Did You Guys Enjoy Cargo With Martin Freeman Because My Brain Popped
I recently brought you guys a huge list of 25 movies that were Netflix Mind Job movies, which, should be changing your nights and weekends for weeks to come. Yes, you are still welcome for that. And as I was looking and digging for all the best movies to show off on that list I came across a little film that just released called Cargo with Martin Freeman. The idea was simple. In a zombie-fied, post-apocalyptic world, a man, woman and child are surveying the local Australian world via river… in search of a safe place to land. But when the mother gets bitten, it leaves the father and his toddler to survive alone. And then, when the father is bitten? It means that the father (Martin Freeman) has to figure out a safe place to leave his daughter.
Little Deeper Cargo Movie Dive
I know there are a ton of you that think me a right pansy for my avoidance of horror movies. I mean, just the other day, one of you lit me up for being scared senseless in The Pretty Thing The Lives In The House. But horror has never been my thing. I watch horror flicks and all I can think about is the actor being covered in fake blood and how gross that would be. Definitely prefer thrillers to horror movies. Something that makes one think. Something that pushes you a little bit. I have imbibed in horror films with fascinating premises though, and I can slip past the horror bits of it all, if the premise is unique and the story is strong. Like my love for the movie The Ritual… I definitely enjoyed that more than I would have guessed. And zombie movies usually have to work hard to spin the genre in an interesting way, or it just gets old. Which is why I was SURE Freeman’s Cargo was going to be a winner for me.
The movie kicks off in a world overwhelmed by a horrible virus that flips humans to zombies in exactly 48 hours (you can even set your watch by it apparently.) Andy, Kay and their 1 year old toddler, Rosie are drifting their way along an Australian river. They notice others, but it is obvious that no one, absolutely no one, wants to associate with anyone else in this world. There is way too much at risk, and when it takes 48 hours for someone to turn? Anyone could be a zombie. (Sort of reminds me of the movie, It Comes At Night. When they tied their visitor to a tree to see.)
Well, it would appear, Andy and Kay’s perfect boat get away isn’t so perfect seeing as though their rations are running low. They need formula for the baby and food. So something is going to have to change soon. And when Andy spots an abandoned sailboat, and successfully ventures aboard to retrieve food we know it’s all going downhill from here. Because when Kay decides to go aboard as well, she is bitten. And her time will soon be up. Regardless, they head to land in order to start making it towards a hospital. Now, I have to say, that I must have significant mother issues, because this didn’t go well for me personally. A 1 year old, with a mother bitten by a zombie? See, yah, nope. I was already starting to downward spiral.
But I bolstered my feelings by telling myself… this is ok. The mom will die, and now it will be a father’s story about getting himself and his daughter to safety. I successfully convinced myself that this is the makings of a quality Zombie movie. It’s about the eternal love of a father for a daughter even in spite of the overwhelming odds. Yeah, right.
Jump to, Andy and Kay zooming along in a car. Kay’s injuries are getting worse. She’s going into seizures more regularly, she’s definitely beginning to turn. And when Andy nearly avoids a zombie standing in the road and drives into a tree, things go from bad to worse. You see, apparently Andy has impaled Kay on a tree limb. And Andy has hurt his head. Passing out, Andy wakes a while later to find Rosie crying and that Kay has completely turned in spite of her tree impalement. And as he struggles to get out of the car, he is bitten by his now zombiefied wife. Yeah, that just happened.
Well, Andy kills his wife with a special temple-tool used for killing zombies effectively apparently. And now, here we are, with a bitten father, and a baby.
And that was when my brain popped. Literally, exploded. You see? Life is hard enough in the real world. You take a couple kids and put them in a family, and the father needs to find ways to provide for the family. Find ways to feed them, care for them, spiritually guide them. This is literally the definition of real life. I’ve done OK at it. But I’m no trophy award winning dad by any stretch of the imagination. And yet, we work hard to give our kids opportunities that we did not have. And here we have a baby, with an incapacitated father?
I stopped. Right there I stopped. I couldn’t continue.
Now, the question there is simple enough. Personally, what is my own dread and fear that precluded me from continuing? Well, duh. Not providing for my children. Losing my job and not landing a new one. Worse? Being injured and medically incapable of providing… just like Andy here in our story. And while yes, I like my movies to be realistic. I personally think that this particular realistic is too much realistic for the likes of me. I sort of skipped ahead, half way curious as to how the Thoomi thread would tie-in. And half way not. The movie played out the way I sort of guessed it would. That Andy would narrowly escape turning before he handed off his child. And that the aborigines would play an eventual part in Rosie’s eventual safety. But yeah, I was done watching.
Final Thoughts on the Movie Cargo
In so doing though, I learned more about my own personal fears for myself and for my family than I would have otherwise. I don’t actually worry about losing my job. Or being medically incapacitated – though, I would guess, that happens way more than I realize. Yeah, I didn’t like this movie much at all. I didn’t like the story, or the tragedy. I wasn’t a fan of their being a toddler that was vulnerable to this truly horrible world. But I can understand why many have enjoyed it.
Maybe I missed something that I should caught that would have made it more palatable? No. There was nothing. But I would love to hear your thoughts on the movie. I’m sure many of you will laugh at my ultra-sensitivity. Which, I am ok with. What were your thoughts on Cargo? How did you like it?