I love a good dystopian science fiction thriller and Netflix has offered us a doozie with the premise of what happens when there are just too many people on this planet. Is the cure worse than the disease?
What Happened to Monday
Directed by Tommy Wirkola and starring the amazingly talented Noomi Rapace, What Happened to Monday is a 2017 film that touches on what is happening already in the world…over population. The year is 2043, and there isn’t enough food to go around, so the governments of the world mess with the food production to feed the 10 billion people shoved shoulder to shoulder on this little blue globe. The monkeying around with food production works but there is just one little problem…women are having as many as seven children at a time. This forces governments under the guidance of Nicolette Cayman (Glenn Close), the head of the Child Allocation Bureau to enforce a strict one child policy.
All but the eldest children are forcibly taken from their parents and are put into a Cryosleep until the world population is drastically reduced…or so this is what the government tells the parents. It is a lie. Electronic bracelets are worn to enforce identity tracking. Just like in real life, if you have the money…laws can be bent. Terrence Settman (Willem Dafoe) is able to hide his seven identical granddaughters after his daughter dies in childbirth. He names each child after a day of the week. The children can only go outside with grandfather one day at a time. Monday goes out on Monday. Tuesday on Tuesday, and so on, even into their adulthood. The girls all take turns playing the part of Karen Settman. They share information so that they don’t raise suspicion at the world bank where “Karen” works. Everything is fine until Monday fails to return home after a day at work.
All hell breaks loose as the remaining sisters try to find out what happened to Monday as they are one by one assassinated by agents of the Child Allocation Bureau. The film has you on the edge of your seat from the moment Monday vanishes. Now that is all I am going to tell you about the storyline because I want to concentrate on the acting and the message of the film.
I have written reviews for Orphan Black and the fabulous Tatiana Maslany here on Biff Bam Pop. That series was top notch science fiction, and I never believed that I would see such quality again until watching how effortlessly Noomi Rapace plays all seven sisters. Each sister has her own personality and Rapace plays each personality with such ease that you almost believe you are seeing seven different actresses. And just like in Orphan Black, the Settman sisters do their own version of a clone swap, which adds to the tension in the film as they fight for survival. I would digress if I didn’t also mention the child actress (Clara Read) who perfectly plays the septuplets as young children.
Conclusion
Here in the states, we have church and government leaders banning abortion and pushing for forced births. They are doing this knowing that climate change is already limiting food supplies around the world. Why? We can’t even trust the government to protect us from COVID let alone handle forced births. And what happens when there are more mouths to feed than there is available food? Do we go full Soylent Green or do we permanently eliminate all siblings as a draconian solution? What Happened to Monday didn’t have the answer…and unfortunately…neither will our world leaders. We are screwed and this makes for a real life horror story.
