The world’s youngest citizen has just died at 18, and humankind is facing the likelihood of its own extinction. Set in and around a dystopian London fractious with violence and warring nationalistic sects, Children of Men follows the unexpected discovery of a lone pregnant woman and the desperate journey to deliver her to safety and restore faith for a future beyond those presently on Earth. (IMDB summary of the movie)
As one commentator describes it, the movie “draws us into a world that bears a striking resemblance to our own”. The movie’s tagline summarizes the plot in this way: “No children. No future. No hope.” In this not altogether improbable vision of the future, no children have been born in the last 18 years. But a faint glimmer of hope appears when Kee, an African refugee, is miraculously found to be pregnant. The child becomes perhaps the last chance for humankind.
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The parallels to the birth of Jesus in the Bible are striking: a child will become the savior of the world. In a brief exchange between Theodore Faron (the movie’s protagonist) and Kee (mother of the child), they discuss the circumstances of Kee’s pregnancy:
Theodore Faron: Who’s the father?
Kee: There’s no father. I’m a virgin. … Nah! Be great, though, wouldn’t it?
Although the movie doesn’t give much detail about how the world has become so messed up, it certainly insinuates that it’s humankind’s own fault. The overall message seems to be that, barring a miracle, humankind is doomed to bring about its own destruction.
Is humankind really destined for a future drenched in despair like this movie predicts? When we honestly look around our broken world, can we really see things getting “better and better”? If not, where can we find hope?
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