Bird Box alternate ending: THIS alternate ending could have been a lot darker

Bird Box is Netflix‘s surprise hit of a thriller-horror movie, with Sandra Bullock in its lead. The movie has received mixed reviews from critics but also a wealth of fan fervour – even resulting in a series of memes and ill-advised Twitter challenges. Based on the 2014 novel of the same name, the film adaptation took a different turn with its ending than the author had penned…

What was the alternate ending to Bird Box?

Warning: spoilers for the Bird Box movie and book.

In Josh Malerman’s novel, Malorie (played by Sandra Bullock) and the two children in her care make it to the sanctuary.

However, they find everyone there still remains blindfolded and she learns they have to stay blindfolded to keep safe.

In the movie, Malorie and the children find the sanctuary – a former school for the blind – where a grove of trees and countless birds protect them from the monsters.

They finally are able to remove their blindfolds, the boy and girl are given proper names, and Dr Lapham makes a surprise return.

BIRD BOX ON NETFLIX: A LABORIOUS HORROR THAT DOESN’T QUITE FRIGHTEN

Speaking to Polygon, Bird Box’s director Susanne Bier explained her take on the ending.

“The movie is slightly more positive than the book,” Bier said.

“The movie is, in many aspects, different from the book, but it’s also very rooted in the book.

“The book also has a kind of positive ending and I would not have wanted to do an apocalyptic movie that didn’t have a hopeful ending.”

She added: “I’m not particularly interested for the audience to leave, from the cinema or their own screen, with a kind of completely bleak point of view. That’s not really what I believe in.

“And so for me it was key and part of what made me interested in it was that if this scary, dystopian story, which actually has a hopeful undercurrent … there is a hopefulness in trust.

“That is a hopefulness in love. There is a hopeful note in certain values that I really appreciate it. And I thought that was hugely important.”

Also unlike the book, Bier chose to have Dr Lapham return at the end of the movie.

Speaking to Cinema Blend, Bier also explained her decision to have a familiar face return, saying: “I felt that it needed some real hope.

“I thought having someone else survive, and having it be someone who she met at a point where she was in a kind of rejecting life.

“Having them meet at that point at the end I felt was a really warm and hopeful element to the ending.

“And it also makes us think, ‘Oh, there are other survivors!’

“I think it does infuse the ending with a kind of grander hope than if she had not been there.”

Bird Box is available to stream now on Netflix.