MIND GAMES
Why YA movie The Darkest Minds is one of this year’s most politically relevant sci-fi movies
You would expect The Darkest Minds to be far-fetched. It is, after all, a movie about a disease that has wiped out 98% of America’s children, leaving the survivors with supernatural powers. But it’s what happens next – when the children are rounded up, separated from their parents, caged in camps – that has proved eerily prescient, with certain imagery mirroring that of real-life children in cages. It’s hard not to think about the victims of the Trump administration’s hardline immigration policy.
“The topicality is astounding to me,” says producer Shawn Levy, currently best known for his work on Netflix hit Stranger Things. “I’ve been stunned to see imagery that horrific in real life and then just astonishingly similar to imagery we put in an imagined dystopia. It’s troubling on one level and it’s also, perhaps, a layer we never intended… It makes me much more grateful for the humanist theme of the film, which is that horror happens but there is a next chapter. And it’s going to be the young generation which rights it.”
Levy bought the rights to The Darkest Minds, a 2012 YA novel by Alexandra Bracken, before it was even published. He was struck by the emotional story of Ruby (The Hunger Games’ Amandla Stenberg), a 16-year-old girl who discovers that she is one of the most powerful telepaths alive, and by her road trip with fellow runaways, Zu (Miya Cech), who can control electricity; Chubs (Skylan Brooks), who is a genius; and Liam (Harris Dickinson), the love interest who gained the ability of telekinesis and can now move objects with his mind.
“Because of Stranger Things and Eleven I get asked a lot about ‘kids with powers’ stories,” says Levy, “and I think that they are a collective wish fulfilment for the empowerment of youth. I think that every human that has ever lived has had moments of feeling impotent as a young person, of being passengers on a train being driven by adults who have the authority. It’s what we all yearn for when we’re young.”
But there was an obvious problem – a need to delay pre-production for a few years.
“At that time they were making X-Men: First Class at the same studio [Fox] and it felt like it might walk similar territory,” says Levy. “And in fact we worked on the script in a direction that was not X-Men in style and tone – we tried
Stories about kids with powers become a wish fulfilment for empowerment
to anchor the movie in an authentic, grounded world – and that differentiation was complete when we meet our director, Jennifer.”
Jennifer Yuh Nelson comes from a background of animation. She worked as a story artist on films like Spirit: Stallion Of The
Cimarron and Madagascar before making her directorial debut on the 2011 Jack Black comedy Kung Fu Panda 2 – a commercial smash. The Darkest Minds will mark her first foray into live action. “She’s very visual,” says Levy, “and able to express tone and feeling through images… Some animation directors are great visualists but not great storytellers with actors or emotion. Jennifer was as comfortable with the quieter moments of dialogue as she was with the bigger visual moments.”
runaway lovers
One such sequence sees the gang, who are driving an old van through the country, being pursued by a bounty hunter played by Gwendoline Christie, whose car is then barraged by telekinetically thrown trees. But one of the most striking elements of The
Darkest Minds isn’t its big set-pieces. It’s the convincing chemistry of its central cast, the sweet handling of its Ruby and Liam romance, and its main character being a young woman who is viewed through the female gaze.
“Jennifer was the clear choice, and the fact that she’s a woman gave her a really visceral understanding of the movie’s themes and emotional power," says Levy. “There’s an authenticity and lyricism to Jennfier’s directorial style which I believe is the differentiator in a landscape of YA dystopian franchises. This is less about that bleak world building and more about the sensitive character moments.”
Levy, of course, knows a thing or two about what sets a young adult story apart: he’s in Atlanta right now directing his episodes for
Stranger Things series three. How would he say the two projects compare?
“The Darkest Minds is similar to Stranger Things in that it’s a real world-based genre piece, that’s often big and fun and filled with action, but it never forgets to service character. I have four daughters – two of them are teenagers – and I do think if you are telling a story for and about young people you really need to reflect the voice of that youth. So for me that’s about hiring actors who bring very vivid selves to the screen and letting them play with the material and tailor it to themselves. Because they’re going to have a bullshit barometer that is far better attuned than a bunch of people in their thirties and forties. That’s what we did on Stranger Things, and that’s what we did on The Darkest Minds.” SK