heard a car's loud horn as someone was yelling Noah's name. Upon checking, it was Grace who had received his sorrowful message. In panic, she demands answers while recording it on her mobile. Bob tries to calm her down and Mia tries to escape while screaming. The other dude locks her in the Caravan which freaks Grace. These guys rushed in to check the situation. Grace was fanatically calling for Noah and Jared in a lower voice asked her to get help. Meaning run the hell away from here. As she does it, Bob orders his crew to shoot her down and he does that. Noha wakes up in the who had heard the screams of Grace and because of these three idiots, he lost the person whom he loved the most.
As three reverts back to the business of killing Noah, he has already escaped with knives. Just then the power shuts down and Noha starts to hunt these guys. He stabs Ashley first with a big knife as she had betrayed him twice, then he stabs Rachel in her face and beats up Jared. After getting injured with no other option all three guys get some sort of self-awareness. Rachel aggers to sacrifice herself as she is the mean and manipulative one with everyone calling her the devil. Jared says he is the big brother who failed to protect the family and, hence deserves to die. Ashley on the other hand says she is the youngest with no future while Jared and Rachel have kids. Noha here smashes a base in anger and says there is no one need to die, we are family and we will stick together. He has a plan to get Bob. Since Ashley is bleeding fast, these siblings cauterize her first which knocks her down. Later they invite Bob who had hoped to see Jared or Rachel dead but was certainly not ready for Ashley. Just seeing the opportunity Ashley stabs the other guy while Noha quickly, grabs a knife to place it on Bob's neck. Ashley was acting dead while being severely injured, after all, she was an actress and it seemed she had some talent. Jared then quickly collects the guns from the rest and smacks Bob in the face. Here Ashley passes out again.
Next, we see Bob in his procedure machine with Noha ready to inject. Bob was unhinged at first as killing a DOCS agent is a federal crime with life in prison with children in correction centers. These guys had already killed an agent in a botched-up attempt so this doesn't make any difference. Noha decides to go ahead which freaks Bob for the first time. He rants about how important is his job, how he is saving the world and so on. Finally, he tells them about Dawn who is at the HQ and tries to cut a deal. He could save her and botch up some paperwork to let these guys off the hook. Noha doesn't buy this, he wants to push ahead but stops. Next, we see the York family in a concert where Noha is playing piano with Jared, his son Lucas, Rahcerl, Mia, and Dawn being together. Meaning these guys survived with no hitch. After this, we see a new ad of DOCS where Ashley and Grace are portrayed as best friends forever who sacrificed because they wanted to inspire others. Bob terms it a beautiful procedure. with this movie ends. Well, I liked this movie, it's really interesting and funny at some time. The moral of the story is even in the distant future rich and powerful are trying to set the narrative of morality. They can evade every law and live as they wish with much consequence. Whereas poor small folks are dying for the Federal Reserve's out-of-thin-air fake fiat money. The movie highlights the unequal society where moralities are socialized and wealth is capitalized. Bob who may be a sadist tries his best to hit back but fails. Hence he rants in the end. In the end, the York family comes together to support Noha as Charles wished. Perhaps, Bob gave them a sound reckoning. Overall it's a good movie.
